"Benign Vanilla" wrote in
message ...
I am planning on building, and have SO approval to build a
rain collection
system to harness the roof of my shed and the roof of the
house. My plans
are currently not very fully formed, so I was looking for
opinions from
anyone that has done this.

--
BV.
www.iheartmypond.com


I have been able to find some 55 gallon plastic
drums used for coca-cola syrup that clean up
nicely, for about $20 at a local feed store. If it's
storage you're looking for, you might check
for such barrels. But my system is nothing
special, just catch rain in buckets from two
downspouts and store the water in a variety of
containers, including 33 gallon trash cans (bought
new for that purpose). I use the rainwater
mostly on roses, but will top off my ponds
using captured rainwater, alternating with treated
tap water. So far I haven't killed any fish,
but maybe I've been lucky.

One possibility is that, because my collection
"system" isn't automatic, by the time I get around
to emptying buckets, the roof has been "washed"
already quite a bit. I have rainwater in sealed
containers for over a year with no smell (although
I wouldn't drink it myself!).

Re collection systems: Do a google search on
"austin rainwater collection" and you'll get a
bunch of articles, some from retailers but you
can weed those out. As someone else posted,
rainwater collection is big in southcentral TX.

Gail
near San Antonio TX Zone 8