{"id":112,"date":"2008-04-27T18:16:28","date_gmt":"2008-04-27T18:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimkerkhoff.com\/test-roycreekranch\/?p=112"},"modified":"2017-02-05T03:30:07","modified_gmt":"2017-02-05T03:30:07","slug":"cleaning-rainwater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimkerkhoff.com\/test-roycreekranch\/2008\/04\/27\/cleaning-rainwater\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleaning Rainwater"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rainwater<\/a><\/p>\n

There are various strategies for keeping the rainwater in your tanks clean, including filters, \u201croof washers\u201d and so forth.\u00a0 No matter what though, you find that the water collects debris over time — especially when it\u2019s stored for a\u00a0 while.\u00a0 Of course, it will be cleaned by sediment, carbon and ultraviolet filters before use, but the dirtier the water in the storage tank, the more often those filters must be cleaned or replaced.\u00a0 It sure would be nice to keep the water in the tanks relatively clean.<\/p>\n

Borrowing an idea from the swimming pool industry, why not circulate and filter the water from \"pool<\/a>time-to-time?\u00a0 This seemed pretty easy to do, and I found a canister-style pool filter on eBay that seemed just right.\u00a0 With the addition of an ultraviolet filter intended for pond service and a small pump used to circulate water in a hot tub, all the elements were present.\u00a0 How to hook it up?\u00a0 I knew I would be adding a second tank to my north tank farm, and I also wanted to be able to transfer water from one tank to the other.\u00a0 Finally, and most importantly, I wanted both tanks to fill in parallel during heavy rain so that my collection capacity was increased.\u00a0 Waste not, want not!<\/p>\n

A scheme involving several valves and pipes evolved.\u00a0 Five distinct \u201cmodes\u201d of operation were identified: \u201crainwater fill\u201d,\u00a0\u201duse old tank\u201d, \u201cuse new tank\u201d, \u201ctransfer from old to new\u201d, and \u201ctransfer from new to old\u201d.\u00a0 By clicking on the\u00a0 graphic to the right, a schematic for each of the modes can be seen.\u00a0 The white disks with an \u201cx\u201d represent closed valves.

https:\/\/jimkerkhoff.com\/test-roycreekranch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/Rainwater-filter-demo-desktop-desktop.m4v<\/a><\/video><\/div>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

In \u201crainwater fill\u201d, water coming from the roof through a 4-inch pipe fills one tank while two 2-inch pipes connect both tanks together.\u00a0 As the level in one tank rises, it forces water into the other and they fill together.\u00a0 \u201cUse old tank\u201d supplies water from just one tank to the house and landscape water system.\u00a0 \u201cUse new tank\u201d does the same from the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransfer old to new\u201d and its opposite provides the filtering function.\u00a0 In each case, water from one tank is forced through a cartridge filter and ultraviolet system by a small pump before flowing into the other tank.\u00a0 \"valves\"<\/a>Not only does this clean the water, it allows one to drain a tank for service.\u00a0 It is also possible to simply circulate water through the filter system and back into the same tank.<\/p>\n

The picture at left shows the system as it is today — not quite complete.\u00a0 The three valves (red handles, two large and one small) will ultimately be connected between the two tanks and the filter system.\u00a0 The 4-inch pipe coming from the roof is also visible.<\/p>\n

When complete, the system will provide a lot of flexibility for capturing, storing, cleaning, and using rainwater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are various strategies for keeping the rainwater in your tanks clean, including filters, \u201croof washers\u201d and so forth.\u00a0 No matter what though, you find that the water collects debris over time — especially when it\u2019s stored for a\u00a0 while.\u00a0 …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,5,7],"tags":[15,18,136,17,22,19,16,21,20],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gardening","category-projects","category-rainwater","tag-collection","tag-drought","tag-homesteading","tag-polypropylene","tag-pvc","tag-storage","tag-tanks","tag-texas","tag-water"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimkerkhoff.com\/test-roycreekranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimkerkhoff.com\/test-roycreekranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimkerkhoff.com\/test-roycreekranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimkerkhoff.com\/test-roycreekranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimkerkhoff.com\/test-roycreekranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/jimkerkhoff.com\/test-roycreekranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179,"href":"https:\/\/jimkerkhoff.com\/test-roycreekranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions\/179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimkerkhoff.com\/test-roycreekranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimkerkhoff.com\/test-roycreekranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimkerkhoff.com\/test-roycreekranch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}