Cleaning airlines and reserviour question

[Ragnor]

So here's another scewball incident that I need to remody. I got my regulator and was screwing around with it. Ive never actually messed with one before. A childhood dream come true yah know. Anyway, I was messin to see what kind of resistance it had and if I could tell a difference turning the dial etc.
Then I attached the flex line and sucked through that a couple times.

Well then I attached it to the airline that has my reseve tank attached to it. Basically getting a sense for what "out of air" feels like since the pump isn't up and running just yet unless I take the dredge pump out to the horse trough. So I took about 3 good pulls on the system and then I got a breath of some real nasty stuff. Kind of made my head spin and felt like a saline injection in my blood stream (Or perhaps just like a CT scan injection). I was not amused.
So I backed off and waited to see the effects of this unintentional intoxicant and see if I would fall over dead or get sick. Well it didnt happen and I went on to ponder the chemical composition based on taste and effects of the gas. Now the closest thing I could rememeber to that particular flavor was those hidious old iodine water purification tablets. With just a hint of chlorine perhaps?

So a while later I decided to pull the hoses apart and check things out. I pulled the hoses off the reserve tank and I sniffed the hoses and they smell like hoses. Then I carefully took a whiff of the contents of the reserve tank and there it was. Chlorine, with a hint of iodine.
That's when i rememebered the guy who sold me the dredge told me the only time he had used the dredge was to pump out his hot tub.
The guy got hot tub water in the reserve tank somehow and it eventually evaporated in there I would assume.

Now if there is one thing I cannot stand to work with it's chlorine bleach. I burns my skin, gives me a headache, makes me feel sick.

So.....

Replacing hoses and reserve tank is not really an option right now, my budget is getting down to the wire. I do have an aluminum scuba tank I got salvage that I plan to eventually adapt into a reserve, but that's not now.

I guess the Cptn' Obvious answer is flush a few hundred gallons of water through the system and it should wash most of it out, but is there a better way? Vinegar? Soap? Moonshine?

What's the common method of rarifying the internals of a hookah system?

 

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[Hoser John]

Common method is to use a very dilute bleach to kill mold like industrial applications. Blow good dry air through it then add about a 1/2 cup of mouthwash and leave over night to try to leach out the stink. Redry and leave in the sun for a day to eliminate any residual stench.Makes NO sense that it smells of chlorine unless he dived the tub he pumped out but insane scenario as even then reserve not filled with water as under pressure. Someone screwed up big time putting a chemical in and not rinsing it clean. Lots of luck-John

 

[Reed Lukens]

It really depends on the reserve tank but if it's that bad and it's a stainless tank, I would pull the plugs and put in 2 cups of clean, boiled sand and then spin it to clean all of the chlorine crystals and whatever out of it first. Then rinse it out completely before using a large jar or a couple gallons of listerine on everything. Use soap on the outside of the hoses if needed but get everything clean. Pour the listerine into a tub and then put the hoses in so they fill with the listerine and then leave them to sit for a bit, like 15 minutes or so. Then pull out and rise the hoses out a few times with clean water and set them out with both ends open to dry. Then get a funnel, plug one end of the tank and pour the 2 gallons or whatever of listerine into the tank and then shake it around so that it cleans everything inside, then rinse it out with a garden hose if you have good water. If your water is bad then don't use it, just go buy a few gallons because you don't want to use nasty water in anything you will be breathing through. Most of all you definitely want to get the chlorine crystals off of the sides of the tank. You never truly know where the tank has been when you bought it used unless it's clean when you get it.

 

[winners58]

some of it could just be off-gassing from sitting, I always hold the regulator open to get any bad fumes out.
I run "sink-the-stink" enzyme treatment through 2 or 3 times during the season, it has a flavor
for a few minutes but at least I know there is no bad bacteria to make you sick.

http://www.amazon.com/Sink-The-Stink-Wetsuit-Cleaner/dp/B006VXMPD0

 

[Hoser John]

Wetsuit cleaner for a air line, expensive and not that effective ,. Used for years on suits and just a deodorizer. I'd quote ingredients but out in camp. For mold/stench/grime removal even the health dept mandates dilute bleach and a good rinse--John