Building water level indicators


 Today I finished installing a mechanical water level indicator for my buried water tank.  This device, which consists of a pole attached to a float that moves up or down with the water level in the tank, is intended to give me a general idea of how full the tank is at any one time. 
The indicator prior to assembly and installation.  The "float" (on the left) was assembled with a plastic welder from portions of a 5 gallon plastic bucket I bought from Home Depot.  The "indicator pole" consists of a length of PVC rod inserted into a left over piece of HDPE pipe.  Midway up the indicator pole and not easy to see in this picture is the bulkhead fitting through which the pole will slide.  Short lengths of PVC pipe were cemented to both sides of the bulkhead fitting to give the pole added stability. 
Gathering around to watch Dan work is a popular form of entertainment at the ranch.
After carefully cutting a hole into the tank's manhole cover with a drill and jigsaw, I screwed in the bulkhead fitting and assembled the indicator.
The installed indicator.  To keep birds from perching on the pole and pooping on the manhole lid I topped it with some bird control spikes.
The water level indicator visible on the right side of this image (captured at twilight).  With this camera's extended near infrared sensitivity the black HDPE indicator pole clearly stands out against the infrared reflective natural background.  This setup will, in addition to allowing me to remotely monitor a portion of the ranch for bison or intruders, enable me to obtain advanced warning of a water system malfunction. 
A second and similar water level indicator installed in one of the giant rubber tire watering tanks.  The float in this indicator was constructed from parts of a blue plastic Lowes bucket as opposed the the orange Home Depot bucket used in the previously discussed indicator.  I chose the blue bucket for the second float out of a desire to treat both companies equally (actually, they just happened to be the two buckets I grabbed).  The indicator, intended to alert me of a break in the water line or a valve malfunction, is still a work in progress as it is not clearly visible from camera 3.  To achieve this goal I will need to attach a larger leftover piece of plastic bucket to the top of indicator pole.

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