Tanks-a-lot
Anna noticed these used tanks
for sale in a neighbor's yard last week and asked me to investigate.
They all seemed to be in good
shape. I worked out what I think was a pretty good deal with the guy to
buy all 7 for 25 dollars each. As a bonus he delivered them at no extra
charge. An extra bonus was meeting yet another nice neighbor in the
community.
I'm sure there'll be more than
one permaculture experiment we can think of to make use of these
intermediate bulk container tanks.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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These IBC's are also commonly used for transporting chemicals. You might want to check that they are really clean before using them for water!
On the container on the left picture you can see a blank spot on the metal plate where a dangerous goods label (a square standing on one of its tips) used to be...
Generally it is not a good idea to buy these secondhand with the labels removed, unless the seller can confirm that they are clean (depending on what was in it, rinsing it out with water isn't necessarily enough to clean them).
Good point about the shape of the sign.
The guy we bought them from got them from someone else in a trade. He washed them out with detergent and water and they smell and look clean, but we don't plan on using them for drinking water.
Lots of people are starting to use them for aquaponics systems, both as the fish tank and as the grow beds (cut in half horizontally). Very useful things!
Some great info on that here:
http://www.ecofilms.com.au/2010/11/03/building-an-aquaponics-system-with-ibcs/
They're not all that great for clean water storage, since they're translucent. The light will allow algae etc to grow in the water. It doesn't sound like you'll use them for drinking water anyway.
I'm interested to see what projects you come up with!
Darren --- I had actually read that the tanks don't do that well when exposed to sunlight for a long time, so I was thinking of maybe making some sort of quick and dirty roof over them wherever we install them. Or perhaps it would be enough to spraypaint them black? Both of those things should probably help with algae buildup. Very interesting to see so many people putting them to use!
Mikey --- I really appreciate that firsthand information! Sounds like if the contents of ours weren't toxic (big if), we might have gotten a good deal.
@mikey: wax can be removed by a non-polar solvent like e.g. gasoline. Unfortunately a lot of those are quite toxic. Less toxic alternatives are citrus oil or limonene or maybe vinager.
@anna: the ultraviolet light in the sunlight will break down the tanks' plastic (usually polyethylene, IIRC) over time. Covering them or painting them will reduce that significantly.
We got some of these last year..the ones we got came in 2 pieces..the plastic and the metal outside part..we use them for storing firewood..stack the plastic container on top and the metal shell under it..3 filled containers = 1 cord of wood. they were free so the price was good!
I would like to use them to store water but they had been used for paint or something else that was not really compatable with gardening...
Daddy --- They do seem perfect for drip irrigation setups like that. Good thing to hear the tanks have at least some longevity sitting out in the sun.
Roland --- Mark's going to post about this soon (maybe tomorrow?) but I did a bit of sleuthing and found out that the tanks had been used to hold "Super 100 NE", which is a mixture of isopropyl alcohol and glycol ethers. Neither one sounds terribly toxic, but I thought you might know more about it than I do. The tanks have been washed out well --- do you think they'd be safe for collecting rainwater to irrigate plants with? Washing dishes with? Bathing with? None of the above?
Eagergridlessbeaver --- I appreciated the content but not the quantity of the comment. I assume some technical glitch made you post 11 times? (I've deleted all of the other copies.)
I love the idea of storing firewood in the metal cages! Depending on what we decide to do with them, the tanks may or may not need the cages around them, so we might be able to put both to use separately.
You can find an MSDS here. Its hazardous ingredients are indeed isopropyl alcohol and a glycol ether.
Isopropyl alcohol is relatively harmless. It is often used as a replacement for ethanol as a cleaner since it is believed to be less toxic than ethanol. It does have a characteristic smell.
According to the MSDS, the glycol ether in question (from the CAS number) is 2-butoxyethanol which is irritating but doesn't seem very toxic. It is also used in common cleaning products and has a distinctive smell.
Both of these dissolve well in water, so rinsing the tanks thoroughly (until the distincive smells are gone) should render them safe even for drinking water, I think.
J --- As I read your comment, it occurs to me that maybe we should store the tanks inside the barn. We'd planned to put them outside when we hook up the guttering, but they'd probably last a lot longer if we put them inside, and might not take up too much space if we stacked them.
So, was their four tank system vertically stacked or just four tanks hooked up together on the ground? My understanding is that pressure is purely the result of elevation of the top of the water, so four tanks on the ground would equal the pressure of one tank on the ground (but more capacity, of course.)