Shmaty Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 Hey guys! Looking for someone with some DIY experience to bounce ideas off. I want to make a rain collection system for my garden and i'm thinking it would be great to take my water change water and pump it into the collection tanks as well. I've zero experience with plumbing but I see the distance to the garden/location of the collection tanks as being a potential problem. I can provide details later. Right now, I am curious if anyone has done anything like this and what thoughts people may have. In the past I just filled a 5 gallon bucket and hand carried it to my plants, but that work anymore. My tank volume has quadrupled and my garden is no longer 10 feet away, it's more like 150' 💩 🛠 send help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevesFishTanks Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 My concern would be any contaminates in the water Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT_ Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 (edited) Pumping distance isn't too bad if you're willing to lay the tubing. Also make sure you can't back siphon into your tanks. That could be a wet diaster Edited February 5, 2021 by CT_ typo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenman Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 I've been collecting rainwater for my garden for years and your bigger issue will be what to do with all of that rainwater. My house has a footprint of about 748 sq. ft. One inch of rain is 0.08333 ft. of rain. So I end up with about 62.33 cubic feet of rainwater whenever it rains an inch. One cubic foot of water is about 7.48 gallons. So for one inch of rain it collects about 466 gallons of water. And we get an inch of rain fairly regularly here. You need to account for how to handle the overflow when your storage tanks get full. The distance to the rainwater storage shouldn't be an issue unless your aquariums are in the basement. Whatever you use for rainwater storage will likely be on or under the ground. Assuming your tanks are taller than the rainwater inlets then gravity will carry the aquarium water to the storage tanks. Even a smallish pump that you can connect to a garden hose like the transfer pumps ($50-ish) should be more than adequate if you need a pump to move the water. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenman Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 I just checked to see the yearly rainfall here and we get about 46" per year, so at 466 gallons per inch of rain that would be a bit over 21,000 gallons a year of rain water just from my smallish roof. You can collect a whole lot of water from your roof. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shmaty Posted February 6, 2021 Author Share Posted February 6, 2021 OOF! Looks like i'd be looking at roughly the same amount of rainfall. I honestly hadn't thought it would account for that much. Guess I need to go back to the drawling board. I'd love to know your input on tank size vs garden size and how you handle the excess water. I was thinking i'd keep a separate tank for the aquarium water. On days I had scheduled to fertilize the garden i'd clean out the aquarium and then use the water from the designated tank to water the garden. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shmaty Posted February 6, 2021 Author Share Posted February 6, 2021 22 hours ago, s1_ said: My concern would be any contaminates in the water Is that with regard to the aquarium or the rainwater? The rain water would only be used in the garden. I've been using aquarium water for "fertilizer". It is amazing stuff. I grew tomatoes, herbs and fruit using water change water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevesFishTanks Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 My fault, I thought it was rainwater being used as new water change water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenman Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 I have two 110 gallon stock tanks that I use to hold most of the rainfall. That's 220 gallons right there. They are used to water the plants on and around my front porch and front yard. I've got four 30 gallon trash cans out back for the plants in my back yard. I have overflows built into my system so the excess runs off to a safe spot where I don't mind it going. I use some to keep my water garden topped off also. It's better to have too much water on hand than not enough. The amount of water you collect will vary depending on the square footage of your home and the efficiency of your gutters, but you can collect a lot of water in a very short time. Oatey makes a Mystic Rainwater Collection System that you cut into your downspouts to collect the rainwater and they work very well. If you're just looking at stockpiling aquarium water for the garden then a stock tank would be a good receptacle for it. They're pretty affordable. The 110 gallon ones I bought at Tractor Supply were about $70 each when I bought them. You can also use them as a breeding pond should the need arise or if you have a tank failure at any point and need a place to house some fish. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekjunkie28 Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 How are you planning to hold this water? There is nothing wrong with plumbing it you just need a pump with enough head pressure to get it where you need it. There are pumps that have really good output that can sit outside the tank and be plumbed in. Be creative, there is no science to plumbing, its just art. just remember Hot is on left, cold on right, poop runs down hill, pay day is Thursday and the boss man is a son of a ... