Ok, newbie here and I'm interested in storing water long term.
I have at my disposal an unlimited (well almost) supply of 50 gallon barrels that were used for hog casings. They have a lid like a mason jar, lid with a seal and a compression ring that screws on making them completely water tight.
Anyway, I'm thinking if I had two of these washed out thoroughly and set aside for water storage I would be in good shape for a long time. What do I need to do to get the water to stay good for say a year. I could change it our annually as needed.
Hog casings huh, now that sounds like one of the last things I would want to mix into my water supply, lol!
I would imagine that if properly sterilized, sealed and stored, they should do just fine for long term storage of water. I would think adding a little chlorine could extend the shelf life, is that possible?
I did see a cool item in CTD, they have it listed as a 'Water BOB' and is simply a bladder that goes in your bathtub and holds 40 gallons. Not a bad idea to have one handy for when the power is out for extended amounts of time.
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I take my coffee how I take my women: bitter and overbearing.
I've used two so far, one to store tools and such. After a good washing with dish soap it no longer smells at all.
They are squeaky "clean" on the inside but they do smell. I know I would have to overcome that to make the water acceptable so that nothing would be absorbed by the water.
The idea of a bladder intrigues me. I wonder if I could find one to fit the barrels...
I believe they are food grade Barrels , which is Good !
You can try a water and Vinegar mix to scrub them / soak them with to remove the smell.. Rinse then add bleach to water and soak again to sterilize.
a small amount of bleach can be added to the water you want to store...then seal it up. Chlorine will dissipate fast when the barrel is opened and be destroyed by heating the water to above 145 degrees. Follow the directions on a Clorox bottle , for the amount to add...10 -50 PPM
It can also be run thru a charcoal filter or other water filter system like a Brita or Instapure for use when needed...
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[I]You know you might be facing your doom,when all you get is a click when you're expecting a BOOM!:( [/I]
Yes, yes! They are food grade barrels, I found this out after talking to the gal I get them from. They are a heavy black plastic.
Thanks for the idea of vinegar and water wash I bet that will do the trick.
My plan is to set up a shelf in the garage where I can fill them with the hose after installing a plastic spigot at the bottom. When they are in need I will have 100 gallons available, and emptying them should aerate the water nicely.
Washing something out good is a long way from sterilizing it.Plus, a 55 gallon drum is a very large object to check for any remaining microbes and other microscopic problem makers. However, even the best cleaning may leave chemical residue that might move into the water. Also, what if your water has some biological contaminates in it?
The better approach would be to boil your water before drinking or cooking. There are kits with tablets to put into water before drinking.
The point of this post is to alert you to potential problems with drums and even the water supply.
In a terrible situation water will either be your best friend or worse enemy.
A solution of hot water and baking soda should kill the smell. A strong bleach solution - make sure the soda is ALL gone!!!!! - should kill the nasties. Use fresh bleach, as it does degrade with time.
Do a Google search for the 'bleach treatment' of water - it will tell you how many drops per gallon, etc. I have done this when storing water, and it works well. It does need to be redone every six months, and I empty and refill each year.
The
“Water Dominator”
Water Purification System
Created by The BAMF’s:
Nate Kenyon
Garret Hilton
David Ramirez
Kyle Brewer
GEEN 1400
May 7, 2006
Professor Robyn Sandekian
Abstract
Our engineering projects class decided to take the theme of appropriate
technology. This means, simply, that we had to design a project that could be put to use in areas where access to technological materials is limited, and the standard of living is much lower than what we are accustomed to living in. Our group, the BAMF’s, opted to make a water filter for use in rural Africa because that is the most important thing that
these villages need. The filter we designed used layers of materials that these villages have easy access to, so that they do not have to spend money and do not need teams of people to help put this system together. Overall, our designing of this filtration system went very well, and was an excellent learning experience. Challenge Statement Clean water in rural Africa is expensive and hard to obtain. Villages in Africa are forced to drink water which is contaminated with bacteria, E. coli, sediments, and
nitrates. Our group decided to build a water filter that would give the rural communities a safe source of water, at an affordable cost.
