Water, water everywhere... until there's not...

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Joined
Jan 17, 2018
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807
Location
Deer Lodge, Tennessee
Wanted to run this past the group.

What might be some good CHEAP ways to capture rain water and store it while there is plenty of it (like now, the spring), so that we have it for garden and high tunnel irrigation when we have those weeks on end of hot summer and no rain?

I just collected a few hundred gallons of rain water in some large to mid sized totes (not really intended for that) and they're sitting in the greenhouse as that's where my little plant babies are getting their start. But that only gets me some to play with for a while. I need the greenhouse space a bit later on for plants. Our neighbors probably would have thought we were nuts for collecting that much. But... summer comes, and heaven shuts off the spigot, happens every year. And then, it gets dry. Very dry.

I looked at those large water tanks sitting in the lot of the local Tractor Supply, and loved them, at least until I saw the price. OUCH! I like the idea of a rain barrel but I'd need quite a lot of them, plus, when the quantities of those get to be large enough, it seems kinda cumbersome. I'm thinking I'd like to be able to store several thousand gallons of water.

One reason I say "cheap" is because I do have a fallback. I have a pond. It's not the cleanest water and would take a decent filter setup to make it usable for drip irrigation without plugging up the drippers. And I don't like taking too much water out of it because it's only input is rainwater, no spring. There are fish in there, too, so I definitely don't want to drain it dry.

I've seen the big round dome-topped ones at Tractor Supply. I've seen the cube shaped ones on a pallet around 250 or 275 gallons. I've seen 55 gallon drums. I've also wondered about a cheap swimming pool that I would always keep covered, actually, it would be a really small swimming pool, but not one of those little kiddie ones. Some of those can be had for not a whole lot of money.

And then there is always the idea of a cistern. We don't live in a place where that's practical, at least under the house. Mostly, it's a few inches of soil over rock with not a lot of houses having basements, usually crawl spaces being the norm. I like the idea. Just doesn't fit well on the property.

I do kinda like the idea of having a decent amount of water storage that's not dependent upon city water. Most everybody out here is on city water because wells are iffy. (One might be great, a quarter mile down the road, it might be terrible, etc.) So that's kind of a crap-shoot plus drilling one is quite expensive, often into 5 figures, and if it's nasty, it's a few more grand to try to make it decent to use.

So I kinda have this whole thing swirling around in my head and figured maybe I'd toss it out there to see if any of you might have a thought or idea that might inspire a direction to go on this project. In the past, I've carried a lot of water and done a lot of hand watering. The gardens are getting too big for that and the Mrs. n me are getting a little farther up in years that we don't wanna work quite that hard. Need to work smarter, not harder. So we're working on setting up drip irrigation, which we could very easily just hook up to a garden hose. (The water bill would hurt, but we could do it. I don't wanna do that.) I'm thinkin' this isn't rocket science. But I don't wanna start something, get 3/4 of the way into it and decide it was a mistake.

Anyway, glad for any thoughts you'd care to share!

Thanks!
 
Just like buying a car, you can choose between new and used.

New means buying a new water tank made for that purpose.

Being made to store rain water, it will be set up to get water in and out in the way farmers want it. The skin will be light impermeable (opaque) so that the water doesn't grow algae. That means it won't block up your sprinklers and won't transfer toxins/biomaterial to the water - that would make it a potable backup too. The cost goes up as the size goes up........but the cost per gallon generally also comes down. So, try to buy the biggest tanks you can afford. The same applies to dams and ponds. Expensive....but buy once cry once.

Used means containers used for some other purpose before you owned them. That includes drums, totes/IBCs and other types. The only safe way to do this is to buy food grade containers that have only ever stored food ingredients. If you buy anything else, then you have no way to know what will end up in your water and then your plants. Don't ever drink water from any container that isn't known food grade............

We have rain water tanks on most of our buildings. The biggest are these two 12,000 gallon tanks feeding from our biggest building.

Water Tanks.jpg


Note that all our tanks are setup with easy access outlets fitted with 1.5 inch camlock fittings for fire fighting. It takes seconds to connect a fire fighting pump, open the gate valve, start the pump and get to it.

To feed your tanks with the cleanest water you can, setup some sort of first rain diversion. We use Y pipes and those vertical droppers at the building corners. They capture most of the silt/dust and keep that out of the tanks.
 
The tanks from TSC really last and are easy to handle. Mine is nearly 40 years old and in excellent shape. I can manage to get it on and off the truck. May take a little longer now as I’m slower, but doable. Covered or stored, light doesn’t get in and cause any trouble. A very handy item to have.
 
