Barrels for rain water- garden use

[David Page]

Can you clean and use a Bovadine sanitizing tweet dip (Iodine) Barrel to catch rain water and use in the garden? Didn't think I spelled it that way, but maybe I was just twittering away.

 

[Russell King]

Why do you sanitize tweets?

 

[SidecarFlip]

Certainly but IBC totes work much better

Why do you sanitize tweets?

Have to ask Trump about sanitizing tweets.....lol

Me think he meant teat

 

[SidecarFlip]

IBC totes work better, hold more water

 

[bearbait]

Lol, nice to see there's more than one of us.

 

[bucktail]

Wondering why you need to. Does algae plug the soaker hose?

 

[SidecarFlip]

Wondering why you need to. Does algae plug the soaker hose?

What I did was I covered my IBC totes with black plastic sheet film (weedblocker) available at any farm or box store. I took the plastic container out of the cage and sprayed it with 3M spray contact adhesive and laid on the film and put it back in the cage. That eliminates the sunlight and the algae growth entirely. I use 2 totes, each 300 gallons capacity tied into the gutters on the shop with downspout screened diverters on each feed to keep the junk out of the totes. I use mine for equipment washdown primarily with a 110 volt 'Pony' pump supplying the head pressure for the pressure washer pump. Never run out of water.

Used that setup for 5 years now. Got the totes for free from my retired from employer who got truck wash chemicals in them.

We have a high concentration of dissolved calcium in the well water so well water leaves a nice white film on everything. Not good.

 

[David Page]

Wondering why you need to. Does algae plug the soaker hose?

We had a dry summer and had to water with our hose, the sewer bill is figured off the water we use and that part is much higher than the water bill. So just looking for ways to extend what we get for rain in a dry year.

 

[sheepfarmer]

We had a dry summer and had to water with our hose, the sewer bill is figured off the water we use and that part is much higher than the water bill. So just looking for ways to extend what we get for rain in a dry year.

As far as I can tell the Bovadine should all be water soluble, and so you should be able to rinse out the residue pretty thoroughly. Any slight remainder seems unlikely to hurt your garden plants. However handling and disposing of the undiluted Bovadine might be harder, see the MSDS for it. Toxic to aquatic organisms etc.