Silt Stone W/Scoria

Got my hands on a fracking tank that has been pressure washed 3/16" thick 12' diameter 20' tall/long and I am going to put it in the ground as root cellar about 4' underground, though before I do that I need to put down rock. Which is where the title comes in play, can I use silt stone mixed with scoria to put as base layer, around the sides and on top then put the clay on top so water drains down and away through a french drain. Seems brittle as to not be able to puncture the tank and I can get it for free only one mile up the road. Also thinking it would be great under a slab for the house and any other foundations I put down. What I am worried about is it's not of uniformed size but part of me thinks it will break with the weight as I seen with driving over it with semi unless it's a very big rock which I would bust up or toss out. Lastly it's a tank that has skids welded on it to sit horizontal not vertical which means if need be I can weld grates across the two skids pipes on it to mitigate the weight pushing on the rocks from tank to the skids or is that not needed?

What I would do is make sure that it could drain away completely. If at all possible make pipes that daylight somewhere downhill. Then use whatever you want under the tank for about a foot, and just put some sand over the top to bed the tank the sand will drain. It will drain into the other Rock, and it takes care of any worries about irregularities of the Stone. I know you get some mighty frosts over there, and have a pretty deep frost line. That's why I suggest daylighting a drain system and then you can hook into it with all sorts of things.

What is silt stone and scoria?

skyking1 said: What I would do is make sure that it could drain away completely. If at all possible make pipes that daylight somewhere downhill. Then use whatever you want under the tank for about a foot, and just put some sand over the top to bed the tank the sand will drain. It will drain into the other Rock, and it takes care of any worries about irregularities of the Stone. I know you get some mighty frosts over there, and have a pretty deep frost line. That's why I suggest daylighting a drain system and then you can hook into it with all sorts of things. Click to expand... I will be below the frost line as it will be from the top off the roof up 4 foot underground which means the hole will be about 16' deep. Kind of figured for a French drain of the sorts but will make sure it oops out somewhere. I might get away with about 5 yrds with some side boards and a tarp on my flatbed, hopefully that would be enough.

CM1995 said: What is silt stone and scoria? Click to expand... Basically mixture of sand and clay along with other dirt and such. Scoria is lava rock, very hard , light as a feather, it's in your gas BBQ pits and fireplaces, they also crush it up for making the interstates out here. First picture is scoria second is silt stone comes in all kinds of colors.

Gotcha. We have similar materials here to silt stone but nothing like scoria. No volcanoes down here just a big assed silted in area over the last million or so years.

CM1995 said: Gotcha. We have similar materials here to silt stone but nothing like scoria. No volcanoes down here just a big assed silted in area over the last million or so years. Click to expand... https://geology.com/rocks/siltstone.shtml Scoria is almost like pumice just more porous so it doesn't float like pumice and... It is often used in landscaping and drainage works. It is also commonly used in gas barbecue grills. It can be used for high-temperature insulation. It is used on oil well sites to limit mud issues with heavy truck traffic. It is also used as a traction aid on ice- and snow-covered roads. If Yellowstone blows we get front row seats ​

Spud_Monkey said: When Yellowstone blows we get front row seats Click to expand...

Guess you were either lost for words on that one or laughing too much and hit the reply button before typing in anything or both.

Spud_Monkey said: Guess you were either lost for words on that one or laughing too much and hit the reply button before typing in anything or both. Click to expand... No, he corrected your statement. We used tons of scoria on rig sites, made lease roads out of them, etc. It holds the weight and abuse well and helped prevent mud issues on a 24 hour operation. Those frac tanks sat load for months on the scoria pad at 170,000+pounds. Drag them away when done and the scoria underneath hardly looked any different. The drill rig sat on matting on top of the ground and would be One million+ pounds with 20,000 ft of pipe in the derrick. We would jack the rig up and walk between wells. Never had problems. Keep in mind, they lay a thick bed of scoria when building a pad, and compact it well while placing. If it was free, I would be using it.

colson04 said: No, he corrected your statement. We used tons of scoria on rig sites, made lease roads out of them, etc. It holds the weight and abuse well and helped prevent mud issues on a 24 hour operation. Those frac tanks sat load for months on the scoria pad at 170,000+pounds. Drag them away when done and the scoria underneath hardly looked any different. The drill rig sat on matting on top of the ground and would be One million+ pounds with 20,000 ft of pipe in the derrick. We would jack the rig up and walk between wells. Never had problems. Keep in mind, they lay a thick bed of scoria when building a pad, and compact it well while placing. If it was free, I would be using it. Click to expand... Guess I had too much to drink last night to notice the change of "If" and "When" my bad lol. Mostly silt stone in the mix but hey if a frac tank takes that much abuse then wouldn't matter on what I put down from sounds of it. I hope I can find a lode of the scoria in there as I see it amongst the rest of the silt stone, if so I will make two piles. Guess put a 6 inch pad down of it and then fill the sides in with it and put some on top for insulation value too.

400 bbl x 55 gallons x 8.34 pounds = 183,480 lbs of water these things hold, I doubt I will have to worry about it collapsing.

Spud_Monkey said: 400 bbl x 55 gallons x 8.34 pounds = 183,480 lbs of water these things hold, I doubt I will have to worry about it collapsing. Click to expand... A barrel in oilfield terms is 42 gallons.

12' diameter is bigger than I'd like to be buried, but it's much better than a shipping container, or school bus. Search train tank car vacuum to see the difference between pressure rating and suction rating. External load is more or less the same as suction, just less uniform

colson04 said: A barrel in oilfield terms is 42 gallons. Click to expand... Yep I missed that one. Delmer said: 12' diameter is bigger than I'd like to be buried, but it's much better than a shipping container, or school bus. Search train tank car vacuum to see the difference between pressure rating and suction rating. External load is more or less the same as suction, just less uniform Click to expand... I have seen it and I was thinking a steel framing in the middle to help with the weight. Either way I will be taking the backhoe with full bucket over it few times after I bury it and see if anything budges.