Dead mice in brine tank...

[ChrisMSP]

Moved into a new rental house last year, having soft water issues. The brine tank was completely full of rock salt, and it was fully compacted about 1/2 way down, so there was no salt in the bottom 1/2 of the brine tank.

I got my way through removing the salt, and there were two dead mice at the bottom of the brine tank. There was a mousetrap on top of the water softener, and as near as I can figure the previous renters caught mice, put them in the water softener tank, and then filled the tank with rock salt.

Nice, huh?

Anything to worry about? Other than the gross-out factor... I am cleaning the brine tank and resin tank now, hoping to get everything up an running in the next day or two.

 

[MaxBlack]

My tank has a hole the tubing goes thru which of course leads directly into the brine below. If yours does as well, you will certainly want to tape it up or otherwise seal it e.g. with plumbers' putty, because mice need VERY VERY LITTLE in the way of a crack to get into anything.

Although we never drank the water there, when we lived in TX and had a rainwater collection system a squirrel managed to get into one of the water tanks and died there. It happens. When you clean the brine tank out use some chlorine also to kill any germs.