Water Tank Question

[Gumby]

What are you guys using for a pad?

Can I get away with level coarse sand or Lilydale toppings and no vibrating tamper?

Of course! Too may people run around thinking that they have to have concrete or a stand. Mine is 2200L and sits on about 6" of builders sand with some TP sleepers as the border. Never packed it down - didn't need to. the tank settles anyway but sand doesn't move that much.

It collects from about 70sqm of roof space so 1mm of rain = 70L. She fills pretty quickly. I used to have half that roof area feeding in but found that I can use the tank more now. if it looks like rain for a day or two, I pump about 700L back on to the garden through one of those black soaker hoses. I just run it for an hour using a simple timer on the power point. When the rain comes, she fill again. I figure it's better on the garden than back down the storm water.

[rsser]

Thanks Gumby.

Mine's 2700 l off 50 sq m of roof.

Looking forward to some watering at a time when I'm awake ;-}

[felixe]

rsser,
for my pad I cemented 4 posts into the ground (leftovers from building the front fence) and bolted on some sleepers. Filled it with fine gravel, levelled it off and packed it down. I did not use a vibrating damper, just flattened it and let it sit for a month - the rains helped to pack it down.
1 month later I installed the tank.

[jackiew]

my tanks have just been installed on sand by a plumber. I put a brick wall edging round it to keep the sand from washing away which so far seems to be working. The plumber didn't vibrate the sand down which I may regret in future, we will see.

If you are connecting to a pump and the laundry/toilet from the tank make sure that you don't get sand in the hoses or in the holes in the tank ... see my tale of woe under plumbing

[Buzza]

I got my tank 30 years ago and it was 2000 gallons, which is 9000 litres I think. It has a flat top, and made of dalvanised iron. There are three rings of galv for the tank, and I had an empty fourth ring made up as well. This empty ring was placed onto the ground and levelled. Then we had a small tip truck back up to it and tip in sand, which we levelled off. Tar paper was placed on top of the sand, and then the tank was sat on top of the tar paper. This tank now has as many dowpipes as I can rig running into it. It can be used to water the veggies by way of an underground watering system I mad up with slotted ag pipe.

[rsser]

Thanks guys.

The plan was to build a box with 1" thick treated pine sunk flush with the ground, weed mat, then sand or Lilydale topping.

Will go ahead.

[GMC]

Thanks guys for all the great replies... some quick things

I didnt know I could still get a rebate for a watertank that wasnt plumbed in to the house - I'll do some research on the council website.

No I didnt see the Courier Mail on the Ross River fever issues

No we didnt get too much of that rain - a bit of lightning and about 10 spots!

I heard a rumor the city council here is thinking of putting on water meters on our tanks... so they want us to pay for the water we collect - funny our dams are a long way West of us, and the water we would normally see go down the drain would not end up in these dams... but they think we should still pay for it - - this will be interesting * rolling my eyes *

Thanks again for the comments...I appreciate it

GMC

PS A simple sleeper base sloped front to back (Quarter bubble) for drainage, and sloped towards the tap - so I can completely drain it - is very easy to make and very cheap - it costs about 15 a sleeper, and I used 6. 5 at 400 centres for the base and the other for noggins... a sheet of blue board is about $30 and one sheet cut up (Score and snap) was all it took

[felixe]

The council rebate may be hard to get, but make sure you investigate the (seperate) State Government rebate which is still available and I think you get $750 back (but don't quote me!)

[GMC]

The council rebate may be hard to get, but make sure you investigate the (seperate) State Government rebate which is still available and I think you get $750 back (but don't quote me!)

Thanks - all up the project only costs me about $1350 - and a pizza and a couple of beers for a mate to help me