I mentioned briefly that we had all our water tanks set up now. When we added a 1000 liter IBC tank to our courtyard, it replaced a 120 liter rain barrel. So we moved the small rain barrel over by the guest house where another rain barrel was already sitting. Then bought a little plastic connector hose to join them together. It’s just some plastic tubing with bolt-like attachments on the end, and a big plastic nut that screws on to keep it anchored in the barrel. We bought it at the store predone for 5 bucks. I’m sure you could make one yourself of metal or plastic pieces but this was already water tight. Then we drilled a hole into each barrel near the top. Once the first barrel is full, it begins to overflow into the second barrel. When they’re both full, we close the gutter spout. Very simple and effective.

rain collection barrels

The second IBC tank went into our garden behind the barn. We have a water pump hooked up to the underground well which was running water into our Gardena system. But we have not hooked the Gardena back up yet after moving the pump so that’s another project we need to take care of. First the pump needs a house in the courtyard, then we need to run the piping and make sure the Gardena sprinklers and drippers in the raised beds and courtyard are all doing what they’re supposed to be doing. That should be getting done this weekend or early next week while Stefan is on vacation. Otherwise we may come back to some very dried out plants when we get back after a short trip to Stefan’s parents.

garden rain collection IBC tank

Unfortunately, we failed to think about why most rain barrels you buy are dark colored. Anyone know the answer off the top of their head? Here’s a hint:

rain collection IBC tank full of algae

Yep, it’s algae. Algae  needs sunlight to bloom and since the tanks are white/clear, they are full of the stuff. We were doing such an awesome job of filling water into these containers and were so proud that all the gunk was out of them that we forgot to think about what we needed to do to make sure the water stayed usable. So we need to find a way to darken the tanks and keep sunlight from the water. We were thinking of using paint that will stick well to plastic, building something to cover the containers or getting something like ivy to start growing on them fast. In the garden, the ivy may be an option since we know it’s going to be nearly impossible to kill the stuff. We also thought about using pond algae killer to treat the water but aren’t too sure of how that might affect the plants and their fruit. I know you can have fish in there with it but does that mean it’s safe for other plants and humans?