"Wasting" water with large tanks

[duanes]

Might be easier to tell with this shot, no holes in the wall, I just open a window, with PVC waiting outside on the porch, after the window is open, swivel and attach the PVC to the threaded line which has a closed valve to the sump and open the valve. Instead of water heading to the sump, it is diverted outside. It of course, would never win a "house beautiful" award

 

[BIG-G]

I use a regular old syphon hose that you suck on the end

You know if it has the larger section on the end to vac with you can just dip it into the tank fill and lift to make the water run down the hose then put it back in the tank and bam! No sucking required lol

 

[magpie]

Might be easier to tell with this shot, no holes in the wall, I just open a window, with PVC waiting outside on the porch, after the window is open, swivel and attach the PVC to the threaded line which has a closed valve to the sump and open the valve. Instead of water heading to the sump, it is diverted outside. It of course, would never win a "house beautiful" award

Nice! I like this idea.

 

[twentyleagues]

Yup just get a decent pump and long hose to pump it out a window. I do that in the summer. I don't use it to flush. My wife wouldnt go for that. I use it for plants indoors also.
In the states we really only look at the nitrogen cycle as ammonia, nitrite and nitrate then wc to remove nitrate. Thats all aerobic bacteria at work. We dont culture or try to facilitate anaerobic bacteria really at all. Anaerobic bacteria converts nitrate to nitrogen gas. Its really the final step and with it we could greatly reduce water consumption. Its used across the pond to some extent mostly in ponds though. Salt water uses it, using carbon dosing to keep it alive and functioning. That wont work in fresh water as far as I know. You need a good media for it to grow on, or in is really the correct terminology. The media has to be porous really porous not just at the surface but all the way through. Anaerobic bacteria will colonize the interior of the media it likes low flow and low oxygenation( obviously) its pretty picky honestly. You can build media reactors to encourage growth with ideal parameters. It take at least 6 months to get a good colony going.
Using a biopellet reactor on my salt system along with a few deep sand beds allowed me to run near 2000g worth of tanks and keep nitrates at about 15 with only roughly 300g biweekly water changes. Ofcoarse that 300g worth of rodi was more like 900g before filtration 1 gallon for 3 worth of waste water is about the best you can get out of a rodi unit. Mine employed two membranes its possible with a booster pump to run a couple more membranes but it comes to a point that you will just start to clog membranes with the waste.
Sorry to prattle on....

 

[TwoHedWlf]

Can you go into a bit more detail as to how you do that

I have an extra valve/fitting that connects to the outlet on the FX5. Short section of 30mm or whatever size hose fits onto that to a Hansen adapter to a garden hose size, run that out to the irrigation and plug it in.
Turn off the FX5.
unplug the outlet hose, plug the hose to the irrigation in.
turn on the FX5.
Wait until half the tank is empty.
Turn off the FX5.
Unplug from irrigation, plug it into the kitchen sink tap.
Refill.
Put all the plumbing back to normal
Turn on FX5.

Easy.

 

[magpie]

I've been looking into how people use rainwater barrels to water their outdoor garden/yard and some use a pump outside to provide more pressure for drip irrigation or even sprinklers...

There are a lot of resources out there for that kind of thing, so if I could get my tank water into a barrel outside I think I could DIY for a lot of the outdoor areas even more specifically than just a hose that goes outside when you're doing the WC.... Hmmm...

I really appreciate everyone's input, it's getting my gears going. Thanks.

 

[magpie]

I have an extra valve/fitting that connects to the outlet on the FX5. Short section of 30mm or whatever size hose fits onto that to a Hansen adapter to a garden hose size, run that out to the irrigation and plug it in.
Turn off the FX5.
unplug the outlet hose, plug the hose to the irrigation in.
turn on the FX5.
Wait until half the tank is empty.
Turn off the FX5.
Unplug from irrigation, plug it into the kitchen sink tap.
Refill.
Put all the plumbing back to normal
Turn on FX5.

Easy.

Slick! Is it drip irrigation?

 

[TwoHedWlf]

Slick! Is it drip irrigation?

No, micro sprays. Though it's been cut down a lot since I changed our small greenhouse to hydroponics. Just a handful of jets on an asparagus garden and along a fence line with 5 tomato plants right now.

 

[ReApEr666]

Look into "aquaponics".... I ran a small 100g pond for a cple yrs with an over head plant box and koi. All i did was top the system off. Plants can drastically lower nitrate levels enough to almost eliminate w/c's. Chelated iron is the only additave needed aside from fish waste to grow plants.

 

[magpie]

No, micro sprays. Though it's been cut down a lot since I changed our small greenhouse to hydroponics. Just a handful of jets on an asparagus garden and along a fence line with 5 tomato plants right now.

Cool, so it was enough pressure to power the micro sprays... promising...