Yeek! Slime mold.

[theOrca]

Is anyone else having trouble keeping the fresh water tank (and plumbing) free of slime mold? I have been using Chlorine Dioxide water treatment, and it just does not seem to do the job. For instance 6 weeks ago I flushed all lines in the trailer. I filled the fresh water tank with almost 100 parts per million of ClO2 in fresh water. I let it sit for 2 days, drained and refilled with a 10 parts per million solution (drinkable, but no taste). I am now getting ready for a trip, so I drained the fresh water tank again today. I saw dozens of colonies of slime mold exit the drain. Now I have to do the entire system again to be sure I got it all. That means all intake pipes, the city inlet has to hand pumped, and the filter has to be removed, washed and reinstalled. Grrr.

Is anyone having better luck with household or swimming pool bleach? Slime mold, yuck, gives me the willies...

[Katjo]

Ewww that’s not good!
We’ve never had slime/mold. We sanitize with water and household bleach. 

[mossemi]

I'm from Florida and have well water at home.  I also believe that we have worst water available anywhere excluding industrial, manufacturing or agricultural locations that have been polluting groundwater for decades.  I can dig a 36" deep hole in my yard and hit water most of the year.  So I often refer to my well water as coming from a mud puddle.  The point of this is to say that I use swimming pool bleach or sometimes hydrogen peroxide to sanitize my water system.  We do not drink or cook or ingest our home water, ever.  And I don’t know anything about the water I put into the fresh water tank from any other source after we leave home, so the water use statement above also holds true of the fresh water in our Ollie.  And more to the point, if you sanitize you fresh water tank and shortly there after you still have bad water coming out, I would suspect the water source.

To my comment above about ground water pollution, my parents were from Ottawa, IL. and Ottawa was the location of one of three factories in the United States that was operated by the United States Radium Corporation .  If you don’t know the story of the "Radium Girls" and are curious about why I bring it up, click the link above.  It is a story about industrial pollution that had a terrible effect on the people of these three community’s.

Mossey

[Ollie-Haus]

Is it mold or is it algae? Sadly water quality has declined in much of the US over the years for many reasons. But having worked in industry for many years and knowing the conditions that exist in municipal water systems, I wouldn't get overly concerned about the formation of what is likely algae on the inside of the water system. Yes chlorine will get rid of it but it will likely come back.

If you knew what the inside of the pipes of every municipal water system look like, you would never drink water from those sources again if a little algae bothers you. Here's an example. Most of what you see is mineral build up, but when that pipe was cut open, the surfaces you see were quite slippery or slimy to the touch when wet. That doesn't mean the water was unfit or unsafe to drink, but the condition of the inside of the pipes would make one wonder. 

As mentioned by someone earlier, the source of your problem is probably in your water source. It doesn't mean the water source is unsafe to drink, but if it contains algae spores, it will grow algae in the system if conditions are right. 

 

 

 

[ScubaRx]

On 8/21/2023 at 6:59 PM, theOrca said:

Is anyone else having trouble keeping the fresh water tank (and plumbing) free of slime mold? I have been using Chlorine Dioxide water treatment, and it just does not seem to do the job. For instance 6 weeks ago I flushed all lines in the trailer. I filled the fresh water tank with almost 100 parts per million of ClO2 in fresh water. I let it sit for 2 days, drained and refilled with a 10 parts per million solution (drinkable, but no taste). I am now getting ready for a trip, so I drained the fresh water tank again today. I saw dozens of colonies of slime mold exit the drain. Now I have to do the entire system again to be sure I got it all. That means all intake pipes, the city inlet has to hand pumped, and the filter has to be removed, washed and reinstalled. Grrr.

Is anyone having better luck with household or swimming pool bleach? Slime mold, yuck, gives me the willies...

I have no idea what, if anything, is growing in your water system but I seriously doubt it's slime mold. Slime mold is commonly found in the forest on hardwood mulch, especially in shaded locations. However, it can also appear on grass or other plants in a yard. In addition to the more common yellow and orange colors, slime mold may also be gray or black. While slime mold is pretty harmless, it still is unsightly and likely not something you want to keep around. Despite its unpleasant appearance, and equally unpleasant name, slime mold isn’t anything to be too concerned about. There are more than 700 different varieties of slime mold that are most commonly found in warm and moist climates. Slime mold, such as the aptly named dog vomit slime mold (Fuligo septica), doesn’t harm plants or the environment. It’s also not actually mold; nor is it a fungus. Rather, slime mold is a primitive type of organism that survives by feeding on decaying or dead organic matter.

My guess is you're probably seeing some strain of algae. Algae can grow in stagnant water inside your RV tanks. RV drinking water tastes bad as a result. Expect to clean and sanitize RV water tanks regularly if you don’t empty them after each trip.

 1 - Add 3/4 cup of bleach for every 15 gallons of water. Dilute the bleach with water, first.
 2 - Allow bleach water to soak for at least two hours. Then flush water lines to the shower and sinks.
 3 - Fill with clean water. Flush again to remove the bleach. Repeat until bleach smell is gone.
 4 - Routinely clean and sanitize RV water tanks to prevent algae regrowth.

Some people believe that vinegar is great for cleaning bacteria from water tanks. But vinegar is not for cleaning and sanitizing RV water tanks. And it won’t remove algae in RV water tanks either. As for apple cider vinegar, it’s recently gained a lot of publicity for losing weight, reducing diabetes, and lowering cholesterol. But it will not kill bacteria or algae in RV water tanks either.

 

[SeaDawg]

@theOrca, we've used Purogene (chlorine dioxide) for years to sanitize tanks and freshwater systems in the Ollie and the boat.

Which activator did you use for the chlorine dioxide when you ran the sanitizing procedure, and how much?