PDA

View Full Version : Waste water reclaiming



AndLaw134
11-03-2009, 01:01 AM
Here is my question.

Wastewater, has anyone successfully reclaimed it? I am starting to build my fish room (I am bound to a few more hundred question out of that). Have some good ideas on so Wet/Dry filtration systems, and auto water-changing systems. But I have never herd of anyone reclaiming their water change water.

I am just trying to be a little more environmentally friendlier. I am thinking and offline reverse osmoses system with a UV filter attached. I would be happy too here peoples thought on this.

Cheers

tcyiu
11-03-2009, 01:11 AM
Here is my question.

Wastewater, has anyone successfully reclaimed it? I am starting to build my fish room (I am bound to a few more hundred question out of that). Have some good ideas on so Wet/Dry filtration systems, and auto water-changing systems. But I have never herd of anyone reclaiming their water change water.

I am just trying to be a little more environmentally friendlier. I am thinking and offline reverse osmoses system with a UV filter attached. I would be happy too here peoples thought on this.

Cheers

I'm no expert on RO, but if you send waste water through an RO system, think about the fact that you will only get a fraction of the waste water back. That coupled with the extra energy costs (pump to create pressure) and the extra environmental impact of the manufacture of the resin ... I'm thinking that the most environmentally friendly thing you can do is extract the heat from the waste water and then dump it on your lawn.

In other words, the cost/benefits at first blush do not seem to justify trying to reclaim the waste water.

Tim

Chad Hughes
11-03-2009, 01:34 AM
I pump all of my waste water in to holding drums. I water every other day (grass, trees, etc.) and have four 55 gallon drums that I fill with waste water every other day. The drums are all connected and in one drum I have a sump pump connected to a hose. When I am ready to water, I flip a switch and drain the drums in to the yard, plants, etc.

Works for me!

jeff@zina.com
11-05-2009, 04:37 PM
My waste water also goes on the landscape, cuts the cost of potable water I would use. Commercial operations would treat waste water to meet disposal guidelines (here in Florida they're pretty strict) but I don't know any that are reusing the water.

One technique used is the propagation of aquatic plants with the waste water. Many types of plants can absorb the nutrients left in the waste water and leave you with pretty clean (organically) water as a discharge. For commercial operations the plants become a second profit item.

RO systems waste enough water on their own, I'm not sure running waste water through them would be cost effective.

Jeff

AndLaw134
11-06-2009, 11:54 PM
Thanks for the info,

I do spread the waste water around in the garden. This can become a little difficult in the winter months when there is 3 feet of snow on the ground :) But I did not think of the holding drum idea I will see if I can plan for that in the spring.

Cheers

andrew

mlw
12-12-2009, 01:08 PM
I actually thought about trying to hook up an API Tap Water filter up to the waste water outlet on my RO unit to see if I could waste less water and have more to use in the tank. It kills me to let so much water go to waste. We are in an apartment so keeping barrels of waste water is not an option.

David Rose
12-12-2009, 03:52 PM
Using waste water for lawn and garden is great if you're on the West coast, but what about those on the East coast or in climates with longer freezing temps? Ice Rink maybe? Ice sculpture business? :D

zamboniMan
12-12-2009, 04:11 PM
I've thought about running soaker hoses in the garden and the pumping the waste water into them. But even doing that alot still goes to waste in the winter. I may make it a project for next spring we'll see.

AndLaw134
12-14-2009, 04:19 PM
I might look into setting up a RO system. I was thinking of putting on in any way and I can mess around with it to see how if performs.

I am going to set up my fish room early in the new year were I hope to have a little breeding program. So a RO system is in my near future anyway. I a country which we are blessed with 2/3 of the worlds fresh water and a price per gallon so low from the city I still cringe every time I am dumping 5 gallon Home Depot bucket down the drain in the winter.

Happy Holidays

tcyiu
12-14-2009, 07:09 PM
If I'm reading this right, you're planning on using the RO system to extract clean water from the waste water from the tank. Is this correct?

