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Hi there We are looking at a narrow boat with a 300l stainless steel water tank (located in the bow I believe). This is going to be insufficient for 2 full time liveaboards. We are exploring options for extending the water capacity of the boat (ideally to reach a total of around 600l+). One idea is to add a plastic tank under the bed. Is this a good idea? Or alternatively how much is it likely to cost to add more capacity within the bow/ is this likely feasible?)

This is our 2nd boat, built by NSM Narrowboats (now out of business) on a Colecraft shell. Unlike our first boat which had an integral water tank, this has a stainless steel one. When we filled up, I expected water to overflow through the well deck drain hole when the tank was full. It didn't, but when we checked, it looked full so we stopped fillling. A couple of days later we noticed a wet patch on the cabin floor and discovered the cabin bilge was completely full of water. . By peering down the filler hole we can see that the top of the water tank is not connected to the fitting on the well deck, so any overflow goes down the side of the tank and into the cabin bilge. The hole in the tank is not even directly below the well deck fitting. Has anyone come across this before, and is there a fix other than vigilance when topping up the tank? We have established that there are no pipe leaks (the water pump does not come on unexpectedly) and there is no leak from the shower pump. If we are super-careful when taking on water, the cabin bilge stays dry.

Just embarked on some long overdue water tank maintenance, not done since I've owned the boat. Now I know why I've been putting this off for so long. My tanks form the sides of the well deck, so there are 2 of them, each 2 m long, one each side connected by a ballance pipe. So twice the agony. After draining and opening the side mounted access panels, the inside looked frightening with large encrustations down the sides of the tanks, which look like it could be rust. Photo of access panels shows the sort of stuff. My first thought was that it was lots of rust, but it yields to a scraper leaving a very pristine surface of the original plating, no obvious rust or pitting. The encrustations are very black, soft and crumbly beneath the crusty superficial rusty looking tint on the surface, I wonder if it is a degradation product of the previous coating, which I assume was some kind of bitumen. It has actually done a superb job of protecting the steel, even after many years (>9 ) of no tank maintenance. My question is what does the forum recommend as a coating now, since I discovered today that the bitumen product stocked by Midland Chandlers is no longer WRAS approved for potable tanks. I was checking the manufacturers (Everbuild BlackJack) Tech data sheet for coverage, and there they state there that it is 'not suitable for potable water tanks', On the tin it used to say it was. Edit to add: Everbuild confirm the product is no longer certified and should not be used for potable tanks.

Discovered my water tank pick up pipe, inside the tank has rusted solid! Any ideas how to remove the rust inside? My thoughts are to cut off the bottom 6 inches, replace with rubber hose. still leaves me with what to do inside the curved bend. What I need is a flexible rasp. Or should I just replace the lot, with copper pipe & brass fittings? Bod

Hi, Girlfriend and me live on a 65FT narrowboat which has about 500liters of fresh water capacity, which is OK, but i really dislike it when it runs out unexpectedly. So I am thinking about adding a backup fresh water tank of 200 liters. My first thought was to buy a flexible marine water tank like this one, which could go in the bow locker next to gas bottles, so when main water tank runs out i can syphon water from backup tank to main tank. Any thoughts on this or better ideas? I don't really have space for water butts so that is not an option. Water tank could go on the roof but that is unsightly and very exposed to sun which can cause algae formation I hear. Thanks Zsolt

Not all the time, just more often lately, black flecks - look a bit like tea leaves - in my water. All taps, but less from the kitchen tap where I have a Jabsco filter. When it's running low it goes brownish all through. These flecks occur when it's still clear and are a new development. Any suggestions what's going on and how I could sort it? As far as I'm aware the tank was bitumen painted 4-5 years ago, no liner. I haven't yet done any sterilisation routine (lived aboard 18 months). I quite fancy doing this anyway, whether it would deal with the 'tea leaves' or not, but I'd need to be sure what's best to use. Milton is often recommended. Would I be OK to discharge this into the cut, or should I retrieve it all and dispose of it more responsibly? Any advice much appreciated. B.C.

