Thread: Water Storage ?

Originally Posted by Blitzkrieg

Our new homesite land has an aquifer spring.. it just gushes out of the hillside

that is effin badass

Originally Posted by Barefoot343

wow is it really that much? 1/2 g per drum? I thought it was less for some reason. Guess I better get more bleach in my closet.

I only use a few tablespoons per barrel of clean, filtered water. But you had better check on it regularly. My experience is that with sterile barrels it will store for years

When you open it for use, leave the bungs off for two days with an air space at the top of the barrel and most of the chlorine will leave.. do this outside your living quarters if possible because chlorine gas is deadly

Originally Posted by gunslinger1911

that is effin badass

It has enough "head" as they call it for hydro, too. We are thrilled to have such a place and it has all the timber we will ever need for heating fuel, too

Originally Posted by Blitzkrieg

It has enough "head" as they call it for hydro, too. We are thrilled to have such a place and it has all the timber we will ever need for heating fuel, too

I am jelous. Sounds like a nice property. You have enough room to shoot?

Originally Posted by Barefoot343

huh, interesting. That type of is safe for drinking? I guess it would be, I remember my folks using it for the pool all the time.

Thanks for the link, thats good info to know and have on hand.

You let it sit for at least an hour before drinking. The chlorine breaks down and off gasses fairly rapidly.

Originally Posted by Barefoot343

wow is it really that much? 1/2 g per drum? I thought it was less for some reason. Guess I better get more bleach in my closet.

Yea you're right. That's what I get for posting while tired. That formula is for sanitizing collected water, not for storing treated water. If you use commercially prepared water in a sanitized container, you actually don't need to add anything. Just change it out every 6 months.

That Pool Shock is the coolest stuff on earth for water sanitation because its so simple. Just be sure to get the calcium hypochlorite, and not sodium hypochlorite.

Originally Posted by Barefoot343

I am jelous. Sounds like a nice property. You have enough room to shoot?

50,000 + acres of private timber co land behind us. They allow legal recreational activites, so yes. Salmon streams and plenty of trails and timber roads to dirt bike on too

The excellent people at beprepared.com sell several sizes of water barrels and have an inexpensive shipping policy. The folks at Cheaper than Dirt sell a $30 filter setup that you install in 2 five gallon buckets. It will filter a ton of water down to .3 microns.

Bi Mart is selling 7 Gallon Food Grade Containers for 12 bucks. It is a little easier to move around the 55 gallons...

While i Haven't used it for large amounts of water. Super silver a colloidal silver solution, added to canteens and camel back keep bacteria from growing and has kept my water tasting fresh for a year.

theflyguy,
INteresting idea - but of the times I have seen something like an earthquake damage - homes in California and such usually move off the foundation or collapse - SO your water storage will probably be destroyed.

If you do it - I would do something to reinforce the region.

By the way have you done anything to earthquake proof your house to prevet problems/>

Matter of fact I've been reinforcing the structure (drilling new/add'l holes) to bolt the foundation down, I've a also been installing add'l brackets to individual post under the house.

Last year I built a deck that according to an engineer...."I could park a semi on". I told the wife I really didn't want to be crawing around under the house....I've spent enough time down there. The wife now wants me to install the RV tanks under the deck, insulating each and using rain gutter heating cable just to ensure they don't freeze.

Originally Posted by MHarne

Bi Mart is selling 7 Gallon Food Grade Containers for 12 bucks. It is a little easier to move around the 55 gallons...

The idea with the drums is you drill a small hole in the bung center and then install a spigot in the already threaded bungs, and fill smaller containers from it. When we get our new home built I'm making a rack for the (9) 60 gallon water barrels I have, and will just keep them full as an emergency supply.. I am going to gang them together so they can be flushed out and refilled from our well with just a turn of the supply spigot and a garden hose on the output end

Originally Posted by Blitzkrieg

It has enough "head" as they call it for hydro, too. We are thrilled to have such a place and it has all the timber we will ever need for heating fuel, too

what part of WA are you in blitz?

Originally Posted by HollisOR

Old bleach bottles work. Don't rinse them out. Also to get rid of the "bleach" taste a little Hydrogen peroxide will work.

Everyone in their home has a big water bottle, the hot water heater. One thing needs to be is to turn your supply line off, to prevent contamination for entering the hot water heater. Hot tubs are useful too, but would probably require some filtration and other work.

yeah, you can use the bleach bottles and hot tub water...just make sure you use it for cleaning/flushing toilets etc. (not to trivialize their value as "cleaning" water will be 50% of your water use)

For water that you plan to drink or cook with; you need to have a well calculated and measurable amount of chlorine so as not to get sick or chronically ill.

You can use bleach; but liquid bleach begins to lose potency around the 6 month mark and by a year or so is almost worthless as a water purification method; it slowly degrades into salt and water. If you are anything like me; "rotating stock" is a huge pain in the arse that I prefer to avoid whenever possible.

SO what do I do? I store dry/ganular calcium hypochlorite sold under the monaker "pool shock". make sure you get the "plain jane" calcium hypochlorite without the added fungicides and water clarifyers which are marketed for pool owners. Don't let the spa store workers talk you into liquid pool shock either; cuz then you run into the exact same problem as liquid bleach. If you just buy plain calcium hypochlorite crystals, then in less than a miniscule fraction of the shelf space as bleach you can sanitize tens of thousands of gallons of water and the best part is that pool-shock never expires and is pretty cheap. I went to a pool/spa store; bought a 5 lb bottle of dried pool-shock for $19.95 that never expires and can safely and reliably sanitize 50,000+ gallons of water. It takes up about as much shelf space as 2 litre pop bottle. Now THAT's peace of mind (plus I live on well water, so this is just a backup).

In fact it's so cheap, easy and reliable that I plan on buying several more just to be able to barter with or give away as charity to friends and neighbors.

here's a useful link:Better than Bleach: Use Calcium Hypochlorite to Disinfect Water