Algae Contaminated Water System

[Zulu]

The description is midway through my Blog Post.

Anyone else run into this? If so, what did you do? I just bypassed the suspected algae source.

[Kirk W]

Yes, I have had the problem in the past. I suspect that you have at least some traces of algae through the RV water system. Since the spores are typically microscopic in size and have probably spread throughout the system, even if you can't see any yet. I strongly recommend that you sanitize your system soon as it will be much worse if you get it growing in the fresh water lines inside of the rig. When it happened to me, we had traces of the stuff collect in the faucet aerators for several days after sanitizing since it has to get out even after it has been killed. 

[Zulu]

24 minutes ago, Kirk Wood said:

When it happened to me, we had traces of the stuff collect in the faucet aerators for several days after sanitizing since it has to get out even after it has been killed. 

This may sound like a silly question . . . but when it finally came out was it green or gray?

[Kirk W]

It was several years ago so I'm reaching but I believe that at first, it was green, but not the bright green of what we saw growing in the hose, but went more to brown once we finished getting the last out. There is also a veriety of algae that can grow in the water heater and that isn't the green of what shows in the hose but more light in color and could be gray or brown. 

When we had that problem was in 2001 and we spent the summer in a park where we used well water and our hose had been laying out in direct sunlight as well. In researching things, once we got things flushed out I also covered the hose with foam pipe insulation to block the sun and it never happened again, even though we stayed there another 6 weeks or so. I flushed a lot of water through our RV plumbing and dumpped a lot of it on the lawns at our host site. Pam just reminded me that the last part to clear completely was the ice maker and "stuff" in the icecubes.  

[whj469]

That is one of the many reasons that I don't drink the water from the fresh water tank, ever.

[Kirk W]

15 hours ago, whj469 said:

That is one of the many reasons that I don't drink the water from the fresh water tank, ever.

Green algae won't harm you, just add a bit of veggie to your diet!   If you use the RV water system at all, you could still have algae develop in it and if not corrected it will plug up parts of the system. Do you also cook and wash dishes with bottled water since using from your tank could contaminate your food? I don't care to drink filtered water from cheap plastic bottles which have a shelf life and can't afford the high priced stuff. We have been drinking the water from the RV tank since we got our second RV in 1974. (The first RV didn't have a water tank.)

[Zulu]

2 hours ago, Kirk Wood said:

If you use the RV water system at all, you could still have algae develop in it and if not corrected it will plug up parts of the system. 

In my case I think my UV sterilizer stopped the algae cold. However, I'm still going to bleach "shock" my RV water system.

This has been a learning experience, mostly from aquarium and swimming pool owners, who deal with all kinds of algae:

• Green algae -- the most common. The kind I think both Kurt & I had.
• Mustard algae (yellow/green color)
• Black algae -- apparently the worst kind for pools.

Great, eh?

[57becky]

On our old small fifth wheel, we were on the road and suddenly weren't getting water from the pump, even though we had a full tank and the pump was running.  We finally got to our destination, and I went to a local RV place, purchased a new pump, and proceeded to replace to "non working" pump.  I transferred the screen device to the new pump, completed splicing the wires and had the plumbing all connected.  The new pump didn't work either.  I took another look, and being new to this RV, took off the screen device and disassembled it.  Inside was this very fine metal screen, covered in green slime, and it finally made sense why water wasn't going through.  Cleaned it up and all was good.  We didn't drink water from that rig, before or after this event, but we do use water from our current rig's tank for cooking, but we do use a lot of water from the tank so it rarely gets old.