Our summers here in Frankfurt have been extremely dry the last couple of years. When it rains, it may drizzle for a couple days but we generally go several weeks with no rain at all. As a matter of fact, it’s raining now but unfortunately we don’t have all our new tanks set up yet to start receiving water from our gutters already. But at least we have them cleaned out.
We just bought 3 1000 liter IBC containers on ebay for 185 euros including delivery. There is no cheaper way to store that much water here in Germany. One of the containers will sit here at the back of our courtyard. Another is going to go into our garden and the third will find its way to our new property, now referred to as “The Orchard.” It’s just a small little piece of land we aquired with fruit trees on it…but I’ll get to those juicy details later.
The containers were used for things like shampoo and what we think was hair gel so we had to do a lot of flushing to get the rest of that junk out.
Thankfully we were able to hook our pump up to the underground well and don’t have to pay for all that water! Each tank took almost an hour to flush completely. Not a thrilling job. Since the containers are about a meter high, we had to stand on a cinderblock so we could see what was going on inside. But we got the job done.
Now we just need to get them placed. The courtyard one is ready to be filled…we just need to modify our downspout a bit. We’re still planning logistics to get the container into the garden. The barn door in the back is a bit too small to fit the thing through as 1 piece (and too heavy) but they come apart so we may be able to work it out without lifting the pieces over the wall. And then there’s the task of getting the last one out to the garden…might have to elicit the help out of our neighbor with a trailer…because that thing is never going to fit in my Defender!
Do you collect your rain water for the dry months? What system works best for you?
Oooh, color me jealous of your beautiful Rain Water tanks! I am working on creating homemade ones here (My father is a supreme ‘odd-thing finder’ and he’s currently looking for some cleaner 55 gallon barrels/drums for us. Please continue this thread, let us know how you keep bugs from infiltrating the system and how you will hook it up to the gutters!
I don’t have any succcess stories, but I do have an un-success story:
When I lived in the desert I collected and stored the run-off from the roof in plastic buckets. Unfortunately these became prime breeding-grounds for mosquitos! Someone advised me to pour a thin layer of oil on top of the water, as this would prevent the skeeters from laying eggs there. So I topped the buckets off with vegetable oil. The oil reacted with something in the water (residues from the tar on the roof??) to produce this incredibly sticky, nasty, grey gunk. It was the stickiest substance I’ve ever seen. Everything it touched was ruined and had to be thrown away, as it was impossible to remove.
So, um, don’t do that. 🙂
I know it’s not nice but I had to laugh. We’ve all been in a situation like that at some point. Kinda like having your own personal oil spill in a bucket. Nice.
Never heard that putting something like oil in there could prevent the skeeters from laying. We were thinking about a little bleach in the water to prevent algae from popping up but I have no idea if that would make an impact on the bugs. We clearly have some research to do on that subject lol
Wow,this system beautiful and environmental.
A fan from China.
Very useful hints on using IBCs, supressing algae, etc. Any tips on IBC connectors/valves?
I don’t know about connectors but we were able to get a valve for 5-10 euros on ebay. It attaches into the spout at the bottom of the tank and makes it into a smaller stream that you can attach a Gardena garden hose to. Usually they have a large port on the bottom with a big handle to open and close the spout, though. The spout this guy had made was just something he’d assembled from common pieces I think. I’ll take a few photos of it if you like and post them.
Yes, please post a photo. I found what I think you describe on eBay uk, but the sellers don’t post to France!