Water Tanks

[grsjax]

I am looking at getting a new catchment tank, 10k gal or larger. I would like some input on what type of tank material works best and what I can expect in terms of cost for the various options, steel, plastic or concrete.

No matter how thin you slice it, its still balony.

[lquade]

i would go with the ferro cement (pacific gunite). you only have to buy it once. more expensive initially but then it is there, no replacement liners, tanks etc. one time and you are done. i saw a metal tank collaspe once against a house and it wasnt pretty. the steel seems to be getting cheaper and cheaper,rusting out faster and faster, must be coming from china like everything else. there are tanks in my neighborhood that are 10 years plus old and look much better than metal tanks that are 2 years old.. just an observation.....

[Radiopeg]

Do the ferro-cement ones come covered? I'm thinking I will want real coverage to keep "things" out of my tank. I've seen the nicely contained plastic ones, but who knows what leaches into your water that way.

[ericlp]

Hmmm, I've heard of ferro tanks cracking in an earthquake.

Nothing lasts forever. Tho, if I were to do it (again) I'd use green 3K gallon resin tanks. Yeah they are a bit more expensive. But, you don't need to assemble them, you don't need to do much prep work to set them up.

Get a 3 of them and you should be good to go and as for leaching I don't drink the catchment water so... I don't think much is going to leach ... It would be interesting to compare the prices of all 3 types even the red woods tanks.

[Kapohocat]

Pete Epperson suggested we paint our old block catchment tank with K-11 to stop any leaching. It already existed when we bought the house so we are just keeping it.

Robert backplastered it to stop the leaks and momentarily it should be good to go.

[lquade]

yes, you can get a cement cover for the cement tanks. as far as cracking in an earthquake, our tank survived the big one in 82? cant remember if that is the right year, but it was the first time i saw glass liquidfy in a quake. our big sliding glass doors bubbled out several inches and instead of breaking, just went back in the wall. couldnt believe what i was seeing, but my dad and engineer just laughed at my stunned face. our house on p&p survived nicely, as did our water tank. at the new house we are currently building, also went with pacific gunite, maybe peter will respond to the thread...

[Peter Epperson]

I started making ferrocement tanks here in 1986 after Hawaii Neolithic closed their shop http://pacificgunite.com/ . They built ferrocement tanks in the old Iron Works building in Hilo and delivered them on a flatbed truck. I was impressed that you could drop a heavy tank on the ground and drive away. Tough tanks. I got into this because it was a product that I could believe in.

Earthquakes are not an issue with ferrocement tanks http://pacificgunite.com/earthquake.htm .You can read a couple of stories at that link. Unfortunately some of my competitors have continued to propagate this lie that our tanks crack in earthquakes. Our tanks are built like a soup can. Totally independent of any earth shaking, they dance around when the earth moves. Last year a guy was moving one of our 6000 gallon tanks, the largest size that we deliver, he was having a bad day and he moved his truck before he had secured the tank. His quarter million dollar boom truck rolled over and my 23,000 lb. tank came tumbling down. It fell 5 feet from his truck bed onto rock and gravel. The truck was close to a total wreck. I feared the worst for the tank as well but upon inspection all I found was a couple of cosmetic chips to the cover and base. The tank was fine! I developed an even greater respect for this material. I'll have to post photos of that on my website. I can't imagine an earthquake that could produce those types of stresses.

And for those who say they don't drink their catchment water, think again. We built a tank for a retired chemist some years back. He lived on county water. He had received a water quality report from the county and told me "I'm not gonna drink that crap". We built him a tank that he could monitor and maintain for himself. There is nothing wrong with catchment water as long as you care for it. Filter and UV treatment. It's all you need. Even if you don't drink the water you need to protect yourself from leptospirosis which can enter your skin or mucous membranes. http://pacificgunite.com/Water%20Quality.htm Another advantage to concrete is that it leaches calcium and other materials into the water. The water is then ph balanced. You will not receive this benefit in any other tank.

Inform yourself. It's hard to imagine something more important than your water.

[ericlp]

Good Info Peter. But I don't know, I don't think county water is that bad compared to the mainland. Matter of fact I've heard a lot of good things about it. I dunno, I'm no Chemist and altho I filter my water. Anyone else here think the county has crappy water? What about private wells like in Hawaiian Beaches? So how much does a 6K gallon tank cost? Delivered to say Fern acres.

[Kapohocat]

I want to say a big MAHALO to Pete Epperson. We are refurbishing an very old existing tank, crisis moment as our other water supply had to come to an end! Did I mention family and friends already here for the wedding?

He took my call, answered questions, on a tank he did not put in!

Note: Once we factored in expenses to bring tank back to life, and put filters on it so we can drink it, we figure in 50 months we will have paid the same as getting water from the KKWA for the same priod, and not put in a $5500 meter that runs from a substandard main. Seems way more sustainable to me now that we have lept over the edge on it and let go of the KKWA water. Was a scary thought though. We can then use the $5500 to pay for a portion of upgrading our waste water system.

[birdmove]

I was amazed how good the catchment water tastes at our place in HPP. We have a metal tank with liner.Filters and a UV light.I've lived places on the mainland where the water tasted so bad it was impossible to drink.

jon

Jon in Puyallup, Wa.