Above Ground Water Storage Tank (2,000 GAL)

[Pettrix]

Looking to install an above ground water storage tank for rural wildfire fire suppression. Looking at 2,000 GAL +/- tank. The local FD said they will fill it up for free and they can connect their nozzle at the base and pump it out if needed.

They have black/green plastic tanks available for around $1,300. Any advice?

I will also have to lay a footing down (18' frost depth) and a concrete pad. 4 or 6 inch? Any advice?

 

[grsthegreat]

im surprised they will agree to hook up to it. here, the fire dept wont hook into residential holding tanks cause they cannot guarantee the tank isnt full of crap that could wreck their equipment.

 

[ponytug]

My two cents is use 3/4"+ rock for the footing, compact it, and then go for 6" concrete. Mine was installed with 3/8"-, which the ground squirrels have no trouble excavating. I assume that you meant 18 inches for the footing.

I guess my other advice is that you can never have too much water for fires. With luck, you will never need it.

Our local FD specifies a connector, pipe diameter, and a minimum gpm rate, but these things are highly local.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Avenger]

I'm looking to do something similar, but for rain catchment instead of fire fighting. Though, that would be a great use of the water!

I'm looking at a 2000gal black poly tank. I plan on putting down 3/8minus, about 6in before a 4in concrete pad. The water will be directed to a sump near the base of the tank, where a pump will pump it up and into the tank, to be use to irrigate my garden.

 

[stephenh]

The plastic tank sounds good. I built my own above-ground 2250-gallon cistern; concrete pad, walls made of cinder block. With the time and labor it took me, plus the cost of the blockand hauling it all in, that plastic one sounds decent. I lined mine with a custom-made pool liner and it has been working great since the early 90s.

 

[Wagtail]

Water tanks are common in rural Australia... I have a couple and on the 'house' tank there is a compatible connection for the Rural Fire Brigade to hook-up. If there's any filter for debris, it's on the Fire Brigade's side of things.

As for a pad, Just knock up a wood frame to the dimension of the base of the tank then level the ground that it'll be situated. Then fill the frame with ordinary sand... the weight of the tank + water will compact the sand. There's no need to build a concrete pad.

 

[ponytug]

Around here, there is an advantage to a concrete pad; ground squirrels can't easily undermine it. They have done this to our tanks and will trigger the replacement of the tanks well before their expiration dates because the undermining is causing the tanks to sink and tilt and starting to stress the pipes coming out of the tanks...

YMMV...

All the best,

Peter

 

[ericm979]

In our area we're required to have tanks with 4" pipes running to a hydrant. We currently have a 10k gallon tank which supplies the house and the hydrant. I'm trying to get a permit to build a shop. To meet the current code that requires a separate tank for the hydrant, I'll need to put in another 5k gallon tank. Might do two to have more reserve.

Good to know about critters digging under the tanks that are not on concrete. We can go with gravel for tanks up to 5k so that's what everyone does. Maybe I'll use geogrid under it to keep the critters out.

2000 gallons while far better than nothing, is not a lot for a structure fire. Or a wildfire for that matter. If you can afford to, get a larger tank.

Since you're not using the water you'll want to exchange it periodically and maybe treat it with something. The opaque tank should keep algae from growing but let it sit long enough and something will. Tanks where the water is used regularly don't have this problem.

 

[plowhog]

2000 gallons while far better than nothing, is not a lot for a structure fire.

Considering the added cost to increase tank size is not that much, this is good advice. Of course you must draw the line somewhere.

 

[4570Man]

In our area we're required to have tanks with 4" pipes running to a hydrant. We currently have a 10k gallon tank which supplies the house and the hydrant. I'm trying to get a permit to build a shop. To meet the current code that requires a separate tank for the hydrant, I'll need to put in another 5k gallon tank. Might do two to have more reserve.

Good to know about critters digging under the tanks that are not on concrete. We can go with gravel for tanks up to 5k so that's what everyone does. Maybe I'll use geogrid under it to keep the critters out.

2000 gallons while far better than nothing, is not a lot for a structure fire. Or a wildfire for that matter. If you can afford to, get a larger tank.

Since you're not using the water you'll want to exchange it periodically and maybe treat it with something. The opaque tank should keep algae from growing but let it sit long enough and something will. Tanks where the water is used regularly don't have this problem.

If your house is burning beyond what 2000 gallons will put out you might as well step back and watch it burn. The cleanup would be easier.

 

[AWSubie]

A modern fire truck pumps water at the rate of 1500 gallons per minute. So u will get about 1 minute 20 seconds of fire fighting from a 2000 gallon tank. Just something to consider.

Do you enjoy swimming pools? An above ground 21 foot round pool is about 10,000 gallons and it would serve a dual purpose and extend ur fire fighting time to about 6 minutes.

