Looking to upgrade to manly size reservoirs. Suggestions?

[smurfin'herb]

Im moving on up from the world of 50 gallon drums and 100 gallon farm containers. I need some suggestions as to where to go from here? 175-200 gallons is what im looking for.

-It has to be able to fit thru and average size doorway.
-Incremental labeled intervals in gallons is a plus.
-Needs to be semi transparent for visual water level monitoring.
-Needs to have wide area to access to the interior for scrubbing by hand and placing probes, heaters, pumps ect...

I see some that are round, some are square with cages around them, some are cylindrical on a stand... but not too many look like they give you a whole lot of wiggle room to get down in there when you need to.

Any input or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

EDIT - I replied before realizing you're already hip to the farm tanks, but here is my post still none the less.


Yo smurf,

Let me know if you come across anything good.

Aside from linked 55 Gal barrels I've been using Toter 96 Gal Wheeled Trash Cans from home depot. They are only $90 and fit through most doors.

Not all doors however. I tried to take one in a backdoor before and wouldn't fit. Had to haul it right through the front which might have seemed a little odd to the neighbors considering these trash cans look like a lot of city municipal cans.

They hold firm and don't leak, but did bow a little around the "pickup pole". Nothing to fret about though.

Not huge, but better then a 55.

Also check out the structural foam Rubbermaid tanks from tractor supply. They have 100, 150, 300 gal. I've only ever messed with the 100 so not sure if the larger will fit in a door. Good prices on these.

I want bigger though!
I'd like to have a massive RO tank and another massive rez to feed an 8 light garden or larger (residential doorways). Ideally I'd have the RO elevated above the other (on another floor possibly) so that when my rez ran low I could simply open a valve and replenish with RO. Add-back my nutes and away I go.

Been pondering about building a giant box out of wood/cinder blocks to hold a 40ml pond liner. I have a concrete bathroom in the basement where I might be able to pull it off with little more then the existing structure, but not sure about weight, strength, etc with one on a 2nd floor.


Anyone else have any ideas?

There are obviously tanks to hold large volumes of water, but what is available to fit through doors. I've seen 260gal tanks, but they are like $700. I've tried the GH 66 Gal collapsible tanks, but they leaked... at least one of the 3 I had sitting next to one another. Took them all down and haven't checked them again.

 

[Snype]

I tried those Home Depot Trash Bins and it made the water smell real funny. Like plastic.

Maybe these will work for you:

http://gototanks.com

or

http://www.plastic-mart.com/categor...utm_expid=13554316-5.3ID9uu6TTOq7Bg0ItwMK4A.1

 

[theother]

Always check what the little recycle tag on the trash cans say. If memory serves it's hdpe that's legit snd ldpe is poison. I always just check the tag on the brute trash cans and make sure what ever other one I am getting has the same symbol, as I know those are safe. The cheaper black husky (I think) trash cans at Home Depot I believe are the type of plastic that will off gas and contaminate water.

 

[the gnome]

check out the 200+gal water totes,
you can get em cheap used.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Good info. I've never had any problem with the 96 Gal Toter Trash Cans contaminating water. At least not visibly doing harm to the plant. Will have to check the stamp. I believe Krunch was the 1st I heard mention that these wheeled cans remain leak free.

Those 275 caged totes are nice and cheap around here, but wont fit through a residential door. I was debating putting a few in the garage and then gravity supplying to the basement through a hole drilled in the foundation's rim joist. Unfortunately they would certainly needed heated this time of year and that could get costly.

Once a 300w or whatever titanium heater brings a volume of water (that cage'd tote wrapped in reflectix) to temp I wonder how often it would throttle on/off to keep it there. Could easily be the equivalent of running a few more lights if you had a few 300w heaters running non-stop.

 

[theother]

Good info. I've never had any problem with the 96 Gal Toter Trash Cans contaminating water. At least not visibly doing harm to the plant. Will have to check the stamp. I believe Krunch was the 1st I heard mention that these wheeled cans remain leak free.

Those 275 caged totes are nice and cheap around here, but wont fit through a residential door. I was debating putting a few in the garage and then gravity supplying to the basement through a hole drilled in the foundation's rim joist. Unfortunately they would certainly needed heated this time of year and that could get costly.

Once a 300w or whatever titanium heater brings a volume of water (that cage'd tote wrapped in reflectix) to temp I wonder how often it would throttle on/off to keep it there. Could easily be the equivalent of running a few more lights if you had a few 300w heaters running non-stop.

