How to Install a 5000 gallon Rainwater Harvesting System 

I installed the setup on my homestead about 5 years ago. I went a different route but same concept. I have a 5000 gal tank on either side of the house. Both tanks are plumbed to a water pump with a pressure tank. We use rain water for the laundry and toilets and well water for cooking and showers. I also plumbed in a manifold in which I can use the rainwater for the entire house and vice versa for the well water. It makes a huge difference during the dry season here in Texas.

I like the first flush diverters with the ball that floats up and seals off the contaminated flushed off water

That "T" fitting is called a Tee-Wye and that black coupling is a Fernco style fitting. Word of advice on the Sch40 too, paint it so the sun doesn't degrade it so quickly. That kind of pipe is meant to be buried or in walls and not exposed. It will degrade and become brittle. Also, the pic you showed was DWV Sch40 which is meant for drainage. You should make sure you let people know that so someone doesn't decide to apply something that puts internal pressure like a pump on something like this and the pipe bursts. Some stainless bug screen would be good for the intake opening and you should put a flapper backflow valve inline would be a good idea so you don't somehow have water going back up to your gutters.

I literally applauded when that pipe went in for the second tank!

Hello I write to you all from AUSTRALIA yes here it becomes extremely hot ..Water is life I agree with most of your Video and found one fault that you could make better ..you have the water Polly running from your Cutter to your tanks,As a feed ..What you can do is have the same set up th at you have but instead of the water the water over the top from cutter to tank, Dig the pipe under ground and back up to your tank looking at your height from your Cutter to tank height it will run under it's own pressure as the Roof gutter is higher than your tank Why do we do it this way .. If you have pipes that run over the top they can be damaged buy dead fall and makes moving around your yard in the area of the house and tank a little hard Great Video and a beautiful Home Kind regards and greetings from Australia 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺

You definitely want to use a hole saw, they have every size you can think of and you'll end up with a much better hole.

11:40 wrap the thread tape so the tail is trailing as you screw it in. If the tail is on the leading edge it will un wrap as you screw it in

Where the water drops from the gutter into the pipe, you can place a bell coupling at the top of the pipe to catch the water and just place a screen over it. Love the idea of the straight down cleanout. Going to try it.

Very nice. If you want to do away with the extra costly pipe on your next project that you were talking about, you may want to consider doing it the way I did. I used 4 inch pipe just like you did as a down spot except instead of the crossover pipe to the tanks, I drilled a 3/4 in hole in the down spot pipe near the clean-out and attached a brass adapter 3/4 pipe thread to 3/4 garden hose. Water in the 4 inch down spot pipe backs up and pumps water to anywhere on the property that's just under the height of your down spot pipe or gutter through the process, water seeks it's own level. It's now portable and can be moved anywhere and as far as you want to go as long as you don't go higher then your gutter. Or, you could bury it permanently. I have several tanks dotted around the property hundreds of feet apart for convenience so I prefer the garden hose to remains portable. This way you do away with a lot of expensive pipe cost and unsightly plumbing weaved all over the place. I hope this was clear enough to understand. Good luck!

In my opinion, it looks like the first flush and the pipe to the tank connector is upside down, so there will be some dirt can flow to the tank. Every tank doesn't need over flow drain pipe as long as the over flow pipe on one tank is big enough to flow out equally to the incoming rain wanter and the tanks are connected and work as one.

Rain water harvesting must

One suggestion to help people understand how both tanks connected at the bottom fills up at the same time even though only one is connected to the rain gutter: take two clear plastic cups, drill a hole on the side near the bottom of each, and then connect a tube between the two. Then try to fill one up without filling the other, and the water will transfer through the tube into the other cup and fill it to the same level as the first one. That will help people to understand how both tanks are able to fill at once.

never let downspout go directly into the garden, you need some catchment tank to reduce water energy coming down to your garden.

