Anyone using a rain water recovery system

[captskip9]

I am setting up a rain water collection and storage system and need to know what problems to look for.I know you can't drink it till you treat it and filter it but will bleach
be ok to stablize the water.i am planning on two 55 gal drums with screens on top
with overflow hoses and a tap on the side
to attach a hose to get the water to other places.I will have the drums about 4 Feet up for a little pressure .I can attach the drums to my house water system in case of a water cut off. Please post any better ideas you have.

 

[Kathy in WV]

Sounds good to me. I'm wanting to put one of those metal stock tanks under my gutter to catch the rain for watering my garden. Since I don't want to drink it we plan on putting a couple of goldfish in it to keep the mosquitoes down. What I would really like is a cistern in my basement with gutters running into it-- maybe someday!

 

[theoutlands]

I sorta have one... Trailer-house gutters don't catch much, but Louisiana has had some phenominal rains this year. I have 3 corners "manned" by 33gal Rubbermaid trashcans and the fourth corner "manned" by a 55-gal plastic drum. Soon as I get some hose arrangements made, we'll be watering animals with them. Right now, we use them to water the garden-beds and to breed mosquitoes...

 

[Joey]

water catchment

We have been using water catchment for 18 years. It is a standard way in rural Hawaii. We have plenty of rain here. People here sometimes use a doughtboy swimming pool to hold their water. We have a cinderblock tank with a food grade liner.
We have a whole house filter sytem and pumb. We use a Big Berkey water filter for our drinking water. The only other way to get water here is to have it trucked in. It means we don't have a
water bill each month and we haven't had to buy a truck load of water in years. It also means we have to conserve water during dry periods so we don't have to buy. After the initial cost of the cinderblock tank, liner, pumb, and holding tank, we have free water. We also power wash our roof every few months and pay someone to clean our tank once a year. We have no trees close to the house to prevent leafs from getting into the tank. It works for a lot of people here.
Aloha,
Joey

 

[juco]

Maybe Black Seal will wander over , when I was in Bermuda years back, I recall seeing some rain water collection systems on some of the houses, but i don't recall how they were set up.
Probably something similar to what Joey described.