Mike wrote:

In article , swroot
writes

Just don't try to store it for any length of time: the organic content
starts to rot and the standing water stinks to high heaven.


Do you happen to know if this problem can be avoided by,

A) Storage in a covered/sealed tank
and/or

B) Mixed in with the rainwater?

My plans do have rather a lot of water from, a large roof which on the
latest plan is just under 2500 sq. metres, showers in changing rooms,
wash hand basin sinks, kitchen and Bar water (glass washing that is)

To mix or not to mix.
To cover or not to cover.

Would appreciate any advice please.

FWIW the smell was that of the finest quality rich black
bottom-of-the-pond sludge. And when we washed the container out (about
once each summer) that's what we found in the bottom of it: lovely black
gunge.

Best advice I can give is to use it as quickly as possible, or find some
way of filtering the organics (soap, dead skin, hair, etc) out before
you store it. I have heard/read of people who feed their grey wastewater
through a reed bed purification system, then into a (presumably large!)
garden pond.

We stored ours *briefly* (ie overnight) in a water butt. Leave it two
days and it started to smell. I can't think of any reason that storage
in a sealed tank would prevent the stuff rotting, as I'd guess the
process is anaerobic anyway (Nick?). A sealed tank would mean only you
didn't smell it until it started flowing out onto the garden.

Mixing with rainwater would dilute the nutrients a bit, but they'd still
be there and the conditions would still be appropriate for rotting, so I
think it would still smell. I'd keep the rainwater separate in any case,
as it's useful for lime-intolerant plants and it's cleaner (so to speak)
than the wastewater.

regards
sarah



--
"Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view,
is silence about truth." Aldous Huxley