You could do like Justin always says use it up wear it out make it do or do without and that's exactly what you did with those that is amazing thank you so much for showing this and God bless I really like this

This video helpen me alote going to rewatch it when i hit the gym in about 10 min cause im working on setting up a rain harvesting company

GREAT VIDEO! surely taught me a lot..can't wait to see it totally working for your homestead, gardens, and animals!!

🤣that's what she said🤣🤣 he said under his breath. Excellent. ❤

If you used unions, you would be able to take this apart and clean it out. Saving $20 by not using them is a waste.

Great system, I will be using your ideas thank you! I think I'll use a pvc union in the middle connector. I seen a great you tube video where they put a inline water pump from harbor freight running on a solar panel so that way you could constant pressure!

The way you connected the overflow is how you should connect the balance line. Allows for more movement and is easier to service.

I might have put that first "T", at the rain gutter, on backwards so the water HAS to go into the drop pipe, then back up to the storage tanks. That would pretty much stop ALL sediment from going into your storage tanks.

Best get your foundation under your tanks smoothed out (with sand). nothing like 500p/sqi rock pressing up on your plastic tank. will make a hole in no time.

Love your tank system. You do need mosquito netting so they done get into your tanks. A suggestion for the other side rain catchment. If you do want to add that rain to your existing tanks just run down spouts from the gutter with an elbow making them horizontal straight back and connect to your pipe going into your tank. I did this on my house and it wire great. That way you don’t have to pump it up into your tank. Good video.

First off let me say I enjoyed your video, enjoy your personality and think you did a good job on the project for the most part. Kudos on admitting your weakness in this particular area and hiring someone that knows more than you to help you out. HOWEVER, I've been reading the comments and I think you may be in denial in regards to the size of your overflow pipe. Due to what I thought was a rather nasty conversation further down in the comments, I guess I must provide my credentials in order to qualify my suggestions as I weigh in on this subject. I have worked at a power plant for 13 years as an operator (boilers, water treatment, turbines and the like) and now as an Electrician and Instrument tech. (We deal A LOT with pipes, valves, pressures, flows etc. at the power plant as we troubleshoot systems and improve upon professional engineering in order to make the systems work at an optimum level). I have a degree in Power Plant Fundamentals and a BS in Business Administration. In addition I have been a plumber for 15 years and own my own farm. So hopefully I'm qualified to chime in here. As was stated by other commentators, If you have a heavy rainstorm when your tanks are already full or close to it, and your inlet pipe is 4", your outlet HAS TO BE THE SAME SIZE OR LARGER to allow complete flow through, or it WILL BACK UP and OVERFLOW YOUR GUTTER. Denying this is akin to denying that your car's gas tank will not overflow as long as your engine is running while you are fueling your car. A large inlet pipe will eventually overflow a tank if the outlet cannot accommodate the same flow. Sometimes a larger (than the inlet) effluent pipe is needed to compensate for friction loss, horizontal vs vertical run, different head pressures etc. You will not see an overflow of your gutter if your tanks are empty enough to collect all the rain of that particular storm, or if the storm is light enough that a 1" pipe could handle 100% of the flow regardless of if your inlet was 1" pipe or 4" pipe. If you do not believe that your rain collection system's flow will ever overcome a 1" pipe, then you could have saved a ton of money and just used 1" pipe on the inlet piping. However, that is obviously not the case and a larger size of inlet piping is definitely warranted. Good job on the project though. Nobody is perfect. Just pause a moment to see what everyone is trying to tell you.

Interesting from DR over in the UK.

Nice setup. We’re about to expand our rainwater system in our place. Busy debating tanks or a pond. We need a large storage capacity - and county regulations may make the decision for us. Take care.

Poly pipe (sprinkler hose or even supply hose) is a lot cheaper than pvc, more flexible... and wont break like PVC and is weather resistant. Also will handle higher pressure if you add a pump to your system.

Keep an eye on that "CENTER" PVC pipe between the tanks.. Once the tanks start to settle, they will not settle at the same rate.. Maybe it will be close enough.. But hopefully, the difference wont cause any damage.. Especially during high winds.. Yes, high winds.. Good luck..

