Black Tank RV

6 Rules For Grey Tank / Galley Tank Care | RV Hook-Up Campers
1. Deep clean grey tanks at the beginning and end of the camping season using a strong grease-eating cleaner like Dawn Ultra dish soap. Do not use antibacterial products or bleach!
2. For direct hook-up campers, close your grey tank valve connected to the campground sewer. If you decide to leave the grey tank valve open consider adding a p-trap in the sewer hose to prevent campground sewer odors or gasses entering the rv.
3. Use high-quality grease-eating dish soap like Dawn or Dawn Ultra to wash your dishes.
4. Minimize the amount of food, grease, and debris that goes down your kitchen and bathroom drains. Scrape your dishes.
5. Avoid cleaning your sinks, tub, or showers with bleach or antibacterial products.
6. Always empty and deep clean your grey/galley tanks before storing your RV.

The Unique Method For Full Time Campers

Picture this: a small pool of water in a pristine, grassy location; and a cute faced, little spotted baby deer lapping at the pool of water. Got the image? Good. In my pre-retirement years I was tasked with managing the environmental concerns for a large energy company in Northern Alberta. Managing those concerns involved both informing management and educating the work force on environmental sensitivities and our impact on those sensitivities, especially wildlife. Still have that image? “Oily rags are not chew toys for wildlife” was a common posting to remind all of our potential wildlife impact. As rv’ers we too have a role to play in minimizing our environmental impact, especially to wildlife. Our waste holding tanks have limited capacity and at times they need to be emptied. As the grey water tank fills up more often than the black tank we have a dilemma; do we go to a sani dump location or simply open our grey and let it go. No one can see us and it is only shower water so what the big deal? It is not simply shower water! It is fats, grease, oils, vegetable scraps, hair, skin, soaps and shampoos. None of which I would like to consume or see animals drinking it. It is also prohibited in Alberta and possibly in all provinces. So take the time, empty your tanks at an actual sani dump location and do not allow grey water pools to appear in those pristine, grassy locations. It does have an impact on our environment. Still have that picture?

RV waste tank or on-board septic system? Your rv waste holding tanks are simply that - holding tanks. They will hold your waste until such a time as they become full. They then need to be dumped into an existing septic tank which is part of a septic system which includes seperation of materials, bacterial treatment and bio-degradation of waste material. Now back to your rv. Where some septic systems may require addidtional bacterial treatment to aid degradation, your holding tanks under normal conditions do not require additional bacterial treatment - ever. You need enough water to keep waste fluid, thus easily dumped, is all that is required. Then why do we add treatment to our tanks? Simply because we do not function under normal conditions. In most cases water is a comodity (such as dry camping) that we limit therefore not enough is put into the toilet or when camped at a full hookup site (leave our gate valves open to free drain). Not enough water, solids buildup and odors linger. This is not a good habitat to get into. So now, we add the treatment to speed up solids breakdown so it will readilly flow in the dumping process especially with the limited water that we use in our tanks.