About various types of water tanks, their uses, their working methods, their positions, etc.

1. DETAILING OF VARIOUS TYPES OF WATER STORAGE TANKS.

2. DETAILING OF VARIOUS TYPES OF WATER STORAGE TANKS:
Introduction:
“Water is the source of every creation.” In day to day life one cannot live without
water. Therefore, water needs to be stored for daily use. Overhead water tank and
underground water reservoir is the most effective storing facilities used for
domestic or even industrial purpose.
Depending upon the location of the tank the tank can be named as overhead on
ground or underground. The tank can be made in different shapes usually circular
and rectangular shapes are mostly used. The tanks can be made of RCC or even of
steel. The overhead tanks are usually elevated from the roof top through column.
In the other hand the underground tanks are rested on the foundation.
Types of water tank:
Basing on the location of the tank in a building tanks can be classified into 3
categories.
 Underground Tanks
 Tank resting on ground
 Overhead tank
The most cases the underground and on ground tanks are circular or rectangular in
shape but the shape of the overhead tanks are influenced by the aesthetical view
of the surroundings and as well as the design of the construction.
Steel tanks are also used specially in railway yards. Basing on the shape the tanks
can be circular, rectangular, square, polygonal spherical and conical. A special type
of tank named Intze tank is used for storing large amount of water for an area. The
overhead tanks are supported by the column which acts as stages. This column can
be braced for increasing strength and as well as to improve the aesthetic view.

3. Basis of Design:
One of the vital considerations for designing of tanks is that the structure had
adequate resistance to cracking and has adequate strength for achieving this
following assumption are made: -
 Concrete is capable of resisting limited tensile stresses, the full section of
concrete including cover and reinforcement is taken into account in this
assumption.
 To guard against structural failure, in strength calculation the tensile strength
of concrete is ignored.
 Reduced values of permissible stress in steel are adopted in steel are
adopted in design.
Water tanks, what are they used for?
Water tanks usually have five main uses:
 water for the garden - basically water to do plant watering with, so
conserving water and saving you needing to use mains water;
 water for firefighting - very Australian, but an important usage none the less;
 water for drinking - rain water if stored in the correct tank is quite suitable
for drinking;
 water for washing - you can easily use this water for washing your clothes in,
and;
 Water for flushing the toilet - perfect for the job!
 cover peaks in demand
 smooth out variations in supply

4.  provide water security in case of supply interruptions or disaster
 save your home from fire
 meet legal requirements
 improve water quality
 provide thermal storage and freeze protection
 enable a smaller pipe to serve for a distant source
How big does the water storage tank need to be?
Given the above usage cases; how do you 'size' your water storage tank? The
trick here is to have enough storage to 'carry you through' the periods of no rain
given sufficient prior rain. The above positive/negative figure will give you a steer
on how likely being able to carry through will be, the more positive the easier with
adequate storage; the more negative the less worthwhile as a goal this is (so don't
bother getting such a big rain water tank).
The size you need also depends a lot on your rain fall patterns - if you have well
defined periods of the year that are 'wet' and 'dry' then you should aim to collect
as much as possible to carry across into the dry periods. If it’s more random and
equally distributed across the year, then you just need to hold enough to 'flatten
out' the random distribution (i.e. a quarter of a year’s total rainwater would be
more than adequate). Your consumption of the water also comes into play, if you
consume it all before it can be saved over the medium term, a large tank will spend
most of its life empty!
Although, from talking to many people on this issue, I always hear the same story;
namely 'I wish I had got a larger tank'. I think this is more down to the changing
weather patterns which have condensed what was previously a months worth of
rain into a day!
.

5. Water tank type?
Water tanks come on many different types, shapes, sizes and colours; but
can be grouped by final insulation location, as follows:
Tanks buried in the ground
These are either plastic or concrete. Plastic water tanks will be supplied as a
whole unit that is 'dropped' into the hole and filled over. Concrete water tanks
require form work, pouring, topping off and covering over. Plastic is in essence
quick and easy, concrete slower but more 'solid' - i.e. should last a lot longer.
Where it is viable to bury your tank is determined mostly by your budget and the
ease with which the required hole can be made. Also be aware of ground water on
the site, if this pools in the hole, you can end up with the empty tank literally
'floating' out of the hole...
For ex:

6. Tanks under the house
Unless you are building a new house, your only real option here is what are
known as 'bladder water tanks' - in effect a big rubber bladder that rests in a special
frame in the void space under your house. Big plus is that you don't have to dig holes
or take up yard space with a water tank. Downside is that the capacity is usually
limited and you pay a premium.
Tanks above ground

