300 Gallon Totes for Rain Barrels

6 years ago

This Is my set up for my Greenhouse and Garden. The first barrel has a screen to catch leaves. It fills to the first bulkhead fitting on the right and overflows into the 4 barrels to the right. The riser tubes must be higher than the main barrel. Once they fill! the main barrel fills to the fitting on the left and down an over low to a gravel trench in the ground.

These 5 barrels feed a spigot on the side of the barn and then a water filter and finally to a Harbour Freight water booster tank.

The system works great for the GH but runs continuously to feed the garden 200’ away so I am adding a 26 gallon bladder tank to eliminate that issue.

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tompowers1
Original Author

6 years ago

I bought the totes from someone on Craigslist. If you buy some bring a PVC 2” female adapter with you to make sure it fits the bottom threads. There seems to be two different size threads on the totes. One is not a standard size.

The booster tank setup takes the water from the totes and pressurizes it. Because the booster tank is small the pump runs continuously. Adding a bladder tank will increase the volume available to hopefully eliminate the continuous cycling of the pump.

I bought a 10 X 12 HFGH and reinforced it to protect it from wind damage. I probably spend more money reinforcing it than I did buying it but that’s OK it holds up fine through 50+ wind storms.

I attached some pictures.

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Comments (8)

Vaporvac Z6-OhioRiverValley
6 years ago
This is amazing! From where did you get these things? What exactly does the water booster do? I'm also not sure what issue the bladder tank is meant to solve. I'd love to see pics of your greenhouse and entire set up. Very inspirational thus far!
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roseguy
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If I may make one suggestion about your pump set-up it would be to include a "Cycle Stop Valve" with your bladder tank. This valve is adjusted to prevent that on off cycling that you experience. It is that cycling that wears out a pump. With the valve adjusted to the desired flow it keeps back pressure on the pump preventing it from reaching the shut off pressure. Once the flow of water to your greenhouse stops then the bladder tank would finish filling and when your shut off pressure is reached your pump would turn off. When flow is resumed the bladder tank would feed that demand until such time as your cut in pressure is reached. I use one called a model CSV1A. My well guy put me onto this due to our water requirements for the hundreds of roses we grow.

I like your tank setup, very professional and well thought out.
PRO
The Logician LLC
6 years ago
I hope that stacked construction is extremely well-balanced; having that much water suspended could be a hazard.
tompowers1
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks, Roseguy. I’ll look into that. Sounds like it may help. The tank I have now is small and just runs continuously try8ng to fill the tank while I am watering.
Matt z5b - Greenhouse 10a
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
I'm still lost as to what this all does for your GH? Is this how you water everything?
tompowers1
Original Author
6 years ago
Yes, i use the rain barrels to water the plants in my GH and my garden. I am installing a larger tank this week - maybe it will be big enough for lawn sprinklers. We’ll see.
Doug Powell
4 years ago
Nice job, only anyone trying this needs to check their local codes as some jurisdictions restrict how many gallons you can collect and store.

300 Gallon Totes for Rain Barrels

tompowers1
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Comments (8)

Vaporvac Z6-OhioRiverValley

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