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[Bevanron <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

I have currently 3 rainwater catchment tanks, none of which I use for
drinking water.  However, I do use the water for the animals and garden.
 Two of my tanks simply have nylon window screen mesh strapped around
the downspout going into the tank.  I do have to clean them out every so
often, but it's not a huge chore.   I have one of those tanks up on a
wooden pier about 3 feet tall in my greenhouse and I have a small water
"dipping" barrel that I fill.  I just open the big 250 gallon tank
valve, fill up the open 40 gallon barrel, and then dip a 5 gallon
bucket(or plastic watering can if I am watering seedlings in the
greenhouse) into the small barrel to fill up the buckets.  I then carry
the water in the 5 gallon bucket to various trees or shrubs that need
the water.  Tank two is newest, and also uses a screen mesh.  I don't
care what the water looks like in this tank as this is the emergency
tank-the designated fire fighting tank in the event I ever have a fire
get out of hand.  I can fill up buckets and create a bucket brigade.
So, in that tank, the quality of the water doesn't matter much. The
other tank was set up differently, and I hope I can explain it.  A
gutter catches the rain from a tin roof section of the barn...in place
of a downspout and there is a 4" PVC pipe placed just under the hole in
the gutter where a downspout would connect.  This vertical pipe does not
empty directly into the tank, instead, at the end, there is an end cap
that can be unscrewed for cleanout.  A foot above the end cap, there is
another angled piece of PVC, also 4 inches in diameter, that joins the
'downspout' in an inverted Y at about a 45 degree angle.  That pipe goes
to the 300 gallon collection tank, and there is also nylon mesh at the
end of that angled pipe.  I just attached it with zipties.
The way it works is that most of the roof trash-leaves, grit, etc, is
filtered out by gravity, settling in the vertical tube at the endcap.
The trash doesn't make the angle going into the tank.  Water easily
fills up the foot of pipe above the endcap and spills over into the
angled piece of PVC which leads to the water tank.  This setup allows
98% of all the debris in the water to collect in the endcap/trap, and
the rest is caught by the nylon screen mesh at the end of the angled
pipe.  Cleanout is easy as you just unscrew the end cap and if the leaves
and wet mess doesn't fall right out on it's own, you can just take a
stick and scrape it out.  As long as you clean out the trap after a
storm or heavy rain, it doesn't overflow into the angled pipe.

Rainwater in a plastic tank will get algae pretty quickly if you don't
do something to block the light that hits the tank.  You can, of course,
add bleach to the tank to make the water drinkable, but you can also do
other things, like paint the tank black to block sunlight, (this will
also heat the water-my greenhouse tank is painted black), get a tank in
a metal casing, or simply grow some beans or other vines on the tank
cage to shade the tank.  If you block the sunlight, you thwart algael
growth.
Since I am not using my rainwater for drinking, I am not worried about
algae.  I fill up the ducks kiddie pool with the rainwater and the ducks
seem to like the algae, although when the algael bloom gets bad, the
ducks do turn more green from bathing in the rainwater<g>.

I believe the method Gene refers to involves setting up two barrels or
tanks, one  considerably smaller than the other.  The smaller one acts
as a catch all for trash and debris and the larger one collects the
rainwater.  I looked at those type systems, and they may work fine-I
have no experience with them, but it would seem to me to have a couple
of drawbacks.  (I may not understand the system correctly, so the
'drawbacks' may not be drawbacks at all).
The first is that in areas where there is precious little rainfall, you
have to fill the wash barrel before you can start collecting rainwater
in the main tank.  Depending on the size of the wash barrel and the size
of the area that is drained, that could take a while-maybe not even
possible if you just get a sprinkle of rain that lasts only 5 minutes or
so.  The wash barrel system would be fine in areas like mine where we
get 54 inches of rain a year, but I don't know how well it would do in
places where the rain is more scarce.
Secondly, it would seem to me to be hard to clean the wash barrel.
Leaves and debris would clog the drain holes at the bottom and or
interfere with the float mechanism which diverts flow to the main tank.
In my mind, the fewer moving parts you have to use, the better off you
will be in the long run as it is less that will require fixing on down
the road...
I never saw the original post so I don't know who asked the question, or
where they were located, but I think much depends on what you plan to do
with the rainwater as to what kind or how elaborate or simple your setup
would be, should be.
By the way, I suppose I should give credit to where credit is due....Lee
Flier helped me set up my system.  I don't know where she got the idea
from, but it works.  Thanks Lee.(still waiting for Lee to pop out and
say hello)

Bev
--
erthnsky AT bellsouth.net  BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm      NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N 85.076W