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tolstoy21 Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 (edited) On 2/4/2021 at 8:44 PM, Shmaty said: Hey guys! Looking for someone with some DIY experience to bounce ideas off. I want to make a rain collection system for my garden and i'm thinking it would be great to take my water change water and pump it into the collection tanks as well. I've zero experience with plumbing but I see the distance to the garden/location of the collection tanks as being a potential problem. I can provide details later. Right now, I am curious if anyone has done anything like this and what thoughts people may have. In the past I just filled a 5 gallon bucket and hand carried it to my plants, but that work anymore. My tank volume has quadrupled and my garden is no longer 10 feet away, it's more like 150' 💩 🛠 send help! Could you use a simple utility/sump pump, available at any big box hardware store, hooked up to a garden hose, for this purpose? Run the garden hose to your collection system? Takes no plumbing experience at all to set up. Just water change into a tote or bin large enough to hold that volume of water and then put your pump in there and turn it on. Many utility pumps are high powered enough to pump a good distance and can handle a ton of head pressure This can also be semi automated with an add on float switch, usually available in the same area that the store keeps the pumps. This could help you from accidentally overflowing your bin or bucket and allow you to change water into a smaller sized container since the pump will turn on and off as the bin fills and empties I do something like this to move waste water from my auto water change system from one side of my basement to another, where my slop sink is located. Edited February 6, 2021 by tolstoy21 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shmaty Posted February 6, 2021 Author Share Posted February 6, 2021 55 minutes ago, tolstoy21 said: Could you use a simple utility/sump pump I honestly hadn't even considered that. I grew up with a well and a basement sump. That's a good idea. 11 hours ago, s1_ said: My fault, I thought it was rainwater being used as new water change water. All good! Yea, I looked at that once before. You'd have to run it through a filter/RO at the very least. Not something I am looking to do but in theory, can be done. 11 hours ago, tekjunkie28 said: How are you planning to hold this water? Likely in a large plastic tank or rain barrel. Looking to have a few. 11 hours ago, gardenman said: I have two 110 gallon stock tanks that I use to hold most of the rainfall. Funny, I had considered modifying these for raised garden beds but had not thought about using them as water storage. Do you cover them somehow? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tolstoy21 Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 (edited) Just as an example, this is what I have going on . . . nothing pretty but it does the trick! I have this hooked up to a standard waste line with a check valve, but this unit came with an adapter to thread into a standard garden hose. I got all this at Home Depot. it's pretty plug-and-play. Edited February 6, 2021 by tolstoy21 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shmaty Posted February 6, 2021 Author Share Posted February 6, 2021 2 minutes ago, tolstoy21 said: Just as an example, this is what I have going on . . . nothing pretty but it does the trick! I like it! I think that would work perfectly for my needs! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan S. Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 3 minutes ago, tolstoy21 said: Just as an example, this is what I have going on . . . nothing pretty but it does the trick! I have this hooked up to a standard waste line with a check valve, but this unit came with an adapter to thread into a standard garden hose. I got all this at Home Depot. it's pretty plug-and-play. I think this is exactly what I'm doing. Glad to see someone else figured it out so I know it's possible. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenman Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 I use aluminum window screening to cover my stock tanks. (I do keep one uncovered to raise some mosquito larva for the fish.) The window screening is strong enough to form around the stock tank and keep stuff out. I just bend it to fit. Easy-peasy. It wouldn't hold up a child or anything much bigger than a cat, but it works for me. If you need something stronger you can build a wood frame for some hardware cloth that would be stronger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirsten Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 I've thought about this too! Easiest solution I can think of is to get a dedicated rainwater barrel for water change water and keep it close to your fish room (probably outside). When you water change, dump your buckets into the barrel. A rainwater barrel will already have hookups for a hose, which you can run out to your garden. You could do drip irrigation with it, but I fear there would be too much muck that would clog up a drip hose. Better to just use the hose to fill up a watering can there in the garden where you won't have to carry it far. If that's still too much work, I imagine you could hook the hose up to PVC pipes there in the garden and use them to gently flood garden beds when you open the valve. You could also rig up a submersible pump to change the water for you, with a super long aquarium hose out to the barrel. But be careful with those. They can suck up small fish and shrimp and betta fins. I tied some coarse sponge filter media to my intake and that helps. But I prefer the low-tech gravel vacuum siphons for water changes for better control and spot cleaning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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