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Erik
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Joined: 12 Feb 2008
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Location: Big Island of Hawaii On the slope of Mauna Loa 4500 feet mag 7 sky :)
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 Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 5:12 pm Post subject: installing water catchment tank |
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I'm headed back to Hawaii in a few weeks to finally install a 7500 gallon water catchment tank next to our cabin. It has to be set on #4 sand, and perfectly level. We cleared and dozed a 40 foot spot for it in February, so it's all ready to go. We're probably going to wait on the actual "catchment" part, as I'm not sure I trust the roof of our cabin as a clean, safe, drinking source. It's been shown that lead and other chemicals can be leached from roofing nails, paints, sealers, etc., from a roof. Additionally, our roof isn't pitched very much, so it wouldn't be very effective for water transfer. So we may wait for that part until we build our octagon house. But it's a start! We'll have the tank filled, and at least have running water up there. 
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-Erik Wilcox
Homebuilt 16" Truss Dob
SV 80mm ED Nighthawk NG on M1 ALT/AZ
Nikon Prostaff 65mm spotter on Trekpod
Konusvue 20x80 binos/Peterson pipemount
Orion 10x50 binos
Homebuilt 80mm f/5 refractor
Mirador 60mm f/12 1960's refractor
Evolution is both fact and theory. Creationism is neither. -Anonymous |
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Erik
Site Admin
Joined: 12 Feb 2008
Posts: 3089
Location: Big Island of Hawaii On the slope of Mauna Loa 4500 feet mag 7 sky :)
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| Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 7:09 pm Post subject: |
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I talked to the tank company today, and they're going to deliver it to our place on June 3. We'll have to assemble it, of course, but we have everything we need, including the cover, overflow, and solar pump.
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-Erik Wilcox
Homebuilt 16" Truss Dob
SV 80mm ED Nighthawk NG on M1 ALT/AZ
Nikon Prostaff 65mm spotter on Trekpod
Konusvue 20x80 binos/Peterson pipemount
Orion 10x50 binos
Homebuilt 80mm f/5 refractor
Mirador 60mm f/12 1960's refractor
Evolution is both fact and theory. Creationism is neither. -Anonymous |
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Erik
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Joined: 12 Feb 2008
Posts: 3089
Location: Big Island of Hawaii On the slope of Mauna Loa 4500 feet mag 7 sky :)
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| Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 7:52 pm Post subject: |
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Well, I'm back from Hawaii, and we got the tank installed! A big thanks to our friend, Frank, for all the help. He had done this many times before, so it was nice to have someone that actually knew what they were doing. I sure didn't! 
Anyway, here are a few pics. We started with some base course rock, to level out the perimeter:
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-Erik Wilcox
Homebuilt 16" Truss Dob
SV 80mm ED Nighthawk NG on M1 ALT/AZ
Nikon Prostaff 65mm spotter on Trekpod
Konusvue 20x80 binos/Peterson pipemount
Orion 10x50 binos
Homebuilt 80mm f/5 refractor
Mirador 60mm f/12 1960's refractor
Evolution is both fact and theory. Creationism is neither. -Anonymous |
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Erik
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Joined: 12 Feb 2008
Posts: 3089
Location: Big Island of Hawaii On the slope of Mauna Loa 4500 feet mag 7 sky :)
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| Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 7:55 pm Post subject: |
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Then we shoveled #4 sand (5 yards worth!) into the back of Frank's truck and brought it down the driveway to unload by hand. The big sand truck couldn't get down my steep driveway, so we forced to do everything by hand, including all the base course. 15 tons of rock and sand total. My wrist still hurts from all the shoveling!
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-Erik Wilcox
Homebuilt 16" Truss Dob
SV 80mm ED Nighthawk NG on M1 ALT/AZ
Nikon Prostaff 65mm spotter on Trekpod
Konusvue 20x80 binos/Peterson pipemount
Orion 10x50 binos
Homebuilt 80mm f/5 refractor
Mirador 60mm f/12 1960's refractor
Evolution is both fact and theory. Creationism is neither. -Anonymous |
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Erik
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Joined: 12 Feb 2008
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Location: Big Island of Hawaii On the slope of Mauna Loa 4500 feet mag 7 sky :)
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| Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 7:56 pm Post subject: |
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After meticulously checking to make sure everything was level, we installed the walls of the tank, which come in sections and are bolted together:
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-Erik Wilcox
Homebuilt 16" Truss Dob
SV 80mm ED Nighthawk NG on M1 ALT/AZ
Nikon Prostaff 65mm spotter on Trekpod
Konusvue 20x80 binos/Peterson pipemount
Orion 10x50 binos
Homebuilt 80mm f/5 refractor
Mirador 60mm f/12 1960's refractor
Evolution is both fact and theory. Creationism is neither. -Anonymous |
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Square_peg
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Joined: 16 Feb 2008
Posts: 668
Location: Maple Valley, WA
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| Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 7:56 pm Post subject: |
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Excellent. You could always install a water filtration system if you find your roof doesn't give you good water.
