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.

The information I used came from Osram Sylvania's product catalog, linked below. The PAR-type lamps start on page 39. Lumen output is often printed on the boxes the bulbs come in. However, lumen output isn't the figure you need to calculate how much light makes it to your countertop from a reflector bulb pointed directly at it. For that you'll need to know candlepower, which you can find amongst other photometric data in the catalog. Also, lamps/bulbs are described with a series of coded numbers, often stamped somewhere on the bulb itself, that give you a fair bit of useful information. For example, 50PAR20/CAP/SPL/WFL40 means 50 watt Parabolic (or Pressed glass) Aluminized Reflector, 20 eighths of an inch (2 1/2") in diameter, CAPsylite (a Sylvania brand), SPL (another Sylvania brand, referring to an "optical system" which I don't know anything about, Wide Flood, 40-degree beam angle. Here is a link that might be useful: Osram Sylvania Lamp & Ballast Catalog

A switch cuts the black line only. In the junction box find the incoming power (black) and hook up the white, painted black, of the cable going to the switch. At the switch hook up the white which you will also paint black on this end, to the black of the switch. Now hook up the black in the cable to the other black of the switch. Hook up all grounds. You just made a switch loop. At the junction box take the black from the switch and hook to the black going to the light. Hook the white from the light to the white of the incoming power cable. You are done.

Arch13, I'm glad to hear it! That would be terrifying! Exactly Jake! There's dangers everywhere! And yuck for well water that has so many unknowns, can't wait to get it tested next week. Glad you get my point about chemicals being everywhere. now...do we just soak ourselves in chemicals on purpose because it's unavoidable (gotta die from something, right?)? Or do we limit the exposure to what we DO have control over? Logically (at least I'd hope so) we would naturally try to limit the risks that we can. It's pretty easy to filter the water. Is there really a risk, who knows. We know there's definitely leaching - that's been shown through various studies including those through NSF. We know there's been issues with other plastics in the past in finding hormone disruptors and other chemicals. So it's a reasonable conclusion that there could be a risk that we don't fully understand. You are free to ignore that risk, or believe that there is no risk at all. We all have to decide what risks are important to us as individuals. Neither of us are wrong, we just perceive the risk differently. You guys are referring to acute toxicity, which would be ridiculous with PEX. Small doses of chemical exposure is more likely to be a chronic and slow progressing problem that is very unlikely to ever get pinned on one thing like PEX. That's because there's probably not one culprit. It's likely a combination of our awful American lifestyle that includes processed foods, overeating, pollution, lack of exercise, and chemical exposure in every single thing we do and eat. And when you add it all up over time, you see a rise in autoimmune disease, inflammatory conditions, cancer, autism, depression, bipolar. What do we do about it? We do what we can. Can I eliminate all of it? Absolutely not. But maybe I can eliminate 20-30% of it, and that gives me peace of mind. Filtering the water, using cloth diapers on the kids, eating organic, that's what I can do. Does my peanut butter still come in a plastic jar, ugh unfortunately yes. Do I take the risk to drive my car as you pointed out, sure I do. Those aren't easy risks to eliminate. When you assess risk, you have to look at risk vs the benefit you get from continuing that risk, but also what risks are easy to eliminate and which are difficult. Then you make the changes that you can, and the changes that you feel have meaning. If you focus on trying to eliminate all risks, you'll drown in your fears. Filtering the water isn't a difficult one to attempt to eliminate. I am also a teacher and I feel myself getting into a lesson on risk analysis...lol..so I'm really done with this conversation. It was meant to be a genuine inquiry to get some advice about filtering. This debate is bogging down the other feeds of people trying to get help with their houses and unless anyone has some constructive advice on a type of filter, I'd ask you to just let it go. Patricia, Deborahhines, Decoenthusiaste, Jim Mat, and BeverlyFLADeziner...thank you for your help!