Anybody got one?
I live in town and have been considering the addition of a cistern fed by roof run-off. The intention is simple water conservation and our uses non-potable, like water the lawn and garden. I’m not expecting any meaningful payback.
Just wondering of any one here has one, what kind and what to look out for. I’m thinking of putting in a 600 gallon low profile tank to avoid a deep dig.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Replies
This will be of absolutly no value but I'm bored so....
I have one at the house that I have in Iowa that was built in the 1880's or so. Its made of brick and I think it's acting as a large composte tank!
Looks like the previous owners used it to get rid of all their lawn clipings and tree branches.
Doug
Depending on the size of the roof you are going to be catching the water off of, you may be pleasantly surprised at how much water you will gain. A few big things are having a "washer" that catches/diverts the first bit of water off the roof that contains most of the nasty stuff that has been on the roof/gutters, also having an overflow so if it fills up you know where the water will go instead of hoping for the best... Last big thing is keeping it cool, because a warm moist enviroment is a recipie for mold and other nasties.
Jeff
Surprised is right. Even with our small house and thus small roof foot print, the 600 gallon cistern tank would fill up with as little as a half inch of rain. The problem is a larger tank is both more expensive and requires a substantially bigger dig.I'm thinking a 600 gallon tank, with washer and pump would come in under a grand (without the dig) and would provide enough water for our small garden and lawn needs in all but a drought.
Last house had 2 of them. After several unsuccesful attempts to drill a well a new cistern was installed to replace the old which was cracked and filling up with runoff water. The area above the old cistern was grass which I assumed filtered the water. It was suprisingly clear but unfit to drink, I used it to water the lawns etc. in the dry season.
Gord
The old farmhouse my parents owned had a cistern. It started out as a dug well, but they hit solid rock 10 feet down. Quit at 15 feet and rounded it out into a cistern. The upper part was lined with creek stone. My dad had the stone pointed. Pointer found a blind lizard living in there. After it was pointed it served as the main source of water. Was largely undrinkable because of all the leaves in the gutters, but we drank it anyway.I figured out once how many gallons it held, but I don't remember now -- over 1000 I know for sure because in dry periods we'd get water delivered in a 1000 gallon truck.
If ignorance is bliss why aren't more people
happy?
I'm going to sneek one in when I build my shop.
I say sneek cause the gov is looking at taxing it calling it their water cause it would normally go into the storm ditches.
Do you look to the government for an entitlement, or to GOD for empowerment. BDW
Hey pino,
I live in a 1927 era house about 35-40 mi. SE. of Cleveland, OH. Cistern is about 6ft. sq.and 12 ft. deep. When I moved into the place it had a cement cover and a hand pump. A neighbor told me at one time the people that lived there used it for gardening.
I never did anything with it until the wife and I planned on putting a deck over it. Then I thought it would be kinda neat to have a water feature in the middle of the deck..... Not knowing what I would find, but expecting to find a dead body at the bottom of the pit. I pumped out all the water and found nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a penny or anything.
It had a cement bottom and was water tight. I formed up the sides about 4-0ft. added some rebar and poured about 1-1/2yds of concrete.
Filled it up with water, added some fish and a little pump. Nice place to have a cocktail at the end of a hot day.
DAVE
You would probably need somewhere to direct the overflow. Don't know where you are or how much rain falls, but we briefly thought about that here and would need a several-thousand-gallon tank to make any sense at all. Without some significant storage capacity ours would overflow all winter long and then run dry very quickly in the summer. The few that I've seen here involve a major dig and then either jump forms and a lot of concrete, or a shotcrete job similar to building a pool. I watched a crew install a 27,000 gallon tank with jump forms, essentially an underground silo.
The topography of our small lot is such that any overflow piped into a low lying section will work quite well. But you're right about necessary tank size. One good rain or a few consecutive days of normal rain more than fill a 600 gallon tank.I think my next task is to try and determine just how much watering we might do over a given period, in relation to average rainfall, to see if such a small tank is worth while.
If you have the inclination, Donnie Shatzberg of Cazadero, Calif. published a nice little book "Build Your Own Ferro-Cement Water Tank".
He wasn't thinking anywhere near as small as 600 gal, but the instructions would translate. It's a thorough DIY book, photos and drawings. PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
We always had a cistern at the farm. The water was real soft, so that's what we used for hot water and the clothes washer.
As someone mentioned, you definitely need an overflow. When the weather is wet and you aren't using any water outside, the thing can fill up quickly. (Think 1993)
A 600 gallon tank doesn't sound very big to me. I'd go for bigger if possible.
