Step 5 - IBC Rainwater Harvesting System - Connecting and Venting Tanks
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- Опубліковано 7 жов 2014
- In this video I address a common question, How does the water fill all the tanks? I also show you how I connected and vented the tanks. Enjoy:)
- Навчання та стиль
I've been slowly setting up my 6 IBC's together, doing the last steps today and glueing all my pipes together as you've shown. Thank you for the time you put into this video. I appreciate it!
I like the set up a lot. Here in California the govt has not been doing it's job on rain collection so I am going to have to do it myself at home. I am going to duplicate the system you built. I like it because you can get to all the parts if there is a problem and it's basically a simple system that WORKS! Great job!
Thanks so much! That's exactly what I was looking for. Great video as usual.
I recommend giving your PVC parks a coat of paint to prevent the sun from drying them out. They will last years longer.
Great video by the way, very clear.
The amount of detail explanation, Parts list along with great camera work make this the most informative video for a rain collection system that I have found to date.
Thank you
Agreed. This is a great how to and the explanation makes it very easy to copy. Awesome work Trenton!
Thanks this is what I have been looking for
Great job man!
Thank you man you help a lots
Nice neat job. Thank you
Trent, Thanks again for the videos. I modeled my system after yours and over the last few days we got almost 4 in of rain which was the true test of the system. The first flush worked great. As I mentioned in another post I used a lemon juice bottle I got from COSTCO. Biggest lesson learned was the venting. I checked my system during the rain and apparently the over flow was not adequate as a vent, which is why I'm watching this video again. Lack of venting caused one of the tanks to collapse a little bending both top support bars. Lucky the tank wasn't damaged and I was able to get it back in shape.
Used a vise to bend the bars back. Anyways, I have the 2 tanks I have setup so far completely full. Thanks again.
+Tom Amato happy to hear it is working out .
Thanks for the video. Question on the foundation. How is it folding up? I am thinking about doing something similar except I have a total of 6 totes and will be stacked 1 high; please advise if this foundation method of yours will hold up the weight of the water overtime
So I have been looking into this for my own place... I work for a water bottler so they do this on a massive scale. They feed into tank #1 like you have but then out the bottom of #1 then into the top of #2 and so on down the line. Our main system holds 200k gallons across 6 tanks. The other setup mostly uses gravity to get the water to the final tank before a pump readies it for bottling. Our method moves water based on FIFO. Does your system leave stagnant water at the back end near the last tank?
@trenton kaminski How long did these tanks last before the plastic started to degrade beyond an acceptable level?
Can you possibly clarify how you adapted the 6" IBC lid? I assume you drilled a 3" hole using a hole saw? How did you attach the 3" Tee to the IBC lid?
That’s a kool system, but I just fill my totes pouring over from the top, to the next one, and don’t mind using them individually, but thanks for some awesome ideas.
Hi Great videos. Where did you source your fluid gauge?
Great video. Your cinder blocks will not hold much weight maybe 200 LBs where done right they hold thousands. . Cinder block Hole should be facing upwards. One thing I learned quick is when you are buying your tanks try to get all the same tanks with the same valves. I tied all my tanks together at the bottom like you but at the end tank I ran that line up to my gutter supply line. Bypassing it to be top feed. I just got it all glued up yesterday and it has not been tested yet for rain water filling. When I turned on all 4 tank valves all the tanks started at different water levels 2 of them were 100% full, one almost full and one tank was only 1/4 way full. With all the bottom valves open the tanks took a long long time to all be nearing the same level. I figured with 2" PVC on the bottom connecting all the totes they would balance out very fast But it has been 2 to 3 hours and one is only half full where had a 1/4 tank full at the start.... As others said I'm going to get some black paint for painting plastic
Thank you so much for the detailed videos!
I have a few questions for you that I hope the answers will help clarify a project I am working on.
I have a large food forest / swale system in the back of my property that I am wanting to irrigate with water from my 2 acre pond. I have a gas powered pump that can quickly and easily pump water from the pond up to the top of the food forest (about 250 feet away).
I hope to build a "water tower" out of 2 or 3 IBC totes that I can attach hoses to for water irrigation.
