Got a day off and a wild hair to start storing rain water. Picked up a 275 gallon tote, and with my measurements of around 700sqft of roof feeding this, it should be full in about a 1/2 inch of rain. Also put down a paver surface to help with weight. This thing when full will weigh some where north of 2300lbs.



It's located behind my 3rd car garage, out of view from the street, the neighbors can see it so I will either put plants in front of it or attach cedar fencing to it. S
Still have to connect it to down spout and over flow, put up edging, and mulch around it. Should be done tomorrow in time for the rain on Thursday and Friday

Well done, I like it!

Where do you get those?

I found them on craigslist for less then $100. You can buy them new for about $220. Just make sure they are Grade 1 or Grade 2, the Grade 3 had harmful chemicals in them. Get you a good jigsaw blade, these things are about 3/8inch thick.

I will be installing 4 more of these around the house, I will have 2 plumbed into each other so that when one fill up it will then start filling the next. This setup ran about $150, but that very much dependent on the price of the water tote.

That'll work!

Looks good but wouldn't do me any good. It doesn't rain here anymore

Same here.

I have a rig like that hooked up to our washing machine.

Good idea. I have two small rain barrels right now, wish I had room for something like this.

I had that thought but the location of my washing machine is not very accommodating and would require running a pipe through the garage. I am however going to re route my A/C drip line into this tank. I've been told they can drip as much as 20 gallons a day.

Cover it from the sun or algae will grow. Only needs sunlight and water.

Done for now.

Another problem is mosquitos getting in there. Looks up rain barrels, if I remember right there is a fabric or screen to stop them. I watched a video it seems like that addressed this. Looks great by the way.

As far as Mosquitos there is caulk around every opening, I did my best to prevent that from happening. I will be adding cedar planks to cover the tote so it looks nicer and keeps the sun off.

This is my first step to planting my garden. It's my side yard that we are going to move the fence forward 45 feet and do a raised planter garden next year. An automatic drip system will be added at some point, along with additional rain barrels.

I have no idea how much rain we got here, but at 330pm it was full

You need about 10 more!! Like your set up

I past on a 3k gallon water tank 2-3 weeks ago, kick myself in the butt now. was only $500, plus he had a 1k tank as well for $300.

The problem with tanks of that size is the weight when full. A 1k gallon would be about 8400 lbs, that would require a concrete slab or be buried, which is a thought!

As you can tell I didn't have time to fix my overflow, so it's just pouring out right now. Still pretty neat to be collecting water and helping the environment

Hippie

For us less-edumacated folk, how do you utilize the water? I've seen totes connected to water troughs with float valves, but what about for watering gardens/yards or drinking? Is it as simple as hooking up an electric pump to the tote, then to a hose and flipping a switch? Would love to see someone's water utilization rig, not just the collection part.

Its a neat idea but that amount of water just doesn't add up........rather it just go on the lawn if that's all I can save up.

There is a 2 inch ball valve on the bottom with a PVC reducer to gravity feed for now. I'm working on the automatic drip irrigation that's going to be entirely solar powered. This will water my raised planter garden that will be installed at some point later this year, in preparations for next year. For now, I will use that water for my flower beds and the new roses that I'm starting from stems. I will update this as time goes on and money allows.



I guess we see things differently, I'd rather save the water since it's much better for plants then the city water. Also, with 3 more of these added, there will be a total of 1000 gallons on hand for my watering needs. With us being in severe water restrictions, 1 time every 2 weeks, I'm doing my part to help.

I think it's a great idea. Personally I would rather have a 1k tank and have one footprint, but they aren't cheap in that size. The tanks I passed up on, I should have bought

The amount of water is only limited to your catch/storage ability so...

I'm putting a catch system in so I can hook that water to a pressure washer and have the availability to wash my own d**n trucks in my own d**n driveway again.

I had a neighbor who had two of those. It didn't seem like it took much rain to fill them up.

I'd plumb them together at the bottom rather than the top. They will fill up and empty evenly (water always seeks its' own level) and you will only need one outlet in one tank to use the water in both. Looks good so far! Nice job.