I feel the same Mel, thats why I water my yard and plants with my tank water. With as large as your tanks are I am sure you could water a whole front/back yard unless your just on acres and acres of land. Could also water a garden if you have one.
Time to cut down on Water changes
- Thread starter Mel O
- Start date
My hatchery's roof is epoxy coated metal. I collect rainwater from the 4 gutter drain spouts that drain into poly barrels. The water gravity drains into a primary 2k gal collection tank where a level sensitive sump pump pumps the water through a 5 stage filtration station and into a 5k gallon tank. There's a float switch at the top of the filtered water tank that prevents the sump pump from engaging and overflowing the system. A pond air stone aerates the water off of the hatchery's main blower. Excess rain overflows through 1" pvc, at the tops of the barrels, leading to the back of my property at the drain field. The hatchery is heated instead of individual tanks so the storage tank can heat properly before water changes. The excess water in the barrels also waters my vegetable garden through leading a standard hose (for siphon) into a drip hose line.
Thats the best idea yet. You don't have any pictures of this set up by chance do you Oddball? Thats innovative, must be some sweet setup.
Never took pics of the setup. At present, my family is relocating from MS to AL. We disassembled the hatchery 2 months ago. The reclaimation system is just a pile of pvc and abs piping now. I plan to set the same arrangement up here. I'll be sure to take pics once we set up here in AL.
that is really cool. ^^^ i wish i had the time to invest into making my setup so much better! as for Mel's O/P ide also be willing to learn some new practices, water changes are run of the mill for me, yet i do wish there was a way to get around it. not do away with it all together, but more 'extend the time' that you have to do water changes. i change 30% weekly +/- ; but how nice would it be to do that, say, monthly? 
I would think in Seattle (I'm in Portland) that Oddball's system would provide more than enough water for you if you had a large enough collection system.
Oddball, did you buffer the water at all? What was your rain water chemistry like?
Oddball, did you buffer the water at all? What was your rain water chemistry like?
im reallyt considering a rainwater collection system sometime next year. i just gotta figure it all out and wait till its a wee bit warmer outside but may be a future project
This was helpful and untrue effiency can be achieved
[FONT=Tahoma, Calibri, Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]The op has merit in the idea although not sure about the link. I'm in the process of sourcing plants for a refug in my sump and build an algae scrubber to reduce the nitrates enough to hope fully do 1-2 25 % water changes a week as dumping 27 c/ 81 f water out side to reheat from 8 c mains is wasteful . There was a really good thread on de nitratefier build on here which sounds like your bag with 3000 gal. I'm at 230 so it's not worth the equipment.[/FONT]
This is a great topic and I'm glad to see it back.
In my fishroom in California I watered the lawn and garden with water from the garage fishroom.
Unfortunately, it's not possible (or easy) to do that with my current set-up. I've got Pothos plants in most of my tanks. I still do a lot of water changes, but terrestrial and pond plants can be great for removing ammonia and other stuff in the water. If I had better light, I'd use water lettuce...
Matt
In my fishroom in California I watered the lawn and garden with water from the garage fishroom.
Unfortunately, it's not possible (or easy) to do that with my current set-up. I've got Pothos plants in most of my tanks. I still do a lot of water changes, but terrestrial and pond plants can be great for removing ammonia and other stuff in the water. If I had better light, I'd use water lettuce...
Matt
