Ro di waste water

[BZOFIQ]

I give it back to where it came from.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Down the drain. Can't run it outside and I am not lugging buckets around trying to "save" 5g at a time

But don't you want to watch water go all over your floors?

 

[rtparty]

But don't you want to watch water go all over your floors?

Did that once. Never again. Flooded an upstairs bathroom that leaked down into the kitchen and destroyed the whole ceiling

 

[EricR]

I plumbed the waste line to my front lawn for watering the lawn.

Same,,, except for the "plumbed" part.
I just toss my waste line out the front of the garage onto my front lawn when I run my RODI unit.

 

[UncommonSense]

Oh wow the waste water works fine? I’ve been using rain water for my bato bucket hydroponics. But summer time I run out/no rain. Guess I’ll give this a shot.

it’s not ideal if you’re chasing maximum plant growth rates (too much of some nutrients, not enough of others), but if your hydro setup is just for fun, it works great!

(That is to say, the professionals typically use RO water to get TDS down as low as possible, allowing more proportioned fertilizer to be added without causing any chemical burns to the plants)

Do you have photos to share?

Currently we catch ours in a bucket. Then pour it into 5 gallon buckets around our fruit trees. We drilled one small hole in each bucket to slowly let the water out.

Just started doing this. Hopefully we can save the trees. People here are talking of restrictions on watering this year.

It’s an ugly mess of parts that I built as a much younger (much dumber) man… things got tacked on over the years, leading to its current form!

(If nothing else, this hydro system is what I would consider Genesis for my understanding of fluid dynamics!)

The current crop is Water Hyacinth, being grown out after winter die-off for a (WAY nicer) turtle pond I built a client!

(hasty photo to catch turtles before they fled into the water)…

— as you can probably tell from the mesh covering both systems, we have issues with predatory animals here…

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Did that once. Never again. Flooded an upstairs bathroom that leaked down into the kitchen and destroyed the whole ceiling

I've flooded RAP Orlando before (back corner of the event), luckily, I avoided any fees for that one. Could not imagine flooding my house though!

 

[jonelder68]

it’s not ideal if you’re chasing maximum plant growth rates (too much of some nutrients, not enough of others), but if your hydro setup is just for fun, it works great!

(That is to say, the professionals typically use RO water to get TDS down as low as possible, allowing more proportioned fertilizer to be added without causing any chemical burns to the plants)



It’s an ugly mess of parts that I built as a much younger (much dumber) man… things got tacked on over the years, leading to its current form!

(If nothing else, this hydro system is what I would consider Genesis for my understanding of fluid dynamics!)

The current crop is Water Hyacinth, being grown out after winter die-off for a (WAY nicer) turtle pond I built a client!

(hasty photo to catch turtles before they fled into the water)…

— as you can probably tell from the mesh covering both systems, we have issues with predatory animals here…

That’s awesome! Love it!

Ya I’ve found hydroponics stupid simple and the results are amazing. For comparison my tomato’s in raised soil beds vs hydroponics is night and day! The hydroponic tomato’s reach 30-40’ each year and produce 10X what the soil crops do.

 

[UncommonSense]

That’s awesome! Love it!

Ya I’ve found hydroponics stupid simple and the results are amazing. For comparison my tomato’s in raised soil beds vs hydroponics is night and day! The hydroponic tomato’s reach 30-40’ each year and produce 10X what the soil crops do.

That’s awesome!!

The hydroponic tomato’s reach 30-40’ each year

For anyone curious, this is not a typo! Common practice in hydroculture is growing tomatoes like a vine, basically making a massive wall of tomatoes!

 

[mcarroll]

Indeterminant style vines do this in soil too if they are happy... it takes a bit more to refresh soil in between seasons than it does a hydroponic bucket though.

 

[jonelder68]

That’s awesome!!



For anyone curious, this is not a typo! Common practice in hydroculture is growing tomatoes like a vine, basically making a massive wall of tomatoes!

As they grow I lower the string and wind the old growth up in a circle like a garden hose. Trim all growth off vine before doing so

 

[UncommonSense]

As they grow I lower the string and wind the old growth up in a circle like a garden hose. Trim all growth off vine before doing so

That’s more or less exactly how I was taught to do it in my hydroponics classes!

We used a spool of string hanging from an overhead rail, every week, you’d lower around 18” of string off the spool, and slide it a foot or two further over, down the parallel rail…

There would be two rows of tomatoes, two parallel overhead rails… once a plant hit the end of a rail, it was wrapped around to the other rail!

Smart on the old growth trimming. Any leaves below the lowest productive fruit growth are considered minimally beneficial, and more liable to harbor pests (oldest leaves)!

