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I was just talking to a friend about the invasive mussels that are
becoming a big problem here.
My daughter was told she couldn't take our canoe into a local lake. My
friend said that on the cooling system for his diesel boat motor, a mussel had
grown inside the water pump and buggered up the impeller.
He now flushes the system with vinegar every time he uses it. There's some
kind of treatment that's done and the boat owners get an inspection certificate
so their boat can be moved from one lake to another.
Not sure how effective the whole system is at stopping the spread of these
varmints.
As it relates to my sub, I'm just thinking how I could flush my ballast
tanks. For instance, if I'm running the sub in the ocean, and then wanted to
take it up to Lake Tahoe.
I'll investigate this further but I was wondering if any psubbers have had
to deal with this.
The MBT's on the K boats are pretty easy to get at for pressure washing,
but my ballast tanks are a lot more "closed" and filling it with vinegar won't
be practical. It would take 200 gallons each time. This is called "pickling"
where the vinegar is left inside the system for a while to kill off any mussels
there.
I can see how I could flush the vent system fairly easily, but the tanks
themselves are another story.
Maybe it would be enough to put the wand from a pressure washer up through
the bottom holes and spray/wash the inside.
I had considered putting an inspection window under the fairings in
the MBT's tops made from 1 inch plexi. Maybe 10 by 10 inch or so. My
original thought was to keep an eye on the tanks interior to monitor corrosion
but with this whole mussel thing, it may have to be required.
There's not much pressure there as the tanks are ambient, and sealing it up
shouldn't be too tough.
If I made the window 10 by 10 square the plexi could be removed and a
pressure wand used from above as well as through the bottom holes. There's a lot
of "nooks and crannies" in my ballast tanks so some kind of chemical treatment
may be needed.
Anyway.....have any of you guys had to deal with this problem? This could
be a real problem if I'm not able to move my sub from one body of water to
another. I'd hate to have to redesign the whole ballast tank system. I'm almost
done welding it all together and have about $3K into them so far.
Making some modifications to allow for cleaning and treating won't be so
bad, but dealing with the authorities may turn out to be difficult. I gotta get
some more info on this before I proceed with finishing the tanks.
FRank D.
Frank D.
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