[MGM30IE]

Hi, my apologies if this is not the right area to post...

I recently got my hands on a 210 liter blue barrel, intending to use it for storing rain water, the man i bought it from said it would be fine. However I've since discovered it contained a substance called pyrene and I'm wondering will it be safe to use for rain water?, or is it possible to clean it out?

Hope someone can help with this.

Thanks
Martin

[shellyt]

hi MGM i am by no means an expert but just googling pyrene it kinda gives me the shivers looks like pretty nasty stuff....i wouldn't want to use it... but again not an expert wait and see what everyone else says.
good luck
shelly

[MGM30IE]

Hi Shelly

Yeah I've read a bit about it but to be honest, I've kinda had conflicting stories,
one said it was used for sterilising water! so hopefully someone here might know a bit..

Thanks for your comment

Martin

[ponddigger]

hi here is a diy rain water harvesting system i put up myself to collect rain water off the garage roof. ponddigger

[ponddigger]

hi ,here is a website ye might be interested .jack http://www.rainwaterhub.co.uk/?gclid=CLvW6ZSJyrYCFW8W2wodrX8A3g#video_link_target

[davidk]

When using an IBC tank like the big one above, is there any problems with algae build up or dirt, or how can you avoid same. Ta

[medieval knievel]

[ponddigger]

hi davidk i now use a black ibc tank to keep the algae away .i have a filter on top the ibc tank to keep dirt out of water in the ibc tank

[ponddigger]

hi,photo of filter on end of pipe. jack

[davidk]

Ta ponddigger. I have an ordinary IBC tank in the yard, Would it be the same if I covered it with black poly or painted it black. The black ones are a bit more expensive.

[ponddigger]

hi take out the plastic out of the steel cage and cover it with black blastic ,this should do the trick .jack

[davidk]

Will give it a go

[Sidney Pink]

Is it worhwhile goin to the trouble of collecting fallen leaves and making leaf mould.If its as good as some people say,how come l've never seen anyone out in the parks or woods helping themselves to all the free leaves currently available?Any opinions out there?

[Blowin]

Good question SP. As an outsider I get the impression that, for most of the folk I see around, anything that suggests poverty is avoided at all costs. This can be seen whenever I ask if I can salvage something they've got - I can tell they see it as far beneath them as they're most dismissive when they tell me to go ahead. To cultivate a piece of ground automatically involves getting someone in to rotavate it but you should see the looks on their faces when I ask what's wrong with a spade.

One can understand that the bad old times are still in the memory but I see nothing wrong with using things like fallen leaves. They are pure goodness and improve the tilth of the soil. To harvest them, rake them into small piles so that you can pick them up using a couple of boards. Coal sacks will do for transporting them - press them in well - but, better still, if you can get a farmer to think outside the box and empty those huge white fertilizer bags from their tops, instead of slitting the bottoms and rendering them useless, they're even better.

Don't worry what others think. If it's legal and useful, go for it.

[Good guy]

When I began this garden, around '89/90, I found the soil needed a lot of the 'bulking up' that Blowin talks about. As I was only beginning a compost heap, I had to look elsewhere for material, so I went to some nearby woodland that appears to be 'ownerless' and where I knew huge drifts of beech leaves accumulated each Autumn (there were no municipal parks here, in those days). I filled numerous black refuse sacks and took them home in the car, using the wettest, soggiest ones straight away, as a mulch on newly cultivated ground. Nowadays I make leafmould from my own supply of leaves.