pacificobob
Super Nomad
Posts: 2308
Registered: 4-23-2006
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concrete block water tanks
does anyone have experience with building or maintaince of these? would i be better off with a series of roto-molded tanks? id like to have about 4
thousand gallons capaciity. ive have also considered an underground concrete block tank.
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Bruce R Leech
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Location: Ensenada formerly Mulege
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Mood: A lot cooler than Mulege
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I built a 44.000 thousand gallon swimming pool with Block about 15 years ago and never a crack. just use a lot of steel.
Bruce R Leech
Ensenada
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comitan
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Or come over to La Paz , and buy 5,000 or 10,000 liter Plastic? tanks then never a problem if you install them correctly!
Strive For The Ideal, But Deal With What\'s Real.
Every day is a new day, better than the day before.(from some song)
Lord, Keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.
“The sincere pursuit of truth requires you to entertain the possibility that everything you believe to be true may in fact be false”
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pacificobob
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10k liter!
sounds like it might be a good idea...any idea of what a 10k tank costs?
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DENNIS
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Dont know the cost but you really have to know what you're doing if you plan to put it in the ground. Improperly buried, they will collapse when
empty. If it's above ground, be sure to buy a black tank. Keeps out the sun and algae growth.
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pacificobob
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a lot to consider
im getting more aware that there are a number of ways a guy could bone this up, and have a large concrete monument to a lack of homework. id really
like it to be around 6k gallons. several 10k liter tanks under a shelter? or...concrete above or below ground...i have no idea how to engineer it..
need to find out ...any help will be recieved gratfully
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comitan
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Here in Comitan we get water in 10K tanker trucks, Most everyone has 10K-12K
cisterns and they last from 2 weeks to 6 weeks depending on how conservative you are. I don't understand why you want such a large water system?
Some people here have put them in the ground with block walls around, The original instructions called for a concrete slury.
Strive For The Ideal, But Deal With What\'s Real.
Every day is a new day, better than the day before.(from some song)
Lord, Keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.
“The sincere pursuit of truth requires you to entertain the possibility that everything you believe to be true may in fact be false”
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pacificobob
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water rights
i have a small huerta and i have water rights for 5 hours a week. (8in pipe with a generous flow!) so i need a weeks water to irrigate 4 acres of
trees....i had a presa...but they are hard to keep clean, filtered and raise hell with a drip system..therefore the need for such a huge volume.
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comitan
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Just put in a underground cistern, made with block,but make sure they reinforce it good it sounds like the size of a pool, My pool I knocked the ends
out of the block and put rebar in every hole then filled with concrete. Concrete columns in each corner, and one maybe 6 blocks depending on the size
of the cisturn. They will know how to finish.
Strive For The Ideal, But Deal With What\'s Real.
Every day is a new day, better than the day before.(from some song)
Lord, Keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.
“The sincere pursuit of truth requires you to entertain the possibility that everything you believe to be true may in fact be false”
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longlegsinlapaz
Super Nomad
Posts: 1685
Registered: 11-18-2005
Location: La Paz
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I've had a block 17K liter cistern 3/4 under ground & 1/4 above, and a 17K under the garage floor....I vote for totally underground because of the
water temperature. I bought water from a 15K liter peepa every 6+ weeks. I never experienced a problem with either cistern...other than the water
temp. I do have pics of the early stage construction on the one under the garage if you're interested, I could e-mail them.....I lost my ability to
resize pics to post here...& haven't been able to figure out how to get it back!! 
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pacificobob
Super Nomad
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photos
love to see em!, thanks, check u2u
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oladulce
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We’ve used both, below are some of the things I’ve experienced with them:
Plastic:
•Much less expensive
•The lids don’t seal real tight. If you live in a dusty environment, dirt will filter through the lid no matter how tight you put it on.
•The tanks should be protected from the sun. Even the black tanks will start to warp after about 5 or 6 years of direct desert sun.
•The fill lines are at the top of the tank and exposed to the sun (if outside). The pvc fill lines will deteriorate.
•If installed above ground they take up a lot of space. As mentioned above, if installed underground, you need to make sure the soil is dense enough,
or compacted properly so the tank won’t collapse when empty.
•The float valves require regular maintenance to keep them working properly
•If they are above ground, and you don’t have decent security, they are easy to steal. My neighbor lost two of them a few years back.
We had the black plastic tanks and buried them. After a while we built an enclosure over the tanks to keep dirt from filtering in and to keep the sun
off the lid and fill lines. When we sold our place they had been in the ground for about 10 years without a problem.
Concrete:
•If you put it underground it’s not visible and can serve two purposes. The lid of our tank is a walkway next to our garage, or like longlegs, put
the tank under the garage so the lid becomes the floor of the garage.
•Expensive. Building a concrete tank cost about the same as building a room in a house of about equal square footage (floor space). Even though the
walls are not as high as a house, the extra cement and rebar used in the tank walls, floor and footings will make the cost about the same per square
foot.
•If you build the tank and combine a wall and footing with part of your house or garage you can decrease the cost of building it.
•If you decide to build a concrete tank, don’t just hire some guy off the street to make it. You will need to have it engineered properly $$ and
plans drawn up by a reputable architect $$ to avoid structural problems.
•Although I’ve never heard of anyone having a leak (who built a concrete tank properly), finding the leak and repairing it would be difficult.
•The inside of the tank should be sealed.
Like longlegs we built our tank so part of it is above ground. The reason for this is that the lid attaches to the walls of the tank at a "cold
joint". This is an area where little roots can work their way into the tank and damage the cement. You will want this seam to be at least a few
inches above the ground.
If you want to use plastic tanks check Bob and Sue’s website: http://www.mulege.org/ProgressLinks/june2005/june2005.htm they have a really nice setup.
We just built a large underground concrete tank in our new house. If you decide to use concrete, I have some "lessons learned" I can share with you.
Let me know if you want more info.
[Edited on 11-23-2006 by oladulce]
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El Jefe
Super Nomad
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We have a 6,200 gallon concrete block tank under the garage. It is nice to have a large volume since it takes a while from the time we order water
until it gets delivered by the pipa. Sometimes just tracking down the driver takes a couple of days. When we are half empty we order. This way we
never get so low that we have to worry about running out. An additional factor is that it is great to have plenty of storage capacity during the
summer when storms can isolate us for weeks.
As my old pal Kent used to say, "Go big or stay home."
No b-tchin\' in the Baja.
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pacificobob
Super Nomad
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thanks
for your informative replies!..oladulce please check yout u2u
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Bob and Susan
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Location: Mulege BCS on the BAY
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we too fill when it's half empty....
you never have "too much" water
the only problem is that susan has trouble being called a "tunnel rat"
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