A question for Dennis

[LizStreithorst]

What do you to cover your rain water collection containers?  I put egg crate over mine to keep leaves and big stuff out.  I have window screen I could use to keep little stuff out but it's fiberglass.

[Mugwump]

What do you to cover your rain water collection containers?  I put egg crate over mine to keep leaves and big stuff out.  I have window screen I could use to keep little stuff out but it's fiberglass.

I don't know what Dennis uses but I'd consider wire cloth......

[BallAquatics]

What do you to cover your rain water collection containers?

Liz, right now I am using Rubber Maid trash cans to hold the collected water outside.  They simply have the lids firmly attached.  When the water is pumped into the fish room, it is stored in large sterilite containers on the top shelf of my center rack.  These also have rather tight fitting lids.

I'm on a fairly wooded lot but I don't seem to have much get into the system.  I have gutter guards on the spouting, but every once in a while a leaf will sneak into the first trash can.  LOL

Dennis

[Mugwump]

What do you to cover your rain water collection containers?

Liz, right now I am using Rubber Maid trash cans to hold the collected water outside.  They simply have the lids firmly attached.  When the water is pumped into the fish room, it is stored in large sterilite containers on the top shelf of my center rack.  These also have rather tight fitting lids.

I'm on a fairly wooded lot but I don't seem to have much get into the system.  I have gutter guards on the spouting, but every once in a while a leaf will sneak into the first trash can.  LOL

Dennis

Do you just cut a hole in the lid to fit pvc through for filling???....

[BallAquatics]

Do you just cut a hole in the lid to fit pvc through for filling???....

Yes, although currently the lid is just sitting at an angle over the two inflow pipes.  I had to replace the first can and used a different type and did not modify the lid before bad weather set in this winter.   

When I first set this up, I thought I would get more debris and fitted the lid with a sponge pre-filter.  That evolved into a screen and then finally the inflow pipes just dump right into the first trash can.  I poured five concrete pads for the cans to sit on and at one time I had five of them daisy-chained together.



Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the top of the cans.  I just modified the downspouts on the south end of the house so that they wrap around the front and back corners of the house and meet at the first trash can in the chain.

Dennis

[LizStreithorst]

What do you to cover your rain water collection containers?

Liz, right now I am using Rubber Maid trash cans to hold the collected water outside.  They simply have the lids firmly attached.  When the water is pumped into the fish room, it is stored in large sterilite containers on the top shelf of my center rack.  These also have rather tight fitting lids.

I'm on a fairly wooded lot but I don't seem to have much get into the system.  I have gutter guards on the spouting, but every once in a while a leaf will sneak into the first trash can.  LOL

Dennis

Ah, you're collecting yours from the down spouts.  I only have gutters in the front of the house.  What I'll be collecting will be runoff straight from the roof so I'll need something to keep debris out.  Would

[LizStreithorst]

4 30 gallon water storage containers in place covered with aluminum screen.  No rain in the forecast, but it will come when it wants to.

[BallAquatics]

I hope you catch lots of rain Liz, and get as much enjoyment using it as I do!  I love using rain water and I think the fish love it too.  I got the idea such a long time ago reading about old time fish farmers using rain to get the first Tetras to spawn for them.  I think I first used it about 40+ years ago with some Apistogramma.

Might have been Microgeophagus altispinosa though as they like super soft water too.....

Dennis

[LizStreithorst]

I'd have done it long ago but the fussy Discus people all said that rain water picked up all sorts of pollutents as it fell.  The fussy Discus people say all sorts of things that turn out to be untrue.  Heck I live in the country.  There isn't pollution in the air.  RO wastes so much water.  I want only to use it when it's dry which isn't often in southeast Mississippi, although it happens sometimes during the summer months.