Water barrels and algae?

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Jay

Jay

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I live in E. Tennessee and have just set up a couple of 55 gallon water barrels for rain system. They are outside and only get partial day sunlight in the area due to shade. How concerned should I be about the possibility of algae. I have a berkey that was shipped yesterday that I will be running the water through.
 
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I think that the rate that the algae grows will depend on the color of your barrels, the amount of sun light they receive. I have always had a slight problem with algae in my barrels, it will clog filters.
 
Is this for drinking water? Keeping it out of the sun totally would help prevent against algae. So would a small amount of bleach.
Bacteria eats algae but you don't want the bacteria getting out of control, thus the bleach which will kill both.
The flow rate into the barrel will dictate the amount of bleach.
 
Jay said:
It's for drinking, and the barrels are blue, food grade. They are in a place where I could cover them with a tarp.
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They make a spray paint made for plastic. I'd get black. It will outlast the tarps.
 
zoomzoom said:
Is this for drinking water? Keeping it out of the sun totally would help prevent against algae. So would a small amount of bleach.
Bacteria eats algae but you don't want the bacteria getting out of control, thus the bleach which will kill both.
The flow rate into the barrel will dictate the amount of bleach.
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What would be the ratio of bleach to water for water that is to be consumed?
 
for long term storage it is 12 drops of bleach for a gallon. To clean it for use you only need 6 to 8 drops of bleach to a gallon. That is about 4 teaspoons in 50 gallons of water.
 
zoomzoom said:
Another thing to consider is your roof and gutters. You may want to spray them with something like "Spray & Forget" roof cleaner to kill any algae, mold and mildew.
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What is in this roof cleaner? Doesn't sound like something I'd want in my drinking water.

@Jay be aware the chlorine's natural state is gaseous. It will evaporate out of water. In fact I run chlorinated city water into 5 gallon buckets on my porch and let them sit for a couple days before using it for plants or baby chicks. (I want the chlorine out of the water. I've seen chlorinated city water burn plants several different times and don't trust it with any kind of infant critter.)

So, occasionally you may have to add chlorine to your barrels if they sit, open to the air, for long periods.

https://aquanswers.com/how-long-does-it-take-for-chlorine-to-evaporate-from-tap-water-entirely/
 
We used to put 1/4 cup of bleach in our 5,000 gallon tank every year. I hated the taste until it finally evaporated. You're talking about 100 gallons. At one gallon per person per day, It won't have a lot of time to grow anything. When your barrel gets low scrub it out and be ready for the next rain. We clean our cisterns every five or ten years and bleach them after.
 
Jay said:
I have a metal fairly new roof. I'm very careful as to what I add to anything. I know from past experience that city water will kill off aquarium fish unless set out for some time. Also can't use well water off of farms for aquariums as the chemicals used on the land and crops eventually seep into the ground water. Can't think of the name of the stuff they used.
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Metal roofs are the best. I've seen them collect, albeit a small amount of, water with a heavy dew. Asphalt shingles will collect rain until it fills up and then start shedding. I've seen light rains that never collect water from an asphalt shingle roof. The same on a wood roof, when dry they will soak your rain up and collect water into the grooves before it starts shedding water.
 
I use the black Norwesco tanks from Tractor Supply. They are rated for potable water, and are, in my opinion, excellent. I have not seen any algae in my tanks and they sit in direct sunlight. From another poster's comment. I am a big fan of metal roofs for many reasons. I would choose the Galvalume Or Kynar coating if using for drinking water, and also test regularly for metals.

This is just me, but I won't touch water from a shingle roof, I only use that for mixing concrete, mopping floors etc. My one regret with my place is that I used shingles for the main roof. All construction since then uses metal.

I can't back it up , but my intuition would be that if I were to paint a water tank, I would use white paint, perhaps that will not heat the water up so much (unless you want that). But I hate painting so I just leave them alone:D

https://www.norwesco.com/products/above-ground-tankshttps://www.extremematerials-arkema.com/en/product-families/kynar-pvdf-family/regulatory-status-2/
 
thankful_k said:
I use the black Norwesco tanks from Tractor Supply. They are rated for potable water, and are, in my opinion, excellent. I have not seen any algae in my tanks and they sit in direct sunlight. From another poster's comment. I am a big fan of metal roofs for many reasons. I would choose the Galvalume Or Kynar coating if using for drinking water, and also test regularly for metals.

