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I saw a guy on some tv show that installs these for what seemed like a huge amount of money for what he had into them. And he was making a living doing it. It was basically just a large pond sheet, some milk crates, and a hole in the ground, then cover it all back up. It was filled with rain runoff from the roof and out of cement flower beds then a high volume sump pump to get it back out. he said the setup was good for "probably" twent years. Most are set up under the lawns of people. I can rent a backhoe, find or buy milk crates and the pond liner and set it up like he did.
Anyone really did this?
Why go that route? Hire a septic tank company to put in a concrete septic tank that will last 50 years or more, be safer, meet codes, an cost somewhere less than $2000.
I made one here out of a 500 gallon fiberglass tank. It's connected to my roof gutter system. A backhoe alone is useless here so I had to use an auger on my Bobcat and spend days drilling, then use a ditch witch trencher to cut the rest and dig with it's backhoe attachment. After installing the tank I had problems with floating due to the salt water table, but a tropical depression filled it and it has been stable ever since. Now it is my source of water for the veggie garden.
About 10 years ago, when we were living on our acreage, I buried a 1250 gallon fiberglass tank. I plumbed it into the basement, where I had a pump.
We used it as a backup for our well, which we were having some trouble with at the time. I hauled water from town with a 325 gallon tank in the back of my truck.
I've got a 3,000 gallon one buried up the hill behind my house ... built of slip-formed concrete using sand and rock from the creek on the ranch. Constructed around 1900, and still in serviceable condition. At one time, it had a windmill and well right next to it, and was the source of "running water" by gravity into the house. We've filled it from the new well and verified that it works, but it hasn't been needed so we don't use it anymore.
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