Reusing the aquarium wastewater?

[DCR]

The Basic system

I still don't know what RC stands for if you don't mind
is 3500 the water change system is 10K

RC is Reef Central, another forum that was very popular before R2R. It is still out there with a lot of good information on it from the past.

 

[iannarelli]

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

Wouldn't that also distill out all the nutrients? It would give you usable water but not really anything more beneficial than what comes from a tap. I guess the environmental angle or reuse is still a benefit.

 

[PPBlimpy]

I always wanted to do a brackish bog outside in a greenhouse.

Have my AWC go into that daily and also maintain salinity via apex or something using waste RODI water that I store. Let that overflow into a different hold tank or down the septic. Maybe build a small DIY septic on the edge of the property away from my fields just for the old bog water.

bet the nutrient rich water coming out of my tanks would feed some brackish plants pretty well

 

[iannarelli]

I run a very large freshwater aquarium in parallel with the smaller reef tank. All saltwater from changes goes into the freshwater tank (scarcely budges the conductivity overall, and I’m growing some “impossible” freshwater plants now). Of course, this only works because of the volume discrepancy.

How do you manage the salinity buildup over time in the FW tank, just regular water changes?

 

[iannarelli]

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.

This was going to be my response. Perfectly suitable for brine shrimp or pods.

 

[Peace River]

What about a macroalgae farm? There are even some aquaponic systems that use salt/brackish water.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

hey i love this idea!

 

[BeanAnimal]

Isn't one of long time members an algae farmer?

 

[13rodo]

Wouldn't that also distill out all the nutrients? It would give you usable water but not really anything more beneficial than what comes from a tap. I guess the environmental angle or reuse is still a benefit.

Ya I was mainly thinking for the purpose of reusing for mixing new saltwater since the distilled water is pure. I dunno the idea I've read here that I liked the most was using it to melt ice, but that assumes a cold climate.

 

[huthain]

Im going to use the water from the water change for my quarantine tank. This way I dont have to mix up new water for the quarantine tank.

 

[EricR]

Similar has already been mentioned but:
I dump old saltwater on the ground around my home AC compressor to kill off any vegetation that wants to grow it's way up into the cooling fins.

 

[Freenow54]

Similar has already been mentioned but:
I dump old saltwater on the ground around my home AC compressor to kill off any vegetation that wants to grow it's way up into the cooling fins.

Be Careful with that

 

[Peace River]

Isn't one of long time members an algae farmer?

That probably applies to several of us. I know I had a tank years ago years ago where I regularly harvested bryopsis.

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

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!

Maybe for a weed killer, clear fence lines, etc

 

[BeanAnimal]

That probably applies to several of us. I know I had a tank years ago years ago where I regularly harvested bryopsis.

I was actually speaking in the literal. I do think one of us built a back yard algae farm as a business. I can't remember who he supplies (hobby, or something industrial).

 

[atoll]

In summer I use it in vats and buckets to cultivate pods outside.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

now this sounds interesting. do you raise them to sell?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

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?

As others have pointed out, you can't use seawater to water plants, it will kill them. You can't dilute it enough with freshwater to make it usable.

What I've always done is look into re-using seawater in other tanks. For example, I change water in a reef tank long before that water is unsuitable for fish. I can reuse that water for changing water in a fish-only tank (because the reef water nutrients are still a lot lower). I've also re-used reef tank water to raise brine shrimp, or pods.

 

[EricR]

Be Careful with that

I'm not clear on what the caution would be about but I probably gave the impression that I'm doing something that I'm not.

I'm not dumping water on any mechanical or electrical equipment,,, just on the grass/weeds/vines nearby

 

[vlangel]

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.

Wow, I have done that tour but it sounds like I missed the best one ever! I just got to see how they desensitized the sharks to being touched and handled so they could safely tend to their health! That was fun but I doubt as much fun as seeing escaped penguins!