Automatic Water

[karen71]

Ok so I searched but can't seem to find any information on this.
My DH made an automatic waterer for the girls using a rain barrel that collects the rain water then feeds into a halved pvc pipe. All seems to be working fine then we thought about the possibility of bacteria from sitting water / it doesn't sit forever but it does take them some time to drink down the barrel . Does anyone know if there is any issues with possible bacteria or anything I could put in the water to make it safe for the girls that is natural . Poss apple cider vinegar ???
Up for any suggestions .

 

[sixty7x]

I'm not sure how long water can sit for, but heat does make it go bad faster. When in doubt give them fresh water everyday. Some automatic watering setups will replenish the entire container everyday no matter what is used. ACV helps with keeping water longer, but again I don't know how much longer. Where are you collecting rainwater from? asphalt shingles? if so, give the water a look. It may have some oil in it. I personally wouldn't drink water collected from asphalt shingles. We use rain water for flower beds.

 

[karen71]

I will take a look at it see if oily -this one was built by DH works with a float so I believe as they drink more water comes in .

 

[Raymond Dean White]

I built an automatic waterer out of a food grade plastic bucket hooked up to a garden hose with a swamp cooler float valve controlling the flow. It has worked well for four months now in the extreme heat of our AZ summers (it's still in the 90's here and it's October 7). The water from the bucket flows by gravity feed through 1/2" black irrigation hose to a 1/2" PVC pipe fitted with 3 watering cups. But just yesterday I had to empty the 5-gallon bucket and clean it out as it had a lot of algae in it.

Any ideas on how I can keep algae from growing it my watering bucket?