# Fiberglass watertanks cleaning + coating



## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

I have an older (1978) fiberglass boat with a 100 gallon water tank glassed into the hull. I can access the inside of the tank through 2 access hatches. The tank is currently quite solid, no blisters, not leaking, etc... but is quite dirty. 

Questions:

Are there any products that would be good for cleaning this with (something good for a potable water supply)?

Are old fiberglass tanks of this vintage reasonably safe for storing drinking water?

Should I attempt to apply any type of coating to the interior of the tank? (it currently appears to have none (or the coating itself is thin and not readily apparent) 

Does anyone have a recommended filter setup for drinking water onboard a low energy use cruising boat that would filter out any possible contaminants from a fiberglass tank?

Any information on old fiberglass tanks for drinking water purposes would be excellent.

Thanks in advance,


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## maru657 (Aug 4, 2007)

I cleaned the interior of my fibreglass tanks with simple green and then a watered down bleach mixture. Then repainted the interior with west system products to ensure watertight integrity. Finally I filled and flushed the tanks several times. It seems to have worked. I completed tihs process over a year ago and have had no problems since.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

clean the tank using a bleach mixture. * If you want to coat the tank, I would recommend using CeRAMKote 54 Epoxy. * This epoxy-based coating was specifically designed for use on fiberglass and other substrates for use in potable water systems.  BTW, most of the contaminants that would have leached from the fiberglass, have probably done so in the past 30 years.

West Systems epoxies aren't really designed for use in potable water systems.


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