IBC’s R US !!!!

I’ve been moving on with my new allotment shed and finally took delivery of two Black IBC’s which will act as rain water storage. Black because it is said that they let minimum light in and therefore hold back on any development of algae, which is not a good thing methinks.

After a good deal of online research and analysing a multitude of deals from various companies and some ‘interesting’ bargains on eBay, I finally purchased two fully reconditioned and guaranteed Black IBC’s from Direct Water Tanks.

The only drawback was that they could not deliver direct to the allotment site as the site itself does not have it’s own postcode address. So, two days later (pretty quick from Nottinghamshire) they arrived at my driveway!! However, with the help of a fellow allotment tenant who has a pickup, we took one at a time to place them on the raised base inside one end of the emerging shed on my plot.

IBC’s or ‘Totes’ as I have found them called on YouTube have a multitude of connection options – different threads, size of connectors etc. The IBC supplier I used, didn’t seem to have quite the right ones that I though I needed for my requirements and never having used IBC’s before, I suddenly realised I was in another ‘world’; I did even contemplate making my own based on some of the YouTube videos I have been looking at for inspiration.

Then of course Google search came to the rescue and pointed me in the direction of Smiths of the Forest of Dean Ltd and after a couple of emails and telephone conversations, the relevant combination of ‘bits’ arrived today.

Why did I go for a big connection hose between the IBC’s? I am told that this will help with IBC equalization after a heavy downpour, ordinary garden hosepipe might not cope with that.

All I have to do now is to fit them to the IBC’s and I will have the right outlets to give me a standard tap for watering cans and another output for an irrigation system that I will put in for a Poly-tunnel, but that’s another project for later in the year.

What I need next is the roof on and guttering!! Busy! Busy! Busy!