Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Guys,

Thought I would post this here as it's not exactly AP related, but does deal with the things we fiddle with And growing our own food of course!

I'm looking to modify my current grey water system (not designed or installed by me!), currently it runs to a length of storm water pipe (to act as a sump I suspect, to stop back up) which has a hose on each end which I have to try and get round to my 40 or so fruit tree's!

I have a tiered front yard with fruit tree's on 3 separate tiers (about 12-15 on each), what I plan to do is install a sump tank where the pipe comes out of the rocks to hold the grey water until one of 3 timers come on to water at say midnight each day (instead of whenever someone has a shower/does laundry), this way I will loose less to evap.

My plan is to have 3 timers, each on a 72 hour cycle, with a 24 hour stagger. So every night at midnight one of the 3 timers will come on for 2 hours and empty that days grey water onto one of the tiers, this way the trees get watered every 3 days at water isn't lost to evap. I plan to use 1" poly pipe running along each tier, with 1/2" risers cut off at the same level to feed the tree's, this is to ensure the most even distribution of water to all tree's on that tier.

So! My problem is, I'm looking for a tank to act as the sump, it needs to be raised about 300mm so that I can gravity feed the risers on the first tier. As you can see from the photo, the pipe comes out at about 1000mm above the ground (the spirit level used for scale is 1200mm), what I need is a tank that can hold about 500lt (in case of heavy use in a 24hr period) and is no taller than say 500-600mm (if any one says half an ibc or put 2 blue barrels together I'm going to smack their bum! ), the perfect shape would be a barrel on it's side, but I haven't seen a 500lt barrel! What would have been perfect, if not for the height restriction, are the 500lt green tubs B was selling for $99 But oh well!

So what would people suggest, it's a strange shaped tank I'm looking for, long and shallow... kinda. Sorta the shape of the tanks you see on the back of farm utes for firefighting etc... HELP

Cheers,

Kenny!

Dont want to be a damp sponge but it/s e legal to store Grey water in victoria [must be used straight away ] also the solenoid valves that you are going to use will probley stuff up with hair and fluff also in victoria you cant spray it in the air if you use drippers that will block if you get it working good luck [ i have 2 running you should see the gunk that comes out of the pipe ends]

I thought as long as it was used within 24 hours it was OK? But then again, it's probably also naughty to do half the things I'm doing, but that's never stopped me. It just makes more sense to me to water the tree's when evap will be minimised, no mater what the man says!

It will be gravity fed, no sprays, just open end 1/2" pipe used as the risers, that should let all the gunk out! I was planning to use some kind of in-line filter between the tank and the timers to minimise gunk anyways, cleaning the filter will be... a joy

elders sells they firefighting style of tanks

Yeah, I was looking for an elders tank on a bunnings budget Those firefighing tanks that go on utes have internal baffles and junk and cost... a whole lot $99 for the bunnings tank would have been great if it just fit! But yeah, the ute ones are bout 5 times that

stick it to da man

Oh yeah!

My original plan was to have 3 valves that open for 24 hours, turn off for 48 (staggered) so that gw wouldn't be stored at all. But when I went looking for timers, all I could find were timers with 2 hour maximum open times, so I can set it to open for 2 hours every 72 hours. This made me think about using the tank, which in turn made me think that it's a better idea, due to the fact that I'll be able to water the tree's at the best time each night!

Well, why don't we think of a few AP type answers to help fix a few of the problems with the current idea. Basically the filter and it's tendency to clog!

What about making your tank something more of a grow bed? Well not really a grow bed but a gravel filter to collect the solids. So long as the products your family uses aren't too harsh (which they probably arn't if you are watering your trees with the water) the gravel filter could have some composting worms to digest the solids and the resulting water going to the trees could already be partially processed. The filter doesn't have to be gravel, It could be any sort of filter material or media. It would require you to have a larger tank than if it was just to hold the water but it could be built using a wood frame and liner to just about whatever shape you want.

I would be tempted to say let the water be used right away when it is available. I know the general rule is not to keep grey water for more than 24 hours but depending on the source of the water, it can get nasty quicker than that.

Good luck with your retrofit!

lol, I wouldn't eat anything grown in there, that's for sure!

We use all that natural junk, because as you said it's already being fed to tree's, so we watch what we use

Worms to eat the solids aye... gross! It's only connected to the showers and the laundry sink! What solids besides fluff should be going in the tank... eww! I assumed I would have to clean the filter at least once a week, but am out in the garden all the time anyway, and it isn't much of a chore (I say that now!).

If I could find timers that had the settings I wanted, i.e. 24 hours on 48 hours off, I would probably just use them, as I shower at 6.15am and about 10.30 anyway. Then I could simply change when I (read: Tam) do the washing. That way I would only need a 100lt sump or so (to avoid backup), and I could mount that higher, brilliant! Not to find timers with 24 hour on intervals

Does anybody know of any times that can be set for 24 hours on 48 hours off on a repeating cycle? I have only found ones that come on for 2 hours

Maybe some of those garden tap timers Kenour???

B.. does have a electr. controled solenoid for rain water tanks,
but looks like only a 19mm dia and not cheep

diameter was not specified on the box so I opened it to see

only one model between a heap of mains pressure solenoids, so hard to find
was few months ago, don't remember more details

Ahh OK, I was trying to get away with it on the cheap! But then again, who isn't!

I was originally going to just use manual valves and change them each night, but with the timers I was looking at being only $10 more or so per valve than the manual ones, I thought it's a task worth automating! Got enough to do around this place

I think I'll just use a blue barrel, 220lt should be enough for an average days water use, I'll just connect an overflow from the blue barrel to the existing diversion pipes I think, just for those times when we have visitors etc.