Question on Cleaning Tanks...

[Manta Matt]

Hey there,

I was curious, How the Heck do you clean the inside of the tank. Exspecially steel tanks?

I use a stainless Steel Rotating Brush on a drill on my steel tanks, but the "flash" rust not pits doesn't want to come off... Will it ever come off??? Or is there a certain solution i have to use??


Thanks,
Matt

 

[mike_s]

Dive shops put a special cleaning solution in and a bunch of glass marbles and then set the tanks on a set of motorized rollers and roll them for hours..... the glass marbles will clean anything on the sides.

If it's very rusty, then they might condemn it.

 

[dbg40]

age old fix, they call it tumbling. does a hell of a job.

 

[Manta Matt]

age old fix, they call it tumbling. does a hell of a job.

So Marbles huh.... I use a Gravel type of mix. But It doesn't seem to get rust color look off the sides...

The Tank isn't pitting, I just want the inside to look Clean... Not nessicerely polished, but clean.

 

[Boogie711]

So Marbles huh.... I use a Gravel type of mix. But It doesn't seem to get rust color look off the sides...

The Tank isn't pitting, I just want the inside to look Clean... Not nessicerely polished, but clean.

Dry them without oxygen.

When they get O2 cleaned, dump them inside out and dry them, quickly, with an inert gas like nitrogen. My LDS uses helium from the leftover bottles in his trimix cascade. Without O2, rust can't form. Problem solved.