I bet those big cans are hdpe, I believe the ones that will off gas also are more flexible (please do check though cause it's been awhile). I know I was using some hdpe 55 gallon ones that deformed about like you described and if they were the softer stuff I'm sure it would have given out.

Heat the garage, that's what we ended up doing with tropical fish. Was more efficient to condition the garage air and then use heaters to bring the tanks up the final step. Not sure it's worth it to use the bigger res, unless a heated garage is appealing. Definitely have to be on natural gas for that to make sense though.

 

[smurfin'herb]

You and me both Flowerfarmer. One massive tank for R/O plumbed to several reservoirs with all the bells and whistles in between.

Thanks for the replies fellas. I must stress, the main requirement im looking for is the ability to be able to get inside and scrub the thing, and mount stuff.

Ive thought of ways around this.
I guess i could always just get a flexible pressure washer and blast everything out. But then youd need access to hot water, and then have to figure out a way to introduce bleach or h202 into your feed line for the sprayer. Sounds expensive, and like more hassle than its worth. Id rather just mix up a bucket and scrub them down.

Another idea is to obviously cut the tops off of these larger containers (im picturing a square caged tank like gnome posted). Then you end up having to cover the top with poly or whatever which is kinda ghetto, and you cant attach fittings to the top then. I still want a solid lid that creates an airtight seal, but is big enough for me to be able to clean every square inch by hand, mount sensors, floats, probes, pumps ect.... Its a lot to ask, i know....

Ive thought about looking into what some of the commercial greenhouses use for reservoirs, but then im pretty sure those guys all use inline fertigation. Either directly to the plants, or each batch is first automatically mixed into a small reservoir every time a feeding is required. They usually arent stockpiling as much water as we are. The raft growers just hold the water in tables all the time, so the growing area is the reservoir, so that wont work. Maybe i can get some insight from some of the bigger NFT operations... Im sure they need a way to store water i would assume...

Another idea would be permanent reservoirs. Concrets/cement/brick etc... And then i thought about it, too many cons. I did think it would be cool to put a strip of glass block window in the front and sides of res to see the level and how many gallons you have. Then you could attach anything that uses suction cups to the glass instead of the concrete.

 

[stoned-trout]

build your own custom

 

[Snook]

two of theses linked... 138 gallons.. very heavy duty.. $125 or so

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/prod...rplus-70-gallon-molded-barrel-black?a=1145774

 

[queequeg152]

other than the collapsible tanks, a water bed or any bladder type tank is your best bet.

they make excellent bladders for storing great quantities of fuel for folks that need emergency heat/power.

perhaps a change in your approach if in order. may i ask why you need a large reservoir in the first place?

 

[queequeg152]

here:

http://www.dieselgenerators-fuelbladders.com/bladder.html

im not seriously suggesting a bladder, owing to cost mostly, but its food for thought.

also look at the small swimming pools they sell. they are collapsable, and likely far cheaper than any serious fuel tank like the above.

http://www.napoyavane.com/en/products/pools/pools_440/collapsiblepools/collapsiblepoolsazuro300b

having this much water in a residential area is absurd if you ask me.

 

[rives]

Since you said that the rez needs to fit through an average size doorway, it sounds like you are planning on using this inside a residence.

Something that you may want to keep in mind is that water weighs 8.3 pounds per gallon, so a 200 gallon reservoir, complete, is going to be pushing 1700 lbs. If it fits easily through a 3' door, say 30" x 30" x 54" (210 gallons), then you are going to be pushing the shit out of 300lbs/sq.ft. floor loading or roughly 4x the loading that the roofs on most houses in snow country are built to withstand. You may need a high-head pump if it winds up in the basement!

 

[FlowerFarmer]

I've been thinking about just building some 4x8 "beds" or whatever desired size x 8" or 12" deep & just lining it with pond liner. This way the weight is spread out over a large area and pond liner can be had pretty cheap. You foam board lid the thing to keep the large exposed surface clean.

Another idea that I'm thinking is building the above "subfloor" in which you could house a large area of water under my clone/mother room. Slap some 2"x12" boards together in a large 4x8 rectangle, line with liner, and you've got roughly 200 gallons (filled to 10" deep). Slap some plywood over it and you've still got some form of usable space for clone dome, t5, moms, etc.

Couldn't one safely pond liner an entire bedroom to a shallow depth and hold a massive amount of water?

A 10'x12' bedroom with a ponder liner filled to the depth of 10" would be almost 750 gallons of water. Would this be safe since it's spread out.. 51 lbs per square ft or whatever.


Is this crazy?

