Cleaning a fuel tank

I got some algicide from Fleetpride and put a couple ounces in each fill up til the bottle was gone. Problem solved.

 

Old thread but here are my .02
I own a 99 international 9400 with an overhauled Detroit 60 series 12.7 L, 2 months ago had a wreck that took my passenger side fuel tank, went to the junkyard and got a replacement, I did not notice how dirty it was until I had already installed it, so dirty that I had to change the primary fuel filter
every week or the truck would become sluggish, so here is what I did

It helps a lot to have a buddy to give you a hand, so we took the tank out, use plenty of wd40 at least a week before on the tanks brackets as they are guaranteed to be rusted and seized, once the tank was out I tied a 2 inch strap around it and hung it to a tree, I then used one of my chains without the hooks and put it inside the tank, not completely as I left 3 feet outside the tank so itd be easy to pull it once finished, I poured about half a gallon of aluminum brightener and about 2 gallons of water, (use safety goggles as you are guaranteed to get some of that crap on your face) we then proceded to swirl the tank around rocking it back and forth, side to side, this is why you want it suspended off the ground with a strap as it takes the weight off and its easier to move a big tank, we did that for about 1 hr, here a couple of beers help a lot, we then poured the water out, then used the rest of the aluminun brightener and 1 gallon of water, sloshed it around and finally we rinsed all that with clean water, drained it as much as possible, we then used a sponge duct taped to a broom handle and dried it up as best as possible, let it sit overnight next to our shop heater and installed it back on the truck next morning.
The truck runs smoother now, I can see thru the diesel all the way to the bottom of the tank now, its super shiny, I recomment changing your primary filter every 2 days for a week because no matter what you still will get moisture in the tank, the way I did it is I took 2 gallons of Lucas fuel treatment and 3 filters and an empty container to put dirty diesel in, I took the old filter out, poured lucas on the new one and installed back on.
I hope this help, be safe, God bless.

 

There are bunch of additives for cleaning your tanks out hot shot Secret, power service biokleen I think, those seem to be the most popular one bottle every other tank fill up, until it is gone and yes you will need the multiple fuel filters. Because the problem with biofuel is not really a algae but the fact that when it sits and breaks down into paraffin wax which is the primary ingredient in diesel fuel so it hardens and it coagulate at the bottom of the fuel tanks. and then it gets hard and builds up as a hard resin.