Mold in fresh water tubing?

[adwizard]

Each year when winterizing my 1992 jayco 1096, I run a blower through my fresh water tubing. Each year I try to blow out the line that runs through the kitchen faucet. I have a 5 gallon fresh water plastic tank and a manual pump to draw water. When inspecting the clear tubing I thought I detected some dark or black substance in the tube. Very little but still noticeable. Now I'm thinking it might be mold. I always treat my tank and water with a splash of chlorine bleach prior to the camping season, let it sit for ten minutes and then flush the system as best I can. If it is the onset of mold, can I get rid of it with clorine bleach or must I change my plastic tubing? Any advise would be appreciated. Thanx.

[Jagiven]

Mold needs something to eat to grow. I doubt there is anything in a clean pipe with clean water.

Your on the right approach, with some water and bleach. But you need the right ratio and time. Normal sanitizing ratio is 1/4 cup of bleach to 15 gallons of water, let is sit in the tubes for a minimum of 4 hours, then rinse. You can double the ratio of bleach. I always let it sit overnight.

In a PU I bet it would be easy to change out the line too.

[CAG]

A "splash" of bleach might not be enough. Give the system a seasonal cleansing at the beginning of each camping season. I would have to go look it up but there are recommendations on the amount of bleach per gals of water to sanitize. Do a search, and then do the recommended cleansing of the system. That means filling the tanks, drawing water to each faucet location and letting it sit for 3 to 4 hours. Even 12 hours would be better. Then flush the system with fresh water.

I will tell you that here, where temps get into the 100+ water left in a system can turn black in a few days. It is not pretty.

[BrentB]

Sanitizing the system with bleach should do the trick. First, make sure your bleach is fresh. (No more than six months old.) If your tank only holds five gallons, you will only need 1 ounce of bleach mixed with 1 gallon of water. Add this to your tank, then fill the rest of the way with fresh water. Pump this through all the lines at let it sit for at least 4 hours. Then drain and rinse with fresh water.

[RogerR]

I would sanitize it after I replaced the line with the black in it. Plastic water line is cheap and it should be simple to replace. At that age it is probably brittle and better to replace it before it fail during a camp-out.