Rodi waste water uses.Tips?

[Nano_Man]

Raining as I type this it is the norm in England

 

[Miemaes]

RO waste water contains high concentrations of various salts and possibly volatile organic compounds.It is unsuitable for bathing and swimming and can harm plants too by increasing salinity of the soil.
Basically you can use it to flush the toilet.

Something new learned. I always thought it would have been better then regular tap water as the first filter would have removed some impurities. Thx for sharing!

 

[Miemaes]

Bring it to the water company and ask for a refund

Love this one

 

[Miemaes]

Again it depends on what you’re filtering out. We use it for house and outdoor plants. Definitely do NOT use for your fresh water tanks. Unless your water supply is from glacier runoff. You can use it to do dishes, mop floors, wash your car, put out fires, etc. just get a few extra buckets from your home center and store the water in there.
Also if you want to reduce the waste water you can add an extra RO filter and you can get a close to 1:1 ratio.

I’ll look into that. I saw someone else below mentioned this too. Happy to read all your comments here. Because if you trust everything you read on the internet…

 

[Miemaes]

It rains every day where I live . UK weather is terrible.

I’m originally from Belgium… weather was pretty much the same there so I know what you mean .

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Bring it to the water company and ask for a refund

that may be jokingly said, but that should totally be a thing!

 

[mfinn]

I ran my waste line out to a 75 gallon barrel out on the end of my patio. I use it for my outdoor potted plants.
I've been doing this for about 6 years and they are thriving.
Plus when I told my wife I actually had a use for the waste water, she was all on board.

 

[GARRIGA]

Ultrafiltration would minimize the impurities making it to the RO for rejection therefore making that waste more useful for items such as watering plants. Although all sources not created equal and might want to have the waste tested to determine it's composition. TDS meter doesn't tell exactly what that composition made of. When in doubt, flush it down the toilet. Although my municipality charges me for what I use and flush. Double banger

 

[Miemaes]

I ran my waste line out to a 75 gallon barrel out on the end of my patio. I use it for my outdoor potted plants.
I've been doing this for about 6 years and they are thriving.
Plus when I told my wife I actually had a use for the waste water, she was all on board.

I hear mixed opinions about this. I guess it all depends how clean your tap water is to start with?! I told my husband yesterday how much water goes down the drain, but all he said was “oh wow” and continued what he was doing . He’s luckily pretty easy going with anything involving my fish/coral keeping… but it’s a matter of principle to me.

 

[Miemaes]

Ultrafiltration would minimize the impurities making it to the RO for rejection therefore making that waste more useful for items such as watering plants. Although all sources not created equal and might want to have the waste tested to determine it's composition. TDS meter doesn't tell exactly what that composition made of. When in doubt, flush it down the toilet. Although my municipality charges me for what I use and flush. Double banger

Wait… for what you use AND flush? Would ultrafiltration also remove the salinity you think? Where would you take a water sample like that to get it tested? TY

 

[Rmckoy]

I used to save it .
Use for filling the washing machine for laundry , flushing the toilet , washing the car mopping floors .
But there is only so many things to use it for and so much water …

Now …. I barely ever do water changes and only making water for ato ( still roughly 5gal per week )

 

[Miemaes]

I used to save it .
Use for filling the washing machine for laundry , flushing the toilet , washing the car mopping floors .
But there is only so many things to use it for and so much water …

Now …. I barely ever do water changes and only making water for ato ( still roughly 5gal per week )

Yeah, plus where do you store all of this water too. I was thinking to save some (maybe 10 gallon) Will be using some to wash my car now as well So you don’t do water changes at all? How big is your tank?

 

[mfinn]

I hear mixed opinions about this. I guess it all depends how clean your tap water is to start with?! I told my husband yesterday how much water goes down the drain, but all he said was “oh wow” and continued what he was doing . He’s luckily pretty easy going with anything involving my fish/coral keeping… but it’s a matter of principle to me.

