Water Collection??

[Simba42]

What do most people use for water collection??

I plan on using 2 x IBC's linked together.

Does anybody use these??

Should think of anything before going for it??

Just in case you don't know what an IBC is here is a pic..

[Simba42]

[Mrs Ava]

Have thought about it - can get them for £30, just haven't gotten around to it.....I can't see any problems.  They hold a goodly quantity of the wet stuff, look neat, and you could grow climbers over the caging!

[kt.]

Look neat, tidy & smart. But for £30 a piece I will stick to my free blue barrells.

[Spookyville]

where sells these for £30 a pop ?

[Baccy Man]

I have 8 of them 4 on each side of the shed stacked 2 on top of the other 2 linked together with old bits of water pipe. I bought tap reducers & hozelock adaptors for them so I can easily connect a hose when needed.

I get these containers free so I can afford to be fussy but I wasn't that impressed with the white ones I originally had as I kept getting algae growing in them so they were replaced with the black ones which solved the problem.
These containers are heavy mine weigh around 90kg each including the steel pallet & cage & an additional 1000kg when full of water so make sure you think carefully about the best place to put them, emptying 1000 litres of water & shifting a 90 kg container because it is in the wrong place (or because you want to replace them with black ones in my case) is not much fun.
When you connect the downpipe to fill them cover it with some sort of mesh I use a fine plastic mesh for this, if you get any leaves washing in there they are not easy to get out & can clog the taps or overflow pipes if you leave them in there.

If you struggle to find taps & hozelock adapters then http://www.dvfuels.co.uk/ sells them they also sell various IBC's Rotos & plastic barrels etc... the IBC's start at £41.13

[Simba42]

wow do you really use 8000 liters a year? I thought 2 was over kill!!

PS, how do you get them for free, can you get other people ones for free??  ;)

[Baccy Man]

wow do you really use 8000 liters a year? I thought 2 was over kill!!

PS, how do you get them for free, can you get other people ones for free??  ;)

I don't know how much water I use myself because when other peoples water butts are getting low & there is no sign of rain I will fill them up for them, I have never run out of water  though.

I can't say specifically where I get them from without dropping someone in the S**t because they count as trade waste which only licensed people can take away. They are used by a lot of companies that import large quantities of concentrated fruit juice to turn into squash, fruit juice or smoothies etc... & they are used by readymix concrete companies. Yes I can get them for other people but I have to wait until I get a phonecall to tell me there is one going spare so it is an erratic supply & I have to clean them myself unlike the ones you buy which are already properly cleaned. The companies have to pay to get rid of them so if you offer to take them away for free then they will usually say yes.

[silly billy]

You can buy them on Ebay.

[froglets]

Suggest you need to be absolutely sure what was in them beforehand.  Used to work in manufacturing & had all sorts of chemicals delivered in them, I wuldn't want one for veg without clear provenance.

[quizzical1]

I have investigated on EBay, and my nearest supplier is asking only £22.00 each for them. The only problem is that it's £60.00 for delivery. At that price I could probably buy 3 or 4 brand new water butts, and have nearly the same capacity.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I wonder what DV Fuels would ask for delivery.

[quizzical1]

The company I mentioned earlier, does have a branch here in town, but they won't sell their IBCs from this branch because they have held flammable products.
The charge for delivery even from their local branch would have been £15.00. I did ask if one would fit into the back of my Zafira(otherwise how would I get it to the plot if they delivered to my home?). They gave me the dimensions and said " You work it out".

I suppose I could maybe borrow a trailer. I don't own one because I have no where to keep one offroad.

[Robert_Brenchley]

What size are they?

[Baccy Man]

Mine are 1200mm wide x 1150mm deep x 12000mm high they do vary in size a bit but this seems to be a common size. I don't know what DV Fuels would charge for delivery you have to phone or email for a quote I have only bought the tap parts from them so it was just the cost of royal mail parcel post + £1 for packing materials. £60 seems steep for the one from ebay most people charge £45-£50 & use a company called Palletline to deliver them.

[cambourne7]

we have plenty of water taps on site and i have one water but fitted and will be fitting the second later in the year.

One is going to be for feeding my raised beds via a feed system and the other will be for providing rain water for watering cans and for adding to liquid feed processing. ( comfry and borage )

The feed system will be made up of 3 aspects.

To cover the traveling down hill between the beds i am using bog standard normal hose which i have got already.

The feeding inside the bed is done though either pourus hose or a dripper system http://www.gardensystems.co.uk/products.asp?type=Water%20Butt%20Pipe or
http://www.easywatering.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_Drippers.html

The idea is that i will get another unit to hold water to catch any runoff at the bottom of the plot once my fruit cage is up i will also get up a system to catch water on this and as the back of my plot has some drainage ditches so if the water butt overruns it will have a save path to the ditch :-)

PHEW!

Its the project i have set myself for christmas for implimentation feb 2008

Cambourne7