Tim

dan1
12-14-2009, 07:36 PM
We are lucky that our tap water is very soft (TDS 30) but every now and then we had a few months when they switched reservoir and TDS spiked up to 180. I would have to use my RO, I used to dump the waste water into the washing machine. It worked out great, nothing was ever waste. The changed water is used for plants in the backyard.

Buckeye Field Supply
12-15-2009, 07:55 AM
Try using the waste water for laundary. Think about extending the waste water tube so it will reach your washing machine.

Russ

zamboniMan
12-15-2009, 04:30 PM
Only having around 30 tanks and only doing 2 major WC's per week (been expanding) I don't have anywhere near enough waster water to do the laundry.

Also wouldn't you have to use more laundry detergent then?

Moon
12-15-2009, 05:39 PM
I've ben using the waste water from the RO for the grow out tanks. Young discus do well in this water.
Waste from WC is another matter. When the ground is frozen there isn't much you can do with waste water.

Buckeye Field Supply
12-15-2009, 09:10 PM
Only having around 30 tanks and only doing 2 major WC's per week (been expanding) I don't have anywhere near enough waster water to do the laundry.

Also wouldn't you have to use more laundry detergent then?

It will depend upon your particular tap water. At my house for instance, the tap reads about 275 ppm, and the waste water is about 20% higher than that, or about 325. That is still nothing unusual, and I notice no difference when I use it for the laundary.

Now if you are in the arid west and your tap water reads 1000 ppm to start, that might be a different story.

In some parts of the country the waste water will be softer than my tap water.

Russ

discussmith
12-15-2009, 10:24 PM
Forest products laboratory near the University of Wisconsin built a house out of all the wood products they have engineered. Inside they have a "grey" water (tub, shower, laundry, dishwasher) storage and pumping system used for flushing toilets. It also incorporated a rain water collection system for use in the laundry. I don't know if a google search would produce the info but I bet they're not the only ones to have done it, and for those with enough water usage requirements it would be worth looking into.

zamboniMan
12-15-2009, 11:27 PM
For the most part (except for pairs) I don't treat the water. TDS out of the tap here can very from 300 - 600 (I have a cistern so if I have to order water it's closer to 600 but if I get alot of rain it usually stays around 300). The other problem I'd have trying to hook it to the washer is that the tanks are in the basement so I'd have to pump water up to the washer (which is on the main floor).

Great idea though.

AndLaw134
12-17-2009, 05:48 PM
If I'm reading this right, you're planning on using the RO system to extract clean water from the waste water from the tank. Is this correct?

Tim


Thats the plan, dump the Waste water in to a holding drum, Pump the water through a R/O using a high pressure pump, then into another holding drum for further treatment, then back into the tanks. But is just a plan right now.

Chad Hughes
12-17-2009, 05:59 PM
Thats the plan, dump the Waste water in to a holding drum, Pump the water through a R/O using a high pressure pump, then into another holding drum for further treatment, then back into the tanks. But is just a plan right now.

I considered this a while back and then calculated what it would cost for the filters. A standard RO system is not sufficient to eliminate the level of cantamination that you will encounter with aquarium waste water. You'll need to have a micron system (mechanical filtration) prior to a standard RO system. These filters will need regular changing, maybe two or three times annually plus you'll have to change your RO system filters at about the same frequency. In this case, investing in a commercial water purification would likely be best but would cost more than the water that you are trying to save.

I figured out that I would be spending more for filters over the year as I would to just replace water. The best thing you can do is "stretch" your water changes over time to reduce the amount of water used and just use the little bit of waste water that you do produce for lanscape irrigation or other grey water purposes.

Hope that helps!

diskus24.de
12-29-2009, 07:29 PM
Hi there,

i am from Germany an new to this Forum. In my 1.500 L Setup i use a 300 GPD RO to recycle my Tankwater after biological Filtration.