1. Are most of the PVC pipes, fittings, valves found at Lowes and Home Depot, or did you go somewhere else for them?
2. In order to get a stronger pressure in the hose that I will use to water the orchard with, I was considering arranging the totes just as you have, but elevating the totes 4-5 feet off the ground. What would you suggest as a good way to raise them up? I can get a bunch of wood shipping pallets very cheap - If I leveled out a bed of gravel and stacked the pallets on top of each other (even supported with some cross bracing) do you think it could support the weight of the IBC totes when they are full? Although the budget is there, I really don't want to make this any more expensive than I have to.
3. In one of your videos you also mentioned getting a small pump to increase the pressure of the outgoing water. Could this be a better alternative than elevating the totes? What type of pump did you have in mind? With this type of pump, would I then have to use the more expensive PVC pipe that you mentioned for use with water under pressure?
4. The gas powered pump that I have to get the water from the pond has several hundred feet of "fireman's hose" that extends to the top of the property where the water tower would be placed. Would I need to install the "pantyhose filter" like you have in your system to filter the pondwater? My concern with that is the pressure of the water coming out of the fire hose is massive - like a fire hydrant type of pressure. I wonder if it would tear the pantyhose to shreds. Not filtering the water would be much more convenient - it "looks" crystal clear but I have to assume it has some debris in it.
Thanks for all the work you put into the videos!
Mark
IFixTeeth Thanks for watching Mark, I did find most but not all pvc fittings at lowes an home depot. Step 2 on my channel is over specific adapters for IBC totes, I had to order those. Other pipes that I could not find I went to Ewing, an irrigation company near me.
As far as stacking or raising your tanks, my thought would be to just stack them. I know you can go 2 hight but am not sure if you can stack 3 high. Each tote full of water weight over a ton.
Check out the pump here...ua-cam.com/video/YpKayMx-edQ/v-deo.html
It was a 5gpm rv on demand pump, runs off a battery.
I filter so much because I end up drinking the water, if it is for irrigation only I would make sure that there is nothing to large that will clog your irrigation hose or mess up your pump.
Trenton
Great video's, I'm about to start doing the same at home. I didn't have any idea on how to go about but I do now!
One question, did you have your IBC's on a gradient when you set up your block's?
Cheers again mate!
very good idea ... i from Iraq - kirkuk city
+Husein Kerkuklu 👍
Thanks for the video, very helpful. May I ask why the black plastic around the tanks? Thanks again
You need to block the sun if you don't want algae growth.
This is a sweet setup. Are these tanks perfectly level or slightly sloped to the back side?
Brian Mehalso levelish
I like your set up and detailed info. I'm confused on your venting/overflow though. Why would the water go up to the overflow (I'm guessing its about 3" higher than the vented top) when it can simple just go out the vented tops. Seems like each vented top would need a vent pipe that's higher than the overflow pipe otherwise there would be leaking out of the tops of each tote. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks
It flow threw the overflow because only a small amount of water is able to get threw the caps. Water does come out of both but (98%) of the water flow threw the overflow.
Thanks for this. Exactly what I wanted to know for my setup and the answer is what I was hoping!
Here's an idea for you, but it has it's own drawbacks. You have the overflow connected to the first tank. Instead of doing that, how about connecting it to the top of the second tank with a "t" fitting , and using a "t" fitting, connect the third tank to the second tank, and using a "t" fitting, connect the fourth tank to the third tank, and then the overflow runs out the top of the fourth tank. Connecting them in series like that also provides venting. If you connect your tanks at the bottom for filling, you share the same slightly dirty water that ends up in the first tank with all the tanks. If you fill from the top, the water is cleaner in the second tank than the first one, and cleaner in the next tank, etc. That assumes you don't bottom connect each tank together, so when using that water you have to connect to each tank separately at the bottom to use the water, and that's a minor hassle. I guess it depends on how often you use the water, and for what reason. Although, with the valve on each tank, you could still bottom connect all the tanks together for use but you would have to open and close each tank as you use them up to keep the rest of the tanks cleaner than the first one.
TheStavros1001 Thanks for the suggestions, this should like a solid ideal. It would be nice to fill from the top on all tanks.