Design Requirements Functional
• Removes all E. coli
• Cleanses the water of nitrates
• Eradicates bacteria
• Removes sediments
Qualitative
• User friendly
• Easy to clean and maintain
• Made of materials easily accessible and available in rural Africa
• Must be durable
• Usable indoors/outdoors
Quantitative
• Takes up no more than 16 cubic feet of space
• Costs less than $8 American
• Produce at least 60 gallons of water per day
Final Design
The “Water Dominator” is a simple yet functional water purification system. Our team did a great job of manufacturing the design into something that does not take a team of engineers to replicate. Furthermore, the “Water Dominator” was built with a very limited budget in mind, so it is easy to produce and cheap. The “Water Dominator” is a basic sand filter on top of a charcoal filter; the sand filter does most of the sifting while the charcoal filter catches the remaining undesirable matter. The simplicity of the “Water Dominator” is really the brilliance of the system. As our team was researching the methodology of sand filters we realized sand filters are simple and effective as long as they are built and maintained correctly. The sand filter works because there are several different layers of sand, all with varying coarsenesses that prevent sediments from passing through. Our sand filter is three levels of fine sand, coarse sand, and gravel. The fine sand, which is on top of the filter, does most of the sifting; it catches sediments and most other undesirable matter. The coarse sand, the middle layer, does a similar operation, but also prevents the fine sand from falling through the bottom of the filter. The last layer of the sand filter is the gravel. The gravel is the last level of filtration, but the main function of the gravel to keep the sand in place. After the water passes through the sand filter it than falls into the second filter, the charcoal filter. The charcoal filter was an idea that our team implemented after we had already designed the sand filter. The charcoal filter, like the sand filter, is easy to produce and maintain. The charcoal filter is set up so that when the water passes through it is filtered by the millions of bonding points created by the carbon in the charcoal. These bonding points are invisible to the naked eye, but catch most viruses/bacteria that the sand filter may have missed. Not only does the charcoal filter get rid of the harmful bacteria, but it also filters out the bad taste. After the dirty water passes through the “Water Dominator” it is safer to drink, tasteless, and virtual transparent. The “Water Dominator” is a two-filter process that stacks a sand filter on top of a charcoal filter. The “Water Dominator” does an incredible job of eradicating most
contaminates in the water, as well as making the water visually appeasing and tasteless. It is easy to produce, maintain, and can be replicated for next to nothing. The materials are readily available to most of the world, because they consist of sand, wood for making charcoal, gravel, a few optional screens, and three five gallon buckets. The table our team decided to build was only added to make the “Water Dominator” even more user friendly.
Parts List
• Charcoal Our Cost: $17.25
African Cost: Natural from burnt wood
• Fine sand Our Cost: $14.84
African Cost: Natural
• Coarse sand Our Cost: Donated by Robyn Sandekian
African Cost: Natural
• Three buckets Our Cost: $5.19
African Cost: Donated by relief organizations
• Gravel Our Cost: $4.95
African Cost: Natural
• Screens Our Cost: $2.22
African Cost: Donated by relief organizations
• Wood Our Cost: $16.03
African Cost: Natural
Project Evaluation
Our project met all the functional, qualitative, and quantitative design
requirements. We tested our project for the removal of E. coli; it removed 3 colonies/ml to 0 colonies/ml. In the nitrate removal test it reduced the nitrates from up to 30mg/L to 0.5mg/L (the US legal limit for nitrates is 10mg/L). However the nitrate tests are inconclusive because the initial level of nitrates before being filtered is uncertain. We rant the test 4 times with the same water getting different initial nitrate readings from 0-
30mg/L. Our final nitrate readings were constantly 0.5mg/L. The turbidity test, which tests for the number of sediments in the water, showed that we reduced the FAU (formazin attenuation unit) count from 206 to 9.
