The Bushman 500 Gallon Vertical Rainwater Harvesting Tank (SKU 30268) is a black polyethylene cistern built to store roof-collected rainwater for irrigation, landscape, and non-potable household supply. Per the product name it ships in black, and that dark wall color blocks sunlight - the single biggest reason a harvesting tank stays algae-free between rains. It stands 71 inches tall on a verified 48 x 48-inch square footprint, so it tucks tight against a wall or into a side yard while holding a usable 500 gallons.
Will it work for your site?
Full, this tank carries a verified 4,170 pounds of water, so the pad underneath it has to be right. The 71" height, 48 x 48 footprint, and full-water load are confirmed specs - set the tank on a level, continuously supported base rated for that load, and see our concrete pad sizing framework before you pour. The technical drawing on this page shows the molded fitting layout: a 9" x 9" flat fitting pad (a molded boss for mounting hardware), a combined 3-inch outlet-and-overflow kit, and a 1-inch bulkhead fitting with a polypropylene body and EPDM gasket. That EPDM elastomer seal is the right choice for rainwater and water service, and the combined overflow port matters on any harvesting tank - once the cistern is full, incoming rain has to route somewhere safe, away from the pad and the foundation. If you are still weighing volume against your roof area and local rainfall, run the numbers with our Tank Sizing Calculator and the Tank Sizing Guide.
Get the harvesting setup right
The common mistake on a first rainwater install is skipping first-flush diversion - the initial runoff carries the dirt, leaf litter, and bird droppings off the roof, and none of that belongs in the tank. Size a diverter to match your catchment area; our first-flush diverter guide works it through per the Texas Manual on Rainwater Harvesting. Because rules on rainwater use vary by state, check the state-by-state harvesting guide before you plumb it into anything indoors. One honest limit: no specific-gravity rating is published for this tank, so spec it for water and rainwater at roughly 1.0 SG - not chemical service. Rural buyers eyeing this cistern as fire-reserve storage should read our NFPA 22 reservoir design write-up for freeze and sizing discipline.
This Bushman vertical rainwater tank ships LTL freight, quoted live to your ZIP code - get a number from the Freight Cost Estimator or call us at 866-418-1777 and we'll walk you through delivery and offload. Listed before freight.
