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

[arodini]

Alright, I need to let this off my chest. I left the water hose running, topping off my kids 15' swimming pool one evening, came inside to watch the Olympics whole night and forgot about it until 11am the next day! With the severe drought we have in the mid west this year, I felt (and still do) terrible about it.

 

[toffee]

Just a few random thoughts.

1. We can somehow achieve "good" measurable water condition , ie nitrate=0 etc., by using plants, filtration etc., it's the un-measurable stuff supports water change.
2. I haven't seen any side by side identical tank/fish test. Both tank with water that meets good measurable water condition. One with regular water change, the other with some other method. In theory, the fishes in the tank with frequent water change should have better health, grow faster, spawn more frequent etc. But what if their growth is identical and spawn similarly?
3. It's like living in the middle of a condensed city vs in country. Air quality probably better in the country but that doesn't mean people cannot live happily and healthily in the city.

All that being said, water change remains the easiest way to achieve good water quality. How frequent and how much is debatable. I thinking using plants etc in lieu of water change cannot be totally discounted.

 

[Oughtsix]

I do about a 1/4 the water changes I did before I added Pothos to my aquarium and they took off growing.

I won't comment on how much water I waste to have a green lawn though.

 

[Michiba54]

As it stands now I probably use about 250g a week assuming i get at least 1:4 raito with my RO system. My water is almost brackish

When I own my own house I want to seriously look into rain water collection. A guy called into a local radio show and said with his 50,000 gal vat/collection tank he has never ran out of water, also said it over flows often with rainy season too. He admitted it was not cheap, think he said around 50k, but also said he went wayyy over board on somethings.

 

[Egon]

He admitted it was not cheap, think he said around 50k, but also said he went wayyy over board on somethings.

Wonder what his ROR (rate of return) is? I don't think I can spend $50K in water in my lifetime and I have a 20K gallon pool. I have thought about getting a 10K gallon container to burry in the back yard for runoff and fish tank water if I build a large concrete fish tank. I'm really not sure if I would ever realize a return on this investment. Still would be neat to say the water for my fish is free and I'm still watering my lawn the same as everyone else.

One guy on here actually flushes his toilets with fish tank water. His trickle system fills the toilet tank first then diverts the extra water (I guess overflows) to his yard if he's not using the toilet as much.

 

[toffee]

Wonder what his ROR (rate of return) is? I don't think I can spend $50K in water in my lifetime and I have a 20K gallon pool. I have thought about getting a 10K gallon container to burry in the back yard for runoff and fish tank water if I build a large concrete fish tank. I'm really not sure if I would ever realize a return on this investment. Still would be neat to say the water for my fish is free and I'm still watering my lawn the same as everyone else.

One guy on here actually flushes his toilets with fish tank water. His trickle system fills the toilet tank first then diverts the extra water (I guess overflows) to his yard if he's not using the toilet as much.

Lots of toilets in the house and use them real often? Most toilet tnaks are less than 2 gallon, newer ones only 1.28 gallon.