 

[Gee Ray]

Would you be better off with multiple small tanks that are connected? I would think this would allow repair or replacement if one was damaged. Also if one tank fails you do not lose the entire supply of water. I do not know if this is allowed by your requirements.

 

[ponytug]

You do want to plumb the tanks so that you leave most of it for fire; around here, the floats are set on the last tank so that the tanks go from 100%-90% full and refill, with household use taking water from the last tank in the series, the fill goes into the first, and the overflow of the previous tank(s) cascade serially into the tank that the household uses. With that method every tank but the last stays at 100% full, the water is changed, and only the last tank cycles between 90-100%.

I have no advice on how many tanks is optimal; I am more focused on total storage. So, I am going to suggest that you get the most cost effective tanks per gallon that you can for your budget.

But if the fire line has a failure, you lose all of the water.

I have never heard of a plastic tank failure, but I am sure that it happens eventually. Mine are certainly showing signs of age.

All the best,

Peter

 

[fried1765]

If your house is burning beyond what 2000 gallons will put out you might as well step back and watch it burn. The cleanup would be easier.

Yup......in many situations it is best to delay calling the fire dept. for 10-15 minutes, and then call.

 

[Wagtail]

Around here, there is an advantage to a concrete pad; ground squirrels can't easily undermine it. They have done this to our tanks and will trigger the replacement of the tanks well before their expiration dates because the undermining is causing the tanks to sink and tilt and starting to stress the pipes coming out of the tanks...

YMMV...

All the best,

Peter

Well, I didn't consider this because 'we' don't have any critters that would undermine a domestic water tank. The only one that might do that would be a rabbit but the tank weight is a deterrent.

Wombats will burrow in a field... nasty, huge holes that can seriously damage a tractor if you don't spot them first.

 

[grsthegreat]

I thought Australia was overrun with mice.....

 

[repete]

2000 gallons is quite a bit for a residential structure fire unless as some say it is already gone. In my decades of firefighting I used a 750 gallon tank to extinguish by far the majority of single room and contents fires.

One thing to remember is if a fire engine connects to a tank and "sucks" water out without adequate venting they can collapse the tank. If you use a gravity fed male 2.5" fire thread (not NPT) you will not get a very high flow from the tank if your tank is only 4' high. Add to that a length of hose with a kink and you have even more issues.

To determine the pressure you will have, take the total feet of "head" (top of water level to nozzle in feet) and multiply by .434 to get PSI. If you have a tank with a total height of 10', at the base you will have 4.34 PSI. That is the pressure to overcome friction loss and have enough to get anything out of the nozzle. Remember as the tank level drops, so does the PSI from head pressure.

If you want to know what you can get out of a pipe using gravity, use the rough formula 30 times the diameter of the tip in inches squared, times the square root of the pressure. A 10' head with a 2.5" pipe would flow around 375 GPM with little pressure left to use. At 5' of head (tank half full) you could expect maybe 275 GPM.

When moving water using gravity there is a lot to consider. Pump it.... and use every bit of it.

The common flow for a 1.5" combination fire nozzle is 100GPM at 100 PSI at the nozzle although that can vary. There are smaller nozzles fire departments frequently carry but they are seldom used on a structure fire. In order to have a firefighting capability you will need a sufficient pump at the tank. And have it ready to work in seconds.

Sorry for the long post here.

 

[cqaigy2]

im surprised they will agree to hook up to it. here, the fire dept wont hook into residential holding tanks cause they cannot guarantee the tank isnt full of crap that could wreck their equipment.

Our FD will bring water out and refill 1K gal reservoirs if you agree to let them pump from it if needed. Not the same thing as a holding tank though.

 

[Pettrix]

I was looking at this green 2,000 GAL tank.
It shows it has a 24" lid with a 4" breather
Also has a 2" NPT drain and fill pipe.

2000 Gallon Plastic Vertical Water Storage Tank in Green

2000 GALLON PLASTIC WATER TANK GREEN

www.plastic-mart.com

 

[Septemberwheat]

Looking to install an above ground water storage tank for rural wildfire fire suppression. Looking at 2,000 GAL +/- tank. The local FD said they will fill it up for free and they can connect their nozzle at the base and pump it out if needed.

They have black/green plastic tanks available for around $1,300. Any advice?

I will also have to lay a footing down (18' frost depth) and a concrete pad. 4 or 6 inch? Any advice?

I had 3 tanks in Texas, hooked up for rain water collection, 2 5,000 tanks and one 10,000 tank. I had them on level ground, no concrete pad. So pads aren’t needed, but certainly make the set up look nicer. I never had an issue with squirrels or any other rodents. $1,300 seems like a good price on the tank, mine were black and were built for the outdoors. The tanks were there when I bought the farm, worked well for 10 years and were solid when I sold the place.