California Water Woes.... (Rethinking filtration for better water within constraints)

[chaoslite]

Bah,

Bad excuse. Buy yourself a 275 gallon tote and a sprinkler pump and water your yard with tank water.

That is what I do thanks to Rick and Jim, but we still have restrictions in my area that you can only water Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and only for 8 minutes per section. It is kind of hard to fill the 250 gallon tote when your water should only be running at most 16 minutes for my house on Tuesdays Thursdays and Sundays.

Mishka

[nc0gnet0]

Think you will be better off with this pump, I tried the one mentioned above and it just wasn't strong enough for me. This pumps much faster and stronger.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Wayne-1-2...-PC4/100067909

That's not made for sprinkling applications, the restrictions on the outflow would burn the pump up fast.

[nate c]

That is what I do thanks to Rick and Jim, but we still have restrictions in my area that you can only water Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and only for 8 minutes per section. It is kind of hard to fill the 250 gallon tote when your water should only be running at most 16 minutes for my house on Tuesdays Thursdays and Sundays.

Mishka

stand by for some rain ,do your best to capture it in a tote

[Tres]

Interesting challenge, and I was wondering how the CA hobbyists are trying to cope with what is their new reality!...

Do you know what kind of water quality issues you've been experiencing by the way, due to the reduced water changes, such as rising nitrates?

If I could contribute my own thoughts on alternative filtration, my own view is that there are potentially three or four steps in that which would be beneficial to address. -

1) Generous quantity of biological filtration area - preferably includes denitrification capabilities. This might be achieved for instance by having a large filtration sump which includes a deep sand bed in order to achieve the denitrification.

2) Nutrient export through intense plant growth - preferably either an algae scrubber, floating plants which use atmospheric CO2, or emergent plants. If emergent plants were used in the sump, (or tank), then their roots in a deep sand bed would help to keep the deep sand bed healthy and functioning well. High intensity light should be provided to achieve sufficient nutrient uptake. The plants may however have to compete against a deep sand bed for nitrogen compounds, and hopefully the plants would be more effective in doing so quickly and efficiently.

3) Oxidation - Certain dissolved organic compounds may not be broken down easily in large quantities without considerable exposure to natural elements such as sun and fresh air. With the confines of an aquarium with a high fish density this is difficult to achieve as necessary by natural means, but this can be achieved through using ozone. Ozone should reduce most any of those compounds into simply forms which can then be utilised and exported through your plants.

4) Chemical filtration - Both carbon and Purigen. Perhaps this is slightly redundant in addition to the above, but I think it's still a very worthwhile precaution, and the carbon is in any case already necessary when using ozone.

I expect not everyone would agree with any suggestion of alternatives, but I expect in some places it may be necessary to explore other options.