On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 21:08:50 -0400, "Jimmie D"
wrote:

I m trying to find out about the care and feeding of a cistern. Its about 15
ft across and looks like it was suppose to be about 3 ft deep, guessing 2000
gal.. There is a 3 inch pipe flush with the bottom and I assume this was for
draining it and two other pipes ,one about a third of the way from the
bottom and the other about a third the way from the top. I figure one is the
gozinta pipe and the other is the gozouta pipe but dont know which is which.
I know it was built in 1974 and used for about 10 years before the owner
decided to try other ways to treat his well water. Water is fairly alkaline
ph8.5 has a lot of calcium iron and sulphurand sediment. I know the cistern
was used for aeration, chlorination and ph adjustment. Chemicals were added
to the cistern daily for this. The owner got tired of the daily regime and
started trying various filters, auto chlorinators and maybe RO but the water
was never as good as when he used the cistern. Any ifo on using the cistern
would be greatly appreciated.


The house my sons purchased about 5 years ago has two cisterns
....about 5000 gallons between the two ... The house is close to if not
over 100 years old..the cisterns date to the late 60's... Drilling a
well was an option..but they discovered that the local wells had a
tendency to run muddy or cave in...

They have water "tanked in" about every month or so from a near by
town at a cost of about 35 bucks a month... which is not bad when the
cost of drilling a well (not guarenteed to produce water) would run
them close to 7000 big ones according to the estimates they have
received..

Yes they do have a filter ... originally they had to run down to the
basement to switch from one cistern to the other... that was corrected
a few months ago now switching cistern is just a matter of pushing a
button .. They have though about collecting water etc and feeding it
to the cisterns BUT at this point its just not worth the effort and
with 2 cisterns running out of water has never been a problem (crossed
fingers)

PS:
Until they purchased the house I never even knew that cisterns
were still used... they had absolutely no problems getting financing
etc and to date they are satisfied with it.

Bob G.