The trick is to reuse the Waste Water from RO instead of draining it. Therefore you need a Concentrate Tank. This Tank supplies RO and gets Waste Water from RO in Return. But we want to clean Tankwater so we need a Swimmervalve that supplies Tankwater when RO starts working and subsequently produces Clean Water. (Timer controlled)

Remember we have two different Watercirculations, Tank and RO. As soon as we supply water from RO Circle back into Tankcircle, RO Circle lacks water and the Swimmervalve opens. Tankwater is supplied by Pump as long as RO is running.

Further, i have developed a Filter System (U-Filter) that provides automated Prefilter cleaning and automated Waterchanges for the Tankcircle.
When changing Water i use the Tankcircle Waste Water to prevent a to high concentration in the Concentration Tank by Cascaded Overflow from TCircle to RO Circle = Red Line in Blockdiagram.

For Blockdiagram see Attachement.

Benefits are not only saving Water, its mainly Energy you save, because you need less freshwater => less Energy for Warming up from Tap to Keeping Temperature.

The System works perfect and fully automated. Since 7 Month up and running i never changed water by hand. All Water Parameters are always constant. My Discus seem to like it, see attached Picture. The Fish are 11 Month old in a 120cm Tank ...

Cheers Rudolf

Barr1542
03-03-2010, 10:04 PM
You could put in an outdoor pond, and have a "wetland" of sorts containing only RO fishtank water. This would remove nutrients, settle out solids and waste. Following, a pump could deliver treated water through a very fine filter, followed by UV sterilization to kill any pathogens. Who knows you might even find some live feeds thriving in the pond, perhaps even use it for growout in the summer.

ockyra215
03-07-2010, 09:41 PM
Well to any who use RO and have a problem with wasting water.What I have done in the past is hook two tapwater purifiers inline of the RO waste water and it is just as clean as ro and I used to use it in all my tanks mixed with the RO water.When I was younger and lived with my parents running as many tanks as Dad would let me he hated the RO unit because of the waste water.It was a young discus keepers nightmare no RO unless you figure out a way to make it work.Thats when I came up with using 2 tap water purifiers you have to change the cartridges once a week but it was better than getting an earfull from the oldman ...I miss them days:D

Muffinpuppy
03-12-2010, 01:32 PM
I have been doing some research, motivated mainly by cost savings. Check out the product at www.ecoaqualizer.com. It may help to reduce your water change frequency substantially, which will in turn reduce the amount of waste water you are currently producing.

tcyiu
03-27-2010, 12:11 PM
I have been doing some research, motivated mainly by cost savings. Check out the product at www.ecoaqualizer.com. It may help to reduce your water change frequency substantially, which will in turn reduce the amount of waste water you are currently producing.

This post looks like spam. The member has 1 post, and post recommends a site promoting a product that sounds like snake oil.

Caveat emptor.

nc0gnet0
03-27-2010, 02:48 PM
The problem with using RO to reclaim tank water is two fold. One, bacteria is a major problem to the RO membrane and two, for every gallon of RO water you typically have two gallons of waste water so your not going to reclaim all your tank water.


You would be better of storing the water in a waste water collection tank (lets say 200 gallons) then when full, treating the water with PP, then hydrogen peroxide (both heavy oxidizers), aerate for a few days then filter through a god mechanical filter (1 micron) then a carbon block filter.

Easier yet is store the water in the tank and water your lawn with it.

LizStreithorst
03-27-2010, 06:35 PM
I'm just dumping mine on the ground now. But I've just set up new tanks and am now using RO. My plan is to put in a small pond with a pond liner and make a mini wetland around it.

When I lived here 5 years ago (before my move) I put in an irrigation system to my plants and hooked the pump up to it when I did my WC. Now, with fewer tanks, I'm using gravity rrather than a pump, and I think that the pond in the back yard idea will work. It will be good for the wild birds, too. My water is cheap. Still, I hate wasting it.