Toilet Water Changes

[badisbadis101]

I posted this a couple weeks ago on Monster Fish Keepers, just because it popped into my head. However, after some discussion, my far fetched fantasy seemed workable, and because of the volume of water it would allow to be changed daily, i though it would be perfect for discus, but who knows. Anyway, here is the idea:

Toilets need water to function, but that water doesnt necessarily have to be perfectly clean. Fish need new water regularly, and that water does have to be clean. But the fish waste water is clean enough to be used in toilets. So, instead of water coming directly out of the tap, it would come out of your fish tank, and into the toilet's tank. Every time the toilet flushed, your fish would get a gallon or two of fresh water, directly from the tap or whatever you use for you w/c water. My water is well water, so i wouldnt have to worry about chloramine/chlorine/etc.

Anyway, that is the idea. Would this be applicable for a large discus aquarium? I figure that for me (a family of 5) the toilet would be flushed probably 10 - 30 times a day (assuming their is more than one toilet in the house). So, every day, my planned 120 gallon discus tank would get 10 - 30 small water changes of 1 - 2 gallons, totalling 70 - 420 gallons of new water every week, with very little effort on my part. And as a plus, instead of using that amount of water for my discus tanks, and then that amount of water again for just one toilet, i am saving water :)

Just an idea :)

[brewmaster15]

They have built a similar system in many environmentally friendly homes that run off "grey water" this is the water that comes from laundry, wash sinks etc......in that case they usually plumb it separate to a holding tank....then connect to the toilets...

do a search on grey water systems...
http://www.google.com/search?q=grey%2Bwater%2Bsystems&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a


I've thought about it for my tanks...I think you could easily do something like you are thinking...

hth,
al

[badisbadis101]

Has anyone actually put this into effect? I am seriously considering it, as my family is building a new house in a year or two, and that would be the easiest time to set something like this up. I am still working on the details, but the idea seems pretty solid :)

[Graham]

There is absolutely no reason why it wouldn't work.....have fun plumbing it.

When we loose electricty around here, water from the pond is used to flush toliets.....a few years back half the neighborhood was using my pond water to flush during Hurricane Juan.........

G

[badisbadis101]

Thanks :P Plumbing might be a little bit, um, interesting, but if it works, it should save me lots of time with water changes :)

[tedsdiscus]

I've heard of crazier ideas before. IMO, anything we can do to not waste so much water is a definite plus. Your idea is very interesting indeed. The problem is there is much plumbing to do so that all the toilets are hooked up to the tank or some sort of holding tank, than automatically flushed into the fish tank some how. The other thing is, that tap water is not yet treated. If you can figure out how to treat tap water before it hits the tank, that would be awesome.
Anyways, funny idea, but I bet someone that's a bit handy could figure it out.
Please keep us posted if you do ever make it work.

Thanx for the post,

Ted

[badisbadis101]

the good news for me is that my water is fish friendly right out the tap :) No chemicals to mess with :) I was looking at the auto- topoff systems for refilling the tank, and using the exhisting valve in the toilet tank for water going from the tank to the toilet (just replacing the tap water entry hose with one from the fish tank)

[majik]

No wisdom to add but i just wanted to say what a fablous idea ,could be fun and games for a while getting set up but great idea.:)

[bs6749]

Sorry if this was already said as I skimmed through some of the posts but has anyone taken into account the temperature of the water that is coming from the well into the tank? Well water is ffairly cold and could rapidly lower the temp of the tank if not monitored. Just think about that...10-30 flushes per day of cold water going into ta tank. That seems like it would be a problem unless the water is heated.

[2075turner]

interesting................

[Finman57]

I know this is an old thread but it seemed
Interesting..

any updates?

Someone mentioned cold water but if its only 1 or 2 gallons at a time would not hurt a 120-gallon tank. Not much more than 1% per flush. Unless the toilet starts leaking and it keeps running. Then the temp may drop.

[cturner]

Just thinking outloud but doesn't the toilet refilling required a certain PSI? If it comes from the tap our pipes have to have a minimum required PSI running thru them to get the water up thru the pipes and out of the tap. Just connecting regular plumbing from the tank up to the toilets isn't going to get the water there. You'll need some type of pump either in the tank or connected to the line somewhere or use a holding tank like many of us use for aging water, again you'll need a big pump.

[Discus-Hans]

A friend of mine back in Holland had this on his cichlid tank, it worked fine. Only that one time he had a party at his house with a lot of drinks .......so a lot of water changes on those days,

Hans

[susantroy1]

A friend of mine back in Holland had this on his cichlid tank, it worked fine. Only that one time he had a party at his house with a lot of drinks .......so a lot of water changes on those days,

Hans

Too funny Hans!!

:jester::guitarist::thumbsup:

Those folks can sure party!!!! spent a few years in the Netherlands

All The best
Troy