How Much Bleach To Purify Water For Storage

Use regular household bleach with the only active ingredient sodium hypochlorite.

How much bleach to purify water for storage. I probably used to much bleach to clean out my 50 gal containers. A general rule of thumb to shock chlorinate and disinfect a storage tank is to mix non scented nsf approved household bleach 5 25 chlorine in the reservoir at the ratio of 1 gallon of bleach for every 1 000 gallons of water i e 1 quart for every 250 gallons of water. Double the amount of bleach if the water is cloudy colored or very cold. Next decant the clarified contaminated water into a clean container then add the bleach.

In my world that is just not going to happen. If unknown calculate the volume of the tank. Stir and let stand for 30 minutes. Properly treated water should have a slight chlorine odor.

This has been a common question and i ve written about it a number of times over the years. Your water can still be laced with salts heavy metals and chemicals. Adding disinfectant to water storage tanks. Water is a stable compound of h 2 0 and does not go bad if you put clean water in a clean container you may have some plastic that leeches into the water but the water will be safe to drink.

I put the entire jug of bleach some water in my 50 gal containers and swirred it around and then emptied the bleach water into the next container. So long as you follow the instructions you will be fine drinking bleach for water purification. Use a portable pump to remove dirt or rinse water from the storage tank. For many years regular bleach contained a concentration of 5 25 sodium hypochlorite.

Use the table below to determine how much bleach to add it depends on how much water you are treating. They do smell like bleach but not sure if it is now drinkable. Newer regular liquid bleach which has been available for several years now contains a concentration of 8 25 sodium. The instructions below for purifying water with bleach are for a 8 25 concentration of sodium hypochlorite and it is further diluted in water.

I then filled each container with 50 gals of water. Fill it a few feet quarter full with treated potable water. If you are storing water in containers 55 gallon drums or any bulk size tank as a reserve for just in case how much regular chlorine bleach if any should you add for purification. That doesn t mean that bleach is a perfect solution to your dilemma however.

The official recommendation for water storage rotation is every 6 months to a year. Add and thoroughly mix household chlorine bleach. Among the solutions the epa suggests for purifying water are boiling and using a bleach additive to kill organisms that have the potential to make you and your family sick. Allow the treated water to stand for 30 minutes.

Another way to purify water is to use a small amount of regular liquid bleach.