On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:59:49 +0000, aemeijers wrote:

dnoyeB wrote:
I decided to build a cistern so I can use the water from my sump pit on
my grass. the sump does not produce enough GPM so ill need the
reservoir to be able to run the pump without cycling continuously.

It will be 600 to 1000 gallons. Right now it will be 10' long 4' wide
and 4' to 5' deep.

I planning to have 8" thick concrete base and the walls will be
concrete blocks. My question is, do I need rebar anywhere? and do the
walls need to be filled with cement? any rebar in the walls?

Its looking to be 5 blocks high and its going to be in the ground. Any
gotchas I should know about? Do I need to have any provisions for
drainage around the cistern footer?


Thanks,


Carl
A tight daylight lid to keep down mosquitoes? Why reinvent the wheel? Go
to nearest farmer ag supply store, and look at the premade plastic
tanks. Leakproof, and likely as cheap as rolling your own, unless you
value your time at nothing. Something to keep daylight off it, and it
will likely last longer than you will. If you insist on concrete and
below ground, call local precast place and see what septic tanks,
installed, go for. I've used a new one as a cistern to capture a ground
water layer (a spring, really) for non-potable water use. It worked
great. 50 feet of corrugated plastic in a gravel layer feeding in,
another leading out, and the thing never went dry, and the water was
always cold and clear. It probably would have passed lab tests for
drinkable, it just was outside of accepted code.

I would gladly buy a tank if I could find a store locally. $1000 gallon
tanks cost about $600 and delivery is just about as much. I live in
Michigan, Detroit, and just can't see to find any such stores around
here. Maybe I don't know the right term to search for. I know we have
lots of septic systems in my city.