Friday, 2 December 2022 Knowledge Articles
Selecting the best base for your water tank
Whatever you choose, proper preparation is vital.
Properly installing your Promax water tank will give you years of trouble-free service. That’s more than just a piece of friendly advice we’re passing on to you. You must install your Promax storage tank according to our written instructions. Failure to do so will void the warranty and may result in tank failure, so we want to work with you to avoid those issues. Our team will always be available to share their expert knowledge, while our detailed yet easy-to-read installation guide, which we will link to below, sets everything out methodically.
Selecting what you put at the base of your tank is part of the installation process. You have options that will comfortably fit in with your budget; this includes sand, fine gravel or crusher dust, which compacts well to provide an excellent base for your tank to sit on. Materials like these are the cheapest, especially if you’re installing a high-capacity tank with a large footprint. A base made from this material requires a depth of 100 millimetres, and you must use a retaining cover to stop the sand from eroding after you’ve installed the tank.
Promax Enduro tanks are corrugated, which gives them enough strength to be partially buried – how deep depends on the tank size. Enduro tanks ranging in capacity from 10,000 to 30, 000 litres may be buried up to one metre if you adhere to our instructions. You can partially bury our smaller Enduro tanks, too; 450 to 5, 000 litres can be submerged to 1/3 of the side wall height, but again, that’s only if you follow our instructions. If this is your preferred method of tank installation, you can also use sand, fine gravel or crusher dust as the base, again with a depth of 100 millimetres.
Concrete is another recommended option for a base; this is conditional on having a smooth concrete base pad that will support a tank weight full of water without cracking or shearing. For optimum strength and durability, Promax recommends a minimum 100mm mesh reinforced concrete 20MPA. (10 000 litres of water weighs ten tonnes, so you must build a base with enough strength to handle all that weight) Your budget might not stretch far enough for a concrete base for one of our larger tanks, but it is worth considering for smaller models.
If you are installing tanks for industrial projects, get in touch with us, and we can discuss specialised pads that act as bases in these settings. But regardless of your situation, be it residential, commercial or industrial, you need to follow the installation instructions to the letter. No shortcuts! Check out our instructions here: Aboveground Water Installation Guide
And don’t hesitate to contact our team for further advice. We’re here to make your tank installation smooth and easy, from the base upwards.