7. This is where you will find by far the biggest variety. Everyone and his wife
is either making or selling some form of above ground water tank. The trick here is
to use the right 'type' of tank for the size and expected life.
Above ground small plastic water tanks –
These go up to around 2000 litres and come in all manner of shapes: round,
square, cylinders, etc. They are mostly designed for use on the smaller plot where
finding somewhere to 'fit in' the tank can be hard. Often they end up mounted on a
small stand. Big downside with these is the lack of water storage and the fact UV
will degrade the plastic - so fixed life span (or keep them out the sun and/or paint
them).
Above ground big plastic water tanks –
These usually go up to 15k litres and are shipped to site whole and ideally
'dropped' right onto a special sand based pad that becomes their home. The big plus

8. here is that its ready to go. The big negatives is that they don't do well in a bush fire
and the UV will degrade the plastic over time - so have fixed lifespan.
Above ground metal water tanks –
Basically a big metal 'water butt' with some internal treatments to reduce
corrosion effects. These can go up to 150k litres typically. Cheap but the fact the
metal is performing two roles (structural and water lining) means they are
susceptible to failure due to movement - so they are often mounted on frames or
towers as part of the package. Also rusting puts a limited life on them.
Above ground concrete water tanks –
Basically a big reinforced concrete box or cylinder. These go up to the
millions of litres with a cost to match to boot. No problems with rusting, although
be careful on settlement as it could crack the tank. Also no way to move it once its
in place, so be darn sure you wanted it there.
Above ground metal water tanks with plastic liner –
Think of this as the 'bladder tank' going outdoors. The metal provides the
enclosing framework, whilst the liner does the job of keeping the water in. Big win
here is that settlement won't lose you water, and rusting doesn't make the tank leak.
Sizes up to millions of liters. Another plus is that the liner is often 'food grade' - so
good to drink from direct.
Is it all worth doing??
A whole load of factors come into this: some you can quantify, some down to a
lifestyle choice. The simple factual information is best worked out over the expected
lifetime of the various solutions you have available. i.e. look at things over 10 years
at least. Most good water tanks should still be functioning well after 10 years with a
little bit of TLC. So work out the amount of water 'saved' by the water tank compared
to say mains water, i.e. the cost of the tank water if you had it from the mains.
Subtract from that the actual full cost of the water tank and you get the nominal cost
now amount (no depreciation or price adjustments) you will save (positive) or loose
(negative) from utilizing a water tank over 10 years.
Then to that figure add on the cost of replacing any items you will 'loose' or be unable
to support without the mostly guaranteed supply of the water tank. I.e. think
expensive none drought tolerant plants (and veggies). Difficult to work out precisely
but for some people this could be a rather expensive replacement cost.

9. Another factor to consider, that is very Australian, is that in bush fire prone areas
having a large water tank with the right attachments can help the fire services in
fighting fires - so reducing the potential risk of fire damage to your property by
proxy... In theory your insurance should cover you, but I'd opt for doing without the
trouble in the first instance!
Where to put the water tank?
By now you should have an ideal figure for the amount of water you need to store,
so next you need to think about where to put it... Remember 1000 liters takes up 1
cubic meter (no getting away from that, its physics!). Also remember most tanks
come in height multiples of around a meter (plus 50 comes for the top). Also councils
have weird and wonderful restrictions about where the tank can go (think boundary
and overshadowing). Plus if it’s over 10k liter it will usually have to be covered
under some form of planning permission. So think about this hard. Also you can
have more than one tank easily enough and that might be cheaper than digging out
a massive hole. Also remember when you take the water 'out' of the tank you want
its water pressure to be of use to you if at all possible, i.e. put a tank high on your
plot under the 'highest' roof, so you can water your garden using just gravity and no
pump!
What about the run-off?
No matter which water tank you decide to put in - as soon as it fills up the excess
water will come out of an 'overflow' pipe. Now for a small tank and feed-in this is
not that much of an issue; but if your tank is feeding off more than about 200m2 of
roof area you could end up with quite a volume of water flowing out of that overflow.
Such a volume of water can result in significant localized flooding and erosion on
its own, so it pays to 'manage' this water up front using the following techniques.
Discharge the water into a 'swale' system - this is a set of humps and curves made in
a gentle slope to slow the water down and encourage it to settle into the soil instead
of running straight off your land.
Install an overflow 'weir' basically a normal flow of overflow water just goes into
the swale system, but a very high amount goes over the weir and then into a storm-
water pipe to carry it away into the storm-water system directly rather than overland.
This weir is easy to make with some stone and pipe fittings.

10. Get another tank... Seriously, if you have the land space and can 'chain' together
tanks in this way you will maximize the amount of water you capture. For instance,
on our plot we have a tank on the high side whose overflow is plumbed into the
rainwater capture for the lower tank which feeds off the house roof. The overflow of
that then goes off across the lower paddock and around the chicken coup to the creek.
Thank you