Holding tank failure

[mike66]

Has anyone experienced a holding tank failure? My boat came with a system that injected disinfectant and discharged overboard with a capacity of about 12 gallons. It was not functioning when we bought. I
replaced it with a 28 gal tank which lasts the 2of us 3-4 days.(okay, so we like our beer). I'm wondering if a prior owner had a failure issue with the original built in tank under the galley or wanted to have a (at the time) legal way of dumping overboard. Should I go through the effort of hooking up some water lines and maybe dye testing to see if the tank's okay, or are they known to fail? Thanks for any input

[jleonard]

Not prone to failure that I have heard. Even so a fiberglass tank should be easy to repair

[psneeld]

My original fiberglass tank was pristine when I cleaned it...never did I thought it would come so clean with relative ease.

Now all the fitting to it were trashed as the whole hose system...but the tank itself seems pretty bulletproof.

[mike66]

Thanks for the replies. I'll add this project to the list. I don't have a brochure that gives the capacity of the tank on a 40.Anyone know?

[jleonard]

Mine (1983) is supposedly 35 gallons. I know its at least that because I had to calibrate my tank gage and from empty I poured 7 five gallon buckets of water onto the tank and it did not overflow.

[jleonard]

You could measure yours. 231 cubic inches per gallon

[mike66]

Thanks on both answers. If it's around 35 gallons or so I'd only gain a bit. Oh well another thing to check in the spring. Have a good winter guys.

[psneeld]

Mine was only about 25...I pumped 5 gallon buckets through the deck waste fitting till it overflowed the tank's access plate.

Needless to say I was a little disappointed thinking I had 40 gallons...and with the genset sitting over top...nothing will change till the genset gets rebuilt or replaced.

[jleonard]

My tank is under the galley floor so perhaps that's why my tank is a different size.