Recycling Water from Water Changes

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James0816

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MFK Member
Oct 1, 2007
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I'm curious here...more so from the wife...but how can you recycle the water from water changes?

Here's the deal, yesterday while doing the routine maintenace thing and dumping out the water, one of my ears caught the flack of "man you're wasting a ton of water. Can't you recycle it?". :)

This has been a thorn in her side for a while. In the warmer months it's not too much of an issue because the water would be placed in a holding container outside and irrigated to her flower beds. I still caught some flack but since the water had a usefull purpose, it wasn't too bad. Now that winter has set in, of course this cannot happen due to freezing conditions.

So being the good husband that I am, I would like to look into a green system if its possible. I would have to think that someone here has either done it or is researching the same.

Any thoughts and helpfull advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thx,
James
 
Maybe running the old water through an advanced RO/DI system?
 
I'm in the same boat. In the summer all the Hostas, and shade garden plants grow enormace from the WC water. I was thinking of sinking a large (3-400)gal. container or stock tank (the kind used by landscapers to water plants on remote sites) underground to allow for some storage of water. It shouldn't freeze if it has enough volume.That way at least, I won't be pour it down the toilet and it will be a little greener choice.
 
One option - feed the water from your tanks to the plants! ;-)

Good thought though to do recycling. My tank isn't even that big (about 90g) and every time I change the water I think "thats like a bathtub"
 
The object of course is to recycle as much as possible..thus the green system. Dumping it down the drain does not meet this requirement. We only have a few household plants and of course some water goes for them. But much of it gets "wasted" down the drain.

Another item of note for this project. We live out in the country and do not have city water. We are on a well and have a septic system. This just adds another dimension to the project. Since city waste water mostly gets pumped into stations for retreatment it's not that big a deal.

But again..the thought is to build a green system and reclaim/reuse as much as possible. Now granted...this doesn't have to convert it to potable water for people to drink...just hopefully clean enough to reuse for aquariums.
 
if you have a well you already are recycling it....

where do you think it goes after you drain it from the tank?

it will work its way through the soil and end up back in the water table.
 
IITUFFTOBEATII;2514128; said:
if you have a well you already are recycling it....

where do you think it goes after you drain it from the tank?

it will work its way through the soil and end up back in the water table.
Click to expand...

So your saying that I shower in recycled poop water each morning? :WHOA:
 
You could bury and giant cistern as a holding tank until the warmer months. Then you could use it to water the landscaping and the lawn. Other options are have 55g holding tanks in the basement.

I'm in the same boat. I do not want to run w/c water down the drain because of the increased load on the septic system, specifically the sand mound. I'm going to store the water until spring. If I ever build another house I want to have two separate plumbing systems. One will be for potable and shower water. The other for the toilets using grey, recycled rain and w/c water.
 
One thought is to a plant setup in your sump which would decrease the nitrate levels, thus allowing the water to last a bit longer. May people on here have built denitrator setups. One way to help would be to as efficient as possible.
 
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