Peggy - help!

[Gregg]

I've been reading through the threads describing odors, and the archives for stinky tanks. Well, it's just happened to me. My niece 'christened' the head last week, and I thought I cleaned the tank out completely.Flushed the head today, and what a smell of rotten eggs! Not inside the boat, but outside, I assume from the tank vent. Never had any odors come out of the vent. This is my first season with the boat, and it's only two years old with very light use from the first owner.So....K.O., Odorloss, fill with fresh water and pump out, clogged vent line, or all of the above? Help!By the way, your advice for fresh water re-commissioning was right on the money...thanks!

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

Was there ANY treatment in the tank

when your niece used the head? For anything to work, it has to be in the tank when waste is added. After you cleaned out the tank, did you put any K.O. or Odorlos--ANY holding tank product--in the tank? If you did add something, if it had been in the tank too long--more than a week--before the head was used, it would have lost its effectiveness. Another "dose" should have gone down the tank with the first flush.If there was nothing in the tank to prevent odor when your niece used the head, her "deposit" could only sit in the tank in the summer heat and ferment, producing noxious gasses that were forced out the vent when you flushed the head again. Once a tank has become septic, it cannot be "saved" by adding anything...it has to be pumped out and rinsed out again. This time, add the recommended dose of Odorlos of K.O. (flush it down the toilet) immediately afterward...and, unless you'll stay aboard to use the head, another dose should be added to the first flush when you come back to the boat.

 

[Gregg]

No, nothing was added........

to the tank at all. But I've printed out your response...time to get to work! Thanks for the reply.

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

If you've only searched the archives

but haven't found the HM forum reference library yet, I suggest you do (go to the forum homepage, click on the link to to the library. The article "Holding Tank Odor--Odor Out the Vent" explains what happens in a holding tank that creates odor...or not.