worth the risk? commercial water butts.....

[Irish-Veg]

so a local person is selling those large commercial water butts for €40, im attaching a link to what they look like. . I could easily fit drain pipes to collect water for my veg garden... but the person said adhesives were in them beforehand, thus there are some solids blocks inside them.....only little bits mind you but yeah as I garden organically, im not sure what to do.... as in will the adhesives leach etc Im trying to find out what types exactly were in them before.....

http://s4.gardenersworld.com/uploads...t=250&mode=max

[RedThorn]

IBC's are great, assuming the prior contents were safe...

They store 1000 litres which is literally a tonne. You'll need to coat the outside to stop algae growth

[Alison]

I've not coated mine and don't have any algal problems so I wouldn't worry about that too much.

[Irish-Veg]

yeah it will beat carrying the watering can 30metres every time haha! and with all the rain Ireland gets

I think ill go for it

[binley100]

We can fix a hosepipe to ours......works quite well with a spray gun attachment . Means we can direct it where needed and I'm not sploshing water out of cans carrying them round the plot. The joys of having a slight slope......

[Printemps]

The algae growth in my translucent IBCs was so thick it reminded me of school boiled cabbage! This photo through the lid shows the algae blocking the outlet (red arrowed).



I removed the tank from its cradle, cleaned it out thoroughly adding bleach to ensure no re-growth, then wrapped it up in black polythene before placing it back in its cage.



Someone suggested covering these tanks with black butyl, the stuff used for lining ponds, but I doubt if you'd get the tank back in its cage as it would be too thick.



I just have to rig up an external water gauge now!

[binley100]

I think the amount of algae growth may be related to how much sun it recieves....ours is in a shady spot and so far seems to be ok.

[Samurailord]

We have three on our allotment as the only water supply, but they are all in a sunny spot and hence have plenty of algae in them.

Andy

[arpoet]

These are great if you have shed that is in a tree free place and can divert the water into it.
But, the price seem a bit steep. We got ours for 15 quid from a scrap yard, plus 10 quid for a guy on our lotties with a big van.
Ours had once contained fish oil so no problem to use after a quick wash out.