Rain Capture Barrels

Part 2 of my attempt to capture rain water for the self-watering container garden.  I bought 3 plastic 55-gallon barrels from a guy in Little Rock.  They used to contain soy sauce and had the number 2 stamp on the bottom so I know they're food safe.  Each barrel has two holes with caps.  One of two caps has a 3/4 inch threaded port that is blocked off.  If you cut the plug out, it becomes functional.  If you look at the second pic below, you can see where I plumbed the 3 barrels together with 3/4 inch PVC.  Since the barrels are upside down and the plumbing is on the bottom, the weight of the water provides the pressure to the spigot.

Looking at the first pic for reference, I'll explain how this works. Rain from the gutter down spout goes into the first flow diverter I talked about in the previous post.  Once the 4" pipe fills, the diverter outputs to the left barrel.  If you look closely, you can see where I cut a hole in the barrel and installed a plastic drain cap.  It is covered with screen material to keep debris and mosquitoes out.  The middle and right barrels do not have this.  They only have a small vent hole in them.  I did silicone a small piece of screen material over the vent holes for mosquitoes as well.  Because the 3 barrels are plumbed together, as the first barrel fills, the water pressure equalizes the middle and right barrel effectively filling all 3 barrels at the same time.  Once all 3 are full, the left barrel has a 1/2 inch threaded overflow so all extra water flows out.  I used a threaded overflow in case I want to plumb the overflow to another direction later.  Sticking through the deck fence, is the water spigot to connect a hose to.  Above it is a hose holder with compartment for attachments.

In pic 2, you may notice that there is 2 removable connectors that allow me to disconnect the barrels to clean as needed.  The system is ready and we'll see with the next rain if it's functional or not.  All that's left is to cover the barrels with lattice and paint the diverter assembly so it all doesn't look so red-neck!