{"id":10257,"date":"2010-02-03T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-03T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/preventing-fuel-algae\/"},"modified":"2010-02-03T02:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-03T07:00:00","slug":"preventing-fuel-algae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/preventing-fuel-algae\/","title":{"rendered":"Preventing Fuel Algae"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"299\" alt=\"FPB-64-fuel-system-109\" src=\"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/fpb-64-fuel-system-109.jpg\" width=\"576\" \/><\/p>\n<p>All diesel fuel carries the ingredients for a nice bloom of algae. This yucky goop can clog filters, and if it works its way into the fuel injection pump, do serious damage. Over the years we have seen lots of cruising yachts with algae problems. But so far, we have avoided this fate.<\/p>\n<p>Algae requires two important items to bloom, water and heat. The heat comes from the excess fuel which the diesel injector pump returns to the tank (it is warmed running through the engine). The moisture is a byproduct of the temperature differential between the tank surfaces and ambient air.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the system and maintenance items that have to date kept us clean:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div>Fuel magnet, as shown in the photo above: these were developed in New Zealand 25 years ago, and are used in a variety of commercial applications. They apparently kill algae. The Kiwi&#8217;s swear by them. We have no scientific evidence one way or the other, but have been using fuel magnets since 1988.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Day tank: the use of a day tank keeps warm fuel isolated from the main storage areas, reducing heat and moisture build up.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Tank vent control: a carefully plumbed breather system, with a shut off valve for use when the boat is stored helps control humidity inside the tanks.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Keeping tanks filled reduces the volume of air which contributes to moisture build up.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Fuel polishing system provides a method of cleaning fuel and an early warning that there are proems brewing.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Use a diesel fuel biocide on a regular basis.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Buy fuel from high volume commercial suppliers (where the fish boats go) whenever possible.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All diesel fuel carries the ingredients for a nice bloom of algae. This yucky goop can clog filters, and if <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/setsail.com\/preventing-fuel-algae\/\">&#8230;Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dashew-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10257"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}