have you built a cistern?

[NormL]

I have a 3300 gallon concrete cistern that we get a tandem potable water truck to deliver to once a month. We use it for all household uses including drinking. We have awesome water this way. Very clean and tasty.

If you get treated water like we do it will be filtered and chlorinated. I think by the time we get the water home - we truck our own - the vapourization of the chlorine has begun and by the time we use it that taste has disappeared completely and the water is good tasting as you say.

 

[kevinwak]

Yeah. We taste the chlorine when we drink from a normal tap, but we normally drink from the fridge dispenser which has a carbon filter in it.

 

[MillWeld]

Lots of good suggestions.

However, I can't use a diverter valve or pre-tank because my cistern is underground as are all the gutter drains. I would have to put them on all the gutters downspouts - too many for that.

I have also thought about the cistern floating out of the ground too, but soon waylaid that concern. The only time that would happen is when it is near empty which would be during sustained low rainfall and thus no threat of floating it out of the ground. It takes only 0.4" of rain to fill it so I think it would fill long before it would be in danger of floatation. Is that reasonable?

The smell has gone away and we are using the water regularly but the problem of sediment persists. The filter in the cistern doesn't stop all the sediment so the "whole house" filter catches a lot. I will have to change it more often than I like. For my system I think the best solution to the sediment problem is to extend the inlet to the bottom to stir up the sediment so some of it will wash out during a rain but I doubt I will ever enter the tank to do this job. I will live with it unless the expense of filters is prohibitive.

Bob

 

[whistlepig]

Cisterns have to be cleaned also if you use gutter water to fill them as we did. Over a period of time the bottom of the cistern will collect dead birds and leaves that washed down the gutters.

 

[MillWeld]

We have a perforated screen over the gutters so bird poop, yes, but no birds or whole leaves in the tank - just fine sediment.

How do you clean it - a trash pump to suck up the gunk off the bottom?
Bob

 

[whistlepig]

We have a perforated screen over the gutters so bird poop, yes, but no birds or whole leaves in the tank - just fine sediment.

How do you clean it - a trash pump to suck up the gunk off the bottom?
Bob

This was many a year ago when we had the a cistern. I climbed down a ladder with a scoop shovel and filled up a five gallon bucket that my father pulled up with a rope. Not one of my favorite yearly chores.

 

[NormL]

Lots of good suggestions.


I have also thought about the cistern floating out of the ground too, but soon waylaid that concern. The only time that would happen is when it is near empty which would be during sustained low rainfall and thus no threat of floating it out of the ground. It takes only 0.4" of rain to fill it so I think it would fill long before it would be in danger of floatation. Is that reasonable?

Yes, I think that is reasonable. Since you rely on rainfall to fill it, the cistern will always be full enough when your water table is high. When we have a wet year I tell folks that we have our water table where we can see it - standing in every low spot in the yard - brewing mosquitoes. We don't collect rainwater for our domestic use since we can haul it in for cheap.:thumbsup: 700 gallons costs me $5.78 and that's treated and filtered so cleaning our cisterns is not required all that often.

 

[smiley]

Lots of good suggestions.

However, I can't use a diverter valve or pre-tank because my cistern is underground as are all the gutter drains. I would have to put them on all the gutters downspouts - too many for that.
Bob

Check this out. https://www.aquabarrel.com/index.php Possibly you could use the ball float type on your underground inlet pipe mounted in a slightly larger cleanable tank?
The Y type is what I mentioned earlier except it was fitted with a spring loaded lever and bucket to automatically reset.

 

[sandman2234]

Lots of good suggestions.

However, I can't use a diverter valve or pre-tank because my cistern is underground as are all the gutter drains. I would have to put them on all the gutters downspouts - too many for that.

I have also thought about the cistern floating out of the ground too, but soon waylaid that concern. The only time that would happen is when it is near empty which would be during sustained low rainfall and thus no threat of floating it out of the ground. It takes only 0.4" of rain to fill it so I think it would fill long before it would be in danger of floatation. Is that reasonable?

The smell has gone away and we are using the water regularly but the problem of sediment persists. The filter in the cistern doesn't stop all the sediment so the "whole house" filter catches a lot. I will have to change it more often than I like. For my system I think the best solution to the sediment problem is to extend the inlet to the bottom to stir up the sediment so some of it will wash out during a rain but I doubt I will ever enter the tank to do this job. I will live with it unless the expense of filters is prohibitive.

Bob

I know zip about Cisterns, but it would seem to me... that sediment problems requiring a whole house system filter could be eased, or slowed if you added another tank, and pumped your water from the collection tank into a sealed off tank that only received water from your cistern via the pump. Make it big enough to allow a slowdown of the water long enough for the sediment to settle to the bottom, and maybe pull the water from a different level, say higher up. Add a bottom drain so sediments could be pumped out in a single gush, and you just saved a bunch on money on filters. (Don't pool filters work like that??)
David from jax

 

[SandburRanch]

I know zip about Cisterns, but it would seem to me... that sediment problems requiring a whole house system filter could be eased, or slowed if you added another tank, and pumped your water from the collection tank into a sealed off tank that only received water from your cistern via the pump. Make it big enough to allow a slowdown of the water long enough for the sediment to settle to the bottom, and maybe pull the water from a different level, say higher up. Add a bottom drain so sediments could be pumped out in a single gush, and you just saved a bunch on money on filters. (Don't pool filters work like that??)
David from jax

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That's exactly how the sediment tank of my water well works at SandburRanch. Well water pumped in near the bottom, anything with a specific gravity greater than water drops out with clean water exiting near the top of the sediment tank. And you bet it saves a bunch on filters.

And that reminds me; I haven't drained any water and sand from it in nearly a year. Better do that today I suppose.