Tanks Again

As a follow up to the post titled “Tanks For The Memories“, here is a story about installing my new rainwater tank.

Sunday was a nice day to install a rainwater tank.  The irony of it all was that all day Saturday it rained which in hindsight was good because the garden got a good soaking, and I had all of those cherries to process!

I had to duck town to the hardware store to buy a few joints for the plumbing, and got stuck into the job at about 10 am.  The builder put down the hardstand earlier on in the week, so it was nice and dry so that I could move the tank into place.

Firstly I drilled a hole in the bottom most thread with a 24mm spade bit so that I could screw the tap on later.

Then I had to figure out the most efficient way to plumb in the first flush diverter that already existed.  I found that the diverter had to be moved 7cm to the left of the tanks (what a pain), so I got stuck into it with a little bit of help from Ben.  Two crappy masonry bits later the first flush diverter was fixed in place.  After many expletives, I managed to fit the input pipe so that the water drained into the inlet at the top of the tank.  Kim thinks it looks like a hamster run and is a work of art.  Being an Aussie, I don’t really know what a hamster run looks like (they are a prohibited import), so I will just have to take her word for it!

Then I started on the outlet.  It was easy enough, with two 45 degree angles, so that it reached the drain pipe, and so that the tap was unobstructed.  The tap was easy enough to fit, and with a bit of Teflon (plumbers tape) it was in place and connected back up to the irrigation system.

Here is the tank in all of its glory!  It took me about 4 hours in total probably because I was meticulous enough to use the least amount of PVC pipe.  All off-cuts were placed in the recycling bin.

The old tank is still standing in the carport waiting to be cut into garden beds.  And as for the vacant space, there are signs of movement there as well.  We now have a new back door, thanks to our builder.  I am just not that handing with major building work, nor have the patience.  I am more of an outdoor type construction bloke!

Anyway, all I now need is some rain and then I will have 4900 litres of rain water stored on the property.  It gives me that extra feeling of security now that we have a supply of our own and that we can water our veggie patches and fruit trees even in the hottest weather or drought.