Trough care

[Jessey]

I'm hoping we may have a chemistry whizz, or someone savvy with environmental water stuff

My trough has been behaving oddly for most of the year. My water is from a borehole, but also did this when I was bringing water from home in the summer when my pump was messing about, so I have concluded it must be something in the tank; galvanized steel trough is completely emptied and scrubbed every 2-4 weeks, I tried scrubbing with diluted Milton and dilute ACV and I scraped the crust off most of the tank as best I could (neither made much difference), it gets topped up in between scrubs about every 7-10 days.

The water is normally crystal clear, but can go hazy white or blue which I am guessing is some kind of algae bloom as doesn't happen every fill just occasionally. There is a pale powdery crust on the bottom and sides which I presume is lime scale but it's super crusty, more like what you get on rocks on the beach so maybe a kind of algae, but it can be pretty easily scraped off. Air bubbles appear all over the bottom as soon as I fill it, and continue to be produced a month later if I am still just topping it up. This then peels off in a kind of slime, when I net it out the bubbles pop and if I am not quick enough everything disappears through my net, even though it is a very fine mesh fish net.


Crustiness;





Normal clean water, this is how it always starts and mostly ends each fill cycle;



White and blue tinges;



These plastic buckets were right next to the white water, filled at the same time and went the normal trough green......



Bubbles on the bottom and slime with bubbles peeling off the bottom and floating;



If it came and went I wouldn't be too worried but it's gone on ages, and with Jess' unexplained swellings I'm looking at anything odd that could effect her so would like to understand this.

 

[Trewsers]

Honestly don't know, but don't blame you for wondering. Specially with Jess and her odd troubles. Can you buy or ask the council if there is any kind of home testing water kit available?

 

[Jessey]

Honestly don't know, but don't blame you for wondering. Specially with Jess and her odd troubles. Can you buy or ask the council if there is any kind of home testing water kit available?

I asked Anglian water and they can only test the water, not the slime or crust. I asked my younger brother who is a council environmental manager and he said 'its algae'....very helpful!!! I might try my older brother, he's a marine biologist but he's more ocean and marine birds/fish so not sure he will be much help either. I really don't know where to ask I have some litmus paper at home so am going to test it for Ph tonight. Might chip off some crust and see how it reacts with different things at home in the hopes of confirming if it is just lime scale or something else. I need one of those kids chemistry kits for Christmas

 

[chunky monkey]

If your miltoning the galvanised trough it will take the galvanising off. So could be chemical reaction. I was told not to use bleach as it takes the galvanising off. Just washing up liquid. Its fine the plastic ones.

 

[Trewsers]

I asked Anglian water and they can only test the water, not the slime or crust. I asked my younger brother who is a council environmental manager and he said 'its algae'....very helpful!!! I might try my older brother, he's a marine biologist but he's more ocean and marine birds/fish so not sure he will be much help either. I really don't know where to ask I have some litmus paper at home so am going to test it for Ph tonight. Might chip off some crust and see how it reacts with different things at home in the hopes of confirming if it is just lime scale or something else. I need one of those kids chemistry kits for Christmas

I was thinking about litmus paper too! Yes Santa needs to bring you a kids chemistry set..............

 

[Jessey]

If your miltoning the galvanised trough it will take the galvanising off. So could be chemical reaction. I was told not to use bleach as it takes the galvanising off. Just washing up liquid. Its fine the plastic ones.

Interesting, I only Milton'ed after the weird algae started in hopes of killing it, tbh there's such a thick crust I doubt it got onto the actual metal but I'll not do it again now you've said that.
It's a good 7ph, I did 1 in the water and 1 on a lump of the slime, both the same, then 1 on my tongue just to check they were working

 

[MrA]

Is your water soft? My dad has always said soft water corrodes galvanised steel? I have no idea past that though!

 

[Jessey]

Is your water soft? My dad has always said soft water corrodes galvanised steel? I have no idea past that though!

I think it is, I can't see any corrosion on the tank particularly.

 

[Kite_Rider]

I've just asked Mr KR about this, he used to work for Severn Trent, he thinks it's possibly high mineral content in your water reacting with the galvanized metal, but other than that no idea, if I remember I'll ask my daughter later, shes a geophysicist so may have a clue.

 

[Jessey]

I've just asked Mr KR about this, he used to work for Severn Trent, he thinks it's possibly high mineral content in your water reacting with the galvanized metal, but other than that no idea, if I remember I'll ask my daughter later, shes a geophysicist so may have a clue.

Oooo my first real clue maybe testing the water would be worthwhile. That gives me another idea, my cousin is geologist, i'll ask her too

 

[Huggy]

Troughs are a mystery (and a pain!) to me. The ones in our summer field get disgusting very fast, even with regular cleanings, but the one in the winter field stays clear for ages! They're about 200 yards apart. Go figure.