Reusing the aquarium wastewater?

[smitten with ocean life]

ive been rolling around in my head what could be done to make the water that gets dumped from a water change usable, for say, plants. just seems like it should be good fertilizer for something if there was a way to reduce the salinity without too much work. anyone out there use their waste water for something? or have any thoughts on how it could be turned into fertilizer?

 

[UncommonSense]

ive been rolling around in my head what could be done to make the water that gets dumped from a water change usable, for say, plants. just seems like it should be good fertilizer for something if there was a way to reduce the salinity without too much work. anyone out there use their waste water for something? or have any thoughts on how it could be turned into fertilizer?

The primary challenge would be getting the excess salt out of the water to make it usable for much of anything… (unless you’re using it for another saltwater project!)

The only cost-effective home solution for desalinization that comes to mind would be sun distillation… and that wouldn’t be fast, or efficient!

 

[BubbleBuddy]

ive been rolling around in my head what could be done to make the water that gets dumped from a water change usable, for say, plants. just seems like it should be good fertilizer for something if there was a way to reduce the salinity without too much work. anyone out there use their waste water for something? or have any thoughts on how it could be turned into fertilizer?

I water plants with RODI wastewater but run saltwater down the drain. The salt makes it unusable for most plants.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

yeah i know. i have a brown strip through the lawn from running it out the window . just seems like there would be a way to make it useful for something with all that fish poop in it!

 

[oakcityreefer]

I've been thinking about letting it sit for a few days with chlorine added to it. Then add it to my saltwater pool. Maybe run it through a sediment filter

 

[BeanAnimal]

I've been thinking about letting it sit for a few days with chlorine added to it. Then add it to my saltwater pool. Maybe run it through a sediment filter

I suppose that could work, but is it worth the trouble and the cost?

 

[smitten with ocean life]

I've been thinking about letting it sit for a few days with chlorine added to it. Then add it to my saltwater pool. Maybe run it through a sediment filter

now that is resourceful! never thought of that. i guess my mind was just running in the fertilizer track

 

[BeanAnimal]

now that is resourceful! never thought of that. i guess my mind was just running in the fertilizer track

I am pretty sure that the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium used to do massive water changes and then treat and filter the water to reuse in the aquariums. I have notes somewhere. I can't remember if it was all mechanical filtration or they also did chemical.

 

[UncommonSense]

I am pretty sure that the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium used to do massive water changes and then treat and filter the water to reuse in the aquariums. I have notes somewhere. I can't remember if it was all mechanical filtration or they also did chemical.

That’s fascinating!

The creative methods used by public aquariums in land-locked states have always surprised me…

The Monterey Bay aquarium relies on ocean proximity for continuous water changes, for the most part (Mechanically filtered plus ozone during the day for water clarity, then unfiltered raw sea water at night)…. I think I recall that the open ocean exhibit gets ~10%/hour water change constantly! (This is likely more for temperature control than any other water chemistry related reason…)

 

[smitten with ocean life]

interesting!

 

[BeanAnimal]

That’s fascinating!

I just don't remember any of the details or how much was recycled. I was too busy helping chase "escaped" penguins down hallways when were were talking about it.... Little guys and girls are fast and smart, well sort of smart. They follow the leader. "Nope... everyone this way.... Nope that guy is blocking us... hurry everyone waddle this way". It as kind of like run down in a baseball game spread over a few halls.

The creative methods used by public aquariums in land-locked states have always surprised me…

Pittsburgh uses (or at least did at the time) Instant Ocean. Massive concrete mixing and holding tank and an overhead gantry to dump salt. They do get some in boxes, but most of it was in palletized FIBCs (SupersSack I think people also call them).

 

[smitten with ocean life]

penguins??!! now thats hilarious

 

[BeanAnimal]

penguins??!! now thats hilarious

We used to do a annual behind the scenes tour. The senior aquarist, his wife and another club member were aquarists there. That particular trip the penguin keepers were getting them ready for after hours feeding and the keeper didn't pull the habitat door fully closed. They didn't skip a beat and were like "seeya later alligator" and took off down the back hall. I was with Bob's wife and another club member headed to tour the marine QT area, which was not part of the club tour. We saw them run by and she was like "Wait what?, those little boogers took off again. So we had to chase them down and herd them back. Not hard with them being all in single file. especially after the bucket of food came out. There was nowhere for them to go, but they had a blast trying.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

now thats a good story

 

[Louis Z]

I was too busy helping chase "escaped" penguins down

I think I saw the movie : Madagascar !

 

[Scallopking]

ive been rolling around in my head what could be done to make the water that gets dumped from a water change usable, for say, plants. just seems like it should be good fertilizer for something if there was a way to reduce the salinity without too much work. anyone out there use their waste water for something? or have any thoughts on how it could be turned into fertilizer?

I pour my water change water onto the weeds around the outside of my fence.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

thats what i was thinking. i guess i can just use it to kill weeds!

 

[commod0re]

I use it to kill the weeds that poke out of the cracks in my driveway and around the outdoor part of my mini split

 

[smitten with ocean life]

yeah it sounds like maybe thats about all its good for, i guess!

 

[UncommonSense]

yeah it sounds like maybe thats about all its good for, i guess!

I do have a 3x larger tank in the works, so I have a 27g tub packed full of live rock as my holding bin…

That said, I do water changes on both my rock bin and display system at the same time; the rock bin water is dumped, the old display system water is added to the rock bin! (I had one cyano outbreak in the rock bin, likely from zero or near zero nutrients [it basically gets ignored aside from top-off], before I started this “secondhand water change” method!)