...The rain water flows down the gutter and spout to the orange 5 gallon bucket, the top half of which is filled with gravel like stones, the bottom half a finer sand aggregate. This is the first stage of filtration and helps to keep "itsy-bitsy spiders" and other large debris from getting any further into the water system. I later added a second 5 gallon bucket to this design concept which is filled with activated carbon before the water is drained into the blue 55 gallon drum. From there it would be pumped by hand up through hose to the "attic" where it would enter the reverse osmosis filtration system (not pictured) and finally the large 275 gallon tanks.