Our filter is 5/4ft by 5/4ft by 3 ft = 4.69 cubic feet which is considerably less then the maximum size of 16 cubic feet. Our filter was required to produce at least 50 gallons of water per day. Our filter produces 6 gallons of water an hour or 144 gallons per day. Our water cost to the user requirement was $8 American. Our cost to the consumer, was $5.19 the price for 3 buckets. The sand, charcoal, gravel, and wood would not be a cost to the consumer. This is because the sand, gravel, and wood are all naturally available to the communities. The charcoal that we used in our filter is all natural charcoal, in other words is just burnt wood. Burnt wood in rural Africa is free or can be recycled from their fire wood. The screens we used cost $2.22, but can be replaced with an old cotton shirt. So the total cost to the consumer would be between $5.19-$7.41 depending on if he bought screens. The costs we used however were the price you pay in America. In Africa consumer goods like buckets are cheaper. Our project is user friendly, because it’s easy to put together, and maintain. The only maintenance is replacing the top inch or so of sand every week. The materials are readily available to Africa. Since it only takes up 4.69 cubic feet it can be used indoors or outdoors.
Recommendations
Though our project worked much better than we had expected, there are still some areas where we would like to improve. As of now, we can only filter around eleven cups of water at a time. We would like to add a water storage unit at the top of the first bucket, so that the “Water Dominator” can filter more water at a time. Another enhancement we would like to make on our project is to add more sand to the top layer in order to improve turbidity. Though it did reduce the amount of sediments in the water by a very large amount, it did not completely eliminate them, so there is room for improvement. Otherwise, the “Water Dominator” did nearly perfect considering that it is free to Africans.
User’s Guide
Because not everyone in the world has an engineering background, it is critical to have a user-friendly guide to give them. What this consists of is how to build, maintain, and utilize their very own “water dominator.” The good thing about our project is that although a lot of engineering went into the design and concept of it, the device itself is simple to make and employ. So, the manual itself will not be intimidating to the user, because it is very straightforward and the set-up is easy. You would not need to send a team of skilled professionals or engineers to help in the construction.
All one needs to do is follow these simple step-by-step instructions.
1. Gather three plastic buckets (at least 5-gallon sized).
2. Take two of them down to a place where you would find sand, and fill one up
with very fine sand, and fill the other up with coarse sand.
3. Once back at your home, put the gathered sand, separated, in a storage place.
4. Place two buckets, upside down, one a level surface.
5. Make small sized holes, evenly dispersed in a circle, starting about half and inch
from the edge of the bucket, and filling up the whole bottom face (as shown in
Figure 1)
• These hole dimensions are more of a guideline than a must. All you need
to try to remember is that you don’t want too many holes, or holes that are
close together, because that would make the bottom of the bucket weak.
6. Repeat on the bottom of the second bucket
7. Take your third bucket and go find and collect pebbles or small gravel and fill
your bucket up with them.
8. On the bottom of one empty bucket with holes, place 2 screens, cut out in exact
circular size as the bottom of the bucket. (See Figure 2)
9. In the other bucket with holes in it, fill it about 2 inches deep with the gravel.
10. Next, pour about 3 inches of coarse sand on top of the pebbles.
11. Pour 4 inches of fine sand on top of that.
12. Take your bucket to someplace where it can be elevated off the ground, and
nothing will get in the way of the holes on the bucket
• A good idea is a table with a circular hole cut in it as shown in Figure 3
13. Fill up the sand bucket to the top with water.
14. Let the water run all the way through. See Figure 4
15. Repeat two more times.
• What this does is clean the sand and gravel. Your water will most likely
come out brown or just dirty the first two times, and this is because it is
just washing off the dirt that was on the sand and gravel.
16. What you need to get now is a nice collection of burnt wood (enough to fill up
one of the buckets about ¾ full). So, either use the charcoal that you cooked with,
or gather up some pieces of wood and burn them till they become completely
black and charred.
17. Break the charcoal up into equal parts of three different sizes—fine, medium, and
large chunks.
18. To make fine charcoal, either hammer the bits of burnt wood into a powder or
small chunks, or crush them in another, similar way.
19. For medium charcoal, again hammer the wood, but do not make it into a fine
powder; leave it in medium sized chunks (about 2-4 inches long)
20. For the large charcoal, only break up the wood if necessary to make it around 5-7
inches long.
21. On the bottom of the other empty bucket with holes, place two screens on the
bottom, just like you did in step #8
22. On top of the screens, place about ¼ the size of the bucket of large charcoal.
23. Place about a ¼ the size of the bucket of medium sized charcoal on top of the
large charcoal.
24. On top of the medium charcoal, fill about ¼ the size of the bucket with the fine
charcoal.
