Treating and Storing Rain Water

[Dalton]

Hey everyone,

There may be an answer to this question somewhere on this site, but I did some searches and didn't see what I was looking for.

I want to try and water my orchids with rain water. I've collected quite a bit of it. We have a shop with a metal room, so you aren't picking up any of the junk off of a shingled house.

I just set some catch containers under the over hang. I now have a blue 55gal barrel full, one of those cheap black plastic trash cans full, a good sized rubber maid container and two 5 gal buckets full. My issue is storing it and treating it.

I have one of those big IBC totes that would hold a couple hundred gallons, assuming I ever collected that much. One issue I have with it was that it was given to us and I don't know what was in it before. If I were to test it by storing water in it for a month and then watering some house plants I didn't care for, and assuming my solids meter still had it down really low, and my house plants showed no ill effect (my house plants my be code for one of my families plants ) would it then be safe to use on my orchids?

Also, at my club's orchid meeting last weekend, there was a man from New York who collects and stores rain water in an underground container. He still says he treats his rain water at ~200:1 with hydrogen peroxide to prevent bacteria.

My water in my barrels in turning green. I can put a lid on the black and the blue barrels and effectively block out the light, but they wouldn't be catching any further water. They're currently full, but if I started using water from them, then they wouldn't be and I'd be missing out. We don't get a lot of rain, it's just heavy when we do get it. If I started storing it in the IBC tote, then it's white and would let light through. I'd potentially be getting algae there. I guess I could build a box to go around it and block out the light. If I went that route, I'd do away with the others, set the IBC at the back of the shop and make some pvc gutters to collect the water.

How would you guys deal with this issue. Is the algae a problem? Will treating it with peroxide kill the bacteria and/or algae? Should I even worry about treating it till I remove it to use on the orchids? If so, how often. My initial thought is to not treat it in the collection tank and then I'll remove 5gal at a time and keep that up at the house for watering my orchids.

Thanks for the help.

[Subrosa]

I used to have an algae problem in my collection vessel until the Ceriodaphnia found their way in.

[wintergirl]

I store most of my rain water in milk type jugs. I do get algae in some them but I use it anyway. I have never had a problem with it and I do not treat the water. I only filter particles out when I first collect it.

[Dalton]

That would be a lot of milk jugs. I've probably got 130gal.

[Leafmite]

I store my rain water in jugs from the distilled water I use in the winter (we have a water softener and I grow a few tropicals that easily suffer from the salts). One autumn, we had quite a bit of rain and I used the water for months after. I have never treated it. If your plants are healthy, they should suffer no ill effect with using the untreated water. For many years, I used water from an ornamental pond and the microscope showed plenty of life in the water. My plants loved it.

[Ray]

Concerning the IBC, can't you ask the previous person what was in it? Does it have a distinctive odor? Do you know it's a used bottle? The manufacturers often take them back when empty, incinerate the old ply bottle, and put a new one in the fame.

One thing you might consider is putting some rain water in it, monitor the pH, and after a couple of weeks, try using it

[Dalton]

Ray, I have no idea whom the previous owner was. My father got it from someone years ago, with the intention to use it as a reservoir for horse water. I doubt it would have occurred to him that it might have had something bad in it. I haven't smelled it recently. I honestly haven't even checked to see that it isn't cracked from weather damage. I just wanted to know if there was a way to insure that it was orchid save. I can definitely set it up to catch rain water and then evaluate the pH, though. That will answer the questions of whether it smells, does the pH change, and does it even hold water.

---------- Post added at 04:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:02 PM ----------

It also just occurred to me that I could let water sit in it for a period of time then send the water off to be tested by my local ag-extension for about $15.