Cleaning Spray Tanks

[Traditional Farmer]

Have 3 old spray tanks mounted on pull type spray rigs about 500 gal each 2 stainless steel 1 aluminum,want to use them to carry plain water.Have had them between 10 and 20 years,they are empty.What can I use to throughly clean them out?

 

[SkipperII]

I have no personal experience, but looked this up.
https://www.external_link.com/tsc/product/farmworks-spray-tank-cleaner-2111174?store=2056&cid=Shopping-Google-Local_Feed&utm_medium=Google&utm_source=Shopping&utm_campaign=&utm_content=Local_Feed&gclid=CjwKCAjwrpOiBhBVEiwA_473dLAmda3ZG6h2LEMxVEpCyzv9QGBqw4jo8z0EnXa-qWAV4kEQLqd8DxoCqoEQAvD_BwE

 

[coonie minnie]

I'd fill with water and 1 gallon of household cleaning ammonia per 100 gallon and let it sit for a day or two, then drain and rinse repeatedly.

 

[DoubleR]

I use ammonia mixed with water to clean and rinse my sprayers out. I get it at the 1.25 store by the gallon.

 

[crsutton81]

X 2

 

[Charlie M]

I've sprayed inside my 150 gallon tank with a pressure washer. Don't know if that would work in a tank like yours. I had a lot of alge in my tank from pumping water from a creek. Its a tank for watering the garden, not spraying.

 

[JD Dave]

X3 what coonie said and add some Simple Green. The longer it soaks the better.

 

[Old weldor]

When I was a kid about 14, my dad finished spraying corn. He washed the sprayer out with soapy water and then rinsed it out with clear water. Well one year he washed out the sprayer and filled the tank with clear water. Something came up and being in a hurry he had to leave to do something. He left the garden hose in the sprayer tank and shut the hydrant off which was sticking through the well cover. The residue from the spray, I think it was 2-4-D in the clear water siphoned back in our well. Our water had an awful taste and smell the rest of that summer, tea or lemonade would not disguise it. I think we ended up hauling drinking water for a couple months! When I think about spraying on the farm I always remember that year. Early 60s.

 

[caterpillar guy]

Frankly I would not use a tank I used for spray chemicals to haul potable water in. If just to clean for changing chemicals like from Roundup or Liberty to conventional spray crops then after rinsing out just a good wash with some soap then rinse a couple times would work for that.

 

[504]

THe neutralizer we carried on the tankers was bleach. You really need to know what the chemical manufacture says about cleaning. I would never haul drinking water in a used tank. But I would use them to haul sprayer water.

 

[Traditional Farmer]

Its going to be used to carry water to water gardens not drink

 

[Muir hill 101]

This is one of the cleaners I use . It will clean all the old chemical residue out .

Tank cleaner

 

[paul]

Ammonia is good to help pull stuff out of the pores of the tank.if you can circulate, agitate still. Let sit over night.

Then the cleaners they mention below.

While many say bleach, Ive heard its not all that good at this.

Be careful of any plumbing on the rig. You can clean up the tank and see what you are doing. But a pipe with a dead end or 90 degree bend might hold on to a flake of dried stuff that comes lose on you later.

Paul

 

[paul]

Oh, this would go counter to your goals, but one of the better tank cleaners is - roundup. Couple tanks run through and it draws out all the other gunk even old dried soaked into pores gunk, then you just have to clean out the fresh roundup.

Paul

 

[Traditional Farmer]

Figure I'll about fill it with whatever solution and then let it soak a good while,leave it hooked up to a tractor and drive it around every day to keep mixing it all up.