Automatic Metal Water Trough

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Gentle_Warrior

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I need to clean one - badly - it is in the field, unmoveable and is in direct sunlight all of the time so is getting green slimey stuff in it.

What can I use ?

bearing in mind that I have to use a bucket to empty it !!!!!!

thanks guys
 
Oh how I sympathise - I have this to do as well!

I had a bung hole put in the bottom of mine to help with it so I could literally pull the plug and sluice it out - OK so you get a wet arm leaning in to pull the bung out but so much easier than bucketing the water out.

Before I used to use and old mop with an abbrasive side so I could get the dirty cleaning water out after I'd finished - seriously labourious!

Good luck! :p
 
Bucket out as much as you can, then use a large car sponge to soak up the last bits.. laborious i know!
 
I uesd to just put a couple of bricks to hold the stopcock to stop the water and scrubbed it with a scrubbing brush as I emptied it with a bucket. I didn't sponge the bottom out, by the time the trough was full any bits were very diluted.
 
I don't use mine anymore for just this reason. However, after bucketing it out, I used a scuttle or a child's plastic spade to get the sludgy stuff out. As soon as it fills the pigeons come and poo in it anyway!
 
turn the stopcock off or tie it up so that it doesn't fill the tank.
use an old plastic dandy brush as a scrubbing brush and scrub a bit, bucket out a couple of bucket loads, then scrub a bit more. etc etc etc ad infinitum...
allow it to fill up a bit and bucket out as much as you can.

alternatively, shut off the stop cock and empty 2 thirds of the water out. scrub as much **** off the tank as you can, then tip in the contents of 2 tubes of denture cleaner tablets (the cheap ones are fine). The oxygen bubbles they produce will kill off the bacteria that cause the slime, and make your tank cleaner! empty out the tank and refil a bit, empty out again and then refill.

you can get silver disc things to go in the bottom to help keep the green slime at bay. We use them in one of ours that gets filled with leaves from a near by tree and they're great... i can't remember what they're called tho!!.
 
Thanks jen, am looking into the disc things - glad to hear yours work, will also try the denture tablets !!!

Thanks Guys.

After cleaning it out it took only 1 week for the green stuff to come back - so disheartening

xx
 
I have to do exactly the same. I find if I take a couple of buckets of water out daily, so that a good deal of clean water comes in, it ever so slightly prolongs the agony of cleaning it all out again. My husband has offered to covert the ball cock thingy to a tap but field owner isn't keen as he thinks it will be more likely to freeze up! Will have to be more persuasive as it really is a bind. However, I also have a second field with no water supply at all and it is even more of a pain filling up water containers at home and lugging them to the field! How I want that tap!!!
 
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