# IBC Tote Rain Collection for Irrigation



## Captquin (Aug 22, 2019)

Before the recent monsoons, we had three weeks of drought and hot weather. Our irrigation setup is 5 zones at 6 gpm, so 1,800 gallons per hour. The stress on the lawn, landscaping, and water bill (haven't received the bill yet) prompted me to figure out how to supplement the irrigation.

To my wive's horror, "rain barrel" evolved to IBC totes, and then I got two of them. 550 gals seems like so much water, but only puts a dent in what we're using. Every little bit helps though. Here's the initial proof of concept. 1/2" of rain off one corner of the house nearly filled up a tote. Impressive!!


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## M1SF1T (Jun 1, 2021)

That's impressive! It all helps.


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## RVAGuy (Jul 27, 2020)

To be honest, living in Virginia (as I do as well), water is pretty cheap and abundant here. You're going to have to put fish in there and treat the water to keep it worth using. Not to mention your sprinkler bodies/heads are supposed to have a "reclaimed" designation on them:
https://sprinklersupplystore.com/products/458520-reclaimed-water-body. 
Just one more thing for the inspector to whine about if you ever sell the house. It's a great idea, but I think it's more for people out west, where water is precious.


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## Captquin (Aug 22, 2019)

@RVAGuy you're not wrong. And there's a 30-40% chance of rain every day for the rest of the week. So yeah, I could have probably just irrigated when needed and paid the piper. Like having a little garden though, just seems like something easy to do.

But my yard showed a lot of heat stress last year and I felt like I struggled to get enough water dawn. All the irrigation is currently above ground on a 4 zone timer at the spigot, so no concerns there. I'll just hook the pump to whatever zone I want to use.

In any case, here's the fairly final set up: water is delivered by Oatey Mystic diverter into the top of the tote closet to the downspout. The connection at the first tote has a tee. One end goes to a spigot to fill watering cans and tees again to the pump. The other end connects the two totes at the bottom outlets with 2" PVC. Vents are 1-1/2 PVC and rise higher than the overflow for the Oatey diverter. There's window screen in the diverter to filter fine debris and in the elbows of the vent to keep bugs out.


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## Captquin (Aug 22, 2019)

Here's the whole setup. There's another 12' camellia just to the right, so they are invisible from the road.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

Wow! Your rain collection system is quite involved! I just got a 60 gallon rain barrel last year and connected it to a downspout, so much less sophisticated than yours. Not enough pressure to hook a hose up to, but I had been using it to fill watering cans and water individual plants. I say "had been" because now, the water in it appears to have gone anaerobic - a foul smell and I am now afraid to use it on plants. Sure, I could dump it out, wash it out and start over, but that would defeat the purpose, right? So now I am searching for a non-toxic solution.


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## Captquin (Aug 22, 2019)

I think you'll be fine on plants! The may like it even better. If not using on edibles, an ounce of Clorox would take care of it and not hurt the plants. The bird store down the road even recommends a few drops in the bird bath.


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## Ngilbe36 (Jul 23, 2020)

Deadlawn said:


> Wow! Your rain collection system is quite involved! I just got a 60 gallon rain barrel last year and connected it to a downspout, so much less sophisticated than yours. Not enough pressure to hook a hose up to, but I had been using it to fill watering cans and water individual plants. I say "had been" because now, the water in it appears to have gone anaerobic - a foul smell and I am now afraid to use it on plants. Sure, I could dump it out, wash it out and start over, but that would defeat the purpose, right? So now I am searching for a non-toxic solution.


I am at the exact same point as you. Ive got a 60 gallon off my back shed that I just use as a spigot for hand watering and had to stop using it because it smelled so awful. On Sunday I drained it completely and then hosed it out and scrubbed the inside with a brush (ew). It is not still drying out in my attempt to kill off whatever is remaining in there. I plan on setting it back up this weekend and making cleaning it an annual event.


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## Captquin (Aug 22, 2019)

Wonder if you can add some algicide like for ponds, etc.?


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## Captquin (Aug 22, 2019)

Got some rain and the setup is working as planned. For a quick review on the Oatey Mystic, it diverts water but definitely not 100%. Probably more like 50%. Thats lklely fine for where we live, but you will likely want a different setup if you live in a drier environment. I bought it for the integrated overflow feature. The tanks haven't fill yet to see how that works.

This is it during a drizzle.


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## Captquin (Aug 22, 2019)

Added Leaf Eater to rain harvesting system. In line filter of window screen was getting clogged. This is self cleaning so far.


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