Could anyone please help us. We bought a second hand but unused 3200 litre polyethylene water tank and left it standing closed up for a few months. When we took off the lid to climb in and drill the holes for the installation of the fittings, the smell was unbearable. Sort of like dead animals. No amount of flushing with clean water seems to make any difference; it still stinks!

HELP!

It couldn't have been a new tank, or unused, or it would not have had an odour. Do you have a safe place where you can't flush it out with chlorine to clean it somewhat. Perhaps a phone call to a company that supplies that type of tank can direct you to deodorizing.

I really must say you should not have been so naïve as to think it was clean being second hand.

Thanks for your answer Tickle. We`bought the tank from friends who had purchased it to put in a water supply on their farm but sold the property before they got around to it. They had it for about two years just sitting in a paddock with the lid off. There are no dead critters in it but it sure smells as if there were. We dumped all the old rain water out that had got in the open lid before loading it onto our pickup. All that came out were leaves and water. We tried the chlorine scrub and after it was closed up for aday or two, the smell returned. We want to use it for a header tank for spring water for a cottage wwe are building up at the top of our farm. We trust the people from whom we purchased it and when they say they bought it new, we believe them also all the fittings that they gave us to use were new.