Money down the drain???

[IslandCrow]

Having a very long waste water tubing to water plants probably reduces the efficiency of the RO

This doesn't reduce my efficiency at all. The waste line out of the RO unit isn't any longer than what came with the unit. It simply drains into a garden hose that gravity feeds the water to the garden. Since it simply drains into the hose (not form fit) and doesn't "pump" into it, there is no back pressure.

 

[MalHavoc]

A couple of other options:

1. in the winter, you can heat your water up a bit by running your inlet hose (the line that goes from the tap to your first filter) through a bucket with a heater in it. Just get a really long length of tubing and coil it in the bucket to get it up to 70 degrees. It really helps.

2. use a booster pump to increase your water pressure. Really cuts down on wasted water, especially in the winter.

3. Go with a straight DI system. Kent makes one. You'll go through DI cartridges faster, but there is zero waste.

4. Get more plants

5. Get a smaller tank. I downsized from a 180 Oceanic with a 50 gallon sump to a 29 gallon Aquapod. My water usage really cut back as well

 

[rsw686]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10744199#post10744199 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MalHavoc
A couple of other options:
3. Go with a straight DI system. Kent makes one. You'll go through DI cartridges faster, but there is zero waste.

You'll waste more money in DI cartridges then you will in waste water.

 

[MalHavoc]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10744520#post10744520 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rsw686
You'll waste more money in DI cartridges then you will in waste water.

I guess that depends on how good your tap water is. My tap water here is only about 60-80 TDS to start with. I used to be on a well, where it was over a 1000.

 

[wooden_reefer]

Most people want to avoid hard water for washing clothes.

Added length of wastewater tubing will decrease the efficiency of the RO unit. The pressure drop that the RO relies on will be decreased. This is a little like the catalytic converter that blocks the exhaust of your car.

I think not by much if not excessively long as the flow is so slow that the frictional loss is minimal.

 

[cd77]

This is an interesting thread, made me do some research on water too..

Your profile says you have a 75 gallon tank, and you also mentioned a 30 gallon tank. Ok, so lets say you're in a situation where you're doing 10% water changes weekly on 105 gallons -- 10.5 gallons per week -- and lets just say for argument purposes that you're evaporating 1 gallon/day -- ok, so about 18 gallons per week.

Google my facts here, or check with the American water works assoc --

Have you checked your pipes lately? Got any drips? A faucet with a medium leak can cost you 18 gallons per week.

How long do you shower for? Five minutes? There goes up to 25 gallons of water depending. Skip a shower once a week and your good on the money.

Last -- have you actually calculated how much your water costs? I'm not in the same location as you, but I'm charged a little less than 1.8 cents per cubic foot -- or (if my math is right) about $2.40 per 1,000 gallons. So, if I were maintaining 105 gallons I'd lose two dollars and forty cents for more than a weeks worth of topoff water and weekly water changes. Of-course, I didn't include tax and base charges...

 

[cd77]

Oops.. did I say "weeks worth" of topoff/water changes? I meant a YEARS worth. And I'm considering that you're losing 50% to waste water, if you're losing two thirds (which is about what I get with my RO setup) then you're losing almost 5 bucks per year. Your rates may vary though...

 

[kathainbowen]

Now, I had remembered right for once the events in another part of RC. In Responsible Reefkeeping this was discussed in the topic Gray Water. Various suggestions were made for what to do with "gray" water (the refuse water from your RO), but it seemed that the most common suggestions were using it for watering plants while also employing techniques for conserving water around the house. This including the popular "bricks-in-the-toilet" tank trick (although, many people will discourage this as they say it puts harmful impurities in the water which can ruin plumbing- so, if you're really cheap, you can fill a plastic water bottle with that gray water!).

If you're interested in conservation and increasing water, you can find a list of 49 ways to save water at American Water and Energy Savers that are just simple things, like using food dye in your toilet tank to test for leaks.

 

[wooden_reefer]

Even in a house whose plumbing is very old and the pipes have a lot of deposits, the RO unit will still work fine because the flow rate is so low. Frictional losses is highly dependent on flow velocity.

The point is that it is likely OK to route the wastewater tubing rather far to where the plants are without greatly reducing the efficency of the RO.

 

[kathainbowen]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10745897#post10745897 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wooden_reefer
Even in a house whose plumbing is very old and the pipes have a lot of deposits, the RO unit will still work fine because the flow rate is so low. Frictional losses is highly dependent on flow velocity.

The point is that it is likely OK to route the wastewater tubing rather far to where the plants are without greatly reducing the efficency of the RO.