I love your water system! What an incredible company and support system! ❤️

You could also use the extra line that goes to the ground to attach a hose to use and spray your deck or what ever if you got a standard spicket in there. Thanks for sharing. Our family is doing very similar things. We are going to be building our homestead in Missouri soon!

Hey guys I really enjoy your videos. It would be so nice to see more of the inside daily life with the kids and gardening. All of these things come together to make your life better together, right? We want more.

You should paint the PVC pipe. It is not UV stable and will become brittle and potentially crack with prolonged exposure to the sun.

Good job ,if it works for you why not,enjoy the new year

What a blessing this video is for my family. We are about to move a small single wide onto our homestead and it is my goal to gutter it right away to harvest water. This system is great. I am in north central Texas, not sure what neck of the woods you homestead. Would love more information from you, And to talk to your pro installer. You are doing a great job! Thank you.

Should put the tanks on the side of the house, that way both front and back gutters could meet in the middle.

That pipe needs UV paint or a cover of some sort, the sun and weather can and will make the pipe brittle to the point that a light hit will break it. With that being said, awesome system, very smart reclaim system.

A good way to explain this is that the water will go to the place of least pressure.

Be sure to paint the PVC pipes to protect from UV deterioration

Hi mate you may want to put rodent screens on your overflow pipes (this is a regulation in UK), I would also argue to put a rodent screen on your 4" inlet pipe due to the nature of the usage as you don't want birds or rats climbing into your tank, it also would serve as a brilliant strainer on your inlet pipe. And all a rodent screen is is a fitting (similar in looks to a union or a coupler) with fine mesh inside. I can see you've done a good job of it, may as well do this to future proof it a tad 👍😃

I wouldn't be worried about getting into the tanks, I'd be concerned with getting out! I wish there was a rebate program for Oklahoma.

Im sharing this info as ive only learned of it recently and some people may be asking whats a first flush, whys the pipe look like that, etc why isnt the water going straight to the storage tank. The way I understand it is between rains, your roof is also collecting other things/substances, not just rain drops. We talking about bird poop... squirrel poo... pollution and dust, perhaps sand, leaves and other bio-matter... SO! The first rain comes, and it flushes all that debris and gunks off the roof, to the gutter and... if you have nothing else, all that harmful nasty crap will eventually land up in your rain collection barrel system, where it may end up being food/a home for some bacteria or fungus or algae, whatever. BUT! That first "flush", if its instead diverted to a long vertical pipe, that debris and gunk will slowly fall to the bottom of the pipe, and mostly clean rain water will fill up the pipe and continue to fill tillbit over flows, the theory being the over flow will be mostly clean, minus any large physical debris, and that cleaner water will be whats stored in your rain catch system. Any corrections/additional info that I left out, please let me know!

Your first Wye is upside down. In order for a first flush system to be effective, the vertical pipe must fill up, and then backfill into the containers. Your containers are still getting contaminants into them.

This is Awesome Love this video and so happy for yall. Can't wait to do ours 1 day

9:13 the rain head spinning thing - it either goes straight down. Or straight back. It doesn't go straight forward. If you're plumbed together, you can take your water down and bring it back up, though. So if your tanks were farther away from your catchment surface the inflow pipe could be in the ground and come back up - as long as the place the water goes in is higher than any other place.

Hey Beau, great video! Thanks for walking us step by step through the whole process. I hope your tanks fill up well and that you harvest enough rainwater for your animals. I'm not sure I understand how you're going to connect the front gutters to your tanks but I'm sure you'll show us how you'll achieve this in a video. I love to follow you. Hey from Canada, Hey ! :)

you only need one overflow pipe, since, as you pointed out, the tanks are self leveling.

VERY inspirational. GREAT job buddy.

Love your ideas. I am going to apply some of what I learned while building my own. Thanks.

