It's recommended to clean your toilet tank at least twice a year.
The brown stuff is setiment, basically dirt. The water coming in your house has disolved solids in it, rust, dirt, calcium and since the toilet tank always has some water in it, the sentiment settles on the bottom of the tank over time.
We recommend using a mixture of ¼ cup of vinegar for every 1 cup of water. This ensures your toilet tank is being disinfected without causing damage, which the use of bleach or chemical cleaners can do.
It's from small water breaks in water lines mixed with additives from the treatment plant accumulated over the years. You can shut off your water to the Toilet tank, flush it then clean it out with a sponge and a good household cleaner.
Technically yes, toilet tank water is potable, as toilet water comes from the same fresh water supply as your sinks, shower, and all other potable water fixtures in your house.
"While the water in the tank is usually clean, the metal parts can corrode and rust, and the interior of the tank can get discolored," says Patty Stoffelen, a bath fixtures merchant for The Home Depot. "Cleaning your toilet tanks helps prevent the buildup of rust and mildew."
Ideally you should only use a tap connected to the mains water supply for drinking, food preparation or teeth cleaning; however, if your drinking water comes from a storage tank then it will be safe to use if the tank is properly designed, correctly installed and kept in good condition.
Vera Peterson, president of Molly Maid, recommends starting with vinegar to soak the tank. “First, remove the lid and take a peek inside,” she told Martha Stewart Living. “If you see any mineral buildup or crud, pour four cups of vinegar into the tank. Allow this to soak for up to an hour.”
Tastes and odors produced by iron bacteria are described as swampy, musty, or like oil, petroleum, cucumbers, sewage, or rotten vegetation. Iron bacteria can also cause reddish, yellow, brown, or gray deposits or orange or opaque slimy strands inside toilet tanks or orange-colored water.
While they may seem like the perfect way to clean and sanitize your toilet, the reality is that they're quite harmful to it. Those blue toilet tablets can cause corrosion to parts inside the tank and contain harmful chemicals that may be released into your home and the environment.
Vinegar is great for removing hard water deposits, soap scum, and other build-up from many surfaces in your home, including your toilet. When used correctly, it can be a safe and effective cleaning agent. However, leaving vinegar in the toilet overnight may not be the best idea.
You can clean the toilet using this product by pouring a little into the bowl and scrubbing clean. But we don't recommend placing Fabuloso or any other all-purpose cleaner in the back of the toilet tank. Such cleaners can be corrosive and may degrade the rubber gasket and seal in your tank.
Water quality issues can cause buildup and sediment in your plumbing system, leading to murky water or stains in your toilet tank. Fortunately, there are simple solutions to the problem, from regular maintenance to installing a water filtration system.
For example, applying white vinegar or lemon juice and scrubbing with a toilet brush typically works on newer stains. You can also try mixing white vinegar and baking soda if you need a stronger scrub. For older stains, using an industrial-strength cleaner like CLR should do the trick.
Various minerals in the water can result in rust stains in the toilet. High levels of calcium, limescale and other minerals in the water cause spots to appear over time. These brown and yellow stains cannot be removed with scrubbing or regular cleaning.
There are many causes of water discoloration. If your toilet tank is a very dark black, you probably have high levels of manganese in your water. If the stains are more brown, iron will likely travel with your water, and the presence of iron can open a whole new can of worms…
Iron Bacteria Slime in Toilets
Orange/brown/red slime often accumulates in toilet tanks. Sometimes it floats in the water like “orange snot”. In less extreme cases, you may notice an orange slime “coating” inside the toilet tank that can be wiped off with a finger.
The easiest way to thoroughly clean the toilet tank is to spray it down with a disinfectant cleaning spray such as Lysol or 409. Using a disinfectant spray will loosen much of the build-up, and kill most of the bacteria and germs. Let the solution work for about 15 minutes before you start cleaning.
It's essential to clean the inside of a toilet tank to remove mineral deposits that can damage or interfere with the toilet's operation. Baking soda will absorb odors, break down stains, and dislodge fungal growth with its abrasive power.
Chlorine bleach used to disinfect the toilet will help eliminate the occurrence of the pink residue. An easy way to do this is to periodically stir three or five tablespoons of fresh bleach to the toilet tank, flush the toilet to allow the bowl to be disinfected, then add another dose of bleach to the tank.
Water from the toilet bowl cannot back up into the tank which insures the water in the tank is just as clean as water from a faucet. Truth be told, if you clean the bowl and flush several times, even the water in the bowl will be clean.
Although properly stored public-supply water should have an indefinite shelf life, replace it every 6 to 12 months for best taste. If the water you are storing comes from a private well, spring, or other untested source, purify it before storage to kill pathogens (see below).
To minimize growth of bacteria in cold water storage tanks, ASHRAE Guideline 12-2000 recommends that water be stored at less than 68°F. NYSDOH recommends that potable cold water be stored at less than 68°F. Tank circulation systems prevent both water stratification and water stagnation.