— If you don’t already know, these “trellis clips” are phenomenal, and last multiple seasons!

They clamp your string tight in the hinge, then clip around the plant stem to lock it in place on the string!

 

[jonelder68]

That’s more or less exactly how I was taught to do it in my hydroponics classes!

We used a spool of string hanging from an overhead rail, every week, you’d lower around 18” of string off the spool, and slide it a foot or two further over, down the parallel rail…

There would be two rows of tomatoes, two parallel overhead rails… once a plant hit the end of a rail, it was wrapped around to the other rail!

Smart on the old growth trimming. Any leaves below the lowest productive fruit growth are considered minimally beneficial, and more liable to harbor pests (oldest leaves)!

— If you don’t already know, these “trellis clips” are phenomenal, and last multiple seasons!

They clamp your string tight in the hinge, then clip around the plant stem to lock it in place on the string!

Yep it’s what I use . Most work is keeping up with the growth. Otherwise systems so simple.

 

[Michael Hughes]

I run my wastewater line out of the garage to the front yard, where it feeds this coral honeysuckle:

 

[code4]

That’s more or less exactly how I was taught to do it in my hydroponics classes!

We used a spool of string hanging from an overhead rail, every week, you’d lower around 18” of string off the spool, and slide it a foot or two further over, down the parallel rail…

There would be two rows of tomatoes, two parallel overhead rails… once a plant hit the end of a rail, it was wrapped around to the other rail!

Smart on the old growth trimming. Any leaves below the lowest productive fruit growth are considered minimally beneficial, and more liable to harbor pests (oldest leaves)!

— If you don’t already know, these “trellis clips” are phenomenal, and last multiple seasons!

They clamp your string tight in the hinge, then clip around the plant stem to lock it in place on the string!

I use those or other types on everything. Clematis, vegetables, anything that needs a hand.

I saw the turtle in the other post also.

 

[Jamie814]

I have a Zero waste system made by Watts I believe in Arizona

Those systems are great at saving water but waste energy to do so.

Unless you are using hot water somewhere else in the house at the same time you are producing RO/DI water you are cycling 100% of your RO/DI feed water through your water heater as a closed loop.

Depending on how it's installed, if you produce 100 gallons of RO/DI water you are heating as much as 400 gallons of water to do so.

 

[kboogie]

Nothing yet. I let it run down drain. But thinking about using it somewhere

I'm in the same boat. Given the level of concentration of chlorine and ammonia in the wastewater I'm concerned about using it.

 

[painter1982]

In the winter months it goes to the drain. In the summer it goes to my water garden outside. I just turn a couple valves to do that.

 

[Freenow54]

That would be incorrect The feed water is from the cold line through the filter system , and in my case the Di filter. There are 2 outlets controlled by an auto pressure shut off I clamped the feed that is supposed to go to a tank under your sink off . It feeds freely into my containers . The one way discharge with an inline check valve does indeed go back into the water heater. If I ran anything that needs hot water the connections would cause a crossover therefore tempering the hot water . Obviously the water ie waste water or town water at first has to go somewhere . The discharge is supposed to be at least 25 feet from the water heating vessel. Now is a good time to point out that the system will only work if your hot water has to be a storage type heater or I would think you could add another storage tank. Also you probably have to have town water supply ideally without a backwater flow device ( check Valve ) which is there to eliminate any dopy person from leaving an open garden hose in contaminated water to prevent siphon into the potable water supply . So yes the waste water which in my case goes through a UV filter which Randy Holmes Farley convinced me to do , and prevents odor , and bacteria goes back into the supply . Since I don't save it for any other purpose or as I am sure the majority of people do let it go down the drain . I Will sacrifice the cost of the waste water whatever that is as to amount . But since the system only does 24 gallons a day it cant be much . So no 400 gallons being heated or extra water paid for which has been proved through my bills. I get the satisfaction of doing my part for the environment

 

[Freenow54]

I'm in the same boat. Given the level of concentration of chlorine and ammonia in the wastewater I'm concerned about using it.

You can always add a properly sized UV filter . Since you are dealing with fresh water " Geek " Makes a very large one whole house for just over 200 Canadian and replacement parts are reasonable and very available Amazon

 

[Jamie814]

The discharge is supposed to be at least 25 feet from the water heating vessel. Now is a good time to point out that the system will only work if your hot water has to be a storage type heater

All these systems do is turn your house plumbing into a closed loop recycling the same water that has been discharged as wastewater. Depending on the size of your household plumbing and how far away the feed and waste lines are from each other and your water use in other areas of the house during RO production you will slowly get TDS creep.