How to Choose the Right Water Storage Tank for Your Business

Choosing a water storage tank looks simple until you’re the one signing off the order. Get the size, material or compliance spec wrong and you’re either paying for capacity you’ll never use, or running short during exactly the week it matters most. Here’s how we walk customers through it.

Start with daily demand, not tank size

Before looking at litre capacity, work out your actual daily water use — for a small business this might mean staff welfare and cleaning; for a farm or site, it could mean irrigation, livestock or construction use. A tank sized to cover three to five days of demand, plus a safety margin, is a sound starting point for most South African operations dealing with municipal supply interruptions.

“The right tank is the smallest one that still gets you through a bad week.”

Match the material to what’s going in it

Polyethylene tanks are the standard choice for general water storage — UV-stabilised, corrosion-proof and cost-effective. If you’re storing anything other than clean water — chemicals, effluent, or substances with specific handling requirements — you’ll need a tank rated for that content specifically, and in some cases a bunded or double-walled design.

• Polyethylene: general water storage, UV-stable, lowest cost per litre.
• Steel (coated or stainless): larger bulk volumes, higher-pressure applications.
• Food-grade certified: required for potable water used in food production or public consumption.

Check compliance before you order, not after

If the tank feeds a food production process, staff kitchen, or public-facing facility, confirm the food-grade and SANS compliance documentation before you commit — not once it’s already on site. A reputable supplier will provide this on request as part of the quote.

Plan the base and plumbing at the same time

A tank is only as reliable as what it’s sitting on and connected to. A level, load-rated base (concrete or compacted stone, sized to the manufacturer’s spec) and correctly sized inlet, outlet and overflow plumbing prevent the two most common failure points we see on-site.

Get a second opinion on sizing

If you’re unsure between two capacities, it’s worth a quick call — a good supplier would rather talk you down to the right size than sell you the bigger tank. That’s the basis on which we quote every enquiry that comes through Storez SA.