Hi all! Might I draw on your collective wisdom please. So, this is the current state of my water tank in the bow, I have a plastic tank I use in the galley for drinking and cooking. I've bought a flexible tank roughly the same size and my current plan is to fit this into the bow tank space. I was going to dry the tank out fully, then do a wire brush and I have a can of bitumen type paint (specifically for potable water spaces) to apply. I'd love to insulate the space too, I have some underfloor insulation (the silver type) which I thought would help protect the flexi tank too? In terms of attaching to the pump, any tips? The outlet for the flexi tank is 12mm, I'm guessing some blue hose and a clip will be okay? I surely don't mind a bodge but wondered if there was a neat solution to connecting these through the stop, the filter and into the pump? Thanks everyone in advance, all help gratefully received! EDIT: Images do not seem to be rendering correctly, but it's a rusty-ish tank attaching to a shurflo type pump:)

Hi again, I'm back with another old boat problem.. Yesterday we noticed water in the cabin near the front. I checked under the well deck, it was about an inch deep on top of the concrete ballast. Panic set in, could this be canal water? It certainly looked murky. I hand pumped a few buckets out, and it didn't seem to be getting worse, so we pressed on to our destination where I could do some further investigation. Then in particular shallow pound, the boat sat on the bank and listed as I filled the lock. I looked under and noticed water coming out of the hole marked below in red. Some also seemed to be coming from the blue area. Behind this bulkhead is my water tank. I've been assuming that it's a separate stainless steel vessel, but could it just be open liquid behind the bulkhead?? If it is a separate tank, I'm guessing there would be a breather that overflows when I fill the tank up. If that's the case I can't see how I would ever fill my tank without getting water into this area. Finally, in this photo you can see where the water was pooling. When I wet vac it, it looks like water is oozing from the rusted iron. This is upsetting.. (it's upside down for some reason) 1) Does it seem likely my tank is separate stainless steel or just water behind the bulkhead? 2) What would the correct action be too fix this issue? 3) The rust looks quite bad to me, does it need professional treatment or can I do it myself?

Toying with the idea of fitting a stainless steel water tank inside the existing mild steel tank. Am weighing up the cost against the benefits, are there any disadvantages that I need to be aware of?

Currently I have an integral water tank up the pointy end in the usual way. The super cheap borescope ("inskam") shows it to be caked with rust, and that's probably why the pump seized. I don't want the horrid job of painting it every couple of years, I don't want to drink water that's been in a painted tank, and I'll surely want a larger capacity than whatever this one holds. So more questions, I've heard stainless steel can crack at the welds. Is there a better material? Anyone heard of bunding a water tank, other than "it drains into the bilge and the carpet drinks it up"? For those with really large water tanks, where do you stow them? Anyone have multiple tanks distributed around the boat? I'm leaning towards the idea of having multiple tanks with a pump each. The modular approach to water tank capacity suits my plan of gradually refitting the boat.

We have a boat that we have been on since October, new boat. We kept finding that the bilge, on one side had a good deal of water in it. Kept mopping it out and with all of the rain that we have had since October, just kept thinking that the water was running in from the deck so kept cleaning out the drain runners. Then we had a canopy fitted which meant that the deck was considerably drier however, the one side of the bilge kept filling up again. Further investigation showed that the overflow pipe from the hot water tank was dripping. We got the boat builder here to take a look and he cut the pipe and has run this to outside the boat through a small hole drilled in the side. Over three weeks, we mopped out 3 mop bucket loads of water. The water dripping out of this hole is visible all the time, whether the hot water is on or not, whether the tank water is hot or not. Would you expect this amount? The builder says that it is normal to have this overflow from the water tank due to pressure. The pump is not kicking in at all. It is just continually dripping.

