MarkO

Our water supply is via a private spring, which apparently can get low in the middle of summer (particularly as it's shared with 2 other houses and a farm). So we want to harness the decent level of rainwater in Scotland to use for watering our fruit & veg....

We've already got a couple of water butts in our garden, attached to our workshop. These collect a good amount of water whenever it rains, but we want to add more collection/storage, and also we want to add a couple of butts to collect the water from our newly-constructed greenhouse.

Homebase do a 210L one for £25 (with a stand for another £15 :eek. I'm sure it must be possible to buy 'em cheaper than that. We can get the big soap barrels from our local cashmere mills (our neighbour's already given us one) but they look pretty awful, being bright blue, so would only be good if I can box them in.

Ideally I'd really like to get a massive water storage tank (like this 700L job I found on the web). £215 seems fairly expensive though.

Anyone know where's the cheapest place to buy water butts from? Any cheaper large rainwater tanks available on the 'net anywhere?

Originally posted in the DIY forum, but it's not technically DIY and besides, nobody in there's bothered replying, so lets see if the 'wider world' can help'.

the moose

700 litres won't get you very far, will it? I'd have thought something double the size of that (at least) might be a better bet. Stick it up on the hill and you're sorted (especially if disguised inside the old chicken house.

No specifics on sourcing, but I'd have thought an agricultural supplier would be able to help.

MarkO

Yeah, you're right. A 700L tank for £215 is a lot, when it's possible to buy a 210L butt for £25 from Homebase. But there may be larger/cheaper tanks available (that's where you SN lot come in ).

Could put the water tank on the hill behind the chicken shed, but it wouldn't fill too quick; it needs to be near/below the roof of the workshop (on the LHS in this picture) so that the surface of the workshop roof will act as a large flat 'capture' area for the rain...

the moose

Hmm.

You could always us the flat area as the capture point and run it down to a buried tank, but that means (a) electrics and a pump are needed (b) burying it'll be a major job.

It all depends on how much additional water storage you think you'll need, and to what purpose? If you seriously need to water plants etc for a significant period (perhaps several weeks) then think in terms of thousands rather than hundreds of litres. That means expense and complexity.

Me? I'd see how you get on this summer with four or five (ugly blue) water butts and plan for next year accordingly.

David Lock

Most pond magazines advertise largish tanks for temporary fish storage so might be worth browsing through them or go Google on "Fish Storage Tanks" or something (delivery is a bit of a bugger though for obvious reasons). Or if you have some space dig a hole and just line it with some off cut pond liner (fish places always have offcuts for sale). Note the darker you keep the water the less green and gungy it will get. What about the run off from your house roof which you don't mention? DL

PS. Just remembered that I built a DIY 500 gallon tank as follows. Use 4 sheep pen galvanised rails - not sure how to call them but they interlock and you end up with a pen about 8 foot square and 3 ft deep. Buy some 8 x 4 x 18mm ply or similar and use these inside the rails. Then use pond liner offcut to throw inside and voila you have a decent long term water storage tank which you can dismantle as you wish. Most expensive bit was liner offcut but I was in a hurry and didn't shop around (had to move 120 fish quickly). Do fix the liner as it goes over the top of the pen or else the wind will catch it and you will lose 500 gallons of water pdq

bluto22b

A friend of mine owns and runs a large farming consortium in Wiltshire. He "collects" rainwater via the roofing on the tractor sheds and grain storage hangars into no less than twelve 2000 gallon portable silos. In periods of "drought" he moves these onto the land for hydration using a 20 gallon/hour diesel pump. The water from these silos is sprayed onto the crops in a steady flow.

CrisPDuk

Why not bury the ugly drums?

gareth123

Then you can't (easily) use gravity to get the stockpiled petrol, sorry water, out.

MarkO

Thanks for all the replies, guys. As has been mentioned, it has to be gravity-fed, and whilst a 2,000-gallon storage area would be good it'll be a tad OTT.

The water would only really need to last for a few days (if that) because I can't see we'll get several weeks without rain in Scotland even if we have another summer like last year! And also, if the storage does run out it's not the end of the world - we can always collect water from the burn across the road, or even resort to using water from the spring-fed tap. The idea of using rainwater is mainly to be a bit more enviro-friendly.

We've found the solution though - B&Q do 210L water butts for a fairly reasonable £23, which is about £8 cheaper than even Homebase's 130L ones. So we'll just grab 3-4 of them and see how we do this summer.

ajm

I just bought one of those B&Q 210 litre ones to do water changes on my fish tank. They seem reasonably well made, but check the tap is tightly fastened to the butt before filling it up!