Using brute cans as water storage??

[Mattl22]

Of so I'm hopefully gonna be building the heavy duty shelf I need for my mixing station this weekend!

Really wanted a true water storage container but they are $$$ + shipping

So can u drill a bulkhead in to brute garbage can use as mixing and storage?

 

[albano]

RB sent

 

[rideit6578]

I assume you mean drill/bulkhead on the bottom of the can right? where its a flat surface...?

 

[lnevo]

I have bulkheads installed on my brutes. They work.. A bit of a pain though. If I had to do it over I would use uniseals. I used them for the water level gauges I added was soo much easier.

The one tip i would give is installing the bulkhead with the nut on the outside. The plastic will flatten when you tighten it. It was much harder when i first did this, i had the nut on the inside and it was a pita.

The other thing you can do is add an elbow so that the bulkhead draws water directly from the bottom. If you dont do this, it will be tough to drain the last few inches of water which could amt to an extra gallon+

Let me know if you have any questions. Heres my setup. This was before i added a second level gauge to the ro/di side and the elbows I mentioned above.

 

[Mattl22]

Inevo that's exactly what I'm talking about can u describe how u use these plumbing etc...

 

[Mattl22]

Also what is uniseal?

 

[lnevo]

Sure. The brute on the left is 30g ro/di storage. The one on left is sw mixing.

Both drains are plumbed to the intake on the pump. Depending on which valves are open will be whats pumping to the output. Theres also ball valves that i can keep the sw section mixing but still fill up a bucket for top off.

I also set it up so that i can pump back from right to left if needed or mix salt with both in an emergency. But usually its just the left mixing and i use the faucet on the bottom to get ro for top off and whatever. The faucet on the output of the pump is when i do water change, i pump the water upstairs with a very long hose.

A uniseal is like a big rubber grommet that when you push the pvc through it pushes against your container and seals it water tight. BRS has them they are pretty cheap. You drill the hole pop em in and then push the pvc through. No gaskets, no nuts., no over tightening, and doesn't need the surface to be flat.

 

[lnevo]

This was the original iteration of the mixing station

So the brute on the left i was able to turn the plumbing and the one on the right i was able to cut off the elbow and put a new one on...after all that modification though everything leaked so I bought new bulkheads and the uniseals. The uniseals ended up being used for the level gauge. As i said those worked great and if doing it again i would use them...not sure what the cons are with those...i haven't seen any.

 

[Mattl22]

Thanks for the input I'm gonna use uniseals and do what u did on ur first set up my cans will be above the sump so ill use gravity to feed the water when I need it!!
I would have never known about the uni seals if not for you thank you!!

 

[lnevo]

Remember you still want to have an elbow and even some extra pvc on the inside to make sure you can get all the water out.

Also i double checked to make sure i was giving good advice and everywhere i found comparing uniseals were best for non flat and flexible containers so...you should be good to go.

 

[Mattl22]

Thanks I didn't get my shelf built yet hopefully tomorrow or next weekend!!!