• So you will have about ¼ of the bucket visible on the top
25. You are now going to place the sand bucket right on top of the charcoal bucket.
26. Find something(s) to place in between the buckets in order for there to be at least
a 4-inch space between the bottom of the sand bucket and the beginning of the
find sand layer.
• We suggest six wedges of wood placed evenly around the outside of the
sand bucket (See Figure 5 for example of the wedge and finished product
if confused about wedge placement)
27. Place the two bucket system on top of the elevated platform you put just the sand
bucket on before in order to clean it out.
28. Run water through the bucket system about 3-4 times.
• This is going to clean the entire system out now. The water will be dirty
about the first 2 times
29. Run water through again, and this time rinse out the third bucket with the now
clean water.
30. Fill it with water again, this time placing the clean bucket beneath the system in
order to capture the water that comes out.
31. You now have your very own “WATER DOMINATOR!”
32. Enjoy the water that comes out of it from now on—it tastes delicious, and is
significantly healthier than the water you were using before!
Maintenance
The only thing you have to do to maintain your “Water Dominator” is scoop off about two inches of the fine sand on top of the system about once a week. This is to just get rid of all the initial dirt, debris, bacteria, and just gunk that gets trapped right on the top. Then just replace it with a new layer of fine sand. REMEMBER, you need to run water through the system once without capturing the water after each time you replace a layer in order to clean out any dirt that was in the new fine sand you just put on top. Other than that, the rest of the materials in your machine are extremely long lasting and will not need to be maintained or replaced! Congratulations on your new,easy to use, easy to manage “Water Dominator.” May all your water needs be bettered by your new system! ENJOY!!
__________________ 12-21-2012: Party like theres no tomorrow!!!
I checked this out online and found a pdf document with pictures (I'm a visual person) and it's crazy easy and simple. With this rascal I should be good to go forever!
We have a rainwater collection system with a 1000 gal tank and and a 40 ft deep well in a flow line. Auto chlorinater, and end use R/O system at the sink. A carbon filter for the shower. Looking for another 1000 gall tank.
So tell me how your rainwater collector works? I was thinking about this and we have plenty of rain here year round but I'm wondering how you collect the rain water and such.
I checked this out online and found a pdf document with pictures (I'm a visual person) and it's crazy easy and simple. With this rascal I should be good to go forever!
Got a link to it ?
__________________
Do not fear the night.
Fear what's in the night. Mike
I don't know about storage, but one of my concerns is having Clean / Safe water if anything happens, and after looking at a lot of water purification deals, most of which were expensive and very limited on the filter service life etc. I settled on the Berkey water filter system due to the ability to clean the elements and filtering capacity. Also the British Berkefield seemed good too. These units are expensive, but if the cost is an issue you can get the filters for less and build your own gravity filter setup on the cheap. I got my stuff from 911water and order a Berkey system and some extra Berkefield elements to make my own as well and although I've not used it, It's very comforting to know that I can filter out the nasties from a rain barrel, pond or creek and have safe drinking water.
Well, the water storage question is a "temporary" idea that would address the loss of water to an ice storm or what have you in your area.
If I was to think about "long term" i.e. a permanent loss of the local water supply system then a well would be the only viable option. It rains enough here you don't have to water the grass or garden but that isn't enough for year-round consumable water.
If I had to go with a permanent solution rain water collection and a well would be the answer.
I was at Waldo world earlier tonight and thinking about this subject. They have some kinda chemical in the rv section that is suppossed to make water taste right after storage.
what about a swimming pool?? get one of them that have a inflatable ring they are real easy to stup and they come in all sizes.put a cover on it with a floating clorine tablet in it and run the pump if you can but if there is no electricity you can curculate the water by had or use a solar powered pump to move the water. it should work like a old cistrin only better
By some used food grade IBC's.
Make sure they have only had food items in them.
Dig up your side yards.
Use Bulk head fittings on two parallel sides of the bins to allow flow through.
Place the IBC's into the trench.
Link using sch 80 PVC.
Connect first container to rain gutter down spout.
Make sure you have a small port on the last container to allow water to flow out.
Now you have a home made rain water collection well. You can use a hand pump to extract water if electricity is an issue.
