Dumping saltwater down the drain

Mel-E-Mel

Mel-E-Mel

Active member
So, Me and the better half will be getting our own place soon.(hopefully) looking into townhomes or condos and as you all know, townhomes are usually three level. (garage, living space, then bedrooms) cant wait so i can finally set up a reef again!! woo hooo!!!! :dance:

i cant stand the thought of lugging 5 gallon jugs up and down the stairs everytime i do water changes. so with that said, will dumping salt water down the drain cause any type of plumbing problems? i plan on letting fresh water run for a while after i do this but just wanted to hear from others experiences.

Thanks all!
 
You shouldn't experience any problems doing that. Waste water will flush any residual salt water away very quickly. It won't cause any more harm to your pipes then any other normal waste water would do.
 
Depends on the level of your local treatment of the waste water, in risk of introducing invasive pathogens, plants, etc to nearby aquatic ecosystems please add a cup of bleach to the water before you flush it, especially if you live near the ocean.

Cheers,

Josh
 
Thanks everybody for the quick replies! Now i REEEEALY cant wait!! if only the wifey would agree with the 180 .......but a 90 will do!

thanks again!
 
I totally disagree. Bleach isn't all that great for aquatic life, nor is the production of bleach.

Since it's an area of interest to you, I'm sure your up on the treament locally of waste water, and the great lengths they go to insure stuff like that can not happen. Pathogens maybe (doubtful), but little of anything else could make it thru the treament. Storm drains are a whole different animal and are not treated (except SF IIRC).

We're talking about adding an extremelly small amount of saltwater life, to a major amount of freshwater prior to ever even seeing the treament plant.
 
It's good to know dumping old tank water down the toilet/ bathtub or sink isn't a problem. I was always dumping it in the street to prevent the saltwater from corroding the pipes- I guess that fear was unfounded.
 
The one time you really need to be careful dumping saltwater down the sewer, is when your on a septic tank system.

CookieJar, definitly don't dump into the storm drain. It's questionable if that is even legal, but it's definitly not a good idea for the reasons put forth above.
 
I agree Gresham, but you'd be surprised how much doesn't make it to the plants and actually leaks out along rivers/water bodies, especially after big storms when things back up from the storm drains and sewers. Bleach is bad, but people use it to clean their toilet bowls all the time and it is what a lot of municipal waste systems use to treat waste waterââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦they also have a process to remove it. If there was an easier solution for people Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢d recommend it, but bleach it is :(

With the onset of globalization, the changing of water temps, levels, currents, itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s just a matter of time that some nasty bacteria, algae, snail, etc. gets into the Bayââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦then thereââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s nothing to do about it.

If you love the hobbie and the oceans, please think about where you are dumping your water!

Cheers,

Josh
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9292148#post9292148 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GreshamH
The one time you really need to be careful dumping saltwater down the sewer, is when your on a septic tank system.
Click to expand...

Why is that Gresham???
 
San franciscos storm sewers and sanitary waste are both tied together.. They all go through the waste treatment plant.. Other localitites have seperate storm and sanitary sewers.. Many storm drains do drain to bodies of water ie ocean or bay.. Dumping the sea water down into your sanitary sewer would be the most responsible thing to do... You shouldn't pour it into your storm drain...

The saltwater will not harm your waste pipe in anyway.. The ammonia and such from human waste is much harder on it.. Soda is the worst.. Second only to some labaratory wastes that already take special waste piping...
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9294937#post9294937 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ooulophilia
Some guy dumping his waste water down a storm drain is where the caleurpa down south came from.
Click to expand...

Do you have a link to evidence? Not trying to be a weenie, I have just heard a billion stories... :D
 
I know some of the freshwater tropical plants like hygro sunset and such are illegal to have as well.. Some guys got caught with some up in sac somewhere.. They just wanted to see it and asked him how he was disposing of it. USFW checked his compost pile and such where he was disposing of clippings..
 
i too am opposed to the product and use of bleach. you could always boil the waste water (mmm, bet that would smell good) before releasing it, or add some grapefruit seed extract to it before you flush it. I recently saw an episode of Dirty Jobs in which the SF waste treatment facility was explored. apparently, the water that comes out of there is almost drinkable (not that you'd want to), but as someone mentioned, it's the leaks and whatnot along the way that can cause problems. and i'm sure more crap comes in on the hulls of tankers in sf bay than anything we dump down our toilets.
 
Bleach is bad, but would someone really boil 5gals+ of saltwater every week after water changes? That would be killer on your natural gas bill that would take me half a day. I agree 100% on the negatives of bleach, but those same SF facilities you cite use THOUSANDS of gallons of sodium hypochlorite and sodium bisulfate to treat that "drinkable water". Bleach is by far the most effective means to sanitize your waste water if there was possibly a way it could end up in a water way.

Ballast water is a huge issue to deal with and a major cause of introductions, but thatââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s not an excuse to dump your water irresponsibly, after all C. taxifolia caused huge issues and cost millions to control and that was just one reefer dumping his water like a chuckle head in southern California.
 
We don't have any control over the facilities, only what we choose to use in our own homes. I was half joking about the boiling of water, but my point was that we can try to think of some alternatives to outright poison. i think even a tablespoon or less of bleach would kill everything. a cup seems excessive. Some friends of mine are using grapefruit seed extract to treat water they drink in guatemala. apparently it does an excellent job of killing water borne pathogens, parasites, etc... it could be worth looking into more natural remedies. who knows, you could even set up a solar still on your roof and recycle that water! then you could just throw out the dried up gunk with your compost or trash.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9292425#post9292425 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by montanabay
With the onset of globalization, the changing of water temps, levels, currents, itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s just a matter of time that some nasty bacteria, algae, snail, etc. gets into the Bayââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦then thereââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s nothing to do about it.
Click to expand...

The snail thing has already happened in the Bay. Ilyanassa obsoleta was released here in 1907 and has made this place home. It has out competed the native snail species here and has spread all the way to Canada and Morro Bay. Luckily it was not the fault of a reefer who bought them off ebay and released them in the wild. (Don't buy these off ebay!!) They came in from an oyster farming apperation.
 
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