Out here there are plenty of black poly water tanks, about 8' diameter and 8' tall, maybe 2500 gallons. There are above-ground and buried versions, and I'd just use one if I needed that size range.
i read in mother earth news where a guy buried a stainless steel milk tank trailer... i have some old farm books where one shows a a simple slip form for a round concrete tank... hand push the form in circles adding hand mixed concrete as you go... think you add maybe 4" each trip around simple neat concept
p
Edited 3/26/2006 11:58 pm ET by ponytl
I have a 350 gallon poly tank that catches the roof of my front porch. We have a steel roof, no tall trees near the house, and almost no pollution, so we run all the porch roof straight into the tank.
Cisterns are common here and most are white/translucent poly. If you can get the truck in, we can also have 1500 gallon precast concrete cisterns delivered to the site. Quite a few families here live with all hauled water.
I plan to build a couple more cisterns to catch the roof of my shop and house. I've already dug the holes, maybe I'll have the tanks done in a year or so. The plan is to pour a slab, build block sides, coat the inside with Aqua-cote, pour a slab on top, and bury up to the edge of the top so that the top becomes a small patio of sorts. I'm not worried about a perfect water seal for the tank and I don't know exactly what to expect, but it won't matter for my situation, don't know about yours.
Is there any way that you could incorporate an above ground, or partially above ground, tank into some sort of landscape feature? If you can do it, you could build your own tank to a custom shape, have new landscaping, and water from the cistern with gravity only (depending on the lay of your land). I currently water two trees with what I catch off the porch roof. The tank bottom is almost dead level with the higher tree's base, but of course the water still flows out.
In your climate you probably wouldn't have nearly the evaporation loss that we have here, but we've found that even a partly covered tank loses considerably less than one in full sun with no top.
If you have a tank that gets light to the water and you don't want to risk west nile virus bearing skeeters and such, get some "feeder fish" from an aquarium store and toss 'em in the tank. They'll eat every bug they can. Carefull not to let the tank temp get too high, unfortunately I killed a few innocent goldfish learning how to deal with multiple barrels and tanks.
In 2002 we were not allowed ANY outdoor water use after April 1st or so. This is year is looking almost as bad. Appreciate your water!
"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd." Voltaire
Pino , You will not be happy with only 600 gal . First it will fill too fast . Then you will be surprised how fast you will use 600 gal. If you dig a 600gal. hole you are just about done with a 1200 galon hole . I have a 1350 gal. tank that I empty onto my garden in about an hours time . Then go back and do it again.
Thanks Don and to everyone for your feedback and experiences.We are limited in the size of cistern we can install in many ways by our lot. We're in town on a triple wide lot giving us 150' x 132'. - big by in-town standards only. We don't have the room to place above ground tanks and I don't want to tear up to big an area to bury a larger tank.We looked at a 1400 gallon tank which although it will fill up (and deplete) quickly, it will allow us to better use some of the roof rainwater run off. Like I said, we're not trying to live off this water nor to save money. We just thought it would be nice to conserve a bit of water and to do the install while I've got a back hoe on site.If nothing else it will aid in watering the garden and set a good example for our young children, as I expect water conservation will become a much bigger issue by the time they reach adulthood.Thanks again for the ideas.
re; rid of all their lawn clipings and tree branches
200 mi SE of you where I grew up in cnet. IL about every house had a cistern and well prior to city water in the 20's. Mom still only pays $5 month for all the water she can use, once every 15-20 years there are some summer restrictions. That is why every cistern there and all the wells are mostly full of old coal furnace cinders.
The dry climates like AZ or southern UT and CO can sure benefit from a cistern.
Some big scale cisterns for fire fighting in the LA and Santa Barbara hills, fill with rainwater over a few years, then ready for a fire, think they are about 100,000 gal minimum. Friend in Santa Barbara bought a house in the 60's that still had a 60 ft deep 6 ft dia hand dug well, it's all filled with old palm fronds now.
Out here in PNW, neighbor (retired pro landscape arch.) has a 5000 gal cistern he refills overnight from a shallow (15 ft deep) well as he irrigates that much every day in August in a few dawn hours, so can be beneficial in even wet areas depending on all the uses. He pumps the 5000 gal dry every day in about 2 hours, takes all day and night to refill.
I live on an island with lots of water issues, ie. not enough, stinky, etc.. Cisterns are the norm here. All new homes have at least one. If you are going with a poly tank make sure it is black. Any other colour will let light in and grow algae. You should also put in some kind of filter/trap before the tank to keep out the leaves and muck. This can be a simple box of sand and pebbles with a mesh screen above it. A big black tank is quite an eyesore so it's easy to dress it up with some kind of screening, just make sure you still have access to the top in case you have to clean it or work on the plumbing. Good luck!