Wildlife Water In Arid Areas- My Guzzler

[TxHuntFish]

I gleaned quite a bit of info from the GS when designing my guzzler. I agree about evap with the larger trough. I decided to go with the larger one to combat rough housing by hogs (we have a ton), Aoudads and the occasional rogue long horn. It's a little more stable than a small pan. In fact, Tractor Supply sells a small pan with a protected float valve built in to it for about $32. I need to build a protector on my plumbing and float valve for the same reason.

Buy the smaller red one at tractor supply and bury it. It's tough digging in that country, so you may have to try a few different spots beforehand. Or you could always build a 2x4 frame and pour some concrete around the trough. The hogs on our place actually haven't been that hard on our buried setups.

[techzan]

You may want to put a teaspoon of copper sulfate in your tote or else it will grow a lot of algae. Spray painting the tote a dark color will help, also.

[cylomedia]

Thank you all for your comments and input. I can't wait to get back out there after some rain. Forecasts suggest that we may get a couple of showers in the next week or so. I'm going back for 4 days on the 22nd of September. I hope to file a useful report.

[cylomedia]

Water Guzzler update: Went to the ranch this weekend. Got hammered by major storms for almost 48 hours. Only got about 4 to 5 inches of water in the tank bt did fill trough to fill (35-40 gal trough).

I think that my problem was in my design. The roof surface is onl 4x6. I guess that just isn't enough surface to harvest a lot of water. It is working and the trough is full, but not as efrficient as I'd like.

[Sippy]

I don't want to be a bubble popper, but you need a much larger roof. 2 of what you have at a steeper angle shaped into a V with the gutter system in the middle of that V.

["DOC"]

1" of rain will give you about .6 gallons per sq. foot.
I have a 10' x 30' and get about 180 gallons per inch of rain.
Not as much as anybody hopes for but much better than none.

[El General]

Water Guzzler update: Went to the ranch this weekend. Got hammered by major storms for almost 48 hours. Only got about 4 to 5 inches of water in the tank bt did fill trough to fill (35-40 gal trough).

I think that my problem was in my design. The roof surface is onl 4x6. I guess that just isn't enough surface to harvest a lot of water. It is working and the trough is full, but not as efrficient as I'd like.

Area (SF) = (Storage Tank (gal) x 1.6)/(Min. Avg. Annual Precip (in))

This is the formula for area of your roof for guzzlers. I think that in places like Texas where you tend to get a ton of rainfall and then longer drought periods, I would double the SF.

[wtx223]

Water Guzzler update: Went to the ranch this weekend. Got hammered by major storms for almost 48 hours. Only got about 4 to 5 inches of water in the tank bt did fill trough to fill (35-40 gal trough).

I think that my problem was in my design. The roof surface is onl 4x6. I guess that just isn't enough surface to harvest a lot of water. It is working and the trough is full, but not as efrficient as I'd like.

Looks great. Couple of things.

Surface area really needs to be much larger. (5 times larger at least)
Trough needs to be much smaller.
Burying the line to trough would be ideal. First big freeze you will have problems, if the line is not broken before by wildlife. A water hose works good instead of the PVC. Black water line works the best. For sure insulate the water line and add protection to water line / float area.

Not trying to nitpick, just have experience with guzzlers and what can go wrong.

Good luck this season.

[DesertDug]

100 sq ft of roof, 1" rain should yield around 62 gallons of catchment.

I use for personal use, but now getting ready to share with the animals

[DesertDug]

How's is progress. Any gams pics?

[Hawkpuppy 1]

Looks good, but agree on needing an inverted V shape for more surface area and if you don't bury the PVC line, at least put in a couple more 90's to make it run along the ground or it will get broke.

[14JKURX]

https://www.rainmakerwildlife.com/water-collectors/

A lot of good information here.

[sbushee]

Now that's ingenuity!

[cylomedia]

My Guzzler is still doing just fine. After about 1 year the PVC is not broken or problematic in any way. My only issues is that when I do the next one i will make the water catchment surface bigger.