The tanks from TSC really last and are easy to handle.

Our neighbors have some that they use for other things, I believe related to spraying crops, not sure. They appear to be in good shape but I know they're not new, either. Certainly haven't ruled out tanks like that. Just kinda exploring options at this point, the good, the bad, the ugly. Thanks!
 
As time goes on water storage tanks are only going to increase in cost. We got our 1,100 gallon black poly tanks at a Co-op in Grants Pass, the same tanks at Tractor Supply were over $100 more than the Co-op price per tank. I've got one tank that's about 10' above the garden which works great for watering the vegetables and filling the chicken waterers and the other 1,100 gallon tank is going to sit along side of our hand cast concrete 1,100 gallon cistern at the top of our property. If you feel ambitious you could always build a cistern, the hardest part of building ours was carrying the sand and gravel up hill to a storage bin I made for holding the sand and gravel, in those days I was still young and strong and also carried 94 pound sacks of cement up to the site on my shoulder. I made the bottom first and used 6" PVC pipe cut in quarter width lengths glued in laps and put around the edge of the bottom to seal with the sides of the cistern and then cast a top with a man hole access, the cap for the access is about 300 lbs. Anyway, I'd say, don't wait too long before getting extra water storage, no matter what you end up doing, I wouldn't be surprised to see poly tanks doubling in price, if they are even going to be available, hemp growers are buying up a lot of different things we use for prepping and we may end up unable to get certain things unless we do it now. Actually I'd like to make another concrete cistern, however at 78+ years, I can't see that I would be able to carry all the materials up hill to do that, pulling the 1,100 gallon poly tank up hill is going to be tough enough to do.
 
Just poking around a bit this morning and happened to be near a Tractor Supply. Saw a 1550 gal black tank for around $1100, I think, though I think the website says $1400. Definitely not cheap. Those black ones are nearly twice the price of the whiteish looking ones but I kinda understand that those whitish ones are way more likely to see algae and those kinds of things happening, which ain't good. And the black ones specifically say they are approved for potable water, something I don't see on the white ones. But I also wondered whether the sun would end up heating those black tanks such that the water would get too hot for irrigation purposes. (?)

It was just one little excursion out this morning, and not really shopping for water tanks, just something I happened to see.
 
Just poking around a bit this morning and happened to be near a Tractor Supply. Saw a 1550 gal black tank for around $1100, I think, though I think the website says $1400. Definitely not cheap. Those black ones are nearly twice the price of the whiteish looking ones but I kinda understand that those whitish ones are way more likely to see algae and those kinds of things happening, which ain't good. And the black ones specifically say they are approved for potable water, something I don't see on the white ones. But I also wondered whether the sun would end up heating those black tanks such that the water would get too hot for irrigation purposes. (?)

It was just one little excursion out this morning, and not really shopping for water tanks, just something I happened to see.

The best way for potable water tanks to be colored, is light color on the outside (to keep the water cool) and then food-safe black colored on the inside (to keep the water in the dark).
 
light color on the outside (to keep the water cool) and then food-safe black colored on the inside

I feel stupid having to ask, but how is that accomplished? I haven't seen it advertised, though I haven't looked as extensively as maybe I should have. I've seen the black ones and I've seen the whitish ones that would let light in, and seen those in food-grade. Have seen YouTubes that show people taking those 275 (or so) gallon cube shaped tanks, generally whitish, that they paint to block out light. Have also seen people take those kinds of tanks and put them inside of a building where it would be dark.
 
I have 2 spring boxes where the lids are exposed to the sun. The first was acquired from Engineer775 source and was made of a composite and is dark green. The second was a poor man's copy made from food grade plastic buckets.

The former doesn't have algae while the later does. I plan to use a steel plate to cover the one with algae.

Both being buried and feed by springs, the water is very cold year round.

I wonder if concern over the water temp for drip irrigation in hot weather is a risk factor. The water applied to the soil will evaporate and evaporation is a cooling process.

Ben
 
I feel stupid having to ask, but how is that accomplished? I haven't seen it advertised, though I haven't looked as extensively as maybe I should have. I've seen the black ones and I've seen the whitish ones that would let light in, and seen those in food-grade. Have seen YouTubes that show people taking those 275 (or so) gallon cube shaped tanks, generally whitish, that they paint to block out light. Have also seen people take those kinds of tanks and put them inside of a building where it would be dark.

There are non toxic epoxy paints used for various underwater applications (like fish ponds).

https://www.pondarmor.com/shop/pond-shield-epoxy-black-1-5-gallon-kit/
They come in black, but are not cheap.
 

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