While it's raining hard right now..

[Beachboy]

....can I add a cup of laundry bleach to one of my 'down spouts'? I was just thinking about doing this because my rain gutters are full of water going to the catchment. I figure I could' kill two birds with one stone'!?

[Hotzcatz]

Wouldn't you have to stand out in the rain to do that, though?

[Beachboy]

I see everyone is in a comical mood! As stupid as my question sounds, I grew up on county water my entire life! So this catchment stuff is all new to me. I just want to "get it right",because I have two little ones in the house who enjoy water.

Reason I asked about putting bleach in the "down spouts", or even the "rain gutters". Like I had said previously, I had seen mosquito larvae doing their squiggly dance in my rain gutters!!! My down spouts had been blocked with fallen Albezia leaves! This caused for very slow drainage, and a perfect breeding ground for mosquitos.
I now clear my "down spouts" every other day. So the Larvae issue is pretty much gone in the gutters. But I can only imagine the catchment tank itself. It has to be loaded with both larvae,leaves,red cinder dust from road.
It's all stuff I have seen in the rain gutters before!

[Robin C]

From what I've read its 1/4 cup of bleach for each 1,000 gallons of water.

[Hotzcatz]

I've seen some downspouts that have a leaf & debris screen as part of them. The downspout has a large container about half the size of a five gallon bucket built into it with a slanted screen across the top. Leaves and debris slides down the screen and falls to the ground while water falls through the screen on into the catchment tank.

If the screen were small enough to exclude mosquito larvae that might keep them out of your tank. Might clog up quickly, though, if it was that fine of mesh, but at least there wouldn't be any skeeters in the water. Most of the ones I've seen have had quarter inch screens on them to keep leaves out. I suppose you could have two layers of screen, one coarse screen for leaves and such and then one fine screen for skeeters.

On the mainland farm, the water came from a well and there didn't seem to be a problem with bugs and leaves and things. It was too dark for bugs to live in, I think. Most of the water was also filtered through the ground before it got into the well, so the leaves didn't make it inside either. The water was just pumped to the kitchen and used, I don't remember any additives to the well, but this was small kid time so there very well could have been stuff done to the water that I wasn't aware of. I don't know if it would be worthwhile to make an underground cistern instead of an aboveground catchment tank.

[morganlady]

If the Hawaiian mosquitos were imported, they lay their eggs in standing water. When you get rid of the barrier (leaves from trees) in the gutter, you shouldn't have any wigglers from the runoff water, as it will go directly into your tank. The tanks I've seen (houses for sale) had covers over the holding tanks, looked to be a seal so no critters could enter?
The water treatments (bleach, filters and UV) are to kill off bacterial growth, not bigger things (mice, bugs, lizards).
My well water (Mich) gets no additives or filters because it comes from the 200 ft deep sealed pipe right to the faucets (could use a water softener as it leaves a crispy film on the shower wall).
To kill off the larvae, a small amount of soap will destroy the water tension layer they need, and then they'll suffocate. I don't think their bodies will leave much debris, but if the tank is covered and full, anaerobic decomposition may occur (stinky) unless the pump circulates all the water in the tank (is it just for fulfulling the use of the house's inhabitants?)
How's the weather from the tail of the Cosme "depresssion"?

[Carey]

Mainland water wells are way cooler than most catchment tacks in Hawaii, but still can have biological factors (we had Biological iron - iron slime) that may benefit from additives to the well head or trreatment (we had an ozonator, and before that a chlorinator on our private well in Illinois). The cooler your tank, the less bio activity your water will have (unless you can get the tank up to 140 degrees, this will also greatly reduce bio activity, but usually not practical here)
The best way to eliminate things in your catchment is to eliminate their entry points. There are many gutter screens & such for gutters (some gutters are even formed to eliminate leaves entering). You can even get downspouts that have grates (our last rental had a vinyl hardware cloth mesh grate over the main inlet into the underground tank) in them that to eliminate leaves & such that have made it into the downspouts. After this add a drop out filter, much like a pool clean out filter, to get smaller debris. Making sure there is no standing water in the gutters is the best way to eliminate mosquitoes from getting into the catchment tank.



Edited by - carey on 07/21/2007 18:49:25

[Beachboy]

what does it cost to have one's water tested from catchment tank/house?

[Dave M]

Hey Beach,

I think they have test kits at the hardware store or Home Depot. At least they do here. It's very similar to Pool test kits.

Blessings,
dave


"Sometimes you're the bug and sometimes you're the windshield"

[Les C]

quote:

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what does it cost to have one's water tested from catchment tank/house?

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You can go the inexpensive way, and get a DIY kit. Or, you can go to a testing service, like Bob's Catchment Testing in Kea'au, 936-3426, for a very complete test, which includes bacteria colony counts. Two samples (tank and point of use) runs around $60. I don't know if the DIY kits will tell you as much.