# 275 gallon totes for cistern?



## biggkidd (Aug 16, 2012)

We use 5 of these as our water tank. Now I am getting set up to collect the rain water. At the present we fill them from the creek. But we filter / boil drinking water. 

Now I am thinking about burying most or all of these after a good cleaning and using them like a regular cistern. Long as they are full I don't see a problem but I am wondering if they will hold up without caving in when empty. Has anyone done this? 

Plus it would be awful nice to not have to boil water anymore. That would give us close to 1500 gallons of clean reserves. I know thats not enough for the long dry spells we sometimes get. I can always get more tanks. These were new but there is a guy selling used food grade tanks about fifty miles from us fairly cheap.

Thanks
Larry


----------



## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

Some problems if you bury them ...

Dirt and sediment will find its way in, as well as possibly more noxious substances such as drowned mice. By what mechanism will you clean them out if they are buried?

Everything decays over time. Even food grade plastic. Burying them won't stop that process but it will prevent you from knowing it's happening until they develop leaks.

I don't have any problem with using those tanks as water storage, but I don't know that I recommend burying them. What purpose does that serve?


----------



## doingitmyself (Jul 30, 2013)

In my area the biggest problem would be when they are empty they would float out of the ground. High water table here. I have to agree with the other poster, why not just leave em at ground level and pump into and out of em as needed? 

You could enclose em in a shed or something to keep the sun off em so they don't grow algae. Good idea, i'd love to get some of them around here reasonable but have not seen any around.


----------



## Raymond James (Apr 15, 2013)

Have you priced a cistern designed to be buried? I would think the totes will collapse. The tanks intended for burial as cisterns are engineered to be buried and pass National Sanitation Foundation NSF test. Have not priced in a while but perhaps $500. The engineering includes the fact that they figured out how to make it easy to plumb. 

You could spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to do that with several totes.


----------



## Raymond James (Apr 15, 2013)

Just checked some prices . 325 gallon sells for less than $500 has access if you have to get in , is designed to stay in the ground, is strong and has inlet , outlet designed . Larger cost more but even 1000 gallon cost less than $1,250.00.


----------



## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

As soon as money permits I plan to add a porch/ deck on 2 sides of my house and have been considering using these containers for catching water. I had intended on puting them under the decking and back fill with sawdust to insulate them,having them married together in a series with a tap at the lowest point.You may consider something like this but they will float when empty and you really want to keep them covered and dark.


Wade


----------



## biggkidd (Aug 16, 2012)

Thanks for the replies.

We have been using them for five or six years with them tied together. There are several reasons I was thinking about burying them: Freezing, Sun degradation, algae and to make the yard look better. I may just end up pouring my own cistern, helped do one twenty odd years ago. Wasn't a big deal.

The tanks are sealed up other than a very small air vent at this time.

Also may end up buying one of the large plastic tanks for potable water the prices aren't that bad since I can haul and bury it myself.

I just like to get the most use possible out of everything. 

Wells in this area have to be close to 400 ft deep even then the water is not great. Its not a dry area its the pipe clay.

Larry


----------



## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

last summer at the local farm auction, I saw more than a dozen 275 gal totes go for $10 each. I WISH I has bought them.


----------



## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

DEKE01 said:


> last summer at the local farm auction, I saw more than a dozen 275 gal totes go for $10 each. I WISH I has bought them.


Many of those are simply the containers that toxic herbicides came in. That's why they're going so cheap. 

Using them for water would be a bad idea.


----------



## K.B. (Sep 7, 2012)

if you have a hillside nearby, you can carve into the base enough to set the totes flush with the cut edge then berm the front and sides. run some pvc hoops or trusses made from scrap to make a cover and you may get similar benefits as burying them.

if you can get ahold of some pond liner, it is pretty easy to make much larger cisterns if you have even occasional access to earth moving equipment. temporary tank walls can be made from straw bales and a 20' x 30' liner (~5000 gal). They hold up for a year then can be moved to the next location starting with fresh straw bales.


----------



## biggkidd (Aug 16, 2012)

I played with the idea of EMPD some. While I do not have earth moving equipment I do have a small tractor w/ fel and backhoe. The poor thing gets used for a dozer more than anything. lol 

I think for now I will just put the totes about 1/2 buried and tarp them and see how that does. This was always meant to be a temporary house until I could build farther up the hill. Here it is six years later and I'm still working on it. :smack

Larry


----------



## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

A septic tank is a type of cistern. You might be able to ask around and find a company willing to set one up like that for you.

You can do enough water processing that you don't have to boil your water. We don't boil ours.

Actually, I've been considering modifying our system to a multi-stage one making all our water completely potable.

The order I'm considering is this:
Reception/Sedimentation tank
Bio-filter / sand filter going to secondary tank
Aeration fountain / sunlight concentrator for UV
ceramic filters / resin filter / carbon filter going into tertiary clean water tank(s)

Doing all that will eliminate the need for chlorine in our tap water and potentially make our water cleaner than almost all municipal systems. It will require more maintenance though.


----------