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Tom (Pegster) |
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Erik
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Joined: 12 Feb 2008
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Location: Big Island of Hawaii On the slope of Mauna Loa 4500 feet mag 7 sky :)
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| Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 7:56 pm Post subject: |
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_________________
-Erik Wilcox
Homebuilt 16" Truss Dob
SV 80mm ED Nighthawk NG on M1 ALT/AZ
Nikon Prostaff 65mm spotter on Trekpod
Konusvue 20x80 binos/Peterson pipemount
Orion 10x50 binos
Homebuilt 80mm f/5 refractor
Mirador 60mm f/12 1960's refractor
Evolution is both fact and theory. Creationism is neither. -Anonymous |
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Erik
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Joined: 12 Feb 2008
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Location: Big Island of Hawaii On the slope of Mauna Loa 4500 feet mag 7 sky :)
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| Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 7:57 pm Post subject: |
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We installed a gasket to avoid tearing the food grade liner:
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-Erik Wilcox
Homebuilt 16" Truss Dob
SV 80mm ED Nighthawk NG on M1 ALT/AZ
Nikon Prostaff 65mm spotter on Trekpod
Konusvue 20x80 binos/Peterson pipemount
Orion 10x50 binos
Homebuilt 80mm f/5 refractor
Mirador 60mm f/12 1960's refractor
Evolution is both fact and theory. Creationism is neither. -Anonymous |
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Square_peg
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Joined: 16 Feb 2008
Posts: 668
Location: Maple Valley, WA
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| Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 7:59 pm Post subject: |
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Ahh. I was about to ask how the tank was sealed. A liner is a great idea.
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Tom (Pegster) |
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Erik
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Joined: 12 Feb 2008
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Location: Big Island of Hawaii On the slope of Mauna Loa 4500 feet mag 7 sky :)
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| Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 7:59 pm Post subject: |
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After installing the liner (which I don't seem to have a picture of), we installed a pitched cover, which uses long 1" steel tubes to support it (they'd make nice truss tubes- very solid). Here is the finished tank- we added a rope to keep animals out:
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-Erik Wilcox
Homebuilt 16" Truss Dob
SV 80mm ED Nighthawk NG on M1 ALT/AZ
Nikon Prostaff 65mm spotter on Trekpod
Konusvue 20x80 binos/Peterson pipemount
Orion 10x50 binos
Homebuilt 80mm f/5 refractor
Mirador 60mm f/12 1960's refractor
Evolution is both fact and theory. Creationism is neither. -Anonymous |
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Erik
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Joined: 12 Feb 2008
Posts: 3089
Location: Big Island of Hawaii On the slope of Mauna Loa 4500 feet mag 7 sky :)
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| Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Square_peg wrote: | | Excellent. You could always install a water filtration system if you find your roof doesn't give you good water. |
Well, we're probably just going to buy water until we build a new place. Our cabin is only 400 square feet, and the roof isn't suitable for catchment- at least, not for drinking water. Down the road, we'll definitely be doing a full catchment system, but for now, storage (and conservation!) is our main goal.
_________________
-Erik Wilcox
Homebuilt 16" Truss Dob
SV 80mm ED Nighthawk NG on M1 ALT/AZ
Nikon Prostaff 65mm spotter on Trekpod
Konusvue 20x80 binos/Peterson pipemount
Orion 10x50 binos
Homebuilt 80mm f/5 refractor
Mirador 60mm f/12 1960's refractor
Evolution is both fact and theory. Creationism is neither. -Anonymous |
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Seantóir
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Joined: 05 Mar 2008
Posts: 2076
Location: Area 14, Kildare, Ireland
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| Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:09 pm Post subject: |
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What material will you use for the roof and guttering of the new house?
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John
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Erik
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Joined: 12 Feb 2008
Posts: 3089
Location: Big Island of Hawaii On the slope of Mauna Loa 4500 feet mag 7 sky :)
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| Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:12 pm Post subject: |
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We're going to buy a kit house, which uses a roof suitable for catchment. But I'm not sure what the material is- I'll look into that and find out. The main concern with catchment water is usually the roofing nails, which can contain lead.
_________________
-Erik Wilcox
Homebuilt 16" Truss Dob
SV 80mm ED Nighthawk NG on M1 ALT/AZ
Nikon Prostaff 65mm spotter on Trekpod
Konusvue 20x80 binos/Peterson pipemount
Orion 10x50 binos
Homebuilt 80mm f/5 refractor
Mirador 60mm f/12 1960's refractor
Evolution is both fact and theory. Creationism is neither. -Anonymous |
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