Cuts a hole in the tank instead of using the pre drilled hole in the lid, that has a spot for a fine mesh filter.

your overflow pipes will possibly be a problem.. you are running what looks o be a 1 or 2 inch pipe out of each tank and then bringing them together at the bottom into a pipe that looks o be half the size. that will severely restrict the flow and may cause backup in heavy rain. just a thought... great video thanks..

I would’ve put a union at the bottom where you connected to two tanks if you ever have to service that or a piece of pipe brakes, you’re gonna have to cut it with a union you wouldn’t have to

Good video ! I love dogs so when I heard the dogs breathing on mic I laughed

I really love your video and I dream to have a same tank like yours. Its amazing job you done.

Idea for your Leaf Eater: instead of using that sanitary tee right up on that gutter downspout, connect a piece of straight pipe down from the downspout, then Leaf Eater, then straight pipe, then sanitary tee to your first flush and main inlet pipe.

I'm worried about overflow capacity during a heavy rain event. You have 4" going into the tank but only 1" overflow with several 90s impeding the flow. If it's a heavy enough rain it could overflow back into the gutter.

Cheers from portugal

You did a good job at explaining how the second tank balances and is filled using the outlet from the first tank. Why couldn't you have filled both tanks the same way and at the same time? You could have used the same bulkhead fitting on each tanks for your inlet and your outlet. You could have avoided cutting a hole in the top of your first tank if you plumed your 4 inch drain into your outlet tee going into both tanks. Each tank would be balance and fill at the same time via gravity since your gutters are higher than both tanks. You would still need your overflow line which would equalize the air pressure of the tanks when filling. The overflow line should be matched in size to your inlet line otherwise you are still gong to get that mess on your roof once both tanks are filled.

Compared to the future headaches gutter guards would save they seem worth the cost.

Water water everywhere! Well done Beau - now you just need some rain ◡̈

Where did you buy the tanks ? Each tank 2500 gallon ? How cold can it get before the water freezes inside the tank ? Any info would be helpful. Tnx

Very good But you have all that roof catchment area a 4 inch collection pipe and future another 4 inch on the other side that's 8 inches collection and only 1 inch overflow. I think you better have a bigger overflow to be safe Good job I enjoyed the video

Fantastic! And thanks for sharing. Thumbs up!

wow that is so cool This is exactly what we want to do

Hi! I see this video is a year old already but wanted to share a thought with you. You do not need to use 4" pipe to connect the systems. A smaller pipe will work. It may just move the water more slowly, but will still work.

you should turn the 3-way split upside down so the water and debris will go down to the down spout first instead of into your tank.

Should have used a couple PVC unions after the shut off valve to connect the 2 tanks at the bottom to remove the entire tee. Why? Because if he needs to drain or remove 1 tank for one reason or another he'll have to cut out the tee. Its gonna take a hell of a long time to drain a tank for that 1" line to 1/2" spigot.

Ever thought about a Hydroponic Greenhouse setup? Might be great and help mitigate that TX heat.

Great video. Thanks for sharing. One observation: I think you said that you wanted to eventually bring 4" from your front gutter to the storage tanks by travelling under the house. I would think that on a gravity feed system, that would create a significant "head pressure" problem. Wouldnt you need to bring the 4" line from the front gutter at least the same elevation as the outlet of the rear gutter system? Seems that anything lower would result in backflow. Yes/no? Great vide

Put a air valve in your tank...just like on your tire...and put air in your tanks to build pressure...

Absolutely Brilliant 🥳🥳🥳

My family’s property has a steep elevation change. I wanna try to make a solar battery with similar tanks. I figure if I can elevate 5000-10000 gal of water 20 meters I’ll have plenty of energy to run an energy efficient house.