I hear stuff like it's not possible to use, but IMO your tap water has to be extremely bad to start with.
Just saying it has "bad stuff" in it doesn't work IMO.
If a person has specific information, then that's what needs to be said.

 

[Rmckoy]

Yeah, plus where do you store all of this water too. I was thinking to save some (maybe 10 gallon) Will be using some to wash my car now as well So you don’t do water changes at all? How big is your tank?

230 gal
I haven’t done a water change in over a year

If I could keep nitrates above 5 ppm and phosphates above 0.1ppm
I feed 16 fish heavy . And still no increase in nutrients .

 

[Miemaes]

230 gal
I haven’t done a water change in over a year

If I could keep nitrates above 5 ppm and phosphates above 0.1ppm
I feed 16 fish heavy . And still no increase in nutrients .

Oh wow… how cool is that! How often do you test? I’m just a newbie with a 6 gallon But I’m saving up for a larger tank for our basement. Being able to achieve something like that would be my goal. The water changes on a large tank intimidate me a lot, knowing the effort it takes to make only 5g of RODI water. I’m prepared to do all of this… but I would love to get to a reef that does not need on awful lot of hands on work incase you need to travel for a couple of weeks for example.

 

[Pistondog]

If your wastewater to ro produced is 1:1 (efficient), then the impurities in the waste water will have doubled. This ignores what is removed in the pre filter, before the membrane.
Not significant for most purposes.
I run mine ourside under a japanese maple.

 

[Rmckoy]

Oh wow… how cool is that! How often do you test? I’m just a newbie with a 6 gallon But I’m saving up for a larger tank for our basement. Being able to achieve something like that would be my goal. The water changes on a large tank intimidate me a lot, knowing the effort it takes to make only 5g of RODI water. I’m prepared to do all of this… but I would love to get to a reef that does not need on awful lot of hands on work incase you need to travel for a couple of weeks for example.

They all require a lot of maintenance at the beginning .
As they mature it becomes a lot easier . But … going away for long periods of time is hard.
Auto top off only lasts a few days

Testing … I test salinity , Alkalinity , calcium nitrates and phosphates every Sunday morning .

Never test ph , magnesium , ammonia or nitrite

 

[Rmckoy]

Oh wow… how cool is that! How often do you test? I’m just a newbie with a 6 gallon But I’m saving up for a larger tank for our basement. Being able to achieve something like that would be my goal. The water changes on a large tank intimidate me a lot, knowing the effort it takes to make only 5g of RODI water. I’m prepared to do all of this… but I would love to get to a reef that does not need on awful lot of hands on work incase you need to travel for a couple of weeks for example.

Read some posts on here from others with older systems .
Or who actually does water changes .

 

[EricR]

swimming pool

Hey,,, I never thought of that -- it'd be a long waste line to route so I probably won't do it,,, but I like the idea.
I just toss my waste line onto the lawn or into planters (like others have mentioned) but that's easy/convenient for my RODI unit location.

 

[Rmckoy]

Oh wow… how cool is that! How often do you test? I’m just a newbie with a 6 gallon But I’m saving up for a larger tank for our basement. Being able to achieve something like that would be my goal. The water changes on a large tank intimidate me a lot, knowing the effort it takes to make only 5g of RODI water. I’m prepared to do all of this… but I would love to get to a reef that does not need on awful lot of hands on work incase you need to travel for a couple of weeks for example.

Smaller systems such as yours . Water changes are much easier , affordable and beneficial .

Imagine …
If you were to have 20 ppm nitrates in your system.
Change 50% of your water ( 3 gals ) your nitrates should be as low as 10ppm

In my system . If I had 20ppm and wanted to do a 50% water change to lower them to 10ppm I would have to change 115 gals or water and hope it’s 0ppm to start with .
115 gal water change is next to impossible , very expensive , time consuming and just a huge pain in the butt