Water Tanks

[grsjax]

Getting back to the original topic I have a question. Is it possible to line a galvanized tank with gunite to produce a permanent liner? Plastic liners always seem to leak and need to be replaced. I would think a concrete liner would do a better job and be permanent.

Also what would it cost to put a cover on a steel tank?

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

[OpenD]

Some random potshots...

First, why WOULDN'T one use catchment water for drinking? At least you know where rainwater has been! And today, with the latest .5 micron ceramic filters (conventional small pore filters are 5 microns) providing a way to sterilize drinking water for only a couple hundred dollars total investment, and $50/year maintenance cost, the threshold is very low to harvesting your own drinking water from the sky.

Second, y'all should get the CTAHR handbook on rainwater catchment. Hard copies are free to residents at the County Extension office in Hilo, and the electronic version is available online free. It is THE go-to reference on the subject.

THIRD (and now I'll stop counting), ferro-cement water tanks are the best, strongest, easiest to maintain, most earthquake resistant tanks you can have. They do self-buffer, so you don't have to throw in a box of baking soda every month to counter the acidity of the rain like you do with steel and wood tanks. The most ingenious ferro-cement water tank for rainwater catchment I have seen yet is the 20' Monolithic dome (oblate spheroid shape, half dome) at the home of David B South in Italy, Texas. It's self covered, earthquake and tornado proof, vermin proof, etc. Wish I could find someone locally to build me one like that.

It is true that drinking only rainwater can leach down the minerals in your body, the same way drinking distilled water does, because it is inherently very pure. That can be easily corrected with inexpensive mineral supplements, by eating mineral rich foods like lots of leafy greens, and/or by switching to sea salt for cooking and table use. Purified table salt is 99.9% sodium chloride (salt), whereas sea salt is about 88% salt and 12% other nutrients and is mineral rich. It is the original mineral supplement.

And finally, to return to #1, unfortunately you have no guarantee that county water is safe by the time it gets to you. I LIKE being able to manage my own water safety, because I'm more invested in it being right than anyone else is.

Okole maluna! [:o)]

[Peter Epperson]

I know that the calcium leaches from concrete tanks and buffers the water but I have also suspected that the exposed, underlying aggregate would leach other minerals into the water as well. I don’t have any way to test this. Any chemists out there?

I’ve been pondering a solution for people with plastic liner tanks who want to get minerals into their water. I wonder if you could set up a barrel filled with clean washed gravel next to a plastic liner tank and have the water pass through there on it’s way to the pump. It would have exposure to the same minerals that groundwater or well water has, just not for as long a time. If it worked it would be an easy solution. I don’t know what it cost to test for trace minerals in water. That might be a good experiment for CTAHR to try.

[OpenD]

quote:

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Originally posted by Peter Epperson I wonder if you could set up a barrel filled with clean washed gravel next to a plastic liner tank and have the water pass through there on it’s way to the pump. .... That might be a good experiment for CTAHR to try.

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Selecting the correct gravel mix might be tricky...

I do use an additive on my vegetable garden beds that supplies all kinds of trace elements, like boron and kryptonite, just to give myself a head start.

[grsjax]

Marble chips might work well. You would want to be very careful about using any garden products. There can be traces of stuff in there that you do not want in your drinking water.

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

[OpenD]

quote:

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Originally posted by grsjax

You would want to be very careful about using any garden products. There can be traces of stuff in there that you do not want in your drinking water.

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No, agreed, and that was not what I was suggesting. I meant that by using trace element supplements in my garden, I am boosting the mineral content of the food I grow.

As far as direct nutritional supplementation, health food stores all carry broad spectrum mineral supplements that do the trick. The tricky part is just getting people to understand they need them on catchment systems.