Catchment Issues

[Beachboy]

While working in my yard yesterday I noticed one of the waterlines coming off the side of my house was almost brown in color instead of it's usual white color. Didn't put to much thought into it because I was busy at the time. But this morning my wife calls me outside after a brief shower. The pipe I was staring at yesterday wonding about it's discoloration made me realize why the color change! The pipe coming down off the rain gutter along side of house is was fine until the bottom where it elbows out and runs along the ground towards catchment. At the elbow is a joint and that joint is squirting up a lot of water!? I'm wondering is that "backup",happening because catchment is full. Or is it because of debris from rooftop being trapped at elbow? More importantly, what the heck should I do?

[Big_Island]

without seeing it with my own 2 eyes...
I would guess that the PVC cement at the joint has cracked and the pressure from the downspout is causing the leak....

Youll probably need to replace the joint or maybe you could just reglue it?? Most often your going to need to cut the elbow out and replace it.

I guess the first step would be to make sure your not losing your water supply. Then deal with fixing the broken elbow.

Find out what size the pipe and elbow are, and if you dont have any spares, head to the hardware store and the pick out the needed parts and also pickup some PVC Primer and PVC Cement...

If this sounds like its over your head... let me know and I'll swing by and fix it for ya

Beau S.



Edited by - Big_Island on 07/07/2007 07:40:44

[Jean H]

"If this sounds like its over your head... let me know and I'll swing by and fix it for ya "

My, My that is so sweet.
I could feel that aloha.
It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
I can't wait to get to Puna.

Jean Hopper

[Mitzi M]

Here's another catchment question: Anybody out there ever use food grade hydrogen peroxide or anything besides chlorine in catchment? I'm looking for an alternative. The pellets make the water kinda stinky and taste bad, and the sock-it one time treatment really reeks for a while! I just have a basic sediment filter for everything besides drinking water. Someone told me that the peroxide option is bound to be expensive...C'mon couldn't you just plug in a toaster and throw it in there for a while until everything stops moving? (Ok...just kidding about the toaster, but there must be a better way!)

[Les C]

The active parts of bleach are supposed to evaporate quickly, and a carbon block filter after your sediment filter (and before your UV light) is supposed to take out the chlorine taste. But I don't want to use bleach either.

Hydrogen peroxide is H2O2 (superscript 2's) which is an unstable molecule. It quickly changes to H2O (water) and O2 (oxygen), the latter being the purifying agent. I'm told that hydrogen peroxide is expensive. It can also be dangerous if not in the proper dilution (6%?). The natural food stores often carry an H2O2 solution made in locally as a health tonic. This is in the 6% dilution. It is not marketed as a chlorine substitute for catchment water. They occasionally have a 25 or 35% solution which has all kinds of warnings and disclaimers on it. I believe that H2O2 above a 6% solution can do a number on your skin. When you use the stuff meant for first aid on a deep cut, a physician told me, it will dissolve the fat cells in the fatty layer of your skin. Not a good thing and not a recommended weight loss process, BTW. So, high concentrations can be a problem.

I've been keeping my eye out for algae control options. There are pool clarifiers to clearup the algae, but these are usually not meant for drinking water. Rob at Waterworks mentioned that they occasionally have a clarifier-like product that has an EPA approved rating but I haven't had a chance to find out what it is to do research on it. Lina at Hawaii Catchment is looking into a solar powered electrode setup that is supposed to kill and/or clear up algae. Lina says that they have a service that will vacuum out the algae and debris from your tank for $150-$175, something they recommend once a year.

If you have a UV light setup after your filters, and if your filtration pore rating is small enough, you should have no problems acquiring drinkable water. And, if you really aren't sure how clean your treatment is getting your water, take a sample from the tank and from a point-of-use (kitchen sink) and have them tested. This will tell you how well your treatement is functioning. No guesswork. This was recommended at least once a year.

[Mitzi M]

Thanks Les! I'll check out the Waterworks clarifier. I do have a UV filter, but I can't use it much on the solar I've got without generator backup. A solar option would be nice...My last catchment experience was an underground concrete cistern I built in a much colder climate. I used muriatic acid just to bring down the PH to water plants. I never used it for drinking water, but the neighbors did use theirs on a filter. I cleaned the cistern out myself about once a year in the summer (Not completely awful, but definitely a little too "pet cemetery" for drinking!)Thanks for the info!
Aloha,
Mitzi

[David M]

Many chemicals are available locally at BEI - http://www.beihi.com/bei_hawaii.htm

Hydrogen Peroxide is available there as well. I haven't used it yet, but am interested.

David

Ninole Resident

[Carey]

Has anyone looked into an ozonator water purification system?
I know many aquariums & some pools are using ozone to purify their water rather than Clorine or Hydrogen Peroxide. We were looking into a solar system for our pool on the mainland, before we decided to move here, haven't check back on these systems for a few years...

[Les C]

Back in CA, we had an ozone system on our well system. Interestingly, it works with a UV light, too. The exposure of air to the UV light produces ozone molecules, O3 (superscript on the 3), which are also unstable like H2O2. The ozone is pumped into the holding tank and would settle down into O2 molecules, bubbling back into the storage tank through a diffuser in a filter. That killed bacteria in the storage tank. This method of bubbling of O2 into the water to purify, BTW, is how Mom Nature does it with aeration in a mountain stream. Except nowadays, in the Sierras, e.g., there's giardia which apparently isn't killed by the aeration.

I asked the company whose product we used in CA about ozonation in a catchment system. They didn't think it would be as effective because of the varying volume of water that many catchment tanks are likely to have. In our well system, floating limit switches kept our holding tank at a fairly constant volume. Also, supposedly, the turbidity of water in a catchment tank will reduce the effectiveness of ozonation. However, I don't quite understand how that would come into play. The UV treatment in most Island catchment systems is placed after the filters, and water passing through the UV light is fairly clear at that point. So, UV treatment is very effective. Since an ozone system works by infusing ozone into the water, I don't think turbidity would be a factor.

Edit: I realized that the ozone was created by exposing air to the UV light, not water.

Edited by - Les C on 07/09/2007 12:20:26

[emorata]

just a quick question to everyone that has UV filter after pump, what type of flow rates are you getting....is this enough for a decent shower?

tx

noel