Rain water advice

[420Yooper73]

Hey guys...I’ve been collecting rain water in a 50 gallon plastic drum and it’s been fine but yesterday I noticed a greenish tint to the water which I’m assuming is the start of algae growth...so I added a cup of bleach to the water...there was about 30 gallons in the drum at the time. Did I screw up? I’m kinda nervous to feed my plants with it...They are starting to bud out like crazy so I don’t want to mess them up. Has anybody done this before?

 

[Carcass]

I used rainwater also (till I ran out)-started to have that problem,so put the water into some 5 gallon buckets I had and moved them into the garage,under a cover to shut out the light-then the mosquitos started laying eggs in it,so I threw in some mosquito dunks (which also gets rid of soil gnats when you use the water on your plants)
To answer your question-the chlorine bleach should biodegrade/evaporate in a few days,so it won't harm your plants (maybe give it a week)...but I don't think I'd add any more just to be safe.
Can you cover the barrel with a black tarp or something to keep the light out?
Without light,the algae won't grow.

 

[Weaselcracker]

I have run off rainwater for all purposes in life for the last 25 years. A little algae is not going to hurt anything in any way, particularly if you are growing no- till. I don’t bother to treat any of my barrels. Maybe once in a year or so I might dump some of them and clean them out to remove any scum in the bottom.

10 mL of bleach is all that’s required to sanitize a 50 gallon drum of water. As Carcass said it biodegrades quickly though. Wait a few days and the life in your soil will be happier.




Edit. I should mention the only times I really tried sanitizing things was when I had cloning troubles. In the end trying to keep everything hospital- sterile was totally a losing battle and beneficial bacteria did an infinitely better job of solving the problem.

 

[420Yooper73]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the input I’m going to wait a few days like you said...I’m also going to move my barrel into the shade more. I had just read somewhere that algae can be bad for my plants...it’s good to know that it’s not..thanks again, and happy growing

 

[BeanTownFan420]

Hey guys...I’ve been collecting rain water in a 50 gallon plastic drum and it’s been fine but yesterday I noticed a greenish tint to the water which I’m assuming is the start of algae growth...so I added a cup of bleach to the water...there was about 30 gallons in the drum at the time. Did I screw up? I’m kinda nervous to feed my plants with it...They are starting to bud out like crazy so I don’t want to mess them up. Has anybody done this before?

If you live in new england im sorry to tell you but our rain has been green lately i collect also and its been green all summer long.They did fine algae growth on the outside of the space shuttles windows.