FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

[Bud]

I have mentioned my Rain Barrel setup before, for those who may be interested here is a bit more details. I came across a very innovative but not well known product made in Canada called Aqua Saver, which mounts high inside your gutter downspout and attaches to a garden hose, and it diverts rainwater to your Rain Barrel ANYWHERE you want to put it ( you are not stuck with barrel sitting under your downspout). I don’t have this going into the usual boring 55 gal drum, but into a stylish Kind of southwestern mode terracotta colored 65 gal barrel sitting on my deck, the barrel is also made by the same Canadian company. Hmm…Those Canadian’s can surprise you at times (just kidding Adam). The first photo shows the first MOD I made, the valve system.. this is important because I keep this in an off position until I know the roof has been flushed off well. I know this works well, because the rain barrel was running low due to a dry spell, I was at work and my wife decided to open up the valve during a drizzle before a upcoming rain ( because I told her it’s ok after 10- 15 minutes of rain) Well I knew when she told me that she opened it was only lightly drizzling, and then later it rained harder. When I got home from work to check it, it was loaded with crap that was washed from the roof. I ended up draining all 65 gallons and rinsing the barrel out to start over- later in the day it rained hard I let the roof wash off for about 20 minutes, opened the valve, and within an hour I had 65 gallons of clean water in the barrel (yes they fill up quick in a hard rain).

This Barrel came with a very narrow, I think, ½ inch outlet hose which mounts to the bottom of the barrel. The first time the valve was opened, the flow came out barely more than a trickle, I looked at the water coming out and thought, I could pee faster than this, this will not do. Hence the second Mod; I got some 1” adaptors and 1” hose and after hooking this up was able to fill a 2 ½ gallon watering can in about 15 seconds.

Please note; there seems to be a little debate whether roof water is safe for CP’S, my educated guess is that if you wait for the roof to flush off well, it should be ok, My plants are doing ok so far. I also will have to keep up with keeping a Bog garden watered so I’m taking the hopeful chance it will work; you will have to make your own determination if it will be safe for your plants.

Good growing
Bud

WBvalves.jpg (24.7 KiB) Viewed 5167 times

[kevinqwe]

thats really cool

[WORMSS]

If it wasn't for the gigantic pipe, you would have never guessed it was a Water barrel..
I might have 1 suggestion for a modiforcation for its Filling to Hide that [sorry to say] horrible looking pipe going to the top..

If you are able to get right in side... Have the "inlet pipe" attached at the bottom but on the INSIDE where it attaches at the bottom have a pipe that goes Vertically upwards..
that way you dont have to worry about the pressure of the water forcing the water back out..
and I know it will have enough force to go up since its doing the Upwards travel Already, but it would be Internally this time..
I will draw a picture in a moment to show better what I mean incase I'm not very clear..

edit: removed picture

[Matt]

Very cool Bud. I got a food grade water barrel off of craigslist for $15. I'm planning on setting it up once I get out to my new home in Oregon. I wish it looked as nice as yours, but for $15 I won't complain. Now I just have to buy something to modify the downspout. Perhaps I can get that tube you have from the Canadian company.

Did you purchase it online? Would you mind posting a link or information about where I can find it?

[Bud]

If it wasn't for the gigantic pipe, you would have never guessed it was a Water barrel..
I might have 1 suggestion for a modiforcation for its Filling to Hide that [sorry to say] horrible looking pipe going to the top..

Wormss
The Barrel does fill from towards the bottom, almost the way you have in that great looking graphic of yours, but without the 90 elbow and pipe going up, there’s no need for that; that is the first photo where you see the garden hose going into the Valued T section (that is out of view). The Horrible looking pipe is not the inlet hose but actually my large valved Outlet hose Mod that I fill my Watering Can with. If I want to I can easily tuck that behind that barrel or lay it on the ground, However, although aesthetics are important to me, I use that hose sometimes several times a day to water my plants, CP’S & non Cp’s, so it’s practical to have it where I can just grab it and use it. Although Homes & Garden would not find it appealing, I don't think it's all that 'horrible" looking considering the practical purpose it provides.

Good growing
Bud

[Bud]

Very cool Bud. I got a food grade water barrel off of craigslist for $15. I'm planning on setting it up once I get out to my new home in Oregon. I wish it looked as nice as yours, but for $15 I won't complain. Now I just have to buy something to modify the downspout. Perhaps I can get that tube you have from the Canadian company.

Did you purchase it online? Would you mind posting a link or information about where I can find it?

Matt, I found the “Aqua Saver” at a specialized garden center about 25 minutes from my home. The funny thing is I didn’t know about this Garden Center until I was searching all over the place (even large well known nursery/ garden centers) for un-amended Perlite for my CP’s- every place had the Miracle Grow, but only this place had pure clean Perlite (“Hoffman” I believe). Anyway that’s where I came across this system, it is really well designed where if you stop the flow or the flow is too fast; it just spills over and it comes out the gutter as it normally would, here’s a link to the product with an install Vid.

http://www.dsdinternational.net/catalog ... en&secure=

It was about $35 , It’s a bit expensive for plastic parts but it would have taken me all day to probably design and build a similar concept of my own.
Good Growing
Bud

[Bud]

For Wormss-who likes a clean look

[Bud]

One very last thing I should mention is where I have the hose going into the barrel- I have a brass quick disconnect- hose connection. This allows me to disconnect the hose completely and flush the hose also, before opening the valve to my barrel, this helps reduce as much as possible anything I don’t want from reaching my barrel, the only other thing I thought about adding; was to add some sort of filter- but that’s for a later project.

Bud

[WORMSS]

ahh, sorry, i thuoght that pipe going to the top was the Inlet.. .. in that case, everything i said above is mute.. lol