Disposing of medicated water/media

[ichthyogeek]

I want to open up a discussion for how people properly dispose of medicated water/media. I've been dosing API General Cure for the past week and a half, and it occurred to me that I probably shouldn't make it a habit to be dumping water with antibacterials (metronidazole) and antiparasitics (praziquantel) down the drain. This stems from reading about too many drug-resistant strains of bacteria, in addition to all of my college lab courses making it very clear that one does not just dump everything down the drain. I've come up with a few ideas, but it'd be great if there was feedback on how to properly dispose of various meds so that we can be better.

Idea 1: Bleach everything, or at least chemically break it down in the water: I know that bleach (sodium hypochlorite) is an incredible oxidizer. And at the end of the day, it decomposes into sodium chloride. I have yet to figure out the orgo behind it, but maybe bleach would help in decomposing medications within the water?

Idea 2: Soak it up. I know that activated carbon is good at adsorbing medications. One could run waste water from water changes through a significant amount of activated carbon, and then feel comfortable flushing that water down the drain. The problem then becomes how to dispose of the activated carbon....I think research labs call somebody to dispose of their chemical wastes, but I don't know if anybody does the same thing in a publicly available manner....

 

[jsker]

Good question

 

[xxkenny90xx]

I don't ever use any meds, maybe that is the solution?

I am guilty of dumping a very small amount of Bayer pesticide down the drain every now and then after I dip new corals, I should probably figure out a better way for that

 

[ichthyogeek]

I don't ever use any meds, maybe that is the solution?

I am guilty of dumping a very small amount of Bayer pesticide down the drain every now and then after I dip new corals, I should probably figure out a better way for that

Lol, I do try to minimize tank meds when possible, but sometimes ya gotta dose...

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I want to open up a discussion for how people properly dispose of medicated water/media. I've been dosing API General Cure for the past week and a half, and it occurred to me that I probably shouldn't make it a habit to be dumping water with antibacterials (metronidazole) and antiparasitics (praziquantel) down the drain. This stems from reading about too many drug-resistant strains of bacteria, in addition to all of my college lab courses making it very clear that one does not just dump everything down the drain. I've come up with a few ideas, but it'd be great if there was feedback on how to properly dispose of various meds so that we can be better.

Idea 1: Bleach everything, or at least chemically break it down in the water: I know that bleach (sodium hypochlorite) is an incredible oxidizer. And at the end of the day, it decomposes into sodium chloride. I have yet to figure out the orgo behind it, but maybe bleach would help in decomposing medications within the water?

Idea 2: Soak it up. I know that activated carbon is good at adsorbing medications. One could run waste water from water changes through a significant amount of activated carbon, and then feel comfortable flushing that water down the drain. The problem then becomes how to dispose of the activated carbon....I think research labs call somebody to dispose of their chemical wastes, but I don't know if anybody does the same thing in a publicly available manner....

For bleach, you would have to look case by case to see if the specific chemical is decomposed by it (copper wouldn't be for example).

For carbon, again, not all meds are absorbed or adsorbed by carbon, and then, it is just sequestered in the carbon, so now you have to dispose of THAT.

Don't forget about test kit reagents going down the drain! I once asked a chemist at a major water test company about that - he gave me a really squirrelly answer about "the amount of chemicals going down the drain are so small, the government doesn't track them". About ten years ago, I stopped using the cadmium reduction nitrate test because of my worry about that waste entering the stream.

This is a huge issue for public aquariums. In some cities, there is a maximum level for nitrate-nitrogen in water (due to issues with farmers) and aquariums in those areas must employ denitrators before dumping water. I've *heard* but can't confirm, that in a pinch some aquariums just add more freshwater to dilute their effluent to acceptable levels.

Praziquantel isn't an issue because it is metabolized by bacteria so quickly. Two compounds that would worry me are trichlorfon and malachite green. We don't use either of these due to human health concerns.

Regular antibiotics could be an issue, but we target injectable or oral dosing almost exclusively, so nothing gets dumped that way.

We have a chemical disposal firm for any outdated or unneeded meds. Not sure what home folks do, landfill would be the best option I think.

Jay