I took my electric fuel pump and put a filter on it to filter the fuel coming out of the tank as I pumped it into gas cans. When this is all done I have a commercial grade pump and filter that I will pump it back into the tank with just so that I can give it one more filtration just to be sure. Kind of an over kill but that pic doesn't do the crap in the tank justice.

Once I get this all taken care of I will go back to trying your bypass regulator trick.