How to collect water from small stream more effectively?

I have a tiny trickle stream on the land. It is not much but I would say, having dammed it, that it fills quite quickly, maybe 0.5 litres per minute from empty.

I know they say that dammed water is bad because it causes stagnant water but that doesn't make much sense to me since water butts are dammed 100% and stand for weeks or months don't they and a dam with water still flowing through it, albeit slowly, is still much less still than that isn't it?

The issue I am having is how to collect the water using gravity. I know I could get a manual pump on the dammed bit, which I may try at some point, but I would like to use gravity for now.

I have dammed it near where it comes out on the land and the pool contains maybe 20 litres or so. I also dug a step in the land below so that my 10l water bottle would fit underneath.

My mother had a spare piece of shower pipe with a curve of 45 degrees so I used that on the dammed bit to protrude over the edge with space to allow the container underneath to catch it.

The issue is I am only able to get a trickle coming out consistently. I am wondering how I can make more pressure? Is it because I put the pipe near the surface and would, rather, putting it to the bottom cause more water pressure to force it through more?

I also have a thin mesh like muslin from some food packaging I had. It was a pea net. I used this as I noticed there are quite a few little water creatures in the water and so would not have wanted them to go into the container! Also other inanimate things like little bits of wood or other debris.

This does impede the flow but it is also important to filter the water. I am filtering after this for my drinking water with a gravity filter but this is just to get rid of debris. I have been playing with putting gravel before it as well. That gets rid of bigger bits to stop it getting blocked up as easy. I tried putting some sand in for further filtering but it blocked things up almost completely! I put on the other side instead and seemed better.

I have been able to find a sweet spot now and then when the little pool of water between the gravel and the pipe mouth forms suction and it suddenly gulps the water in that little holding pool and makes a big gush and 'Shloop!' noise, which is rather satisfying, but I haven't figured out how to consistently get it to do this. Or I had it for a few days and then the weather changes the water level or some erosion takes place and it stops working and goes back to a small trickle.

So how can I make a more consistent flow through the pipe? If I put it lower in the water of the dam I will have to dig down more in the step below. I might be able to but not sure if I will hit some hard rock which will impede things.

Open to other ideas. I have looked online and not seen much relevant to my case. Most stuff talks about gypsy wells to gather waters from small streams and I read they are finite anyway, only lasting a few days before having to make a new one. I would like to work with what I have done so far as I am happy with this setup if I can get the flow consistent.

It took about 10 minutes today to get a full container of the 10 litre one.

I use a rubber water heater pan that has a hose bib outlet.
I inserted a short 1" PVC pipe into the hose bib, and that feeds a 2" pipe leading to our reservoir
I had to excavate to get the pan low enough that the water would flow into it.
My water is up on the mountain, so gravity flow is not a problem.
Debris and animals (deer and elk with the occasional bear) cause the most grief.

In your situation, I would screen for large debris and then take your 10L bottle and strain it better at home before drinking.  

thomas rubino wrote:I use a rubber water heater pan that has a hose bib outlet.
I inserted a short 1" PVC pipe into the hose bib, and that feeds a 2" pipe leading to our reservoir
I had to excavate to get the pan low enough that the water would flow into it.
My water is up on the mountain, so gravity flow is not a problem.
Debris and animals (deer and elk with the occasional bear) cause the most grief.

In your situation, I would screen for large debris and then take your 10L bottle and strain it better at home before drinking.  

Ok so the bit I am missing which you have is that you used a hose which would be downstream/elevation of the reservoir? Trying to picture what you meant and not easy since I never heard of these american terms for things, but looked them up. :)

Rather than dig out would having a longer hose which stretched further down the hillside provide more pressure or is it diminishing returns? I am not sure about the maths of this stuff. Will just burying the outlet pipe I have already lower in the reservoir, and excavating beneath more to give the container space, give more pressure? Simpler solution than buying more material.

I will have a play around.

This video might help:

Hi Eomer;
So, I attached an 8" long piece of 1" rigid plastic pipe to my rubber water heater pan where a garden hose was intended to be hooked up.
That rubber pan is dug into the bank, catching 90-95% of the water coming down the hill.
That short pipe dumps the water into a 2" rigid plastic pipe.
The 2" pipe runs diagonally 60 feet or so and dumps the water into our spring box.
From the Spring box it drops 300 feet of elevation in 2200' of 1.5" line to the house.

Moving water through piping of any size creates friction.
When running a pipe to gain pressure, you must use a large pipe or at least space larger pipes in line to eliminate friction problems.
A 1/2"  pipe 300 feet long would have almost no water coming out the far end due to friction.
To alleviate friction problems after 300 feet, a 1/2 pipe would need one section of 1" pipe in the middle of a 300' run.



 

What are you really trying to achieve?
A few questions and comment.
- Playing with small springs can ruin them.
- You cannot increase the 'pressure' of a spring.
- Stationary water in a tank / butt does not have contact with soil, insects or organic matter that can cause stagnation.
- Can you collect rainfall from a roof?

John C Daley wrote:What are you really trying to achieve?
A few questions and comment.
- Playing with small springs can ruin them.
- You cannot increase the 'pressure' of a spring.
- Stationary water in a tank / butt does not have contact with soil, insects or organic matter that can cause stagnation.
- Can you collect rainfall from a roof?

I just want to allow catchment in the container when I want to refill it.

Why reinvent the wheel with rainwater when there is a perfectly good stream? I don't think I am doing anything so drastic as to 'ruin' it. I am just guiding it to a point to capture it. The water is still flowing through its natural course.

It was only flowing into the ground on the field anyway. I just corralled it a little bit and the top, made the pipe so it flows through. It still flows out the same place it did before.

Congratulations. The more water you catch and the higher up it is from where you want it down, the bigger the pressure. Half a liter/gallon a minute is a lot i'd say. Because you can put and fill a watering can when you're not there, come and get it. Put an empty one and use the full one, when you're back it could be filled up. much more efficient then rain water catchment.
You won't break something up or down stream doing something like what you are doing. It won't be stagnant, because it's flowing constantly.
If i would have this on my land, i would dig a pond for it to fill, i can just dump a watercan in and have the pressure feed a wateringsystem into a greenhouse below.The overflow i would redam and create different wet spots among wherever it choses to go now. Grow nitrogenfixing trees like alder and use them chop and drop to build soil for perennials or other trees closeby the source. Keeping water on the land is so important! You're going to increase biodiversity multifould, attracting all sorts of amphibians, insects, birds and wildlife creating a system much more resistant to whatever food system you want to put in place. Doing well!

I don't think I am doing anything so drastic as to 'ruin' it.

I hope it works well for you, but there are stories of such things happening on this site.

Like what happened on your land?
I heard the opposite, people had a flow of water on their land and blocked it off, only to find later they wanted it open again and pipe it to where needed. But by then it hardly wanted to flow. It took them a long time to make it close to what it once was. I guess if you block it the underground gets fuilled up with debris and finds another way, through the neighbors land for instance.
I would therefore not let the flow be interrupted by damming it in, but having it fall down into a pond lower down so it makes oxygen and flow as well and does not block the outflow.