PVC Waterer idea good/bad?

[mbodamer]

Hi,
I am a first year chicken owner and I started with a tiny gravity bottle waterer and then upgraded to the 1 gallon and now the 5 gallon. The 5 gallon waterer is OK but the handle is too flimsy to hang it and my chickens are always filling the water trough with dirt.

I want to build a PVC waterer and use horizontal nipples. I live in eastern PA so freezing is a concern. Also I am worried about the quality of the water because it seems I have to constantly wash the waterers I have now and I don't want the PVC waterer getting all full of algae.

So here is my idea that I would love feedback on. I am thinking on the outside of the wall I will have a few feet of PVC that is vertical with a T fitting at the bottom. I will cap the bottom of the T so give me a flat surface area at the bottom of the tube. Then I will connect a horizontal pipe to the T that will hold the nipples. On the other end of the horizontal pipe I want another T and then another vertical pipe. So basically a large U shape. I want to have screw tops on each end of the vertical pipes. One one side of the waterer I want to submerge a heater for winter use. On the other side o the waterer I want to submerge a pump that will suck water in from the "cold" side and using tubing inside the pipe run it to the "hot" side to hopefully create a convection flow of the water. I was also thinking i would submerge those air stones that are in fish tanks to aerate the water (figured that cant be bad for my chicks).

When completed I am expecting to be able to fill it with at least 20 gallons of water. To help reduce the algae from building I will be continuing to add ACV to the water.

Do you feel the setup would stay unfozen?
Will the pump and heater setup work to move water through the system and keep it from freezing?
Is there a need for the bubbler?
Is there anything else i can do to reduce the algae issue?

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[blackdog043]

I'm not sure what kind of heater will fit inside the PVC and keep your whole U set up from freezing. Also if it would get dirty inside the PVC, you would have to take it all apart.

If your up for other ideas, below is one of my waterers with horizontal nipples, it's a 14 gallon drum from amazon. You could put a 250 watt stock tank deicer inside, to keep everything from freezing in the winter. Also if you put copper(copper pipe or pennies before 1982) inside your waterers it will prevent algae from forming, no need for ACV. Below is my 5 gallon waterer that I set up with a stock tank deicer. You could use the grommets in the lid of the drum. to run the cord through. I slit the rubber grommet to put it around the cord.