Is a water cistern part of you water system? When should a cistern be part of your water system? It all depends on your water source, usually a well, and how much water you need at any given time. Having a large supply of good water can come in handy for watering a garden, or for emergency fire protection. Cisterns to store rainwater are also growing in popularity. Here are a few tips from our experience with our 3000 gallon above ground poly cistern.
color
Black is often preferred in above ground applications because without light, photosynthesis cant occur. Green stuff like algae can not get a foot hold. When we were building our home, winter was fast approaching. The only tank readily available was clear/white. We went with this and have been fortunate to not have any green problems with water from our clean 370 foot well.
Location
Where you locate the cistern may be determined by where the water for it comes from, a well or rain catch. Try to minimize the amount of buried pipe in your system helps keep cost lower. It is very important to have a flat and level surface for the tank to maximize the storage capacity. If its tilted a little, you may not get the last 50 gallons in it.
Insulation is helpful
The amount and necessity of insulation around the tank will be determined by your local climate. Here in north central Washington, we found that stacking a ton of straw around the tank is helpful. Remember, however, these poly tanks are not designed to be fully buried.
Our Poly Cistern
Otherwise, when emptied they might cave in. In the winter the tank can get an ice cap on the surface of the water that varies from winter to winter. It can vary from one to two feet thick floating on the top. The main rule in the winter is: Never let the ice hit the tank bottom! We always keep water in there. What a frightening thought to have the bottom of the tank freeze up in the winter!
Inspect
Inspect your water and tank at least twice a year to monitor sediment buildup on the sides and floor. With our clear tank this is easy do do in the sunlight. With a dark tank, I suspect that shining a nice spotlight into id din the darkness yields the best results. Watch for any hints of green, as that may be a sign that its time for a chlorine shock treatment or cleaning.
Cleaning and Shock
Eventually, every tank will need cleaning. If you collect rainwater, I suspect this would be more frequently. In our case it was about 5 or 7 years. (Probably a little over due). Its really interesting going inside a big plastic tank, and kind of loud. I used a wet/dry vac to clean sediment off the floor, and a scrub brush for the sides.
If you ever have any green growing in your tank, its good to treat the water in the tank. A little chlorine (bleach) into a large tank of water can help prevent or kill any of the green stuff. We’ve done this a few times as a precaution. It was something less than a half cup of bleach to the 3000 gallons. The water tasted fine, but that tank full had the slight hint of that chlorinated odor.
What is your experience with a cistern water tank? How much water do you store, and where is that supply helpful? Tell us all about it below in the comments!
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Where we live the ground water in the upper aquifier is bad. Most likely it comes from the ssurface water layer that is part of the local river. To get clean sweet water cost $30,000 to $40,000 for drilling. Consequently many homes must rely on cisterns even inside the village. A friend recently installed a 2,500 gallon tank above the ground but built an insulated ( R.40) shed around it. The local volunteer fire department will deliver a full tanker truck of clean potable water for $50 because as part of the fire station construction a deep 400 foot well was drilled. This well has sufficient flow to readily fill the tanker truck and the sale of water raises funds for the volunteer department. The local community hall also has a good deep well. Many locals go there to fill up 5 gallon jugs for their water coolers and only use the bad ground water from their own wells for washing and toilets.
Thanks Arlid, I didn’t even mention this use of cisterns. You can have a cistern filled not only from your well, or rainwater, but from external sources.
In fact, this option should be highlighted more that you can develop your remote property without a well, as long as you can purchase a decent amount at a time and have it delivered.
I have wireless customers (on grid) who share a 40,000 gal tank for their nice homes. One has a pool, I believe.
Hi,
Out here in the Midlands of Tasmania, Aus,
we usually have a concrete tank and is roof filled, they come in 2 sizes, 10,000 gal, and 20,000 gal.Poly types are just starting to make inroads into the sales, but some years ago there were some fibre glass units being sold but after loose glass bits were found they seemed to lose their appeal and were not bought much afterwards…
Here the main drinking water tank is filled by the shearing shed roof and a gentle rain of about 3 hours duration puts nearly 2000 gallons into it…We gather water
so quickly here from rain that we use rain water for the toilet system rather than one of the massive dam supplies, that supplies the stock and gardens…Being an old man I have seen wars over access to oil, though it is not admitted, but my children may see in their life time wars over food and Water, I hope not though…
Bye,
David Ponsonby…
concrete tanks would work well, but they are heavy to transport. My poly tank is 8 feet in diameter and 8 feet tall. I was able to transport it here on my pickup.
One drawback I did experience. We had a wind storm before my tank was installed/filled and it blew over and rolled about 600′ away and down a hill! fortunately, it was not damaged.
concrete tanks are suitable for building on site. Even if the structure is built piecemeal the ‘seams’ can be water proofed.
Several of my boating friends built their hulls from concrete. The process is known as ‘ferrocement’ I once lived in an area where a factory existed that built huge cement containers. The partial round forms made from plywood gave an indication of just how huge these structures could be.
The advantage of cement being you can carry it to the jobsite one bag at a time eve if no true roads exist. ATV can go almost anywhere.
Hello Again All,
I should have added that out here in the dry drought areas of Tasmanian Midlands, the
concrete water tank sales made inroads against the common galvanised metal tanks due to the slightly acidic under ground water in some areas and they were very safe against ground level grass fires where owners were too complacent or lazy to remove
fire hazzards, so that was a strong selling point…The Author “Elnav” has caused me to
remember a chappy who built a so called ferocement boat up in the true highlands of Tasmania, he worked for the Hydro folk, well
of a weekend he slowly built his boat, BUT it was completely spoilt by he and his helpers drinking heavilly during the process
of concerete rendering, cigarette buts, empty
packets, even empty beer cans were just dropped and rendered over, when it was launched it just kept sinking, so it was quickly hauled out again, and donated to a kid’s play ground to play with and in north of Hobart…In grass free areas I think myself that “Poly” type tanks are the best,
though water from a concrete tank to me does taste sweeter due to the lime I guess…
Bye,
David Ponsonby…