Chlorine in water

[JaseJess]

Wrap the 55 gallon drum with insulation. Block the Sunlight. No Sun, no algae.

Edited for grammar​

Sorry for the late response...yes algae is the concern...would black spray paint work also?

 

[JaseJess]

Make life easier for you. Only give them enough water for two days.
If your using city treated water it has everything you need to keep algae from growing . My water system can hold close to 7 gallons. My flock drink maybe a gallon a day. So every 3 days I add 3 gallons. My water stays nice and clean.
I drain it maybe every 2 weeks and let it dry out for a few days. I use a 5 gallon waterer during maintenance cleaning

The problem is, I'm in Texas and my pullets drink tons of water. I had a 5 gallon waterer set up, but was not lasting the entire day. The girls would try and sit in it and knock water out and lay in the wet dirt. Problem with the 55 gallon waterer, it is gravity fed. And when I get down to about 20 gallons, the flow to the water nipples slow down. So, this last time I cleaned it, I added two more rows of cinder blocks to put the waterer higher.

 

[pibb]

For every 1' high, you get +0.43 psi of pressure. An 8" block would equal +0.29 psi.

 

[SubArcticFowl]

Hello, I'm new around here, but I happen to be a water treatment engineer so I thought maybe I could ad my $0.02. I agree with the suggestion to try and block as much sun as possible from hitting the water as possible. A couple of layers of landscape fabric might do the trick if it doesn't heat up the water too much. A more expensive option would be hot water tank insulating blankets, you the know kind that's bubble wrap between two layers of foil?

Free chlorine is very reactive and hard to maintain. 2 to 3 ppm free chlorine would be totally unpalatable to humans. I can't speak for chickens, but I'm guessing you want them to not be averse to drinking the water. If you have access to power, a small pump and UV "filter" might be a good option. You could probably get something from a pet store for fish keeping. The pump could also provide constant pressure without the need to elevate the tank. Just keep circulating the water through the UV filter and have a tee for your chicken nipples.