Water Tank - Size & Questions/ Comments

[Donna]

We are planning to purchase a water tank and currently investigating options. The current rebate requires it to be plumbed in to the house which we are not doing as it is solely for my garden so we won't be applying for it. Hubby will be doing it himself, so the extra expense of a plumber makes it not worthwhile anyway.

Hopefully we will be able to collect water from at least half of the roof (small two bedroom house) but it will depend on whether the pipe can be re-routed under the house without too much effort and if the fall is enough.

5000L seems to be the best fit for our yard as well as our budget, do you think this is big enough - we already have a small square tank which we can use as an overflow which will bring the total up to 6000L...

Any comments or experiences would be appreciated.

[Paula Hewitt]

I would get the biggest that would fit/you can afford - we have a 3000L tank near the veggie garden which is *always* empty - but we refill it from a 24000L tank out the back. i think anything less than 5000L isn't worth it - for veggies anyway.

[Florence]

We installed a 5100 L tank in 2007, and it's for the garden and a little for my brother's fish tanks. We've had pretty good rain during summer since then, so it's usually 50 - 100% full. I can't say for winter though because my mum left the tap on over night twice and both time at the beginning of winter and we had to cope with very little water over winter both times... but personally, I think the 5000 ltr would have been just enough over winter if usuage were managed well. Even if I have to decide again, I don't think I will go for anything bigger.. or smaller, but I would have put in first flush (due to the recent dust storm), a bucket height tap, and leave filter. (I did not put it in because our roof's higher then any surrounding trees, but thought it a good idea now since things do get blown up there and there are a lot of birds around)

[Elaine de Saxe]

Unless you are planning on drinking the water from the tank it my experience of coping with the !@#$ thing these last 2 years, a first flush is more trouble than it's worth.

And I can tell you for certain, that it will *not* filter out dust from dust storms or pollen from gum trees or any fines at all. What happens is the pinhole drain in the bottom gets clogged so the diverter stays full and all the krud goes into the tank anyway.

I have full aluminium gutter guards here to keep the gum leaves out which they do but they do not keep out fines - dust, pollen and so on.

My 5000L tank will go in this coming week and it's not going to have a first flush - the installer will take off my one from the 1000L tank since it's driving me nuts and I can do that without any help ;-). Nor is it going to have a pump since the main vege garden is down the hill from the tank so I'm thinking along the lines of the dripper setup. But the pump/no pump entirely depends on what head you have and the back yard is flat so the pump is very helpful.

I do suggest though, if you have an electric pump, that you get a flushing tap as well if practical. Even though I've been told that the pumps rarely clog up I'd rather be able to swish out as much krud as I can without running it through the pump. I've got a modified thingy near the pump now since once it's in, you can't punch a hole in a metal tank and instal something. There's a T-piece, a ball valve and some pipe to put a hose on so next time it's nearly empty hopefully I can persuade more of the krud to go out via the drain. We'll see.

The 1000L tank is better than nothing but not remotely adequate to water a vege garden by itself. Drippers would make it go further I'm sure. Where it's positioned, it fills up very quickly so even a light shower adds to the water in the tank. I've still run out of it several times in dry weather. Then I rely on the 200L drum I have into which the washing machine pumps 2nd rinse water - that's also better than nothing and good for washing down concrete paths.

[Scarlett Patrick]

we've got a 5000l which is only fed from a quarter of the roof. it ran out for about 2-3 months this year which was really bad (like Florence's mum I let the last bit run out by mistake so it might have only been dry for 2 months had I not). I don't have a first flush diverter - sometimes when it's been a while/ dust storms etc i just move the inlet pipe so it runs down the side of the tank for a few minutes , but you have to be home and you have to get wet.

sometimes the tank fills up completely in one night when there's a big storm - literally to overflowing. we just ran a drainage line (lego stuff from bunnings) into the stormwater pipe and reconcreted over the connection. no plumber (one has since checked it was OK).

i've got a pump now because the tank only has enough head for the hose when it's more than 1/3 full and even then it was a trickle. got sick of it. there's rules about how many metres from fences etc - make sure you look them up.

our pump has a clean out y tube thing in it - haven't done it yet. better check i guess.

i usually just use our tank for the vegie garden and the new fruit trees. i want another tank and a greywater system and supplementary pickle barrels before i feel like we have near enough water...25,000l would be nice i reckon....could plant all over the yard and have drip systems everywhere! it would be FANTASTIC!!!!

[Donna]

An update on this, we ended up getting a 5000L tank and already had a small 1000L square tank which will be used as overflow.

Originally was only going to use about 1/4 of the roof but not enough was getting into the tank, so poor hubby had to dig more trenches Our roof at the back is lower than the tank, so hubby has put a new drain in just before it gets below the tank height and I think we now get just over half - the plan is to eventually dig another trench for another 1/4 but it all takes time.

We did get a pump, and put an outside powerpoint on the house to run it without the need for extension cords. Hubby has rigged up a proper tap at the back of the house and also have a watering can height one on the actual tank.