Hide My Catchment Tank (Honolulu, Schofield Barracks: 2013, neighborhood, buy)

[hawaiian by heart]

@OpenD

+100 Auwe Mahalo nui loa OD.

[Jonah K]

Originally Posted by whtviper1

Enough said. YUCK.

You should probably go on a tour of a few of the City & County of Honolulu's Board of Water Supply's facilities. The "Nuʻuanu Watershed Tour" and the "Waiheʻe Tunnel Tour" might prove quite enlightening.
Board of Water Supply, City & County of Honolulu | Tours/Education

Unlike some of Honoluluʻs BWS water sources, most folks with catchment tanks on the Big Island donʻt have to fish human bodies out of them from time to time.
Fisherman drowns in Lake Wilson reservoir | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper
Police: young man dies after jumping 50 feet into Nuuanu... - Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL

[Jungjohann]

Didn't realize that Oahu's drinking water came from Lake Wilson. That might account for the occasional 'chunkyness'.

'Mmmmm, now THAT'S a great glass of chunky water'

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by Jungjohann

'Mmmmm, now THAT'S a great glass of chunky water'

What? You mean it's not "pure as rainwater"?

[whtviper1]

Lol, no problem folks. You all drink your acid rain mixed with baking soda that sits in open air all you want. I'll take treated tap water anytime.

By the way, in Hawaii, life expectancy is lowest in Hawaii County among the major islands. Go have another sip of.....

[1freespirit]

I do not think many drink from their catchment. We do not its only for showers, doing dishes, clothes washing, cleaning. We do have a 4 bedrooom commercial filter on our system though even though our home is less then 1,000 sq.ft. We still do not choose to drink from it although I think it prob is safe enough.

For the water line to our frigerator we keep a 5 gallon water bottle that we fill at either the public water sytems or those commerical water machines outside stores. We have it connected to a small pumping system made especially for doing this. Kind of nice really this way we have water running to fridge for cold water and ice and it does not use the catchment water. I think they cost around $120 on Amazon.

Had it a few years now and really like it.

As far as covering the catchment (hide it) how about bambo fencing 6X8 I believe and put a fence around your catchment. Hides the catchment plus gives a island style look. Homedepot has them for sale

What we did was use those reed fences that Homedepot sells - it is thinner then the bamboo ones but really inexpensive. We fenced around our catchment and for the price it did last 2 years and only cost us like $50 so well worth it. Looked very nice. Our reed one does need replacing so not sure if we will go with reed for $50 every two years or go ahead with the bamboo one but that one may cost us about $300 or so but it would last longer.

Either way it does make the catchment blend in to the surrounding a bit better.

[Due]

Originally Posted by whtviper1

Lol, no problem folks. You all drink your acid rain mixed with baking soda that sits in open air all you want. I'll take treated tap water anytime.

By the way, in Hawaii, life expectancy is lowest in Hawaii County among the major islands. Go have another sip of.....

No catchment in our area: the water comes from an aquifer on Kohala mountain. Very little chlorine is needed and no VOG added.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

I just can't believe some of the posters on this forum. The OP asked a simple question about a screening an existing catchment tank, and three pages later only a handful have given any helpful suggestions! If you don't have an answer to someone's question, why not just stay silent? Why do you have to start a new argument on whether or not catchment water is good for you -- I'm sure the tens of thousands of people on catchment would like to have a choice but they don't.

If you feel so strongly about an issue, then start your own thread. Don't high jack someone else's!

[Due]

I like the bamboo fence idea for screening the tank: inexpensive and easy to replace if necessary.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

A coat of green paint or some color that blends in better with the landscape might be a good start.

Excellent idea. I have a friend who painted her tank dark green, and even without anything in front of it, it's much less obtrusive than it was with the bare metal sides.. Combine that with the hibiscus planting in front and I think it would work especially well.

Then plant what ever type of shrubbery you want, although I'd suspect you'd not want anything that would grow overly tall and drop leaves in/on it. The cover should help keep them out of the tank, but if the shrubs were too tall, then there'd be leaves on the cover to remove.

That's part of why I suggested leaving space, maybe 4' or more, between the tank and the plants, rather than putting them right up against it. Keeping the plants topped off at whatever height you find appealing will also help. I have a neighbor who just lets his hibiscus go, and they're well over 20' tall!

I keep thinking putting in underground cisterns - although more pricey - would be much more aesthetically appealing. At least, until the next big earthquake.

Yeah, the big spinmolded polyethylene tanks they manufacture in Kea'au are good for that, because they are unlikely to crack in an earthquake like concrete tanks can. Some people just partially sink them into the ground, to provide stability. Although it's more expensive, another option is putting in two 5,000 gallon tanks instead of a single 10,000 gallon tank, which makes siting easier in some cases, and allows for alternate side maintenance. Most of the earthquake damage to tanks occurs due to the water sloshing around. The "swimming pool" type tanks are most prone to collapse due to that.

Perhaps a sun deck on top of the tank?

Or a lanai. There's a picture on page 18 of the CTAHR Rainwater Manual of a house with a poured concrete tank under the porch. My concern there would be having enough room for a worker to get inside and clean it periodically. Federal guidelines call for doing that every three years.

There are lots of different approaches. Anyone who has a rainwater catchment system, or is considering one should get the CTAHR manual and read it. It's very informative. And I've found that the author, Patricia Macomber is very helpful. I contacted her through the County Extension office in Hilo about 4 years ago with questions about ceramic dome filters and she was very helpful.