Water change, water conservation. Question for monster tank owners.

[toffee]

We all know that frequent water changes are essential to good husbandry. It replaces polluted water with fresh ones.

For someone with a 55g, changing 50% once a week isn't that time and resources consuming. For a 1000g+ tank that would be 2000g a month of water. Considering building code are encouraging folks to upgrade from 1.6g/flush toilets to 1.3g/flush toilets just to conserve water, throw away hundreds if not thousands of gallon every month sure got my attention.

Are there alternatives to water changes? How do the fish farms do it? Do they also perform weekly water change?

 

[jsodwi]

I would love to hear some opinions as well. I have my 750g on an auto changer that does 70g 6 days a week. So 420g a week. I have a heavy bioload and feed everyday. I do manually about 75g per week in my 180/120g setup it has light bioload. Luckily I don't pay for water and my auto changer is pumped into my lawn to water it.

 

[greenbud]

look into plant filtration. But be warned every plus has a minus! plant filtration help with Bio load but water color seems to be a slight yellow over time and still requires water changes to prevent the build up of other things that can toxify a tank over time. I use plant filtration do to the limit I have of water i can pull from my dug well.

 

[doviiman]

I am all ears as well! I am on an auto drip system at 450 gallons a week for a 822 gallon tank. I also have the drain water going to my queen palm tree, which might I add since using the aquarium water has turned nice full and green. I am thinking of drilling and adding a well system for my tank and lawn system. Won't really do much for conservation waisting, but will help my pockets. lol

 

[DIDYSIS]

Less fish. Lots of filtration. Less food makes for less water changes. Big tanks are just that big fish. Big filtration lots of food and lots of water.

Sent from my DROIDX using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[lp85253]

it cant be helped....fishkeeping wastes water ,but compared to other things wasted on a larger societal scale it seems trivial when compared to the benifits we recieve

 

[Egon]

I have 1110 gallons of water in four tanks not including the five 55 gallon sumps all on a 5 gallon per hour drip system. 120 gallons a day, 840 gallons a week.
All this water goes out to my yard. I have a hose system behind all my bushes and trees. Every other day I will open and close off lines going to different areas of the yard. I turned off the drip lines going to these areas and my water bill has stayed the same.
So, if your already watering your yard, it is possible to push the water through your tanks then to your yard. My trees and bushes love the fish water so it's a win/win and basically free other than the plumbing. I used old garden hose to channel the water to different bushes. I spent maybe $100 for 1/2" barb fittings and caps to T lines from bush to bush and caps to open and close water flow to different areas.
It was fun to set up and there’s hardly any maintenance now that everything is tweaked.

 

[toffee]

I have 1110 gallons of water in four tanks not including the five 55 gallon sumps all on a 5 gallon per hour drip system. 120 gallons a day, 840 gallons a week.
All this water goes out to my yard. I have a hose system behind all my bushes and trees. Every other day I will open and close off lines going to different areas of the yard. I turned off the drip lines going to these areas and my water bill has stayed the same.
So, if your already watering your yard, it is possible to push the water through your tanks then to your yard. My trees and bushes love the fish water so it's a win/win and basically free other than the plumbing. I used old garden hose to channel the water to different bushes. I spent maybe $100 for 1/2" barb fittings and caps to T lines from bush to bush and caps to open and close water flow to different areas.
It was fun to set up and there’s hardly any maintenance now that everything is tweaked.

That's what I used to do too. That being said, one needs to have tons of landscape plants to use 840 gal of water every week.

 

[Egon]

True. I have 7 palm trees in my yard. 4 of them are over 60 feet tall. I'm sure most of the water just soaks the ground and is not used. But I already used the water in the fish tank so any of it that gets used is free anyway.

 

[duanes]

Most of my water change water goes to the garden in summer, and I change approx 100 gallons per day.
The garden easily sucks up that 100, especially with this summers drought.
Turn a valve, and out the window it goes.

I also use water change water to flush toilets