Cisterns - What can you use the water for?

[springvalley]

My questions regarding a cistern are:

1) How do you maintain it? Do you put in skeeter tablets? How do you deal with the scum that would form on the sides? Or perhaps this isn't an issue if the cistern is below ground?

2) Can you water just gardens with it? Can you water animals? I wouldn't think it would be drinkable for humans... Are there problems with using it for washing dishes or your clothes?

Any suggestions would be helpful. Oh, yea, this would be a rain water catchment system from roof runoff. The water would go through a big debris screen where leaves would be removed. There would also be a smaller screen similar to a window screen for smaller debris. Then it would go to a gizmo that dumps the first bit of water before sending it to the cistern.

Thanks in advance!! - Catherine

[francismilker]

My grandma used to use hers for everything except drinking. (although it looked clean enough). She kept a goldfish or two in it to keep the algae at bay and washed clothes and dishes out on her backporch with it. She would strech a bed sheet over it to keep critters from drinking out of it and dropping waste in it. The sheet also helped to filter it when it rain off the gutter on the house.

[rambler]

Farmhouse has used soft water - rainwater cistern - since 1926 when it was built.

It is basically the wash water (clothes, baths, dishes, etc), hot & cold, for the house.

Cistern was cleaned one time in those years. What scum? What algea? Keep it dark. It's walled up in the basement, no critters, too cold in winters here for bugs to become a problem.

Can't drink it as is, if it were boiled wouldn't bother me.

My cattle & pets seem to prefer drinking water from a pool in the cattle yard (yish!) instead of walking the 100 feet over to my waterer with fresh well water, so I'd not worry about letting critters drink it - basically their natural water source anyhow. I don't know if I am right or not, but how I feel.

--->Paul

[Joshie]

I'd check local laws, probably with the county. I did find this link. http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/vita/w...N/WTRSTORT.HTM

Personally, I'd be hesitant to use cistern water for anything other than watering plants, flushing toilets, or possibly doing laundry. I'd not want to use anything other than drinking-safe water for dish washing.

[littlebitfarm]

I use cistern water for everything. Stored underground, no scum, no algae. My cistern is 20 years old and never been cleaned. Was down there a couple years ago, maybe 1/4" of dirt on the bottom.

When it rains I toss a little bleach into the cistern, shouldn't be able to smell or taste it but it will show up on a test. Run the water through a 20 micron filter, 5 micron filter, UV light, and a carbon filter.

Kathie

[big rockpile]

We used cistern for years.Let the rain wash the roof,then turn the water into the cistern where it went through a charcoal filter.Used the water for everything other than watering the garden didn't have no choice.

big rockpile

[Danaus29]

Grandma and Grandpa had a cistern. The water was used for everything except drinking. We even washed dishes in it, but they kept the water heater set at around 150*F. Their cistern was under the back porch. Water never looked scummy or smelled. The cistern had a huge heavy cement cap.

[jlxian]

We have a cistern under our house which holds ground water. It was the only source of water to the house until we bought the place in 1990 and the bank required a regular well be drilled. SIL of the original owner told us that it was wonderful water. We use it for irrigation.

In the late 1970s we lived in a place that had a rainwater cistern --- it was fixed up to feed the hot water tank. It had a slight smell, but wasn't offensive.

[Terri]

Are there trees over your roof? Where there are trees then there will be birds roosting, and birds relieve themselves.

My husbands uncle was raised with a cistern, and he was very carefull about branches over his roof: he didn't want any.

He ALSO had a gizmo where he could funnel water AWAY from the cistern into the ground: that way he could let the roof rinse off BEFORE he tried to catch any water. He really was very carefull about the quality of his water. The reason for the care was because he DID drink it. He said it was more pure than a clean mountain stream.

He also would put one minnow in the tank-just one as he did not want them to breed- to get rid of the skeeters. When I mentioned what ELSE that fish did in the water, he said that was why he only wanted one fish and did not let them breed.

As for what the ONE fish did in the water, remember that clear mountain stream? It has fish in it also, and more of them.

When he did fill the cistern he would not take water from it for a while: the agitation of putting water in would stir up any grit present and he did not want to drink grit. At that time he drank tap water.

[highlands]

Our spring goes to a cistern and from their to our house for our water. The overflow goes to another cistern to give an air gap and then to various animal watering troughs out in the pastures setup in series. Gravity works.

Some also goes for watering our gardens. I find the best way to water gardens is to get out soaker hoses and threaten the sky. I don't actually have to connect the hoses - merely getting them out causes it to rain.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

[buslady]

We had a cistern when we lived up North MO. We were told to only let the water in in the months with the letter R. That left out the hot months, and the water was better tasting than the well water up there.

[FoghornLeghorn]

We have a cistern in our basement and we have used it for laundry, taking showers and cooking. We don't do anything to it. There is no scum although we have cleaned it out once. No skeeters either.

