Cleaning out ballast tanks

[Ewok]

For the last month I was boating in a shallow lake with a heavy algea bloom. Lots of particles of algea suspended in the water. It was at Moses Lake in central WA. I'm back in Spokane and I want to go out on the boat a few more times this year but I don't want to introduce the nasty thick algea bloom into the nice clear lakes around here. What is the best method to disinfect the algea in the tanks without damaging the components. I was thinking about a 1-5% chlorine bleach solution but I'm not sure how that would affect the hard tanks or the bags or the hoses or pumps.

Anyone else have experience cleaning out the ballast? Luckily the bilge was bone dry the entire time.

[carcrz]

I think I'd try dish soap.

[Ewok]

Good idea, obviously I drained the tanks but you can't get every little bit out.

[talltigeguy]

I would run a bit of RV antifreeze in them. It is biodegradable, but I am sure no algae can live in it.

The larger question is if you really have to do that. The algae probably does not exist in those lakes because of some environmental factor that already exists that stops it from occurring. Or in fact, it already is in there, but the lakes do not have the right concentrations of minerals and temperatures to make a huge bloom happen. I know one lake in Southern Idaho catches lots of runoff from the potato farms and such. It has a huge algae bloom, but it supposedly only because of all the fertilizer that runs into the reservior.

Any algae specialists out there?

[Ewok]

I put dish soap in the tanks and rinsed them out 3 times in my driveway. I took samples of the discharge in a glass jar and didn't see any trace of the algae. I think its gone, plus there wasn't any sun in the tanks for the algae to use to grow so it probably all died in the tanks anyhow. I just wanted to make sure since the algae was very thick. Moses Lake is in the middle of a large AG section in the middle of the state so runoff from the fields helping to grow the bloom is a very real possibility.

Anyhow, my tanks (and pipes) are now clean

Thanks all!

[IDBoating]

Hey Ewok, a big THANK YOU for taking the time to clean out your tanks. Most people wouldn't even think about it, much less bother to do anything about it.

I just felt like you deserved some explicit kudos for doing things right. Thanks again!