Tanking


Sometime in September we walked past our rainwater tank and Frances noticed little rusty marks on it.  So we went and bought some rust remover and some black gunge to seal where the rust was removed.  This was duly put into play: unfortunately it soon became apparent that in at least one spot the rust was what was holding the water in.  The resulting torrent was - in the absence of a Dutch boys finger - more or less blocked by some silicon and gaffer tape, with a layer of black gunge on top.

The next day we opened negotiations with Pioneer Tanks who have satisfactorily supplied tanks to several of our neighbours.  They seemed to have what we needed, and in particular were supplying a vessel that arrived on the back of a ute, rather than requiring significant forestry to get it into position. 


We were also recommended to use a local guy (Jeremy)  from Billenya Landscaping to prepare the site etc.  Since this involved getting a level site and spreading loads of sand and road metal around the place it seemed a good idea to get professional help with this. As we were going away for 3 weeks he'd do the intial stages while we were away.   So we returned and found a nice level site with lots of sand in position.  Those who look closely at the image will notice that kangaroos also like lying down on formerly smooth sand beds.


The new tank
wasn't available quite as soon as we had hoped, but the gunge, silicon and gaffer tape were still doing their stuff, so this wasn't a problem.  The local franchisee turned up, from Cooma, with his ute and his offsider and started work on the erection job.







Four hours later they were finished.




However the installation still required a bit more  work.  In the first place, the tank was effectively a very large wine cask, and if subject to a lot of wind could get blown off its base.  So, it had to be partially filled with water (fortunately the old tank was still full  and available).  Due to other commitments by Jeremy that happened by torchlight, finishing at about 10pm.  The next step was to dump:
  • some pebbles around the base of the tank to stop the rain draning off the roof from eroding the sand; and
  • some dirt along the low side to stop the the sand getting cut away from wind or other rain.
The final steps will be to link up all the plumbing and decide what to do about the old tank.

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