On Jan 13, 7:14*am, Godspeed wrote:
On Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:39:10 -0600, dpb wrote:
Flat bottom or round? *

Flat bottom and top.

Upright/horizontal? *

Upright. About 10 or 12 feet tall and about 8 or 10 feet wide. Cylinder.

Internal access?

Has about a 2-foot hatch on top for access. No ladder inside so I'm not
sure how you get to the bottom (or back up for that matter). I guess a thin
ladder would work.

As the well guy said, you can try but it's likely if it's rusted out in
one spot it's terribly thin in many.

It really "looks" good on the outside. I wonder if it's not just a pipe
leak somewhere on the bottom.

You possibly could simply rotate it 180 and extend life;

I don't think something that big can be moved.

If this is just a residential installation, why such a large tank

Large? I asked the well guy why everyone had 3 or 4 tanks and I only had 2
and he said anything over 10,000 gallons needs special earthquake
foundations so everyone just puts in a set of small 5,000 gallon tanks. So,
5,000 gallons, out here, is small since I can see on google clusters of 3,
4, and 5 tanks all around.

not using a pressure pump? *Could potentially go w/ a much smaller
pressure tank far cheaper.

There is a 3-foot tall blue pressure tank in the well housing that has a
motor that pressurizes the water to about 80 psi (said the well guy). That
pressure tank is about 2 feet wide. Dunno exactly what it's for but it
seems to hold the pressureized water (all the water except the water to the
fire hydrant).

OP-

You've got a lot of smart. experienced guys trying to help you out
here but "situation" is not being laid out very clearly.

Where are you located? The tank is on wood slats, are they on a
concrete pad? How big is the pad?
Why do oyu need 5000 gallons? Or do you need even more? Something
about fire fighting?

Now oyu mention that perhaps fittings are leaking and not the tank.
The tank may only be rusted externally, poor maintainance?
Maybe the leak saturated the wood slats and promoted external
corrosion?

The details are coming out bit by bit. Now there is a second tank?
How long have the neighboring tanks lasted?

Galv steel can last a long time with non-corrosiove water quality.

If the tank is sound except for the bottom (as per other post) it
"could" reworked. A skilled welder could rig this thing, cut the
bottom off and repair but field repairs are hard to make as good as
new factory fabrication.

Call around and see if a welder can "do it all" .....don't drag the
guy out there for a bid, you'll be wasting his time.
Have all the details (measurements, installation, etc) so you can
answer his questions on the phone.

Check out new tanks online....delivered, I'll bet (unless your in BFE)
less than $3000. Installation extra.
With the price of a new tank (with installation if oyu cannot do it
yourself).......you'll know if a repair is worth while

From my keyboard, I recommend a repair if its less than $1000 and
start saving for a new one. Or can you get by with only one tank for
a while?
What is your well production rate?

But if you're going to own a property with a well, better plan on
getting handy or keep that check book ready.

cheers
Bob