Casa de Tortugas - Stories
English
Our water catch system is working well
We had a design from the start but some parts needed adjusting once they were put into use. The part that needed the most iterations was the section that feeds into our catch funnel. The funnel has a screen to keep debris out of the tanks.
The first draft simply dumped a straight pipe into the funnel, but that caused problems when there was too little or too much rain. The water would fall short of the funnel or it would shoot over the funnel missing it completely.
Next we used a 45 elbow to force the water into the funnel. This helped a lot but we discovered that when it rained very hard, the funnel couldn't take all that water and it would simply splash all over the place. Plus our bypass pipe would get highly pressurized when the tanks were full during these heavy rains. We don't have the bypass pipes glued because they shouldn't get pressurized and we want to be able to take them apart if needed. So one time, the pressure got so high it popped the bypass apart at the elbows.
Finally, we came up with a system that works perfectly. It is an elbow with a straight pipe attached and another elbow. The straight pipe has holes cut in it to let water fall through and a screen wrapped around it to help keep debris out of the main funnel. The funnel still has a screen for extra protection. Now when it rains lightly, the tube fills up and water drains through the holes into the funnel. When it rains very hard, most of the water shoots out the end of the elbow but some still drains through the straight pipe. This keeps our tanks full, prevents overloading the funnel, and allows heavy rain to bypass right before the funnel.
At the top of the tanks, we have a 2" pipe that feeds into each tank. At the end of the feeder pipe is a set of elbows that cause the water to go up hill just a bit. This lets the water fill the tank but when they are full the water continues up and over the elbows. Then it drop down to join the lower bypass that sits on the ground. At the start of this top pipe is a clean-out that fills with water when the valve is closed and catches any debris that gets past the screens. Every few weeks we open the bypass to flush any debris. Our system does a really good job of catching water and keeping debris out. We are very happy with what we have now.
| We have sloths! Published 22-Dec-2024 | Bocas Weather Published 21-Dec-2024 |
Previous
Close