Fall is setting in here in Frankfurt. The weather has cooled down a bit and it was raining a lot more last week. Been a bit overcast the last two days but no rain and I’m certainly not complaining. The fall weather has been absolutely glorious and I’m actually looking forward to the fire red, burnt orange and sunflower yellow leaves on the trees; even if it does mean winter is coming soon. Our salad seeds are starting to sprout and grow again, happy that the 90 degree weather has passed. And our IBC tank in the courtyard has been “modified” (read: “a hole cut into one corner so the spout of the rain gutter feeds into the tank”) so the rain is helping us fill it up again.
I posted a while back about having a problem with algae in the tanks. Because they are clear (well a cloudy white color but still rather transparent), algae was growing in these things like crazy. So we thought and we pondered what to do to end the problem permanently. Using a bit of bleach in the container seemed to help the algae die down, but we didn’t want to risk adding too much and killing anything we water. Here’s what the tank looked like before we got started.
Not so pretty to look at and not useful to us when it was full of green gunk. Algae thrives in sunlight so the key was to find out a way to block out as much light as we could. We considered painting the tank. Unfortunately this seems to be a rather unsuccessful method judging from tanks we’ve seen in gardens near our house. We did locate a paint specifically for plastic, but it was fairly expensive (about 35 euros for a 3 liter can which might have covered one tank). So we decided to buy some black plastic pond tarping and attempt to cover the tank with that. Luckily, the black duct tape I just had to buy a few weeks ago became our new best friend for this project.
Two metal bars hold the tank down tightly in the metal frame so we unscrewed those and just slid the tank out. Then we laid the tarp down in the courtyard and turned the IBC tank upside down in the middle of it. We folded two opposite sides up onto the tank and taped them down, stretching the plastic as much as possible. There’s not a whole lot of play between the metal frame and the tank, so we wanted to get everything as smooth as we could. We feared the tank wouldn’t fit back inside otherwise. It just looks nicer too.
Once we had those sides stuck down, we made cuts in the plastic to take out the excess and folded up the second set of flaps to tape them down. Because the black duct tape is so expensive, we used gray on all the parts you couldn’t see and the black along the outside seams. What do you think? I’d say we did a pretty good job, right?
As you may notice, we also used the occasion to expand our container garden and have planted some newer cucumber plants around the tank, as well as a small okra plant. We thought these would do well because they like warmth, get plenty of sun here and the cucumbers can climb all over the place. Stefan even hooked up a little Gardena pump in the IBC tank so the plants always get watered right out of the tank. Next year we might add a couple more containers on top of these for herbs or loufa — or maybe we’ll just stick with cucumbers. We can never have too many of those, especially in places where they won’t be devoured by slugs (as they are in our garden!)
That looks really awesome and thank you for sending me the link in the other comment and also emailing it directly to me. I still have to clean my own, but will definitely look into this way to prevent the algae from growing. I never even thought about it and already had two 55 gallon barrels of see through plastic slated for this purpose. So you’ve saved me a great deal of annoyance with your blog already. 🙂
.-= KC Lowlife´s last blog ..Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds sing Red Right Hand =-.
Thanks! Last year the cucumbers growing on the tank just loved it there. We used little cable ties to hold the vines to the cage as we wove it up the side and they were thriving. The tank kept them extra warm and they did extra well compared to the other cucumbers we had elsewhere. We also hooked up a tiny drip system, with the pump inside the IBC tank, so they would always stay watered and the lines didn’t have far to run.
Hi
These blue ones keep the water clear and algae free, they also dont crack after time or break in hard frosts because the plastic is UV stabilised.
This seems like a much better alternative to covering it in black plastic
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All you had to do was spray paint the tank black.
Thanks for your idea. It would have also been a good option. We were concerned about it flaking off quickly and wanted a more permanent option.
Painting?
If you research the subject, painting is a fairly ineffective and costly way of protecting IBCs from UV degradation and their stored water from algae growth.
To paint for good results, the IBC must be sanded which is time/labor intensive. Also a plastic primer and paint should be used. If you don’t sand and prime before painting, the paint will flake/sheet/and scratch off and you’ll get 2 years out of the paint job at best.
When you weigh the material and labor costs of painting the IBC versus wrapping it with 6 mil plastic sheeting, it’s obvious that the wrapping is the better option.
Just get a black UV resistant IBC?
If I wrap a thick dark tarp around my tanks, will this serve the same anti-algae purpose?
Yes, that is ultimately what we did with our tanks and it worked great.
A great way to make sure your tape adheres really well is to use construction spray glue. Spray a bit of glue on the areasame you intend to tape, let the glue tack up, then apply the tape, rubbing it down to force out any air bubbles. You will get a bond that is incredible. Usually one pass with the tape is sufficient. I use this trick in construction all the time. It increases the sticky Ness and holding power of duct tape and most other tapes by a HUGE amount. Even in damp or wet environmentsuit this trick will work. This method even creates a watertight seal, unaffected by condensation etc.I use this trick to fix leaks in watering cans and five gallon buckets in a pinch.
Black plastic pond tarp is cheaper than paint?