I'd like to have say maybe half a bedroom to hold 375 gallons or whatever at the depth of 10". I could then use this to gravity supply to my basement for use. I'd have a shit load of decent pressure RO on supply to disperse to whatever rez (another homemade low pro box or toter trash can) 2 floors below.

 

[theother]

I've been thinking about just building some 4x8 "beds" or whatever desired size x 8" or 12" deep & just lining it with pond liner. This way the weight is spread out over a large area and pond liner can be had pretty cheap. You foam board lid the thing to keep the large exposed surface clean.

Another idea that I'm thinking is building the above "subfloor" in which you could house a large area of water under my clone/mother room. Slap some 2"x12" boards together in a large 4x8 rectangle, line with liner, and you've got roughly 200 gallons (filled to 10" deep). Slap some plywood over it and you've still got some form of usable space.

Couldn't one safely pond liner and entire bedroom to a shallow depth and hold a massive amount of water?

A 10'x12' bedroom with a ponder liner filled to the depth of 10" would be almost 750 gallons of water. This would be safe right since it's spread out.. 51 lbs per square ft or whatever.


Is this crazy?

I'd like to have say maybe half a bedroom to hold 375 gallons or whatever at the depth of 10". I could then use this to gravity supply to my basement for use. I'd have a shit load of decent pressure RO on supply to disperse to whatever rez or use I needed 2 floors below.

I think I remember a YouTube video years ago where the guy had made the entire floor into a res and was flooding and draining rockwool on top of it. I think that was a basement though. It seems like it might be hard to lee lean but maybe just run a uv sterilizer on it since it's just ro.

You can find the load calcs for your floor based on sub floor, joist dimension, joist span and girder span. Water is definitely considered a live load, so it's going to be less than the maximum.

 

[rives]

Is this crazy? Yes.

750 gallons of water weighs 6200 lbs.. That's the equivalent of parking a couple of good size cars in your bedroom. Putting it up a couple of floors? Much crazier.

 

[queequeg152]

Is this crazy?

yes.

buildings are designed and constructed with an anticipated dead load and live load.

people will sag their upstairs floor joists just adding backer board and 1/2 mineral tiles.

adding thousands of lbs of water to anything but a slab is simply impossible to accomidate without supporting the structure with like... vertical members on every joist. makes the room below awfully inconvenient.

a slab could probably handle the load just fine, but then again most slabs build are dogshit construction wise.

its simply a bad idea to have that much weight anywhere in typical residential construction.

why do you need so much water?
injecting fertilizer into the irrigation water is the logical alternative.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

I understand. Well I guess that is out as far as the upstairs thing goes. Would be workable in the basement on the concrete.


I want to be able to house a large volume of RO for use without too much complexity. I've looked to dosers with concentrated stock tanks and such, but what about the RO? My RO wouldn't be fast enough to do any inline injection. I'm sure there are options available for quick RO, but that sounds extremely expensive.

Also like lots of water in case I have to leave for a little while. I've ran blumats in a 5k garden off of 3 raised 55 Gal barrels circulating with another lower 100 gal farm tank and was able to leave for almost 10-13 days without missing a beat. Obviously nobody wants to leave a grow unattended for a multitude of reasons, but a week or a little more is sometimes unavoidable.

 

[rives]

How about a dual reservoir system similar to what many blumat users are using? If you can get the plumbing in, the large rez in the basement and a small one upstairs would give you what you want. A pump that could buck that kind of head would be spendy, but even a small rez upstairs would give you lots of pressure to work with - the pressure comes from the elevation difference, not the volume.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Yea, that's what got me thinking all of this upstairs stuff. I'm a blumat guy and just happen to have an upstairs laundry room which I've used for RO watering making purposes in the past. I've also done several circulating SWC hydro setups in which I used gravity and multiple floors to achieve things. Just never on a larger scale.

I need to top feed an 8k coco garden and making everything as turnkey as possible for a caretaker. I typically like to have the same amount of RO already made as what my nute rez would hold. When nute rez is empty caretaker pushes button (or opens valve) to replenish nute rez with RO, addback Jacks + Calnit, and that work is done for another 7 days or so. Flinging pumps around from multiple rez makes a mess so I like to make it essentially a one step process.

Bulk RO, Bulk Jacks rez, and the ability to feed 72 plants under 8000w sealed w/co2 in 2 Gal coco pots multiple times a day to run-off.
Any ideas is appreciated. Will prolly just go with linked Toter 96 Gal cans or regular 100 Gal hydro rez (already own 1).