Storage Tank

CategoryIntermediate

Overview

Storage Tank is a logistics building specialized for liquid storage. Unlike regular Storage Mk.I and Mk.II, which can also hold fluids, a Storage Tank is far more efficient for that job: each tank stores up to 10,000 units of a single liquid, making it the preferred way to buffer large amounts of Crude Oil, Refined Oil, Water, Deuterium, Hydrogen, and Sulfuric Acid.

A Storage Tank can contain only one liquid type at a time. This restriction also applies to stacked tanks: when Storage Tanks are built vertically, the entire stack still stores only one liquid type. Because of this, feeding multiple liquid types into the same tank setup will cause jams. Liquids are loaded and unloaded directly through conveyor belts; sorters are not used for normal transfer.

When using multiple output belts, the tank does not distribute contents round-robin like a Splitter. Instead, it fills one output path to full flow before moving to the next, so belt placement matters for throughput management. The tank’s rotation does not matter; output priority is determined by the input placement, with flow proceeding clockwise relative to the input.

A few practical points make Storage Tank especially useful in logistics setups:

It is the best large-scale liquid buffer available early and mid-game.
It accepts and outputs fluids through belts directly, which makes it simple to integrate into refinery and chemical production lines.
Deconstructing a tank destroys any remaining contents, so empty it first if you want to keep the liquid.
Since version 0.6.17.5827, fluids can also be placed into or removed from the tank manually through the UI. Before that update, transfer was only possible by belt.
Manual transfer is slower than removing items from a normal storage building, so moving thousands of units by hand takes noticeable time.
The tank’s output is not stacked. If stacked cargo is inserted from Automatic Piler or Station Integrated Logistics, the stack is unpacked on the way in.

Because a Storage Tank can hold only one fluid type, it works best when paired with dedicated production and distribution lines for each liquid. In practice, that makes it ideal for stabilizing supply between refineries, fractionators, and chemical facilities without wasting space on undersized general storage.