Soap Jelling like mucus...
- Thread starter brewer40312
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JMMUSTANG
car wash owner
soonermajic
Well-known member
MEP, that tank is nasty! That’s not your tank I hope. That black stuff growing inside the tank looks like black mold, not good. We never use a plastic chemical tank, only stainless steel. We modified an AOK tank years ago and made it into a 3 compartment tank, each compartment holds about 2 1/2 to 3 gallons of chemical. I’ve found that a lot of car washes use tanks that are way too large for the application. I’ve seen a 55 gallon drum used as a chemical tank at a 3 bay car wash, they could figure why they had so many soap problems, it was mess inside the drum. KR soap products for the most part are garbage, they are all show, with no cleaning ability. We gave up on most of the there chemical products years ago.
MEP001
Well-known member
It's not mine, I would never have let anything get like that. The presoak hadn't been working for months because the strainer was completely clogged.
That tank and stand was from the economy line of the equipment we sold when I worked for a distributor. That tank is 25 years old and perfectly fine. I know it looks cheap, but the separate low system stands with tank and pump plus the wall-mounted board saved about $10k over the premium tank/board assembly. FWIW I didn't mount the Flojet to the tank with stainless sheet metal screws.
Since I'm posting pictures from five years ago, here's one of a cat my girlfriend found around the same time:
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brewer40312
New member
What kind of soap are you using?
Damoni88
Active member
Purple passion is one of the worst that does separate and gunk up.
Greg Pack
Wash Weenie
Copper pipe does help, but is most effective to start with a clean tank. I think copper ions have an antibacterial property. I take a piece of 2" copper pipe and place it over the cylindrical strainers that coleman uses and it does a good job.
The problem is not necessarily "cheap" soap, but a soap or other product that is neutral in ph. Algae can grow in an environment where the ph is between 4 and 10, and the warm water enhances growth. This usually means the foam brush the most susceptible to growth because they are usually neutral ph. If a presoak is allowing algae to grow I'm going to wager it has very little cleaning ability. Swap to one with alkalinity and it will go away (and do a much better job cleaning cars) . When it gets cooler many products with a higher ph (presoaks and HP soaps, check the MSDS) can be used for foam brush without worry and will also clean out the foam generators. I'm going to start running a 5 gallon container through the system during cold weather every year as a "maintenance flush" of the system It will also help with cleaning of the cars.
The problem is not necessarily "cheap" soap, but a soap or other product that is neutral in ph. Algae can grow in an environment where the ph is between 4 and 10, and the warm water enhances growth. This usually means the foam brush the most susceptible to growth because they are usually neutral ph. If a presoak is allowing algae to grow I'm going to wager it has very little cleaning ability. Swap to one with alkalinity and it will go away (and do a much better job cleaning cars) . When it gets cooler many products with a higher ph (presoaks and HP soaps, check the MSDS) can be used for foam brush without worry and will also clean out the foam generators. I'm going to start running a 5 gallon container through the system during cold weather every year as a "maintenance flush" of the system It will also help with cleaning of the cars.
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brewer40312
New member
The best way to control this is to use 1" swimming pool pellets or change soap suppliers. Who's soap are you using? What you need to do is raise the PH of your soap so the bacteria won't bloom. I have a "T" on my Hydrominder that pulls in a little Presoak in with the Foam brush soap to raise the PH of the soap a little to help it clean better.
MEP001
Well-known member
Did you clean the tank thoroughly? The copper should be enough to stop it from happening, but it won't kill it off. You'll need to clean the tank with bleach and maybe add a couple tablespoons when you first refill the tank. I still recommend getting it off the warm water which is keeping the algae comfortable and helping it grow.
MEP001
Well-known member
Hot water will keep it from growing, he's using warm water. The first thing I did when I had this problem was to bring an old saucepan to the wash and boiled water with my plumbing torch and poured it in.
soonermajic
Well-known member
Problem is hot water will turn into warm water over night & early morning, if it isn't recirculated from a lot of useage.
MEP001
Well-known member
If the water is hot enough during the day it will kill off whatever growth there is overnight.
