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MikePA
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Reged: 09/10/02
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Posts: 338
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Loc: Southern PA
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Stock Tank and Mold
08/03/04 09:15 PM
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We have a 60 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank and are having a problwm with mold growing in it. I filled the tank 2 weeks ago and my wife said it already needs cleaned. The tank is not in the shade. Any ideas on how to prevent this?
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JoeR
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Reged: 09/11/02
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Posts: 207
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Loc: St.Cloud, FL
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Re: Stock Tank and Mold
[re: MikePA]
08/03/04 10:14 PM
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I have two stock tanks 100 gal type. Depending on what kind of livestock you are watering, you can use copper sulfate to kill algae in the tank without hurting the livestock. Stock Plex is one manufacturer. It is safe for horses and cattle, but NOT SHEEP.
Hope that helps,
Joe
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kensfarm
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Reged: 03/12/03
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Re: Stock Tank and Mold
[re: MikePA]
08/04/04 02:54 PM
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I have the same problem.. I dump & clean once a week.. what the spray hose doesn't wash off stays.. I don't think it hurts the livestock.. as long as the water is clean & clear. I added the rubbermaid automatic filler.. works like a toilet float.. the steers drink a lot in the summer.. and it saves me some time every day. Keeping the water in the shade will slow it down.. I've heard some put fish in the tanks to help keep it clean.
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rozett
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Re: Stock Tank and Mold
[re: kensfarm]
08/05/04 11:51 AM
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I do the same as Ken.... it's a saturday chore  to clean out the tank every week. I bought a toilet brush to clean it out with, flush it, and then refill. During the winter, it can usually go a couple weeks between cleanings. 
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mfaley
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Re: Stock Tank and Mold
[re: MikePA]
08/09/04 07:24 PM
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Mike,
We clean our tanks/water buckets about every 3-4 weeks with clorox. Just tip them over, rinse out the heavy stuff, scrub them down with a bit of clorox (in the big tanks I put in a full 1-2 cups), tip it over to get rid of the excess clorox, and then refill. The little amount of clorox left when you dont rinse tends to slow the growth. Any smell or taste tends to dissipate quickly.
Just as an aside we had a nasty bout of Rhino virus that sprung up at a horse show. This is not your normal run of the mill variety that you can vaccinate for and it manifests itself in 2 different ways.
1. Respiratory- Not too bad as it clears itself up in most healthy horses.
2. Neurological - Not sure what drives this but the horses completely lose it. Paralisys in the hindquarters, loss of balance, head tossing and other nasty symptoms.
This variety is transmited through blood or saliva so at a horse show when bits may be shared, horses caugh or sneeze or may bleed slightly on a blanket or girth it runs around.
The reason I mention this is that one of the best ways of preventing this is clorox/lysol along with good ole sunshine. We use them on blankets, girths, halters, etc and also use clorox in the stalls, feeders, water buckets, grain buckets, etc when a horse visits or we come back from a show.
Its a cheap way of reducing risk.
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rozett
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Re: Stock Tank and Mold
[re: MikePA]
08/10/04 06:02 AM
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Mike, we subscribe to a very good publication on equine health called "The Horse". In the current issue is an article entitled Would you Drink It? ......
"Water is the main nutrient that horses must have," says Bob Coleman, PhD, PAS, associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences and equine extension specialist at the University of Kentucky. "It's the one nutrient that we take for granted, yet it should be the first one we should worry about."
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Regarding water tanks, Thompson prefers plastic over metal because they are safer--they don't rust and are less likely to have sharp edges, which could hurt a horse. He says plastic is easy to clean, and it is less likely to produce electrical shocks from malfunctioning heaters than a metal tank.
Coleman recommends checking tanks weekly for insects, small animals, and debris, and they should be cleaned monthly, unless they become dirty sooner than that. Tanks should be scrubbed out and rinsed well. To disinfect, a small amount of bleach can be used then thoroughly rinsed out. "Don't get too carried away, or you might flavor the water," he says. "This would restrict intake and chemicals could build up on the tank."
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mfaley
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Re: Stock Tank and Mold
[re: rozett]
08/10/04 12:30 PM
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"Don't get too carried away, or you might flavor the water," he says. "This would restrict intake and chemicals could build up on the tank."
Good assessment from this person. It never ceases to amaze me how little people think about hydration for thier horses.....especially performance horses that are kept in stalls.
In warm weather chlorine dissipates quickly and we have never found it to be a problem. If you dont rinse it off it might collect a little but if you fill it to the point of overflow its not likely to.
We drop a bit of bleach in the water buckets and tanks periodicaly between cleanings to keep them a bit cleaner. This helps keep things clean and they stay used to that smell. We also drop a bit of bleach into thier water buckets at shows. This helps hide any differences in water taste and helps reduce the risk of any water borne bugs they might encounter.
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LazyJ_Arabians
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Reged: 09/16/02
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Loc: Central Arkansas
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Re: Stock Tank and Mold
[re: mfaley]
08/10/04 05:17 PM
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We have three sixty gallon rubber tanks and they all get dumped out and a broom scrubbed around in them every day during the summer, at least every three days in the winter, and a scrub with Comet and a nylon brush once a week. Clean fresh water is a basic animal need. Even without the algae you got birds poo'ing in it, little critters tracking manure in it, larvae hatching in it, gobs of slobber...
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