Moving to the Farm

[Tororider]

Gem,
Do you have a picture of your cement block stand? I was going to do that as well but on dirt so I am wondering if I put a solid block down first and then a couple courses of cement blocks. Thoughts?

 

[Gem99ultra]

The totes come with a metal wire frame and an attached plastic pallet, so stability won't be a problem. They should do just fine on dirt, cement, or whatever. The reason I added the blocks was because I needed the height to allow a bucket to slide under the gate valves that came already on the totes, and hopefully to give me some gravity feed once I have found a hose bib.

I used 9 blocks per tote to be sure to not have a disaster considering each tote filled will run about 3,000 pounds.

 

[Tororider]

The tank I have is not a tote, although I may get some of those too. I also want to get them up off the ground to make them easier to use for filling things. Our tank looks like this.

 

[farmer2009]

The tank I have is not a tote, although I may get some of those too. I also want to get them up off the ground to make them easier to use for filling things. Our tank looks like this.

Your tank is called a leg tank. You need bands for the tank or it won't hold it's shape if loaded for very long and will eventually crack. You need a band at each groove. Which looks like two. Plus they need to be bolted down or they will also spread. As they are usually made of galvanized pipe.
Also it probably has a 2" outlet and a valve and a cam lock banjo fitting will set you up.

 

[ultrarunner]

What is the going rate for totes?

 

[Gem99ultra]

What is the going rate for totes?

We paid $135 for the two totes, delivered. They came with cam lock gate valves, clean and with caps. Even though they were guaranteed potable water safe I took mine out of the cage and did my own washing and rinsing.

After filling I added one quart of bleach to protect against bacteria, etc. That would be one tablespoon per gallon. If anyone knows for sure how much bleach (or other protective ingredient) I should have added, please let me know. We're out in the country and rely 100% on well water, so in case of an extended power outage, we just might have to rely on the tote bin water supply for a few days.

 

[farmer2009]

Get a chlorine testing kit. Treat so it's about 2 ppm of free chlorine. Then keep it close to that. Chlorine is volatile if left open to the air. In a tote with a vented cap you will be surprised how much you still loose.

 

[Gem99ultra]

Get a chlorine testing kit. Treat so it's about 2 ppm of free chlorine. Then keep it close to that. Chlorine is volatile if left open to the air. In a tote with a vented cap you will be surprised how much you still loose.

Good idea Farmer2009... It's been a couple of years since I've done a complete test on the wells. My current test kits do not include chlorine so I've ordered another one from Amazon that does.

The totes do come with non-vented caps, so once I get the chlorine right I'm hoping that it'll stay right for a while. The totes are inside so the UV rays shouldn't be breaking the chlorine down very fast.

First time I checked the wells they DID have some sort of bacteria contamination in them. They county inspector suggested pouring a quart or two of bleach in each, which I did, and it did indeed kill all the bacteria present. Lesson learned - Check your well water! You never know what's in it until you do.

Thanks for the reminder to 'Do It Right."

 

[ultrarunner]

Sounds like a bargain...

 

[Wnc3]

I made my tube gate into a fenced gate.

Where did you buy that latch?