Sterilising water butt
 

This is on a similar theme to "Stertilised water".
A friend has a rain-water butt which got very smelly.
She was told to put Milton in it. I told her I wouldn't use water
containing Milton on my garden!
Is there anything she can use which will remove the smell and not
render the water unusable. Had it been mine the water would not have
stayed there long enough to get smelly!
The butt is fixed on the wall with down pipe connected and not easily
accessible.
TIA

Pam in Bristol

On 12/7/05 10:38 am, in article ,
"Pam Moore" wrote:

This is on a similar theme to "Stertilised water".
A friend has a rain-water butt which got very smelly.
She was told to put Milton in it. I told her I wouldn't use water
containing Milton on my garden!
Is there anything she can use which will remove the smell and not
render the water unusable. Had it been mine the water would not have
stayed there long enough to get smelly!
The butt is fixed on the wall with down pipe connected and not easily
accessible.
TIA

I seem to remember that when this was discussed some time ago, people
suggested putting hanks of barley straw into the butts. If you Google it
should come up.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

Pam Moore wrote:

This is on a similar theme to "Stertilised water".
A friend has a rain-water butt which got very smelly.
She was told to put Milton in it. I told her I wouldn't use water
containing Milton on my garden!

A nearly pure sodium hypochlorite solution like Milton without excess
surfactants and thickener found in toilet bleach should be OK and cheap.
It will decompose to leave slightly more alkaline water and table salt
over a period of a week or two in the open air with sunlight.

NB not such a good idea if the water butt smells stronly of ammonia -
then you could get some really nasty compounds formed. The warning on
bleach bottles not to mix with other household cleaners is serious.

Is there anything she can use which will remove the smell and not
render the water unusable. Had it been mine the water would not have
stayed there long enough to get smelly!
The butt is fixed on the wall with down pipe connected and not easily
accessible.

Siphon it all out and start again?

Regards,
Martin Brown

The message
from Pam Moore contains these words:

This is on a similar theme to "Stertilised water".
A friend has a rain-water butt which got very smelly.
She was told to put Milton in it. I told her I wouldn't use water
containing Milton on my garden!
Is there anything she can use which will remove the smell and not
render the water unusable. Had it been mine the water would not have
stayed there long enough to get smelly!
The butt is fixed on the wall with down pipe connected and not easily
accessible.

It shouldn't smell, if she excludes all light, mice and birds with a
closefitting lid, and a cheap drainpipe filter top to prevent
leaves/mice /birds falling down the spout from the gutter above.

I suspect a bird or mouse has got in somehow and is decomposing, The
answer is to drain, tip, rinse and refill.

Janet

On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 16:33:32 +0100, Janet Baraclough
wrote:

It shouldn't smell, if she excludes all light, mice and birds with a
closefitting lid, and a cheap drainpipe filter top to prevent
leaves/mice /birds falling down the spout from the gutter above.

I suspect a bird or mouse has got in somehow and is decomposing, The
answer is to drain, tip, rinse and refill.

That latter suggestion is exactly what my friend thinks may have
happened. The only entrance is via the pipe from the gutter which has
no filter at the top!
Thanks folks.

Pam in Bristol