[FarmboyBill]

We had 2 cisterns, to take care of both sides of the house. We drank out of both of them. Cleaned them out once That I knew about. That was a stinkin mess

[lmrose]

We used to live on an island as Light House Keepers. The island was of course surrounded by ocean and salt water. Our only other water was a cistrin in the basement that collected rain water. It was big, mostly underground and had a filter and cement lid.The only thing we ever put in it was a cup of bleach every few months. We had no other water so it was used for everything including the animals and people.We never were sick so the water couldn't have been that bad for us.

[Nevada]

I have a 300 gallon cistern that I fill with a garden hose from my neighbor's system. I have a 12v RV water pump that maintains 45 psig on the system. We use it for all household uses, including drinking.

Sometimes I put a few tablespoons of laundry bleach in the tank when I fill it, to keep the tank & water clean.

[springvalley]

Thanks for all the input!! I'm seriously thinking of an underground system with a pre-catch tank for skeeter trap as well as a lot of the sediment. I want this water to be drinkable if need be. With the stuff that comes out of our well.... ummm... this can't be much worse. We have a filter and then a water softener and we still get rust and iron. It's depressing to see the stains after taking a bath, or using the toilet or washing dishes. Our white dishes and clothes sure aren't white anymore!! I know we can use rustout but that takes away any print that might be on them, too, just like bleach would. So I'd love to use the cistern for washing both clothes and dishes and bathing! Again, thanks all for your help!! - Catherine
p.s. The well doesn't bother Marc at all as he's lived with it all his life. He actually likes the taste right from the well!! Yucko! Filtered at least for me please!!

[littlebitfarm]

Rain water is amazingly soft, you will use half (or less) soap than you use with the well water. No iron. No lime build up on shower tiles. I have never had a problem with skeeters and do nothing to prevent them. Plus if the power goes out you can grab a bucket and dip water out.

Add just a bit of bleach everytime it rains. Not enough to taste or smell. Get a pool test kit and test so you know there is chlorine in there. That will make it safe to use.

Kathie

[meanwhile]

Here is a list of sites that will tell you everything and anything you need to know about saving water / storing water / cisterns / and so forth:

Rainwater list of sites:


Sites re Water issues: Rain Water Harvesting, Gray Water and Water Storage, including World Health Organization sites re Water projects in developing countries

1. The Eco Tipping Points Project (India)

http://www.ecotippingpoints.org/ETP-...rainwater.html

2. Rain Water Harvesting (huge site with great information from all over the world)

http://akash-ganga-rwh.com/RWH/WaterHarvesting.html

3. More projects from India

http://www.karmayog.com/library/rwh14.htm

4. Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond (we have this book and he is considered one of the top US experts on Rain Water Harvesting)

http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/

http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/r...inforesources/

5. Rainwater Harvesting. Org site

http://rainwaterharvesting.org/

6. Rain water Demo sites

http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/r...tration-sites/

7. Do it yourself Water projects

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Water/Water.htm

8. Oasis Design site (we have this book)

http://www.oasisdesign.net/index.htm

9. State of Virginia’s Rainwater Harvesting Guide and laws

http://www.cabellbrandcenter.org/Vir...g%20Manual.pdf

10. State of Texas’ Rain water guide

http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/publicat...3rdedition.pdf

11. NCSU Stormwater Engineering Group
http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/stormwater
12. NCSU Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department
http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/
13. NCSU Cooperative Extension Service
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/
14. American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association
http://www.arcsa.org/
15. International Rainwater Catchment Systems Association
http://www.ircsa.org/index.htm
16. Texas A&M Rainwater Harvesting
http://rainwaterharvesting.tamu.edu/index.html
17. Rainwater Harvesting in India
http://www.aboutrainwaterharvesting.com/default.htm
18. Rainwater Harvesting in the UK
http://www.rainharvesting.co.uk/
19. Montana State University Rainwater Harvesting
http://www.montana.edu/wwwpb/pubs/mt9707.html
20. Efficient Landscape Irrigation
http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/bae/programs...ion/publicat/w

NORTH CAROLINA sites for Rain Water Harvesting (includes articles about Drought and local news about rain water):
21. Water Harvesting at NC State University
http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/topic/waterharvesting/
22. Business selling rain systems / Rain Water Solutions:
http://www.rainwatersolutions.com/

23. News articles about Rain Water “come back” in style to Harvest:
(most mention NC too even if the paper is from someplace else)
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article...EWS/809010373/
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008...ase-shortages/
http://www.prlog.org/10096416-grs-ra...ng-demand.html
http://www.slideshare.net/nacaa/urba...-presentation/
http://ashevillageinstitute.blogspot...g-post_29.html
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/972737.html
http://www.alternet.org/water/97455/...n_in_the_u.s./
http://www.news-record.com/content/2...e_of_rainwater
http://www.star-telegram.com/nationa...ry/873491.html
http://www.off-grid.net/2008/08/31/free-water/

24. Urban Waterways (an instruction book on how to pump the water collected / from NC State University
http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/stormwater/P...sterns2006.pdf

[The Biss]

I had to post this information... I've been looking for a diagram like this for YEARS. Thank you Clemson University.

http://www.clemson.edu/sustainableag...ter_manual.pdf

[brewswain]

Grandpa had a windmill and a galvanized cistern sitting by the house near Abilene Texas for 50 years.
we drank it,
never treated it
never had any problem