How to pump out a 10,000 litre poly tank.

[CharlieBear62]

I purchased a cheap 10,000 litre poly rain water tank that has a slow leak at the outlet.

I want to relocate the tank and install a new outlet but it has about 10cms deep of water in the tank which makes it impossible to move by towing it with my Subaru Outback.

I was thinking if I was to attach a length of pvc electrical pipe onto a 12mm Hills garden hose connected to a 2 tap Davey pumps would that setup have enough grunt to suck out the water.

Maybe someone else has an easy solution to removing the water.

The $300 poly rainwater tank.The outlet thingy that I'm going to renew.My jobs site supervisor.

[JacobZ]

Hi @CharlieBear62,

It sounds like your plan with the pump could work, assuming it can create enough pressure to get it over the top of the tank, although I wonder if you even need to think that complex.

Is there any reason you couldn't just open or remove the valve and lift the opposite side of the tank, so the water flows out the valve?

I appreciate that there would be some weight in there, but if there is only 10cm of water at the bottom it shouldn't be too heavy and, you should be able to use a lever, such as a long piece of timber or a fencing bar, to lift the side opposite the valve.

Allow me to tag @Dave-1, @AlanM52 and @Noyade to see if they have any ideas.

Jacob

[Dave-1]

Good Evening @CharlieBear62

Water is heavy and really I should have had that all in capitols

I like @JacobZ 's suggestion as a first option, if its 10cm of water then that should be fairly easy to lever it up (even tieing a rope half way up a length o9f solid timber and then putting it through the hole in the top of the tank and using your hilux it should then pull the tank up at an angle to drain the water out. (just need someone else to keep the tank tilting the way you want it to go is all)

However if that isnt feasable, you could tie your garden hose to the underside of a paver/brick (Cable tie even) drop it into the tank so the brick is on top of the hose on the base of the tank, making sure the hose head dosnt stretch out further then the brick (its to keep the hose as flat as possible at the inlet end) Once you have the brick/hose in place, run water from your house tap through the hose so it enters the tank (or lifting the far end of the hose so its at least level with your height of the the tank, fill the hose with water so it runs into the tank) Once the hose is charged, then disconnect or lower the end and the tank should syphon as empty as it can nicely. 

Its far better thne trying to suck the left over water up and out of the tank

Dave

Dave