Rainwater Tanks
We got 275-gallon rainwater tanks today!
These tanks are re-purposed food containers…they had soda flavoring in them (they smell like pepsi). This, I’m told by people who know, is not a problem.
The 50 gallon barrel we’ve been using is not enough to water the entire backyard garden. We will still use the smaller barrels; they will go behind the chicken coop/shed to collect the water coming off that. Here is what those tanks look like now and this is where one of the new tanks will go to catch water coming out of the gutters on one side of the house. I’m not sure yet if we will daisychain them or put the other tank on the other corner of the house.
There are only a couple downsides to these recycled tanks that I’m aware of: since they are translucent the water can get hot and this will encourage algae growth. We’ll keep them in a shady spot and control algae as necessary. The second problem isn’t really a problem it just requires some pre-work before we use them…275 gallons of water is heavy. So we have to build up the ground they will sit, especially since they will be close to the foundation of our house we don’t really want them sinking.
The good definitely outweighs the bad: they are recycled, they hold LOTS of water and in Cincinnati we expect drought conditions all summer so that is good for the garden, they prevent water from just seeping back into the sewage system, they will prevent a certain amount of erosion in our yard, and they weren’t very expensive (much less than commercial barrels). The guy we bought these from had already fitted them with a spigot for a hose; there is a hole on top that is the size of a downspout.
In addition to reducing waste water, plants grow much better when watered with rainwater instead of chlorinated city water so collecting rainwater is pretty critical to a healthy garden not to mention healthier soil over time.
These containers are so useful! I’ve seen farmers use them for all kinds of purposes, including water for their cattle. How will you keep them covered, so as to keep out leaves, etc., before you use all the water?
I can imagine these being used to store water for lots of reasons…since ours had soda flavor in them we could maybe drink the first rainwater collection like pepsi
Luckily they are totally closed with just a hole on top for the gutter drain to fit in so leaves won’t be a problem…we’ll just put a screen over the hole so mosquitoes can’t get in.
You can spraypaint it black, just the exterior of the rainwater tank, so you wouldn’t have to worry about algae. I spraypainted mine a few months after I got them because even if they were in a shady spot, lots of algae still grew inside them, my hose eventually clogged up because of it.