collecting rain water

[gilima]

I would appreciate any info and suggestions any of you have.
we live in south florida so we get a lot of rain especially now - the rainy season.during the cooler dryer season we use water from the canal (aka swamp) in the back for all our gardening etc;
but now we would like to store water for personal use and after reading up a bit about collecting rain water Iam even more confused - and instead of saving $$ I need to purchase all these " supplies" ???? hopefully one of you can simplify it for me.
so, we have a tile roof, which dh just pressure washed to get all the dirt,muck and mold off. he is installing 2 new gutters.
could we just buy big plastic bins and rig our own "rain barrels"?
Is plastiic a problem with the chemicals leaching into the water?
Is it enough to let the rain clean the roof first and then let the flow into the barrel?
do any of you use this for drinking?
I do have more questions but I think this is enough for starters...:giggle:

[3monkeys]

we only have rain water as our water source. It goes from our roof to our tank (the big plastic kind) into our home, bird poo and all. But in saying that we live in a very very clean place and the community centre bottles and sells the rainwater with just UV treatment and its never tested postive for anything. And theres always a seagull or 10 on that roof.

I guess the inital outlay will be a lot maybe. COuld you get a plumber or 2 to quote? But once you are on tank water you will never go back........ so much nicer.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Eeeeuuuuuuuwwww.... No bird poop in our tanks. Or dead birds either.

we use a home made filter system, which sometimes strains through pohutakawa pollen (wrote note to self, never fill water tank in pollen seasons) which made it taste funny. Drained tanks and started again.

We got large plastic tanks which are non-toxic, and don't leach any chemicals into the water. You have to build proper bases for the tanks. Yes it costs money to set up. Yes, you can use Heath Robinson filter systems (aka pantyhose stretched over linked, overlaped down-pipes. Yes, it costs money.

But it's worth it, as it's a one off cost.

However, it's only worth it, if you aren't shifting every few months.

[3monkeys]

I havent looked in our tank for fear of dead animals................

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

I learned the hard way. Found all the skeletons at the bottom of the tank 27 years ago, when we cleaned out the school tank at Waipipi.

Right then... decided that there had to be a better way.

Now, all the commercial rain water tanks have a filter system, and you can't get dead carcasses in it... there were even some bird skeletons in there... rats and birds... was gross.

[3monkeys]

we really need to clean our tank out. Just worried that we will empty it, clean it and then it wont rain for a week, but then I guess where we live there is no chance of that :)

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

We've just scrubbed down the two roof segments, and cleared the drains. Heavy rain forcast for this afternoon, but usually cleaning the roof segments, is as good as a rain dance. It usually sunshines...

[3monkeys]

Do you have an alternative supply as well MT? Like town supply if you run out? We are tank only. Can stand the thought of running out of water.......

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Our rain water is only for drinking. We use tap water for everything else. But when we were at Waipipi, we only had tank water.