400 Gallon Plastic Vertical Liquid Storage Tank in Mocha

Mocha, black or green: one 40 by 80 inch shell

Three moldings hold 400 gallons in this 40 by 40 by 80 inch shell and all three are listed at 69 pounds. The sheet gives exactly one difference between them, and it is the wall colour: this one is mocha, the SII-32505 is black and the SII-32507 is green. So the reason to buy this one is the reason people actually buy it. Mocha is the wall that disappears against a house, a fence, a deck skirt, a gravel pad or a brick wall, which is what matters when the tank is going somewhere a neighbour, a customer or a planning condition can see it; green is for a tree line or a nursery row and black is for a yard where nobody cares. There is no performance claim between the three on this sheet and this page will not manufacture one. The shell itself is the tall, narrow small tank: six feet eight inches of height on a 40 inch circle, which is the shape that goes down a side passage, between a downpipe and a wall, inside a garden store, or against the end of a building where a wide tank would not fit at all. Height also means head, and a tank whose surface stands better than six feet above the base fitting will push a hose without a pump. What it asks for is a base worth the name and a strap. Full of water this tank puts 3,336 pounds on a 40 inch circle, carried by whatever the molded floor is touching and nothing else, so the base is flat, level and continuous; where it is going on made ground or staying for years, the framework is in the concrete pad sizing guide. At 69 pounds empty and nearly seven feet tall, this is a shell the wind will lay down before it is full, and a tank on its side with a full manway is a bad afternoon, so band it to a wall or a post while it is empty and leave the strap there. Then check the volume against what you actually draw in a day in the tank sizing calculator, with the reserve and the freeboard from the tank sizing guide.

The 400s, the 330 and the 500

Five tanks, three silhouettes, and the decision is made on the site rather than on the sheet. The three 400 gallon moldings are one shell in three colours at the same 69 pounds. The SII-WG24R is the opposite shape at almost the same weight: 330 gallons on a 47 inch base standing only 50 inches, four feet two inches, which is the tank for under a bench, under a caravan awning, on a trailer deck or anywhere a lid has to be reachable by a short person on the ground. The SII-32511 is the size up in a wider shell, 500 gallons on a 48 inch base at 76 inches and 80 pounds, and it is the better buy when the extra hundred gallons is worth eight more inches of floor. Between them this page is the narrow one: the least floor of any tank here, the most head of any tank here, and a wall colour chosen so the tank is the last thing anyone notices.

Other makers in the running? 866-418-1777 will compare them honestly; Norwesco, Snyder, Chem-Tainer, Enduraplas and Bushman are all here, or price freight on this one.

Keep the vent clear on a tall, narrow 400

• Vent first: the 20 inch threaded vented manway sits 80 inches up and does the work of a fill hatch, an inspection opening and the vent path. On a narrow shell the vent matters more than the size of the tank suggests, because a 2 inch outlet draining better than six feet of head moves water out quickly and air has to come back in just as quickly. Keep it clear, keep it screened against insects, and never draw the tank down against a blocked vent.
• Fill: the 1-1/2 inch polypropylene female NPT bulkhead inlet is worth more on a tall tank than on a low one, because nobody wants to lift a running hose almost seven feet to a lid. Land the fill line there, keep the manway closed, and the water stays cleaner for it.
• Head: with 80 inches of shell there is better than six feet of water over the base fitting, which will run a gravity hose, a drip line or a header without a pump at all. Where a pump is used, set it below the outlet so the column primes it, and fit a low level cut-out; a 400 gallon tank empties fast enough to surprise a pump.
• Outlet: a 2 inch polypropylene female NPT bulkhead fitting at the base, as the sheet lists it. One careful make-up with the right sealant, then a union or valve a short way downstream so later work happens there rather than on the fitting.
• Service limit and warranty: neither is published on this sheet, so this page claims neither.

A tall, light tank has one failure mode nobody plans for: it gets knocked. Keep it out of a traffic line or put something solid between the two, break the first joint off the outlet with a flexible connector so the shell can move and the pipe cannot pull on it, and carry the first valve on its own support rather than on the tank. Where the site freezes, protect the valve and the exposed pipe and let the body ice from the top down. And put the fill date somewhere on the shell; on a garden or yard tank that is the only record anybody keeps.

Yard water, drip feed and a tank meant to disappear

Four hundred gallons in a mocha wall is bought for places where the tank has to be both useful and invisible: a house or cabin taking hauled water where the tank stands against the building, a garden or allotment reserve filled from a hose and drawn down by day, a drip or micro-sprinkler feed at a nursery, greenhouse or small block, a wash-down and boot-rinse supply beside a stable or a kennel, a horse trough top-up on a small holding, a caravan or cabin water store, and a buffer beside a building where the real storage sits somewhere else. Where this tank is one stage in a train that collects, holds and re-uses water rather than a standalone vessel, the industrial water reuse tank topology article shows where a small vessel belongs in the sequence. And where the reason for buying it is standing water against a fire, the honest distinction is draw rate, connection and freeze protection rather than gallons in a tank, which is the argument the fire-water reservoir design guide makes properly.

Class 500 LTL from Merced or Albertville, 69 pounds

The SII-32615 ships from Merced, California or Albertville, Alabama as ordinary LTL freight at class 500 as the sheet lists it, shipping at 40 inches by 40 inches by 80 inches. A shipment three feet four inches square and nearly seven feet long rides upright on a pallet, comes off with a tail lift, a forklift or two people, and does not need a permit or a machine on site, which is the practical difference between this tank and the oversize loads in the wider family. Two plants means two lanes, and on a 69 pound shipment the lane is most of the cost, so the freight cost estimator prices it to your ZIP; the listed price is before freight. Check the shell and the manway threads before you sign, because a light tall tank rides between heavier freight. Then treat the first fill as acceptance rather than a formality: set it on its final base, strap it, fill it with clean water, hold it, and read the base, the inlet bulkhead and the outlet fitting through the hold, following the method and hold-time arithmetic in the hydrostatic test methodology guide. An hour with a hose and a torch on day one is the cheapest inspection this tank will ever get. Put the tank's part number on the maintenance log the day it lands; five years on, nobody remembers which shell it is.