Advise regarding using river water as tank water? Australia based River

[William Palumbo]

LOL...taking water from the river...filtering it thru a sediment filter, chlorinating it, ozone, and UV...*** is actually being accomplished? What are you saving? Don't understand why people feel the need to over complicate things...Bill

[Skip]

Op.. where do u live

[Kerrie]

Hi everyone,
Sorry for not clarifying, the property I am thinking of buying has a 3megalitre water pumping entitlement for agricultural and private use. Tap water isn't an option as there is no town water available. The fish room,now will be a former insulated, closed in with openable air flow walls, packing shed used presently for fruit, and is powered by a 10kw solar system on gel batteries. Would disease be a problem if the water was pumped as Timmy said through black plastic heating the water above say 40c, then into a steel holding/ storage tank before aging/ mixing with cooler water before being gravity feed slowly through a uv light into a drip type arrangement above the tank that constantly refreshed the water 24 hours a day. Water from the overflows would be a constant trickle, not flood of water out through the over flow to a main feeder pipe, before exiting the shed. It would then travel approx 150 meters along a concrete drainage shallow culvert into a storage dam for waste water storage ( not stocked with fish) for use in irrigation of the gardens and toilet flushing. There might be livestock present at some times of the year but only in small numbers as the dam is located in a spare horse paddock. There is virtually no chance of return of the water to the river as the dam is not physically connected by any piping or at risk of any flooding bar a huge natural disaster.
Cheers and thanks so very much for the great feed back, it does help tremendously to talk through plans from others perspective, and see things you didn't think of.

[nc0gnet0]

With proper filtration and sterilization it should'nt be a problem, the main concern as I see it is not the water you take out (it seems you already have the permits to do so) but rather any water you put back into the river (and it seems that is also a non concern, without getting into 100 year flood plains and the like).

[timmy82]

Hi everyone,
Sorry for not clarifying, the property I am thinking of buying has a 3megalitre water pumping entitlement for agricultural and private use. Tap water isn't an option as there is no town water available. The fish room,now will be a former insulated, closed in with openable air flow walls, packing shed used presently for fruit, and is powered by a 10kw solar system on gel batteries. Would disease be a problem if the water was pumped as Timmy said through black plastic heating the water above say 40c, then into a steel holding/ storage tank before aging/ mixing with cooler water before being gravity feed slowly through a uv light into a drip type arrangement above the tank that constantly refreshed the water 24 hours a day. Water from the overflows would be a constant trickle, not flood of water out through the over flow to a main feeder pipe, before exiting the shed. It would then travel approx 150 meters along a concrete drainage shallow culvert into a storage dam for waste water storage ( not stocked with fish) for use in irrigation of the gardens and toilet flushing. There might be livestock present at some times of the year but only in small numbers as the dam is located in a spare horse paddock. There is virtually no chance of return of the water to the river as the dam is not physically connected by any piping or at risk of any flooding bar a huge natural disaster.
Cheers and thanks so very much for the great feed back, it does help tremendously to talk through plans from others perspective, and see things you didn't think of.

Right now we back on track the one issue was if you had the correct permits and you do so all set. I will look further into a strong Ozone machine for the pre treatment to ansure you end up with good bugless water. I would also include a filtration set up before the water hits the tank. A course prescreen on the inlet of the pump in the river. Then some cheap 100 micron sediment followed by some 20 or less micron filters. Talk with Peter @ PSI filters they are really good and have wide range of systems. As for getting the water hot in pre treatment I wouldn't worry about that I would only pre heat to 27C for the cooler winter months where the river will be less than 20c I would guess. In townsville winter water only get down to 23c so during then I more run my system on the over flow rather than dump and fill. Just send me a PM if you want any other details or info.

[Kerrie]

Sounds like the way to go Timmy, I will look into ozone cleaners. Would have thought sediment cleaning would be easier as a back wash from the tank it self, will think about the sediment more. I thought heating the water before the tank would kill most pathogens in the piping before they get to the tank? This probably would be redundant with an ozone machine? I was thinking in by using constant water changing rather than dump and fill the water would stay a constant temp in the heated room? Will definitely get some more help in the coming months Timmy, thank for the help.
Cheers
Kerrie

[dirtyplants]

I am thinking about the ozone which kills all good and bad. Yes you need to control parasites but you could use some good bacteria. What does the local water department use for water purification? These guys could also be a good source of info regarding the parasites and pollution contained in your river. What is the river's source? Is this a fast moving river? What is the outlet of this river. Check with your neighbors, I live in WI USA and although well populated I found many who live in small towns whose property which has a stream that runs through it use it to divert their sewer wastes into it although it is illegal. As far as the piping is concerned, make sure it does not degrade with heat, and has no lead in it.
As far as the Asian Carp post, I live in the Mid West were we are trying to keep this baby out. This tends to be a problem where we import critters and get tired of them for what ever reason and dump them into to the lake assuming they will not live long. Responsible aquarists would never dump adaptable predators or plants into a local habitat. The plants tend to get into the waste water and sewers and into our waters. Many of the invasive species have come in attached to boats like the Zebra Mussel. Check your list of dos and don'ts, of what is legal and illegal to own or dump into your waters. If it can't survive in your seasonal and habitat conditions it probably will not be on the invasive list.