Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

How to make a huge rainwater cistern

We had less than 1" of rain between October 2012 and July 2013. But, now that July is here, the rain season has started, which means that it is Spring, here!

We received about 2.5" of rain in the last 48 hours. The rainwater cisterns are filling up! We caught 4,000 gallons during this period, which is enough to keep our garden watered for an entire year.

Here's our roof potential:
House Roof + tank roofs - ~1,000 gallons of water per inch of rain.
Barn + barn tank - 500 gallons of water per inch of rain.
Sheds and assorted tanks - 150 gallons per inch of rain.

TOTAL - 1650 gallons per inch of rain

For capacity, we have the following:
House cisterns - 14,500 gallons + new tank(7,000 gallons, under construction)
Barn Tank - 7,000 gallons
Shed tanks - 1,500 gallons
Swimming pool - 2,000 gallons

TOTAL - 32,000 gallons

So, we need about 20 inches of rain to fill everything, if they start empty.

BUT, our water accounts are about:
House Tanks - 6,000 gallons
Swimming pool - 1,000 gallons
Barn tank - 1,500 gallons
Shed tanks - 1,000 gallons

TOTAL - 9,500 gallons

So, our current capacity is 32,000 - 9,500 gallons - 22,500 gallons, which translates to about 14 inches of rain.

We typically receive about 25 inches per year, and I think we're now around 5 inches for this year (4 of that is this month). We can reasonably expect 20 inches of rain between now and the end of October.

Rainwater catchment information

Good idea having all that storage and adding 7000 gallons more. You were down to 5500 gallons, that doesn't seem like much to me. The average family of 4 in the US supposedly can use 400 gallons per day (http://www.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/indoor.html) so at this rate you had about 14 days of water left. I'm certain you aren't using this much per day but it looks like the rains came just in the nick of time!

Cheers

we use about 400-800 gallons a MONTH, depending on the time of the year.

We normally don't have this much left over, actually, so we had a surplus for this year. We try and add as much capacity as possible, when and where funds are available.

That has got to be a typo from the EPA...

I doubt it Ron. The key word is can. I used to think like you until my brother did a report in school back when we were kids. It would be pretty easy to rack up this volume of water if you didn't care or think about it.

If you stick to a 5 minute shower that helps but a 30 minute shower with a non restricting old style shower head would be 120 gallons of water. Lets see then 4 people... . Of course this doesn't include the laundry, the dishwashing, watering the lawn and landscape, washing the car, using the toilet, brushing teeth etc.

Or topping off the AP

toilets use the most in the US, typically.

Also, we don't take showers every single day. It is probably the biggest amount of water use in our house.

Laundry is 15-20 gallons a week. Dishes is about 10 gallons a week.

We don't have a lawn, any extra water goes to growing food!

Four minute showers in my house with a eco shower head. It may be raining but why get out of the habit of concerving water. Droughts are to harsh and long in this country.

Nice work. I have just had the go ahead to kill off the back lawn and turn it into food production. So no lawn left here

we got another 2.7" of rain last night, which translates into another 4,400 gallons into our tanks.

Yep, nice work Vela and family. You as well Mantis. I'm sort of glad to not be in either of your climates. It's not as critical here with all our rain and snow but the Summers do get dry so we sometimes have restrictions. I give the lawn just enough water to stay alive but let it turn brown. More of a personal preference than an actual need - or maybe it is a need, I get enough lawn mowing in during other parts of the year

Cheers

I never water my lawn and try to conserve water where I can, but the shower is where I tend to get my head straight for the day so they can run a little longer than they should.

you know, if you add a rabbit mower to that lawn, you can make food AND have a lawn:

http://velacreations.com/food/animals/r ... mower.html

Was going to ask how your rabbit production was going. Have not been to your site for awhile. Will have to have a look this weekend. Cheers

we're building a model of our Food Web concept, and rabbits are a component in that system. Basically, it is a major integration of several animal and plant cycles to build an integrated animal production system. It involves rabbits, poultry, pigs, goats, cavy, hydro-fodder, fish, mushrooms, forest gardens, and wild foods. So, we're in the process of moving the rabbit operation into the new model.

Rabbit Shelters (underground + cages): http://velacreations.com/blog/rabbit-dwelling.html

We've just put the skin on the central hub/building of all this. The water supply for the Food Web comes from the barn roof, and in the last few days, it has filled about half way. That's roughly 4,000 gallons. That will be the water supply for all of the animals, gravity fed into the barn.

We raised a few fish in the barn tank last year, just ran it like a pond. But this year, we hope to start on an aquaculture component between our rain catchment tank and the forest garden. That will let us keep a small system and do water changes weekly to water the trees.

You can read updates about everything on our blog:
http://velacreations.com/blog.html

The rain this week has slowed down the barn work, but we're getting close. Having the water like this is awesome. We have never had this much water stored up before, and it should really help us expand our abilities to grow food.

lol I think I'd need to upsize the rabbit mower to a goat mower Vela. Checked out the website looks like I'll need to alot more time, you've been busy