Building a water storage tank

Today I'm looking back at the construction of a water storage tank.  It's now all done, and it's interesting to look at how it came together.  This tank is made from manufactured concrete block, using a method which I have several patents on.  I've posted several pictures below showing the construction steps.

This particular tank has an inside diameter of around 7 feet.  It holds around 3,000 gallons.  It is being used as a rainwater harvesting (rwh) tank.  I am using it as a plunging tank to cool off after you take a sauna, which I also built.  The tank has an electric light (LED's) at its bottom center.  There is a ladder which conforms to its spherical inner shape, for easy "in & out."

This tank was easy to build, and should last a very long time.  I hope to be using it to collect rainwater and as part of my wood-fired sauna experience for years to come.  If we assume concrete block cost $1 each, this tank cost me $175, which seems like a pretty good value.  Similar tanks for rainwater harvesting can have many uses: from potable water, to fire suppression systems, to watering crops, etc.  It has a hinged lid to keep insects out and to keep the water clean.  Rainwater is collected from the sauna roof, which is around 1,000 square feet.

I hurt myself (chainsaw accident!) while I was working on this, it took some time to heal.  The actual time to build this entire thing was very short though; less than a week.

The grey plastic pipe was used to run electric wire for the underwater light: thinking ahead.

Some of these mortar joints (especially near the top) are intentionally extra 

thick, this stretches the sphere and makes the water tank deeper. Easily done.

This is the electric light I installed in the bottom center of the tank.  LED's.

The light installed.  It is over 8 feet down to the bottom.

This is the finished tank, with my puppy Bartleby investigating.

Here is the actual sauna room.

 Here's a shower I put in.  The building also has a toilet, sink, bedroom and upstairs deck (outside).

This was a fun project, and I can't wait to use it!

Water Storage Test Tank

I’m working on constructing a sub-surface water storage tank from manufactured concrete block. This is at my property in the woods outside Alfred, NY in the Allegheny foothills.

These block were produced on a Columbia 3-at-a-time machine, from a steel mold which I fabricated to produce these triangular block. There are two types of block, one creates a pentagon, the other a hexagon, as described here. This assembles into a “soccer ball” type geometry, or a truncated icosahedron.

This is being done in frozen ground in the middle of winter, so it’s a bit of a challenge. I used a fiberglass shell to help create a guiding surface (the ‘bowl’ you see in these pictures). This is not necessary, but just made this job easier.

This particular tank will be a “plunging pool” for a sauna which I’m building: to jump into and cool off when you get out of the sauna. It will be a complete sphere, with a hole in the top. Once it’s finished, there will be a "wishing-well" type structure on the top. The tank is around 3,000 gallons. It will be filled with rainwater collected from the roof and gutter system of the sauna.

There is a PVC pipe with rope inside it, which goes down to the bottom center of the sphere. The rope will be used to pull electrical wire through the pipe. There will be an underwater electric light at the bottom center of the sphere, which I’m hoping will provide a cool “fishbowl” effect as you jump in. This will be powered by solar panels.
This is a crude prototype using an early simple version of this block. Subsequent designs use the interlocking features, which I’ve termed dimp and simp, as described earlier in this blog.

I’ll continue to post updates as this project moves along.

To see the tank completed, please look here.