Reusing water change water??

[Driftwood]

I have a question for a friend of mine that is starting a LFS out of his home. He wants to know if there is any way to clean his water change water enough to reuse some of it in the next water change.

I was thinking it might be possible if he were to have a large holding tank for the water and ran carbon, phosban, micron filters and a massive deep sand bed. Maybe grow some macro? Then he could add some sort of supplementation to add back the trace minerals.

Is anyone doing this or has it been discussed before? If so any links?


Thanks!
Dave

 

[xJake]

Sounds to me like doing all that would be much more expensive than simply making up new saltwater. I've heard of people using old water from a reef to do a water change in a FO tank, but I don't think there is much point in trying to reclaim saltwater when the methods of reclamation are more expensive than mixing new saltwater.

 

[Driftwood]

With the amount of water he changes weekly it might be cost effective depending on the methods used. I know phosban and carbon can get pricey but he is changing out over 200 gallons a week.

Does anyone actually do this or is it just a pipe dream?

Maybe the better solution would be to engineer his systems to require less water changes, thereby using less salt to begin with?

 

[reef_only]

Weekly water change is costly; but for the methods that you are thinking, they all can be applied to the main system. With large tank with DSB, carbon& phosphate flter, micro socks filter, growing macro... all of these can be added to the main system and you don't have to do weekly water change to begin with. For LFS they can effectively use their mixed salt water, water change from SPS tank will be reused for FO tanks/quarantine tanks.. all of LFS should have many FO/quarantine tanks which I don't think required best parameters for those tanks.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I wouldn't do it for a quality reef tank system. There are many reasons to do water changes that won't be impacted by those sorts of filtration steps (or any that you can easily imagine): organics not bound by carbon, imbalances in various major and minor and trace ions, buildup of bacteria, etc.

Is anyone doing this or has it been discussed before? If so any links?


Yes, it has been discussed in this forum:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1402337

 

[Chad Vossen]

if it really is an issue, why not add .5% to the price of the livestock. so that the sale pays for the water.

or, do what i do and use old tank water to grow phytoplankton. assuming the 200 gallons per week is not going home in bags to the customers. i sell my phytoplankton to members of my club or use it to feed brine shrimp.

 

[goodreef]

If you have all those good stuff to clean the "used" water, why not just plug those directly to your main tank??

There is, however, one method that requires you to do it outside your main tank ... that is, using FeSO4 or Ferrous Sulphate to remove PO4 in your water.

http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=51765&st=0&start=0

 

[Driftwood]

Wow, that thread is pretty amazing. Looking around I can get lab grade Ferrous Sulfate for $7 for 100 grams. Seems like a cheap way to remove nitrate and phosphate.

I would be interested in hearing any information out there concerning Ferrous Sulfate and reef tanks.

Thanks!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Soluble ion will not remove nitrate. Nor will it remove many organics nor will it remove built up trace metal toxins. It will not add back an appropriate amount of useful trace metals. It does not rebalance the primary ions that may get out of whack and which we often do not monitor (potassium, strontium,sulfate, chloride, bromide, fluoride, etc).

Frankly, I can't see the benefit.

You might also be adding massive amounts of iron back to the tank.

 

[Driftwood]

Thanks Randy!!! So this substance is just a PO4 binder. He isn't really looking for a way to eliminate water changes just reduce them some.

The recommendation I already made to my friend(Based on the info I got here) was to implement the filtration to the main systems. He might be able to reduce the amount of water changes this way.

He already has UV and skimmers on these systems. He plans on using phosban and carbon on the systems as well. He also uses deep sand beds of 6-8 inches.

Any other suggestions that could help reduce his need for water changes?

 

[BigJay]

I've been using the discarded water from my 180 gallon to keep my 15 gallon FO Q-tank clean and nitrate-free.

Also, I've found that old salt water makes a great weed killer. My driveway is clear of any pest weeds.

That's about it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Any other suggestions that could help reduce his need for water changes?

How much does he change now?

 

[Driftwood]

20% a week. This seems to keep things happy. When they do less changes they get algae and also the corals are not as happy.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

That is certainly at the high end. If nutrient buildup is the problem, the increasing nutrient export in any of the usual ways may allow a decrease in that change schedule.

 

[A.T.T.R]

water changes are pretty cheep


just do them

especialy on reef tanks. you really cant add back what was taken out

 

[Driftwood]

$40 a week for salt isn't really cheap for a business that isn't making a profit. They are still building the store(in their home) and have been paying for salt and electricity out of their own pockets for quite awhile now. The costs are obviously growing as they add systems. Thanks for your opinion though, it is good to know.

I was just trying to help them to save some money. I know that with this hobby there are lots of different ways to do things and be successful. I have been telling them for awhile though that they need better skimmers on a couple of their systems. That should help with the water changes some.

 

[A.T.T.R]

at work we have two 1000 gallon fish systems.
we do 250 on each maybe once a month to once eveyr months and a half.

no3 is under 10

what type of tanks are tehy running


even in the reef system at work we only do water changes once every few months .

and btw for our skimmers on the Fish systems.. we use a berlin skimmer rated for i think 500 gallons...( hobby sized skimmer. in fact.. it was a customer return)

 

[Driftwood]

They are running one 300 gallon display with lots of fish and corals. Then a 600 gallon 'farm' system full of corals and frags. They have two fish for sale systems that are 100 gallons each that are lightly stocked at this time and a corals for sale system that is 400 gallons total. They have plans for a few more going up in the near future.

 

[Kent E]

Driftwood, I mean this politely and not in an attacking way at all. If this business can't afford the necessary water changes than they cannot afford the business.

 

[Driftwood]

No offense taken. It isn't that they cannot afford the changes. I was just trying to help them to reduce their costs is all. I had heard of cleaning change water before and told him I would research it for them.

These are hobbyists that are opening a shop out of their home. A home that they built themselves. They are doing pretty well so far and have a major advantage of not having to pay a lease. Every penny so far for this business has been out of their pockets. She works two jobs, three if you include the store. The great thing is they really care for their livestock.