Reusing the aquarium wastewater?

[overhead]

I have gravel around one side of my house, I have been dumping it there. Unfortunately, the weeds don't seem to mind.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

hmm ok.

 

[13rodo]

If you are willing to wait, you could setup a little greenhouse around a storage tank for it and distill it with sunlight. The distilled water would collect on the glass and trickle down. Assumes you have a lot of sunlight, but might be a fun little project

 

[smitten with ocean life]

thats an interesting idea! i have been looking at greenhouses.....

 

[13rodo]

thats an interesting idea! i have been looking at greenhouses.....

You'd probably want a shallow and wide holding tank to increase the surface area. It'd still be super slow, but eventually you'd get salt + distilled water :)

 

[Redemptioner]

Depends on the water volume, a good use is to use it for growing other things like copepods, phyto or hatching brineshrimp. However you do need to sterilize it for use to grow phyto which you can either heat or use a little chlorine.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I would always pour the water change water onto the gravel area behind my apartment. I had no use for it.

 

[Freenow54]

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?

If its important to you ethically distill it .

 

[Freenow54]

There are desalinization units as well $$$$$$$

 

[smitten with ocean life]

no, its not that important to me! lol. its just something that ive thought about

 

[stupidfishguy]

I have big 250 gallon totes and use it in the winter when I have icy spots in the driveway. I used about 200 gallons last winter.

 

[13rodo]

I have big 250 gallon totes and use it in the winter when I have icy spots in the driveway. I used about 200 gallons last winter.

That's a clever reuse... wish I had thought of this :)

 

[smitten with ocean life]

now that is clever!

 

[SeaWolf95]

Back before my sulfur reactor started I dumped all my water change on weeds. It worked pretty good at killing them without all the cancer from roundup. But now that my tank has a "kidney" and its pretty much scrubbing roughly 7-8G of water of nitrates a day I dont do water changes anymore. Reactor is oversized too and still has more power in reserve.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

interesting! the no water change thing fascinates me but im not brave enough to try it i guess lol

 

[Freenow54]

Back before my sulfur reactor started I dumped all my water change on weeds. It worked pretty good at killing them without all the cancer from roundup. But now that my tank has a "kidney" and its pretty much scrubbing roughly 7-8G of water of nitrates a day I dont do water changes anymore. Reactor is oversized too and still has more power in reserve.

Ok I give up. Not into assuming as you know what that can do . What is the Kidney ?

 

[exnisstech]

I have big 250 gallon totes and use it in the winter when I have icy spots in the driveway. I used about 200 gallons last winter.

I know road salt would degrade concrete over time. I'm not sure about our salt water.
This scaling from salt dripping off a car in the winter because they still use rock salt on the roads around here.

 

[SeaWolf95]

Ok I give up. Not into assuming as you know what that can do . What is the Kidney ?

Was a joke the kidneys filter waste from the blood. Sulfur reactor filters nitrates which are the waste of the nitrogen cycle from the water.

 

[Privateye]

You could use it to grow salt-loving (halophilic) plants like mangroves.

You could use it to create a barren area in your yard (it'll even kill trees)

You could ozonate it to an ORP of about 800 mV and reuse it, but I don't recommend that. Ozone is not a friendly chemical. Also, it won't remove any nitrate or phosphate. Or replenish missing ions.

Or maybe to flush your toilet during a power outage? Assuming you're not using a septic tank of course.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

all interesting ideas. but i think the fertilizer thought is not practical. i think ill just keep running it out the window haha