Rain water to make saltwater?

[NashobaTek]

Hmm is that true? first search led me to this: https://www.quora.com/Is-it-illegal-to-collect-rainwater-in-Washington-state-and-why#:~:text=Due to increasing interest, in,water rights may be stopped.&text=It is not illegal to,not need a permit either.

As I said earlier, they have changed it. Before 2005 or so it was illegal to collect rain water on your property.

 

[F i s h y]

I'm glad this discussion has kept going. I dont have my own place to do this at the moment large scale so I think I may experiment some on a small scale. I am open to suggestions for collection, storage, and testing. My forst thought is some sort of small plastic tarp that runs the water down into a collection container. I think in order to avoid collecting leaves and small debris it should pass through a pre-filter of some kind designed to catch sediments. Then I think I'll pump it from the collection container through carbon to a nearly sealed holding container. That will be the water im interested in testing. Since it would go directly from there to be made into saltwater. Im thinking phosphates, nitrates, nitrites, ammonia to start with. Any other suggestions? The salt mix will buffer the ph, so I'll check ph after its mixed.

Other thoughts?

 

[AcroNem]

I would never use it on its own, knowing how rain forms and the crap that's in it. That water is far from clean.

 

[F i s h y]

More food for thought. I found this video. They measured rain water and tap water. I'd be interested in what RO water typically measures at for hardness and ph. If a low ph is the only concern and the salt mix will buffer this or it can be buffered... what else needs to be considered?

 

[F i s h y]

Also found this video. Tidal gardens maybe uses rainwater for their tanks? Check at the 28 minute mark.



I have reached out to them to see if they can provide any information.

 

[rob s.]

most rain water is relatively free of impurities like stated before. I say collect some, add salt, and test before adding to your tank

 

[anthonygf]

More food for thought. I found this video. They measured rain water and tap water. I'd be interested in what RO water typically measures at for hardness and ph. If a low ph is the only concern and the salt mix will buffer this or it can be buffered... what else needs to be considered?

Like I said before, very soft water. Still needs treatment to restore minerals, raise ph, run a UV light for several days to kill parasites.

 

[canadianeh]

Don't forget in some states ( Washington ) it's very illegal to collect rain water on your property.

Of course! Just imagine if everyone start to collect rain water.....the government will lose revenue from water usage.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Tap water costs about a penny for five gallons in the US. If you use 70 gallons of filtered water a month (that's four 10 gallon WCs and a gallon for top off a day), you'd use about 210 gallons of tap water total to run your RO unit at a 2:1 brine to permeate ratio. This would cost about $0.42. If your tap water is 10x more expensive than the national average, you're still only paying four dollars for your RO water every month.

That's also ignoring that, in all but the most unusual cases, the RO filter is probably the smallest user of water in your entire home. The average family in the US uses 300 gallons of water per day. That's 9,000 per month. You'd save much more water by installing efficient appliances or low flow toilets than you would using rainwater for your aquarium. If you're really looking to save water, eat animal protein less frequently. It takes almost 700 gallons of water to produce one 6oz steak, over 600 gallons to produce a hamburger, and more than 50 gallons to produce a single chicken egg.

 

[Eggs]

Airplanes sometimes dump fuel if they are to heavy to land. It dissipates before it hits the ground, but it maybe in a cloud somewhere.

 

[Hans-Werner]

As Randy I would worry most about the roof and the roof gutter. If you have an acrylic roof over your terrace with a PVC roof gutter this will give you good quality rainwater. A littel bird poop will not disturb mutch.

Also clay shingles or concrete roofs will be widely neutral after some years of weathering (still may leach some silicate). Absolutely avoid roof gutters made of copper (of course), with zinc coating or any other metal.

 

[315wall]

Don't forget in some states ( Washington ) it's very illegal to collect rain water on your property.

That would be the trigger to move or never live there for me. If they can regulate open water they can screw up anything. So is it illegal to collect all of the snow?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

That would be the trigger to move or never live there for me. If they can regulate open water they can screw up anything. So is it illegal to collect all of the snow?

You don't want the government to try to protect a community resource (like well water) that everyone shares?

 

[Hans-Werner]

You don't want the government to try to protect a community resource (like well water) that everyone shares?

In Germany most roof water goes into the sewage system and throught the sewage treatment directly into streams and rivers. We even have to pay per square meter for additional sewage capacity.

At least here it makes much more sense to catch up roof water in tanks and use it for plant watering. In this way excess rain water, that could cause floods on streams and rivers, is stored and used instead of groundwater, or percolated and may even increase groundwater.

I am lucky to have a house with plastic roof gutters, concrete shingles and underground tanks on both rainwater pipes, and I make extensive use of rainwater. As soon as a plant in the garden shows signs of drought stress it gets a shower with the watering can … and I have a big garden.

 

[Luke Schnabel]

@Fishy65 our rainwater collected goes through some massive amounts of filtration. The rainwater pulled from the cistern needs to be treated with bleach, then that water passes through a giant carbon tower, then through inline filters and finally to an RO unit.

 

[fishybizzness]

In the Caribbean, it is a building requirement that every house has a cistern built into the foundation. The only exemptions are for those built within the city limits that can access the city water system. I live up in the hills and don't have access to city water. My cistern has a capacity of about 30,000 gallons. All my water used in the house, to include drinking water, is collected rain water. I have a main filter system for all the water used. I also have a rodi for my topoff water as well as when I mix saltwater. Most of my water changes are with nsw. My "wastewater" goes right back into the cistern as we cannot afford to waste that much water. My tds coming out of the cistern is around 40. I haven't tested the tds of the wastewater but I doubt it's much higher. IMHO, rainwater, when properly collected and stored, is a great way to conserve city water. Alot of resources and chemicals are used to produce city water and the less of it we use the better for the environment.

 

[samnaz]

@Fishy65 our rainwater collected goes through some massive amounts of filtration. The rainwater pulled from the cistern needs to be treated with bleach, then that water passes through a giant carbon tower, then through inline filters and finally to an RO unit.

I just watched the video explaining that in detail - fascinating!

 

[Paul B]

Isn't the stuff in the ocean made out of rain water?

 

[OrionN]

Don't forget in some states ( Washington ) it's very illegal to collect rain water on your property.

What a stupid rule/regulation. The same as in Medieval Europe. Everything belongs to the king. The deer and the wood in the forest. Once can get hang for poaching of the king's deer.

Rain water really good for the plants, really turn them green. Much more so than tab water. I would not say that it is full of minerals, unless whatever you use to collect it leach mineral, like the roof, dirt , the down sprout ect...
However, Rain water have minor amount of pollutant, depends on where you are in the US. Generally polution this is not a problem, not like in the like up to the mid 80's. Up until then industrial pollution, like acid rain is a big problem from factories.

The main problem, and the reason why rain water is so good for the garden is the nitrates in it. Lighting convert A LOT of atmospheric Nitrogen to nitrate. Using rainwater will be really good for the algae in your tank. That may not be a bad thing. Check it before you decide to use it.

Here is a link on various sources of nitrates in the Nitrogen Cycle.
The Nitrogen Cycle

 

[OrionN]

You don't want the government to try to protect a community resource (like well water) that everyone shares?

Water underground, stream, river that flow though your land is one thing. Rain water fallen from the air on OUR LANG before it get absorb into the ground is another. In addition to not enforceable, and the small volume involved make that regulation stupid. Other than the government, I don't see any one individual or group own enough land to make this regulation remotely relevant.
In addition to this, any large project, the private party already have to apply for permit and environmental impact studies and other regulation that should be use instead of having law enforcement personnel go around to see if people collecting rain water for their own use and give them tickets.