Drought implications on our hobby?

[Maximus]

As all of you know, we are in a severe drought in CA. I'm sure fines will be forthcoming if we don't start conserving. Reefers probably waste lots of water, whether it's for our top off or water changes. I know I am guilty of wasting my share. Let's think of some constructive ideas on this thread and see what we can do to help our water crisis.

 

[bluecoyote79]

Glad you started a thread, I had this same thought while watching this evenings news.

People with yards can definitely use RO/DI waste water to water landscaping with.

 

[Crispy001]

Water consumption to support a tank is pretty small. Doing a 10% water change on a 100g tank with a 4:1 ratio RODI filter would only consume 50 gallons on a weekly basis. By comparison, an average shower is around 20 gallons. That said, collecting the rejected RODI water for plants/garden lets you use 100% of the water consumed.

 

[Tenny]

Glad you started a thread, I had this same thought while watching this evenings news.

People with yards can definitely use RO/DI waste water to water landscaping with.

My whole back yard is watered through RO/DI run off. Because its done through multiple drip locations its grown a very good lawn for no cost. My water usage currently is significantly cheaper than when I had a small garden. Although I thought of using the run off for the garden but decided against it.

 

[650-IS350]

What's the best capability can you get with a typical 4/1 ratio RODI that's hooked up to a booster pump to run around 60-80psi?

Good luck trying to get a 1/1 ratio spectra pure, everywhere I look its sold out.

 

[Psionicdragon]

Hm somehow my RODI that is rated as 4:1 went to 2:1. Seems like all my RODI does that.

What you could do is add another RO membrane to the waste water and use that also for your water change.

 

[danil]

Compare with our daily water usage our tank takes very little. You may easily consume over 100g per day or more. I'm also worry about drought and I'm going to optimized my loan and garden irrigation to get those 25% reduction but... I'm the one who think it's more political game that real issue. Have you herd about Reverse Osmosis? . They have industrial units for desalination plants and cost per gallon just a bit more. And yes we have a tiny pool of water called ocean on our backyard we can use for this purpose.

 

[eeeeek]

I'm glad to see this thread. I'll agree that the amount of water reefers waste is small in comparison, but it's about a change in attitude and a bunch of little bits add up.

Currently, I just dump my saltwater from changes. Is there anything constructive that can be done with it?

 

[Maximus]

I agree that we use far more water taking showers, watering our lawns and gardens etc, than we use on our tanks. However, every little bit helps. As a collective group of people, we can make a difference. I've also cut down on watering my lawn and it is no longer as green as it used to be. Perhaps I should give less water to my dog as well? I kid, I kid..

 

[swk]

This is my new front "lawn"

 

[d0ughb0y]

The problem is more serious that one might think.
Car washes are starting to close down due to water usage restrictions. If things get really bad, it is possible for aquarium section of pet stores to shut down. Every bit of conservation counts. We can certainly do away with our aquariums, and unless you are a hobo, we cannot completely not take showers. I now do water change once a month instead of every other week. And this is the before and after picture of my backyard.

Brown is the new Green.

Let's see more water conservation pictures.

 

[tmantaylor18]

My yard is all rocks with two bushes I havent watered since I planted them. Since my brother and his gf moved out my water bill has been way down.

 

[johnc99]

Playing Devil's Advocate....

Does anyone know the breakdown between domestic supply, industrial users, and agriculture?

If, for example, the domestic supply is 10% of usage then a 25% restriction is only 2.5% of overall usage.

Not that I'm not conserving...I only ever water my lawn once per week (and it's had no water since November); drip heads go twice a week (again off since November); RO/DI waste is used to water plants; low flow shower heads; low flow taps; 0.7G per flush toilets; high efficiency washer; high efficiency dishwasher. But we are a family of four and we will use a certain amount of water per day.

 

[Maximus]

I hear that agriculture companies use 80% of the water supply! For some reason they are not required to decrease usage at all.

 

[eeeeek]

I hear that agriculture companies use 80% of the water supply! For some reason they are not required to decrease usage at all.

That's not entirely true, but there is a unique twist here that shows a greater problem.

Many rice farmers are now selling their water rights to SoCal and not planting crops. So, some areas in SoCal are getting around the water restrictions by just buying more water from NorCal. That seems to be defeating the purpose...

 

[DivingTheWorld]

I don't know if you guys saw the 60 minutes in December on the groundwater depletion in California (and other parts of the world). Scary stuff. Once the farmers suck the groundwater dry then what do we do? It would be the end of California agriculture as we know it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ0X_O-uRQ0

 

[neuro]

you guys can always get the water saver add-on to your RODI, which basically makes a 75 gpd into a 150(?) gpd and your ratio goes way down closer to 2:1 or so.

 

[POOLSCAPES]

That was a interesting show. It definitely opened your eyes on what agriculture is doing to the world. Look at how many reservoir we have built in the last 30 years. Seem pretty stupid that with all the new house built in the last 20 years they could not have put taxes on new home permits to help with future resoviors. They always have new taxes for schools on new home permit in some cities. I rember the last drought we had. Nothing has been done in comparison to the new building and all the agriculture that has been added in the state. It looks pretty green from here to Los Angels now a days. Sorry to rant. Good luck to all with there tanks a yards.

 

[HiFidelity]

Agriculture in California does nearly nothing for California's economy yet accounts for 80% of water consumption. I almost feel as if the consumer is the wrong target for mandatory restrictions. Bay area residents actually react when they're simply asked to conserve, can't say the same for socal so it's a bit unfair in my opinion for the more conservative residential consumer to foot the bill for an industry that's exporting all of it's product despite massive local consumption. Just my opinion and it's tough for me to feel that way because I support local farming & agriculture but in this case it's not putting food on the table for this state.

 

[cbrennan4]

We really need to take a good hard look into desalination(turning seawater into freshwater). I'm a fisheries biologist and I work for a company that does some of the environmental impact studies for proposed desalination plants in California and other parts of the country. There's actually a desalination plant in Carlsbad, CA that should be able to produce it's first cup of fresh water in a few months. Yes it's expensive and takes a lot of power but we're getting to the point in our population in CA and a serious drought where we will see no other alternative.




Here's a link to the plant in Carlsbad
http://carlsbaddesal.com/