Water tank between trips?

[Alloy]

@MOAK and @Alloy and @TwinStick do you recommend leaving the tank full of water between trips? To all, what are the drawbacks of leaving the tank empty or close to empty? Can it be half full? Or best to keep it full?

My experince is very few tanks are installed to drain 100% so it doesn't matter if the tank is full or empty. The tank and system needs to be sanitized and rinsed like Joe917 does.

After months of no use most people fill the tank with chlorinated water thinking it is safe when it is the worst thing to do. Killing the bugs that have grown in the water with chlorine makes (carcinogenic) Trihalomethanes.

My tanks (2x90g) drain 100% but I don't drain them every trip because the chlorine dioxide (not sodium hypocloride) keeps the system sanitized for months.

Another reason I don't dump the water is (seen tanks 10yo tank with 1/4" of sludge on the bottom) I filter the water to down to 1 micron. The water at our home (50yo cast iron full of iron bacteria) is so bad that a 10 micron filter only lasts 500gal.

 

[4000lbsOfGoat]

I have a non-removable tank in my trailer. If it's going to sit for more than a week or so I always drain it and leave all the fittings open. When I'm ready to go again: refill the tank with a bit of bleach, shake the trailer around a bit to "coat" the whole tank, then run the bleach solution through all the lines. I'll leave that sit overnight then drain, refill with clean water, run water through all the lines until the bleach smell is gone then drain again and refill again.

That seems to have worked well so far but I don't actually drink out of that tank either...*All* drinking water goes through the Lifesaver Jerry Can....

 

[alia176]

I have a water bladder that lives under the second row platform and it's used for non potable use. The 5g Scepter water can gets refilled before a trip from the typical grocery store filter water dispensers.

They both live in the landcrusier which isn't a DD and sits for weeks between usage. All summer long the interior temps easily exceeds 100deg and so far nobody got sick from not following any disinfecting procedures. I drain the water bladder at the end of the season and may remove the scepter can if the iceberg inside annoys me too much . It's so nice to always have access to drinking water from the back, regardless of the season.