Cleaning the Tank

I believe that I have written about our water situation.  I will recap.  We haul our own water with a trailer and two tanks.  Almost every Friday we, meaning my husband or our sons, go to the neighbors and pump water into the tanks.  Then drive the tanks to our house and pump the water into our holding tank.  Our holding tank is made out of black plastic.  Black plastic is very important because it does not allow algae to grow.  Well not as much as the white plastic.  Just like everything it needs to be cleaned.  So every once in a while we allow the tanks to drain.  Then our sons crawl into the tank to steam wash the sides.  Then they vacuum out the yuck.  Our youngest was the lucky one available to enter the tank this time.  He looks like he was swimming, but that was just the steam.  After that is done they refill the water.  Then they go into the house and change and clean all the filters.  Even the filter attached to the washing machine.  It is amazing how much debris and silt gets attached to that little filter.  Which isn't even as big as your thumb.