This was really helpful, thank you. One question please, though. If both fill evenly with just the one inlet pipe, why don't both drain evenly from the over flow pipe? I mean why does each tank need it's own over-flow pipe? If one tank went down, wouldn't both tanks go down together? I cannot afford a giant tank like yours, but I want to hook a series of rain barrels to over flow in to my old underground cistern. What if on each barrel, a few inches down from the top, I put a pipe from one to the other, barrel to barrel, with the last one being the pipe that over flows into the cistern? Open to suggestions, thank you.

Feel strong wind could shift the pipe and tank a bit causing leak in a few seasons.

Don't get gutter guards. They block the leave, but they don't let the water in!

How is it holding up? PVC pipe becomes brittle and breaks down in uv light including sun light.

Wouldn’t having a 1inch overflow be too small when you have 4inch coming in? I always thought the overflow had to be at least equal to the inlet

Thanks!

Thank you so much and I subscribed! 😊

That’s enough water for a commercial farm! For more pressure you need a simple water pump, solar power is available.

you've probably realized by now the overflow pipe should have gone from 1 1/2" from one tank, 1 1/2" from the other, to a 3" pipe running around the house to under the steps. reducing the size of the overflow pipe was a no no.. you need the size of the overflow pipe to be able to handle the amount of water coming in from the source (the gutter) or the water will get backed up all the way to the source (the gutter) and overflow excess water there.. which would be bad if you had so much water weight sitting in your gutters that it was overflowing there. Could rip the gutters off the house.

You made it so simple that i fully understood your system. Im living in the tropics. We have them rain plenty here but I have a land rather on a remote place. Im going to build my rain harvesting system minus the insulation. Any suggestions on filtration system? I wanted to fully utilise the collected water Drinking and cooking.

Did you ever have any problems with the course gravel bed and the weight of the tanks? Any leaks on the bottom? I have been told to put down a bed of pea gravel or sand. Thanks.

FYI my tank delivery guy said never use a pressure washer or you can shoot a hole through the tank. Just use a long handled broom type scrub brush. He also told me to put four bags sand (over top of gravel base) under each 2500g tank to keep gravel from poking tank because the weakest part of the tank is the bottom. After pushing the bottom it for sure is thinner than the sides. And his last important tip is to make sure to run a long level against the sides to make sure it’s level before filling. Now that last thing is probably the only one I would have known 🙄

Kudos...very smart move.

Should have set them tanks on some indoor outdoor carpet.

It really don't have to be one tank the reason why I wouldn't do this is because anything can happen someone can trip over it the dogs can chew on it down there and if it gets broke somehow all the water will come out. I would have just made a overflow up high from one tank to the other once one tank gets filled up it pours into the other tank simple like I like it LOL also what do you do in the winter are you afraid of it freezing? I was told these tanks were supposed to be buried at least halfway? I always set my stuff up with shtf in mind

My friend has two garden he waters he waters with lemon water and he pumps it from Tusings barrels

How do you prepare the foundation? I have seen videos where the tank is half buried. How deep is the crushed rock bed you used?

You need a 4x4 to support the downspout weight.

It seems to me that a 4" pipe coming in with a 1" overflow pipe is going to be a problem if it is raining for a longer period of time???

it's called a sanitary tee. and a 4 inch fernco coupling ..hehe nice job on the tanks though

Job I have got new ideas

I enjoyed ur presentation, & sharing of all that u accomplished in this video. Thanks for sharing. Brthrn Jeff B.

How do you get water into the house? Do you have a pump?

That water leveling off is called hydrostatic.

you may need to increase the size of the overflow pipe... or at least make it 1"1/2 all the way down? ......if you get to the point where the tanks are full with the size of your catchment roof and a 4" pipe feeding water into the tanks the 1" overflow pipe may not be able to cope!!!

I would have used a three piece coupler in between the two tanks at the bulkheads

I'm new to this, so maybe this is a dumb question, but how did last winter's "Big Freeze" affect your system?

I believe your overflow diameter is to small. If I’m not mistaken the overflow should be larger than the inflow to prevent back flow. The small overflow pipe will not be able to Keep up with the inflow during a monsoon rain .

Thank you!