Tips For Hiding Your Rainwater Tank and Pump

Ninjas are known for their stealth, which is the art of being invisible to others and remaining hidden. People detect the presence of another with their eyes and ears, so the ninja must learn to fool the enemy’s sense of sight and hearing.

When we apply these principles to a rainwater harvesting system, then there are two areas to deal with: 1) Making the water tank appear invisible, and 2) minimising the sound i.e., any water pump.

Camouflaging Your Rainwater Tank

In nature, prey often have camouflage that enable them to hide from predators. Sometimes predators camouflage so they can better hunt their prey. Camouflage is a way of hiding that allows an animal to blend in with its environment and go unnoticed.

Rainwater tanks are a large object that can consume much space on a property. Many find it difficult knowing where to position their tank so that it doesn’t get in the way or become an eyesore. As such home owners often want to know how to camouflage their tank so that it blends in with its surrounding environment and isn’t so noticeable.

There are several ways you can camouflage your tank:

• Tank Colours: Water tanks today often come in a range of selectable COLORBOND® Natural colours will obviously suit gardens and vegetation, or other colours can be chosen that better blend in with the colour of your house, fence or other surroundings. Neutral colours are often best, since surroundings can change over time.
• Against External Wall: Slimline tanks are great for placing alongside external walls or parallel to fences. They can be bought if very thin models, some you even affix to walls. Select a colour the same as the wall it is against will really help it to blend in.
• Tank Screening – panel fencing, lattices or slat wooden or steel structures can be purchased and placed in front of your tank. If you have nearby gardens, you could grow a grape vine, tomatoes or passionfruit. Alternatively, bamboo fencing or similar fencing panels can conceal your tank from view while looking stylish.
• Painting Your Tank – if you accidentally choose the wrong tank colour, then you could simply paint your tank. It you consider yourself quite the artist, you could show-off by painting a nice mural. If hanging a picture inside your house can make things feel more spacious, then the same principle applies with your tank. If you have children, I’m sure they would be exciting to help, put their hand prints on the tank and like.
• Out-of-Sight: The best form of camouflage is to not even present. While there are tank models that can be placed under a deck or underground, many properties have a “blind side” which is rarely visited. Such makes a great location for a tank as it will be rarely seen. Optionally, you could also place it all the way up the back of your property, however running pipework to your tank and/or plumbing it in might be prove more difficult and expensive.

Camouflaging Your Water Pump

Water pumps that pressurise rainwater from your tank around your property are another item often installed with a tank. When the switch on to pump water to your taps and washing appliances, they can be very noisy and even annoy neighbours. Purchasing a pump cover is a great way to reduce the noise of your pump. A better slightly more expensive option is to purchase a submersible pump. Submersible pumps are placed inside a water tank. The tank walls and rainwater within muffles the pump noise almost to nothing. Submersible pumps also mean your pump will remain entirely hidden from view inside your tank.

I hope you’ve found this article helpful. Obviously, there are many practical and even fun ways to hide a rainwater tank. Should you have any comments or additional suggestions for hiding a rainwater tank feel free to contribute by commenting below.