Rainwater Life Span for Bathing

[BillaRickaDickay]

Where I live there is no mains water supply, sinking a well from local feedback can be hit or miss, I am thinking of collecting rainwater during the rainy season and using that over the dryer months, topping up hopefully with the odd thunderstorm or as a last resort from a well 500 meters away.
Does anyone know how long rainwater will keep for in a Storage Tank below ground bearing in mind that the water will only be used for bathing, washing dishes, clothes etc.

[parrot]

If there's a well 500 meters away, you might want to inquire about how deep the well is and whether the well dries up during the dry season......or ask if anyone knows how deep the water is in the well. Just from our own experience, your life is going to be miserable if you don't have an adequate source of water throughout the year.......showering, toilets, dishes, clothes, etc. An underground storage tank of any substantial size won't come cheap......and you'll still be dependent on regular rains during the dry season.
Village folks might not have had luck with drilling for water because they tried to go cheap on the drilling. Twenty years ago in our village, many tried to drill for water using low powered electric motors that could drill down only to the sheet of sandstone that covers the local aquifer. Most had no luck finding water. But once diesel drilling became more commonplace, wala, there's lots of water under the sandstone. Still, it'll cost 20,000ish baht for a competent driller and pump. Worth every drop for us. Good luck with your search!

[BillaRickaDickay]

Thanks Parrot, Maybe I should have put more detail in the Post, The well 500mtrs away is on our other piece of land and the well was put in by me/Contractor, this has been our source for the past five years and no problems apart from a new deep well pump changed a couple of months ago.
The same contractor sunk a well on the land adjacent to our new location and discovered large amounts of Sand deposits, she now has her water pumped from her fathers Well 300mtrs away. The Cost to install our other Well and buy the Pump amounted to about 20,000bht 5 years ago. What I don't want to do is pay for the new Well and find it's not viable, it wont be the end of the world if we run out as we have facilities in our old house. Daily consumption would be minimal in the new house Toilets, Showers, Washing up etc, irrigation of plants and trees is taken care of by the river that runs past the land.
So I am still looking for an answer on how long water can be stored for, Storage Tanks seem to be coming down in price just recently 2000ltrs for about 5000bht better to spend money on some thing that can be used than sink a well that cannot.

[maaka]

not sure I can help, but all my various abodes scattered around mother earth, have tank water reliant on rain supply..cant say I have measured the time water keeps, but have swallowed quantities of yellow colored water ( and eaten green meat)
from the decaying vegetation in the bottom of the tank, and never got the colly wobbles...do you have a water tanker truck in your area..maybe you could top up /flush out with 2500lts when times are lean...could aways throw in one of those swimming pool clorine tabs if you think the water becomes full of unthinkables...

[BillaRickaDickay]

Thanks for the info Maaka, you have given me an idea and helped me make up my mind, In the dry season I could replenish the Tank/s from my original Well using a smaller tank on the back of a Pickup Truck, 2 x 2000 litre tanks, using about 100 litres a day, would give me 40 days supply. No need to worry about storing water for long periods and storage capacity required greatly reduced.

[maaka]

Rodger that...it takes afew minds sometimes to come up with a plan..
yes sometimes in NZ, I fill the car up with big plastic bottles of water taken from a clean river, or campground tap, or take the mobile pump down to the stream and pump UP to a tank, for my stock use..just remember one litre weights one kilo so if using your truck think of the weight

[Geoffrey]

We collect rain water in a tank for drinking. It lasts us a year.

[mickojak]

I lived on a farm in central Victoria, Australia for 8 years.
Only had tank water for everything.
It got topped up semi regularily by rain, but I'm sure some of the water that I drank was very old.
Best water I have veer had.
Every farm in the country is on the same deal.
Never ever heard of problems except for when occassionally a possum or some other animal gets in and dies.
Even then the sheer volume normally disperses it enough to avoid problems.

Mick

[AlexO]

We collect rainwater and use it for showering, washing machines ,dishwashing etc. Me and the missus do not drink it but Father in Law does (iron stomach) When in the forces we would strain pond water through a pair of tights leg, chuck in a small chlorine tab and use that for brews etc.
Maaka's suggestion about using a swimming pool tab makes sense as you will always have some organic matter getting into the storage tank (bird poo etc) If you can keep organics at bay and no direct sunlight then no real time limit for stored water.

[dingdong]

Algea will grow in the dark also, not nearly as fast if in the sunlight but will grow. Maintaining a Chlorine residual will help
along with aggitation periodically. every month or so the residual should be increased as bugs become adaptive to the chlorine and a higher residual will kill them

hope this helps
Ding

[12345]

They actually sell, or did, chlorine for drinking water, as spotted when I bought other version for the pool. Google is your friend, as forget the chem compound.

Also 1/2 cup of bleach per 2000 liters should do the trick. When suspect we'll bleach, but rare, and all drinking / cooking water goes through a filter anyway.

Use village well water, very clean, and have 10 x 2000 liter storage tanks, over a 6 month period and rarely sanitize. Use the pool water to top off the waterfall as it evaporates. Village can get a bit stingy at times over the dry period.

5 years, have yet to clean the tanks or do much else, they are kept out of the elements, sun, and bug / organic decay proof.

[glalt]

Water has no life span. Unfortunately it can and does get contaminated. It is advisable to at least screen it before storing it. We have a 1,500 liter fiberglass tank that we use for our drinking water. That tank full lasts from rainy season to the next rainy system. That water goes through the first filter which contains 18 liters of activated charcoal. It then goes through three more filters. The final filter is ceramic. After about five years of drinking it, it has apparently has been fine for drinking. Absolutely no taste at all.

The swimming pool filter for stored water is an excellent idea. It is probably not necessary but if you are still nervous about the water quality, it can be chlorinated. The chlorine can then be removed with aeration.

[maaka]

my old tank guy back home told me to tip in a bottle of bleach in my tank if I had worries, so I did. it wasnt until I had bubbles coming out me arse, that I read the bottle, to find it was concentrated...thought it tasted abit detergentsy...

[BillaRickaDickay]

Thanks for all your help Gents, maybe I will up my storage capacity given your comments on the Life Span......Cheers

[glalt]

The bigger the tank the better. Make it as large as you have room or as large as you can afford.

[AlexO]

We have around 20,000 liters of storage between traditional Ongs (hope that is how you spell it) and UPVC tanks. All of the water is from our roof discharge and there is bound to be some some birdy poo and other things in the tanks from the roofs. The bleach and chlorine also makes sense as water temperatures here could encourage the dreaded Legionaire bugs. So far been great and beats paying for village water.