.... I meant to use the filled bottles with gray water as a sort of "water dam" to keep the toilet tank from filling up more than necessary each time. They say that the bricks leech excess deposits (*at least, this is one of those urban legends that I can neither confirm nor deny- my plumbing knowledge extends only to fish tanks and not to home plumbing, sorry). It's just a quick, dirty solution to avoid that. Although, using water-bottles, I had also heard of people using this as a sort of "ghetto-cooler" by either chilling or freezing the gray water and wrapping it up in a towel.

Anywho, running a watering system for plants is pretty easy. You can either use a light pump (*if it's a smaller system, or gravity feed for a larger system)...... or there's always a watering can (*mine's all antique looking! So cute!) :rollface:

 

[Artisan Corals]

The higher quality de-ionizers (Kati Ani) do not use disposable cartridges. You inexpensively regenerate the resins over and over again. The cost per gallon is actually much lower than RO systems and no waste water.

 

[agent007]

Some great info here. Tanks.

Its not that I'm cheap, at least I don't think I am, it just a mental thing. I hate to conciously waste things. Don't get me wrong ,there is some concern about how much the waste would actually cost me.

One thing I did not do, which made complete sense, was what cd77 did. Calculate the cost. I just did that and found, as did cd77, it would cost a mere few cents for the 30gal of waste water. Most of which I would conscientiously use to water the plants or dump in the washing machine (another nice idea - but I'll have to check with the wife).

The other thing that I did not do, which was suggested earlier in this thread, was to check my water quality. Perhaps I don't need an RO/DI system after all? No such luck. TDS straight from the tap measures ~170. TDS from my handy-dandy Culligan filter... ~210!!! This is a fews days after changing the filter

Bottomline: I need a RO/DI system. It will not cost me much - mentally or monetery wise. I'm also going to get a system with a stage before the DI so that I can use it to produce drinking water. No more bottled water from the stores (another savings).

 

[agent007]

Does anyone see any issues with me setting up the system down in my basement and running tubing upstairs to kitchen for the drinking water?
Any concerns about pressure loss? Is there maximum recommended length of tubing that can be run from the system?

 

[cd77]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10775259#post10775259 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by agent007
Does anyone see any issues with me setting up the system down in my basement and running tubing upstairs to kitchen for the drinking water?
Any concerns about pressure loss? Is there maximum recommended length of tubing that can be run from the system?

I'm not an expert on this, but it's not the amount of tubing more so much as the height you'll be pumping the water. Since it's not a cheap pump we're talking about here and you've got constant pressure, I don't see a problem -- the line is cheap ($10 for 50 feet from F&S at https://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=5607)) Test it out first if you're concerned by running it up the basement stairs or something.

Your waste water does get recycled btw (uh, I think there is a water engineer on this forum that can tell you if I'm wrong or what the efficiency of that would be if by some miracle I'm actually right) -- if your major concern is that your local firefighter won't be able to put out a blaze while you're making a batch of saltwater or topping off, I really wouldn't be too concerned.

 

[agent007]

What I meant was, will there be enough pressure from the RO/DI system to feed the 5 gal water tank I want to put under the upstairs kitchen sink?

I was under the impression I would not need a pump.

 

[cd77]

*bump* for someone who can answer this definitively.

(I don't think you will -- the pressure will be from your faucet which I would imagine is more or less constant, and plenty enough to pump water up 12-20 feet with ease -- but I've never done this, I don't know the mechanics of an RO/DI unit, and I haven't taken a physics course in years)

Time for me to step aside from this thread -- the topic of the thread was "money down the drain???" and I just wanted to help clarify how much (or rather little) money we're talking about here

Best of luck, I'm positive someone here can help you through this! I wish I had a basement -- I'd dig myself into a nice chunk of debt setting up a plenum, a larger fuge, and have room for all kinds of cool new toys to play with

 

[down and outman]

Typical water rates are $2 - $4 per thousand gallons. Wasting 30 gals a week, it would take 33 weeks to waste 1,000 gals. Your waste treatment plant needs a certain amount of clean water to dilute the waste. Water is never really wasted. It will be returned back to nature to run thru the cycle of evaporation, rain, runoff, gathering into bodies of water, just to flow back to the oceans. A bigger waste is to watch sprinkler systems run in the rain! I really wouldn't worry about it.

 

[PJsStuff]

I run my waste water out to the pond to keep it full.

 

[agent007]

I am feeling a lot better about getting the filter system.
This site is better than therapy :lmao:

 

[Vin7250]

every time you make 1 gallon of water 10 fishies die in the ocean!!! think about that the next time you have to fill yhour 100 gallon system!!!!



------------------------------Just kidding!!!!!