This is just me, but I won't touch water from a shingle roof, I only use that for mixing concrete, mopping floors etc. My one regret with my place is that I used shingles for the main roof. All construction since then uses metal.

I can't back it up , but my intuition would be that if I were to paint a water tank, I would use white paint, perhaps that will not heat the water up so much (unless you want that). But I hate painting so I just leave them alone:D

https://www.norwesco.com/products/above-ground-tankshttps://www.extremematerials-arkema.com/en/product-families/kynar-pvdf-family/regulatory-status-2/
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Your black tanks do not allow sunlight to pass through so painting them white, in a hot climate, might help reduce the interior temperature. Ultimately, as long as the paint is thick enough to block the sun, color is immaterial. I'm in a cold climate so black does two things, block the sun and warm the water. Black plastic tanks block the sun. White plastic tanks allow some passage of light. Some blue tanks may also allow a little passage of light.
 
phideaux said:
When farmers use Roundup or equivalent on their crops, within a few hundred yards of a body of water, the runoff totally kills everything in the pond . Fish and weeds.

Ask me how I know this.😉

Jim
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Oh, it wouldn't surprise me if 75% of the surface freshwater is contaminated. It's sad. We can't keep doing what we're doing. But ... we probably will.
 
I have the same problem with my black stock tank. I have to drain and clean it weekly. It takes about 30 minutes so it's not that much trouble.
I wish I had bought a smaller tank,110 gallons is more than the calves need and I have an automatic waterer so it's always full.
I'm going to try a shade cloth over the tank and see if that helps. Right now it sits in the direct sun and it's hot outside.
 
Caribou said:
Metal roofs are the best. I've seen them collect, albeit a small amount of, water with a heavy dew. Asphalt shingles will collect rain until it fills up and then start shedding. I've seen light rains that never collect water from an asphalt shingle roof. The same on a wood roof, when dry they will soak your rain up and collect water into the grooves before it starts shedding water.
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Another thing about asphalt shingles, most nowadays are made with fiberglass and when the shingles break down from the sun, particles of fiberglass become loose and can get into the water barrels, it's probably a good idea to have some sort of pre-filter before the water gets into the barrel. We have an all metal roof, my concern is that birds frequently walk in the rain gutters looking for flies and seeds, of course the birds are going to poop along their walk, so filters are a must, carbon types that get all the bad microbes.
 
viking said:
Another thing about asphalt shingles, most nowadays are made with fiberglass and when the shingles break down from the sun, particles of fiberglass become loose and can get into the water barrels, it's probably a good idea to have some sort of pre-filter before the water gets into the barrel. We have an all metal roof, my concern is that birds frequently walk in the rain gutters looking for flies and seeds, of course the birds are going to poop along their walk, so filters are a must, carbon types that get all the bad microbes.
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I was worried about the same thing, so I used a first-flush diverter with an entry screen on it.

First Flush Diverter

Leaf Eater
 


This guy has a system that removes most of the trash from the gutters, before the tank.
 
Cool, I just put in a screen in the gutter, it slopes down to flush with the bottom of the gutter. When the rain comes the light stuff floats up the screen and the heavy stuff stays in the bottom of the gutter just before the screen. If I have a lot of leaves it will push them up till the over flow the gutter (then I have to clean it).
At the bottom of my down spout I have a 3" diameter set of pipe about 5' long it has about 2' of dead space at the bottom with a threaded clean out cap. with a 1/16 drain hole so the water does not sit, I pull the water to my barrels from a 2" line that goes to a downward bend and tee's off on a 1" line that goes to my barrels (The top of the rain barrels are actually about 6" below the 1" line), the 2" line makes a u and goes back to under the down spout where there is a threaded clean out (caps in black). At about 6" from the top of my 3" diameter collector there is a 2" overflow pipe that goes down to just below the 3" clean-out. The whole thing is held about an inch above an in ground drain pipe that is used as an overflow collector and is the primary collector in the winter months.
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