canal water...

[ApacheDan]

I live in South Florida and my backyard is a large & wide canal, stocked with peacock bass. Anyway, the homeowners association draws from this water to sprinkle the lawns and it's "free" for the residents. I'm thinking running a T from their pipes to my garage, then filter & UV this water. Obviously I'm going to test it before & after to see if the parameters are fish-friendly. Anybody tried using lake/canal water for their fish? Any thoughts? Thanks.

[yogi]

Since the water would be free just use an r/o with a booster pump.

[ApacheDan]

Thanks. I'm going to start my testing soon.

[DLock3d]

You could run the waste water back to the canal. :) Or is that a big no no?

[ApacheDan]

You could run the waste water back to the canal. :) Or is that a big no no?

I don't think it is a big deal, but the neighbors might complaint. Might as well run a pipe that will end up in the garden and make everybody happy. :o

[discgo]

I know the S. Florida tap water isn't the best, but wouldn't you prefer filtering that over canal water that likely has pesticide run off and what not in it from people's lawns? I think your RO unit would be doing a lot more work. Am interested in your results, thanks, Rod.

[ApacheDan]

I know the S. Florida tap water isn't the best, but wouldn't you prefer filtering that over canal water that likely has pesticide run off and what not in it from people's lawns? I think your RO unit would be doing a lot more work. Am interested in your results, thanks, Rod.

I've been doing some research on the subject. There's a lot of people that use lake water, well water, etc, filter it and use it for drinking, etc. As a matter of fact, that is the practice when you got a weekend cabin in the middle of nowhere. Regarding the pesticides, it depends on the size of the body of water you are taking about. If it is running water and there are indeed pesticides; then it only goes a few feet from the edge and it is well diluted. When it comes to bacteria, etc, I would imagine running it under 24W UV light for 24 hours would take care of that. A few years back I was living in Davie, Fl on a house with a man-made lake. I made an 800 gal above water koi pond. I did the exact thing...ran a T from my sprinkler system and used the unfiltered water in the pond. Bad news, it got pretty murky. Good news, fish survived pretty well for a couple of years...until we got hit by a hurricane and I had to take the whole thing down. I lost some fish, but mostly because I had some fish in there not meant to withstand 50-60 F temps during the winter. Lost no koi. I'm ready to try again, hopefully I learn something..:)