As my tapwater is hard, and I mean around 400ppm, it means my choice of fish is constrained to exclude some of the ones I really like.
So I have been buying either Tesco or Asda 5 ltr bottled natural spring water at £1.20 a bottle to mix with the tapwater.
Since then I collected some rainwater in a dish the last time it rained and found it to almost, but not completely free of GH. The reading was at 18ppm.
I decided to go the rainwater route instead of buying bottles of water.
I purchased a 100ltr tank kit from Home Bargains at £18.99. It really is a bargain too as nowwhere else does it at that price.
Now comes the fiddly bit.
My kitchen extension is 8mtrs long and the gutter is sloped to the middle of the length with the downpipe dropping to a drain.
The only place, and the most aesthetic one, to put the rain barrel is in the corner of the yard alongside a bin cupboard where there's sufficient space to squeeze it in tidily.
That meant the gutter had to removed and the downpipe placed at the end, and the slope had to be adjusted so that it flowed to the end rather than the middle. Not too difficult even for a total DIY disaster prone person.
Then I had to saw the downpipe to put the water diverter spigot into it so that the outflow to the barrel was as tidy as possible, and as near the same height as possible: downpipe out to barrel input.
All of this is pretty commonsense and within the capabilities of most people, I expect.
Then the fiddly bits.
As the actual drain was still in the middle of the yard, I had to get the remainder of the downpipe to meet up with it. 1st of all, I didn't want the normal 68mm pipe to run diagonally from the bottom of the diverter. It's just too wide and in any case isn't really necessary for such a small roof area when a good amount of the rain will be diverted into the butt anyway. I bought some 50mm pipe instead. Finding a drainpipe reducer from 68mm to 50mm wasn't too easy but I got one from Amazon. So the reducer is under the diverter spigot and the pipe under that is, of course now the 50mm. If the drain was directly under the new downpipe location that would have been all I needed, but as it was to be laid across the kitchen wall from a height of 75cm to the drain I had to find couplings to allow a gentle slope. Got thewm at Wickes, 112.5 degree bends.
I'll be putting them all together today.
Next, and I consider this the most nerdish thing, I was worried about all the $hite that normally goes down the drainpipe such as bits of moss, dead leaves and, yeah, even seagull droppings. I definitely don't want these in my butt.
I'm in the process of designing an inline filter just above the diverter box that can be accessed via a hinged door on the 68mm pipe. This is intended to be something like a canister that is a tight fit, but can be removed for cleaning, sort of like those vaccum suction pipes that some stores use to suck up canisters of cash. I want it to be filled with suitable media and I even think I'll be able to design it to allow insertion of a UV light to kill any bacteria. I'm working on this right now and will add details when I figure things out.
For now though, and for others who also have hard water issues and would like to place their own water butt, I hope this gives some inspiration.
If anyone can suggest improvements then please add comments, and those who may have some suggestions on the in-line filter please share your thoughts. I need to figure out what sort of filter medium I need, whether to add some activated charcoal into it, how to make a neat door hinged to the downpipe that the filter can be out into. The UV light, if I go ahead with that will need a power source that's not a big problem as I can wire it into a kitchen socket and run it through an extractor vent right alongside the downpipe. However, I don't want the light burning all the time. It won't be raining all the time, so your thoughts on how to wire it up with a sort of water activated switch somewhere in the upper downpipe or where the gutter joins the downpipe, would be very welcome.
So I have been buying either Tesco or Asda 5 ltr bottled natural spring water at £1.20 a bottle to mix with the tapwater.
Since then I collected some rainwater in a dish the last time it rained and found it to almost, but not completely free of GH. The reading was at 18ppm.
I decided to go the rainwater route instead of buying bottles of water.
I purchased a 100ltr tank kit from Home Bargains at £18.99. It really is a bargain too as nowwhere else does it at that price.
Now comes the fiddly bit.
My kitchen extension is 8mtrs long and the gutter is sloped to the middle of the length with the downpipe dropping to a drain.
The only place, and the most aesthetic one, to put the rain barrel is in the corner of the yard alongside a bin cupboard where there's sufficient space to squeeze it in tidily.
That meant the gutter had to removed and the downpipe placed at the end, and the slope had to be adjusted so that it flowed to the end rather than the middle. Not too difficult even for a total DIY disaster prone person.
Then I had to saw the downpipe to put the water diverter spigot into it so that the outflow to the barrel was as tidy as possible, and as near the same height as possible: downpipe out to barrel input.
All of this is pretty commonsense and within the capabilities of most people, I expect.
Then the fiddly bits.
As the actual drain was still in the middle of the yard, I had to get the remainder of the downpipe to meet up with it. 1st of all, I didn't want the normal 68mm pipe to run diagonally from the bottom of the diverter. It's just too wide and in any case isn't really necessary for such a small roof area when a good amount of the rain will be diverted into the butt anyway. I bought some 50mm pipe instead. Finding a drainpipe reducer from 68mm to 50mm wasn't too easy but I got one from Amazon. So the reducer is under the diverter spigot and the pipe under that is, of course now the 50mm. If the drain was directly under the new downpipe location that would have been all I needed, but as it was to be laid across the kitchen wall from a height of 75cm to the drain I had to find couplings to allow a gentle slope. Got thewm at Wickes, 112.5 degree bends.
I'll be putting them all together today.
Next, and I consider this the most nerdish thing, I was worried about all the $hite that normally goes down the drainpipe such as bits of moss, dead leaves and, yeah, even seagull droppings. I definitely don't want these in my butt.
I'm in the process of designing an inline filter just above the diverter box that can be accessed via a hinged door on the 68mm pipe. This is intended to be something like a canister that is a tight fit, but can be removed for cleaning, sort of like those vaccum suction pipes that some stores use to suck up canisters of cash. I want it to be filled with suitable media and I even think I'll be able to design it to allow insertion of a UV light to kill any bacteria. I'm working on this right now and will add details when I figure things out.
For now though, and for others who also have hard water issues and would like to place their own water butt, I hope this gives some inspiration.
If anyone can suggest improvements then please add comments, and those who may have some suggestions on the in-line filter please share your thoughts. I need to figure out what sort of filter medium I need, whether to add some activated charcoal into it, how to make a neat door hinged to the downpipe that the filter can be out into. The UV light, if I go ahead with that will need a power source that's not a big problem as I can wire it into a kitchen socket and run it through an extractor vent right alongside the downpipe. However, I don't want the light burning all the time. It won't be raining all the time, so your thoughts on how to wire it up with a sort of water activated switch somewhere in the upper downpipe or where the gutter joins the downpipe, would be very welcome.
