Re-install Holding Tank

[Offshore Dreamer]

My wife & I just became the new owners of #370.  She (the boat, not my wife) came fitted with a LectraSan unit.  I can see some advantage to keeping that for offshore and cruising but really need to re-install a holding tank under the starboard v-berth.

Has anyone found a source for a tapered side-mount tank that fits well into that space?

Any other lessons learned on the installation would also be much much appreciated.

Cheers!
S/V Tradition

[eveningebb]

The first summer we owned our Pearson I couldn't get rid of the smells emanating from our holding system.  I replaced the hoses from the head to the holding tank under the starboard v-berth, as well as the pumpout and vent hoses running from the tank to the bow and still had disgusting smells from the tank.  So I decided to replace the tank.  Trionic Corp. sells the exact tank -- model 2014-1 -- that had been installed in my boat.  It took some doing, but I removed the old tank and replaced it with the new one.  It turned out that most of the smell was coming from the fittings on the tank and not from the tank itself (these fittings can be replaced -- they screw into the tank).

Everything was fine until it turned hot this past summer and my "new" hoses started smelling again.  This off-season, I'm replacing all of the hoses again with the expensive black sanitary hose, including the hoses from the y-valve to the anti-siphon and on to the head thru-hull.  I've replaced the original ball-valve sea-cock and thru-hull just forward of the starboard water tank.

The new tank was a tight fit but with a little sanding (on the lip of the enclosure), perseverance, and swearing it fit into the original enclosure.

You might want to think about how you plumb the system.  My current system has a line running from the head to a y-valve where the black water can be directed to either the holding tank or the thru-hull fitting.  I've been thinking about changing this so that the line from the head runs directly from the head to the holding tank.  Then, putting the y-valve on the holding tank discharge line so that I can either direct the discharge to the deck pump-out fitting or to a macerating pump that would empty the tank overboard through the sea-cock thru-hull fitting.  This would allow me to empty the holding tank whether I was off-shore or near pump-out stations.  Versatility is always good, but I'm still thinking about it.

Good luck.

[SailingSeaDragon]

The first two season we had Sea Dragon I replaced the head and all hoses trying to get rid of the holding tank smell.. Only after I replaced the Y-Valve did I get rid of the smell... As it turned out that the Y-valve had a small leak the back allowing black water to run down the back of the hose into the area under the head. You may want to inspect or replace your Y-valve...

Another thought.... Our holding tank pumping process goes as follows:
     1. Pump the tank
     2. Fill the tank with fresh water (most pumpout station will have a fresh water source at the pump-out area)
     3. Pump the tank again.
     4. Fill the tank with fresh water
     5. Pump the tank again
     6. Apologize to all of the other boaters in line for taking so long.

Good Luck
Garner