Earlier this year we had a new (steel) cabin built, but we decided not to go for a new built in stainless water tank at the same time (we probably should have done, but hindsight and all that...). Now we find ourselves in need of a water tank that will fit through the door or a hatch (both limited by the opening in the steel. So I've been scratching my head trying to find something that we can get into the boat as well as ftting under the front deck, and hit upon what I hope will be the perfect solution: A loft water tank. These are designed to fit through a loft hatch and this one is the largest I can find that will fit through the door as well af fitting nicely under the front deck. the plan is to use two tanks (probably with separate fillers) that will be plumbed together to provide one "reservoir" of water that the pump can provide pressurised water from. I'm aware I'll need additional pipe joins and therefore more potential leak points but I should only need to add one T to join the two tanks to provide one feed to the pump and one additional filler (though this might not be required). Is this type of tank a feasable option for a narrowboat and are there any major pitfalls with a double-tank configuration that I might not have thought of? Thanks in advance!

Hi. I have a narrowboat built by Coal Craft. I am considering opening the water tank with a view of cleaning it out. The tank is built in under the forward deck and gas locker. The access point is a hatch in the deck on the foreward deck. Has anyone done this? What challenges did you have? Did you paint it once cleaned? What undercoat and paint did you use? What would you do if you started the task a second time? Thanks

Hi All :) I am planning to buy narrowboat and making my budget predictions. I know that most of older boats have nonplastic water tanks, black water tanks and sewer tanks. I would like to take out all of them and put in only plastic black water tank and fresh water tank (as composting toilet is my choice). How much of the flooring I will be in need of removing to do that? I am ready to remove as much as needed (I am planning to put new insulation and wooden floors, so that's not a problem). Maybe someone has experience with this kind of project and could give me some advice? I could not find any articles or YouTube videos on that... Thank you :)

My narrowboat has its water tank beneath the well deck floor in the bow, just behind the gas locker. I was told when I bought the boat that it's a stainless steel tank but there's no way to verify this. However whenever we fill the tank there's always one or two loud 'boom!' sounds as presumably the tank walls bulge out under the weight of the water. Then later, after we've used the first few dozen litres of water there's another boom, presumably as the tank sides revert to their usual profile. I think this was described in another topic on this forum but I can't find it now. Anyway lately the water tank has been going boom! repeatedly for no apparent reason. When having a shower it might boom 5 or 6 times, then afterwards when the water pump isn't even running the tank will randomly boom again several times. Today, after three days of cruising which probably resulted in around six showers and several sinkfuls of water for shaving and washing up, plus many pots of tea, we stopped at a fairly slow (i.e. low pressure) water point. I put the hose into the filler on the gunwale, opened the tap, and almost immediately the water was overflowing out of the filler and into the canal. The tank was definitely not full so I pushed the hose deeper into the tank. This resulted in a mini-Vesuvius where an air-lock (I assume) caused water to gush up out of the filler all over the side of the boat, almost to the roof. However after doing this the tank was again overflowing out of the filler. The tank has two gunwale-mounted fillers, one on each side of the boat, as I think is fairly normal. In addition on the right side of the hull is a vent hole a few inches lower than the filler (see photo). When filling the tank this vent usually gushes with water a few seconds before the filler overflows. I assume it also admits air into the tank as water is consumed. I have no idea how these tank connections interact but in an attempt to increase my understanding of the problem with my overflowing but empty tank I inserted a screwdriver into that vent. I didn't encounter any obvious obstruction or resistance but there was an immediate hissing of air out of the vent so clearly I had broken some kind of seal. After the hissing stopped the overflowing from the filler also stopped and the water tank filled normally. However when the tank was full the flow of water from that vent was only a trickle compared with normal. I suspect there's some kind of blockage still in there but I can't think how to free it. I did try pushing the hose from the water tap into that vent to let it push any blockage back into the tank but although there was a flow of water into the tank it didn't seem to increase the flow out of the vent when I reinserted the hose into the filler. Could anyone please explain to me where the two filler pipes, and the vent pipe, go in a typical water tank? Do they all just feed into the top of the tank? Without access to these pipes, which must be all behind the cabin lining, how can I clear any blockage in the vent? Thanks.

I possibly have a leaky water tank. Will investigate fully when I have time this weekend but just wanted to know if anyone has replaced an integral water tank under the well deck with a moulded plastic or bladder type one and if so, how difficult and expensive was it?