260 Holding water ballast for long periods

[Gary Underwood]

I am considering leaving my 260 with water ballast in water for an extended period of time - 6 months. My concern is what could happen to the water in the tank, if anything. I assume light can penetrate the holding tank so algae could grow internally if conditions were right. If so, what could be added to the water to prevent this, while not damaging the hull fibreglass?

 

[Ray Bowles]

Gary, Hope this helps.

Since no one else jumped in on this question I'll throw in what we do. Since the ballast tank on our 1995 H26 holds 2000# of water (1 US ton)we add 1 gallon of laundry bleach (Clorax)(US measurement) when we first float the boat in the spring. Contact Greg at Hunter Marine in the USA and he usually can respond to your question within 2 working days.I personally don't think light can get to the tank.Rays/v SpeedP.S. If you can't find an answer contact me thru this network and I'll find out what to do so we both know better.

 

[Frank]

Ballast water

I agree with Ray...I only use a 1/2 gallon of bleach, but you do have to kill the bugs... if you don't, first the aerobic bugs work until they run out of O2 and then the anaerobic bugs come into play. I don't know about hull damage... but there's nothing worse then anaerobic bug gas.hehehe....

 

[Jay Williams]

Only been in the water since May

Our boat is new and we didn't put anything in the ballast tank when we first put it in. In about a month we started to notice a rotten egg smell comming from the step where the valve is. 2 cups of bleach has taken care of the problem so far. I'm not sure if a whole gallon is need, but I am prepared to use it if that is what it takes.

 

[Dale Wile]

Gallon

I use a full gallon each season in my 23.5, and it has a smaller ballast tank than the 26. If I recall correctly, the 26 takes on something like 70 gallons of water when the tank is flooded. One part per 70 of household bleach is not sufficiently strong to do any damage. But, it certainly keeps the critters at away, and eliminates B.O. (bad odor).Dale