Odor from Water Ballast

[Bob Blackmon]

A few weeks after moving my Hunter 240 (water ballast) to the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain a foul odor began emerging from the water ballast tank. This is occuring even with the rubber stopper tightly sealed.Since Hunters are made in Florida, there must be thousands of water ballast Hunters in use in very warm climates. (I did not have this problem on the previous lake in central Arkansas.)Anyone else out there ever had this ugly experience. If so how did you solve it?

 

[Rick Webb]

Bleach and Tap Water

Check the archive there has been alot of postings dealing with this. Basically there are three things I do1. I fill the ballast with fresh water from a hose2. I add bleach when first filled and as needed to get rid of the odor3. I replace the water every three or four months.

 

[jim logan]

Little Critters Dying

Bob: North Shore of Lake Ponchartrain is brackish water, more so this summer because of lack of rain - if any lake water gets into ballast tank, and is not washed completely out with fresh water, the little critters in the salt water die and smell awful - boaters who use lake water for head flush into holding tanks have the same problem. First flush after a week or so has a horrible odor from water stored in hoses. No solution except to flush with lots of fresh water so that no salt critters left in ballast tank.

 

[George Kornreich]

Jim's right!

The odor usually smells of rotten eggs, and is hydrogen sulfide. One solution besides continuous cleaning (which can be a chore)if there is a filler port or inspection port at the top of your tank is to leave it open for a while. Hydrogen sulfide is lighter than air and will rapidly dissappate. May have to do this a few times for each tankfull of water, though. There are only so many critters to die and rot in a tank of water, so this is a self-limiting process (if you keep the tank filled with the wame water. Problem for trailer sailors is when the tank is drained and refilled, it all starts over again.