BasilB I have a situation where I need a holding tank sort of too so I am anxious to see the replies to your post. We have sold our current home where I have a pond with about 12 goldfish that are between 4 to 7 inches long. I have had all these fish for about 7 years now and feel very responsible for them. I am concerned for their well being as The new owners have indicated they "don't know what they will do with the pond...how hard is it to fill in...etc" So at this point I must get the fish moved with me somehow. problem is I am having to completely move myself and daughters (close move-only about 10 miles down the road)as my husband is deployed. I am not able time wise(or skill wise..haha) to build a new pond right now at my new home. Any ideas out there for a container/way, etc to keep my fish safe,alive for about a month until my husband is home for a few weeks? I have about 3 weeks to make a plan but I am stumped because of the number of fish and their size. Thanks all momof3

Joel, epoxy is inert and more stable timewise than concrete or even cross linked polyethelene. Keep in mind that you want to use a Marine grade epoxy like West Systems. If you do not want to use epoxy, if you clean and prep the tank really well, wash it down with muratic acid, you can then coat the tank with a bonding agent, and trowel on a parge coat of acrylic and fiber reinforced topping cement. Mix it up thick and stiff. You need to trowel it, not pour it. To get a smooth surface, keep trowelling and polishing the coat until it is rock hard. That 120 gallons that Canadians use is just suburban use, and does not include farm irrigation water. The trick is to use the 80 or 120 gallon figure as an estimate to determine cistern size. Four homes sharing a 600 gallon tank, even though it is refilled during the day, is small if there are more than two people in each home. You may want to consider irrigating at night, or adopting less consumptive irrigation methods like drip.

To test the precharge, the tank must be empty. Then read the pressure with a tester. They are supposed to be set close to the setting of the pressure switch. Look online at Amtrol to see how to do it. The less your well pump cycles, the longer it should last. My first pump supplied two homes via one large well-trol and lasted 30 years. The tank is 33 years old. So, maybe you should keep both tanks.

Fixing the running toilet fixed the usage problem and the softener appears to be functioning perfect, which I guess begs the question, is it OK to leave the check valve in? It does not appear to be restricting flow in any way (valve shows maximum SFR to date of 13.9 gpm) and I don't think it is creating any back pressure. Wouldn't the check valve actually prevent any back pressure from reaching the valve and resin tank and in turn protect the resin tank and valve? Say for instance that the expansion tank was malfunctioning for whatever reason, and the water heater kicked on and created a brief expansion that drove the psi up to say 150 psi and that back pressure pulse was pushed back to the check valve since the expansion tank didn't work correctly. Wouldn't the check valve slam shut and prevent this back pressure from reaching the resin tank and valve? If the normal line pressure on either side of the check valve is the ambient 60-70 psi of the system under normal conditions and a back pressure pulse of 150 psi comes from the water heater side of the installation, isn't that precisely the set of conditions that would cause the check valve to close and keep the pulse on the water heater side of the system? I realize that with check valve in place and the theoretical malfunctioning of the expansion tank, the pressure pulse will seek some method of escaping which could cause damage somewhere in the house like a faucet or toilet, but at least it will not have blown the resin tank or destroyed the control valve, correct? I hope this rationalization makes sense, but I'm not sure that I have done a very good job of positing my questions or explaining the scenarios. Oh well. Take a swing at it if anyone feels like it. I am interested to hear some opinions on this one. I'm thinking more potential bad will come from disassembling a functioning, dripless install than from keeping the check valve in place. Thanks. Drew