question about water

[raki]

I'm not new to the hobby but I had an Idea I have never saw done before and was wondering if it was possible. I recently had central air installed in my home and the unit dumps gallons of water ,,from condensation, down the laundry room drain.....can I catch this water and use it to top off the tank????

 

[disc1]

This gets discussed every couple of months here. The short answer is no. That water isn't very clean. Or at least you can't rely on it being clean. It's going to pick up all sorts of dust and particulates from the air passing over the coils, and it may also pick up oils or metals from the coils themselves.

 

[raki]

what if I ran it through a filter.....like a coffee filter.....my tank is a 125g so I do have some wiggle room and as for dust the tank picks up plenty on it's own ,,,,I have 5 cats and I'm always pullin out cat fur

 

[Misled]

Agreed. There's no way to know what's in the water. Don't use it.

 

[Misled]

You will have copper in the water from the pipes. Also "any" corrosion will be in it. Don't trust it.

 

[raki]

damm just hate seeing anything go to waist











oh well going back to the Lounge ....I feel safer in there

 

[Misled]

You can always ask in our thread over there. I used to design and build RO/DI's on a larger scale than most of us in the hobby do. This stuff is easy. I guess it is worth a post or two though!!!!

 

[disc1]

Cookies and cake will go to your waist.

The water would go to waste, or at least not in the fish tank. There are like umpteen million uses for water. Put it on the plants.

 

[lordofthereef]

damm just hate seeing anything go to waist

Do you use an RO unit? If so, I suggest you not look into how much waste water your produce. :spin3:

In all seriousness though, you can always collect the water and use it to garden, fill the toilet, etc. Just depends on how determined you are to recycle.

 

[Misled]

fill the toilet

I'm sorry, Jesse poops in tap water!!!!! :twitch:

 

[KStatefan]

You will have copper in the water from the pipes. Also "any" corrosion will be in it. Don't trust it.

There will not be copper but I would not use it. If you do not want to waste the water use it for plants.

 

[Misled]

The coils most A/C units use are made of copper and aluminum.The corrosion created by dissimilar metals will cause the metals to corrode and flake. You know that green color or patina you see on copper pipes. You don't want that in your tank.

 

[FloatingFish]

But I like green

 

[KStatefan]

The coils most A/C units use are made of copper and aluminum.The corrosion created by dissimilar metals will cause the metals to corrode and flake. You know that green color or patina you see on copper pipes. You don't want that in your tank.

Copper will not dissolve in fresh water.

 

[Misled]

I didn't say it would. I said the dissimilar metals will cause the the corrosion. The corrision will contain copper.

 

[KStatefan]

You will have copper in the water from the pipes.

 

[Misled]

The copper in the water will come from the flakes in the corrosion. There will also be flakes of aluminum. You're arguing semantics. There will be copper in the corrosion, in turn when condensation goes over the corrosion, it will pick up some of the corrosion and take it with it. There will also be scaling.