What to do with "waste" water from RO

[ashtree68]

I hate wasting water and the "waste/bad/old" water from my RO unit has been just going down the drain recently. What does everyone else do with theirs? If I could use it for my FW tanks that would be great, but I doubt that that'd work. What's everyone use their old water for?

 

[eep013]

We use it to water plants in our apartment. I've heard of people using it in their clothes washers too.

 

[ChicagoReefOne]

plants and the bonsai.

 

[Ziff]

Wait, isn't the ratio like 10 gallons of waste to make one gallon of RO?

Mine has always been plugged into a drain because I always thought the volume was too great to try and capture it. I have a standing 55 gallon drum I use to hold RO water. I drain it to 5 gallon buckets about once a week for water changes, top off's, bathing dogs, making beer and practicing my diving boyancy in. (some of these may not be actual uses for my RO water) If it's 10x1 ration that means I need to find a way to store and use... 500 gallons of water a week?

I'm all for conservation but that seems like an impossible task. Is my math just off?

 

[beetlenut33]

10 to 1 ratio is too high. I believe mine is like 3 to 1. I usually make 5-10 gallons of RO/DI and use the waste water to fill my washing machine.

Other ideas might be to water your garden or lawn. Run a waste water line directly to the garden or lawn.

 

[jfuka78]

I always wondered the same thing, on what to do with it instead of the drain

 

[ashtree68]

Ziff, if your ratio is 10:1, add an adition and get a HUGE pool, fill it with your waste water, charge admission, and off set the costs of water.

 

[jfuka78]

Has anyone tested to find out with the actual ratio is? It seems like it would be a lot more than 10-1 with the stream I have coming out and drip on the clean side.

 

[Whaledriver]

I use tap water and have no problems or cost to deal with. And yes I have stony corals and everything's good. Top off water is tap/kalk mix. Chicago lake water is very good.

Nutrient export and not overfeeding solves the problems.

If I had to deal with the waste water I would get a fresh water setup with a automatic waterchange setup. RO waste water inand old fresh water into drain.

 

[PSam]

Has anyone tested to find out with the actual ratio is?

My unit is 4:1. I believe that's pretty standard. If you're getting 10:1, you might check that your flow restrictor matches the membrane rating. Or maybe some water pressure issue?

I also do a cold wash with the waste water as often as possible.

 

[larder]

The ratio is different on different units. 8:1 I think is the standard for a 50 gpd RO. It also depends on how old the membrane and the prefilters are. If you are worried about the waste, you can buy a high-end unit with a pump that pushes the water through, which I believe go all the way up to 1:1 waste to product. I think someone may sell the pumps individually, although I have no experience with them and they are not cheap.

 

[BenjieC]

You can add 1-2 additional RO membranes. I run 2 and get ~1:2.5gal wasted at 50psi
If I ran a 3rd I could get close to 1:1 but would need a booster pump to increase water pressure.

 

[bluemike81]

I dont have one hooked up yet, but my plan is to use the waste as a continuous drip system on my freshwater tank. It will be plumbed into the sump near the return pump, and the emergency overflow will just dump the extra water down the drain.

 

[sh0tyme83]

I've heard of people using it for everything from watering to drinking. Yes drinking, it is actually more purified that using Brita.

 

[rcgogo]

It didn't feel right to me to waste the "waste" water so I have it draining into my backyard.

 

[samm]

I set mine up by the washer and the waste water fills the washer in 2 1/2 hours . The filtered water makes about 7 gallons in that amount of time . My setup is a 75 gpd unit .

 

[nvdiz]

Laundry water!

 

[SaraB]

I used to let it go down the drain as well, but now I use it to top-off my Koi Pond.

 

[preston929]

my goes down the drain, at least its semi purified water going back into are rivers

 

[dnyce78]

Sorry to drag up an old topic. Can someone explain to me why the same water can't be run right back into the RO unit to create a closed loop of sorts? Let's presume here that I have no issue getting the water back into the unit (IE pressure issues sorted). Sorry I'm sure this is a newbie question but I'm making the assumption that the "waste" water is just water that hasn't been filtered enough. Thanks (and sorry again).