Trenton Kaminski
You're welcome! I forgot to mention if you connect your tanks the way I suggested, and isolate the water by keeping the bottom valves closed to keep the water as clean as possible, you'll want to always use the water in the first tank first. I don't know how often it rains where you are, but I would guess that you wouldn't have 4 tanks if you weren't able to fill them from the rain.
TheStavros1001 I will note that, thank you. I'm near Houston Texas, we get our fair share of rain thats for sure.
My question is how do you get the female threaded 2" to thread onto the inc outlet?its a different treading
I'm curious is one can devise a closed vented system? recirculate the water captured somehow?
So is it just the extra water in the first tank when it rains creates additional pressure that forces water into the 2nd, 3rd and 4th tanks?
Hi where did you get the screw on attachment and the pipe adaptor to start glueing in the rest of the pipe ?
Question.- why the totes are covered with a black plastic? Thank you / great setup!
+Antonio Ruiz to prevent algae from growing.
Are the ibc totes at even height as well as the pvc?
You need an overflow kink up to water level and back down off the end of that bottom pipe out to garden drain or road
Not off the pipe from roof 😁👍
Is it safe to have so much weight, thousands of pounds next to the houses foundation?
These any bylaw where the totes have to be x-distance away from neighbour's property line?
All pvc pieces are glued together, except for the unions and adapter, correct?
I'm building almost identical set up
Venting info is at 7:20.
epharston Thank you.
how often do you need to clean the tanks themselves, also if the blocking mechanism is blocking the water from coming up in your diverter how is the clean water entering the tanks? is it direct from the gutters or from the overflow on the diverter?
Since I built my system I have cleaned the tanks one time. Only once the diverter is full does the bottle act to block the water. The bottle is in a 4 inch pipe once the water rises it will stop or get stuck at the part where the pipe reduces to 3 inches.
Thanks for clearing that up! i plan on getting one started next spring.
Great to hear, send me some pictures when you are complete it!
What about the overflow pipe? It looks like the water would leak out of the vented tops until the water drops to the level of the vented tops?
Exactly lids were both a vent and overfloe, later I did add a proper overflow.
Where did u get that black plastic.?
could these tanks potentially be connected to poly pipe and drip emitters to water trees? thanks
+Laura Carlton yes you should be able
To do that. You may need a small pump or needs to raise the tanks off the ground for good pressure.
Where is your overflow / level setter for the IBC totes? I thought it should be in this pipe that connects all the tanks together.
At this moment the overflow was threw the caps which also vented the system.
Thanks for the reply. I just did one (created a rainwater catchment system). And I just moved the overflow (via a 4 inch flexible corrugated pipe) into a swale. Which seems to be working. This was a lot of work. 2 months of no other gardening, basically. But now I have about as much water as I want and I'm planning on connecting my hose bib from the tanks to a manifold with several soaker hoses going through a new garden I just built and am starting to plant. I like something I heard about permaculture: It's not how many elements you have in your system (per se); it's about how many connections you have between elements (preferably automatic non-work-requiring connections). I watched a lot of your videos to learn / get motivated. Thank you!
How u see the level on tanks?
Thank you for your video . Imagine a certified plumber made a list out for me to buy material after a walk through no flex rod no check valve no clamps and no angle valve the worst part he charged me 3000 grand and the worst of all it will take 3 days my foot hard luck for his ars he ain't getting the job i thank you so much for your video i going to do my own thing start from 6am and finish 4pm proving him this shit ain't no rocket science shot but plain sense
Preach brother
I would like to see how you hooked this up to the top of your gutter
I need a source for those tanks. What are they called and where can I get them. Thanks!
+Robert Fernandez IBC tank, Craigslist
They are called IBC tanks. they normally don't cost that much; that's why people r using'm. We here in Dubai for example each capacity 1000L could cost about 32$, with out delivery though.
How you add pressure to the tanks?
You don't. They're not pressure tanks, only storage. You add pressure to the water line as it leaves the tank with a real water pressure tank and pressure pump (less than $300). Although these large tanks do have quite a bit of natural pressure on their own due to the volume they hold (gravity flow). Need more pressure? Raise the tank higher off the ground more, or get the pressure tank/pump and have like 30-45psi.
I’m in Alberta
This is called equalization