Water from dehumidifier

[beblondie]

Use it and keep us advised maybe your on to something

 

[Oddball]

Tap water passes through copper, well in the UK it does, are you saying we shouldnt use tap water in our aquaria too?. However Ive heard you cant use water from a dehumidifier either.

On that note, I'm going to derail a bit.

We've had members experience problems upon moving into new construction homes. Same water, same plumbing, and same municipal reservoir. However, their fish/inverts suffered inexplicably. I asked a civil engineer for the county water district for his insight and he suggested that aged copper pipes usually have mineral/salt deposits on them. This "skin" prevents copper from being leeched into the water within the piping. The new-home pipes haven't had time to build up this coating and, therefore, the aquariums suffered.

In dehumidifiers, there's no chance of building this coating. So, copper-sensitive species will always be at risk of suffering toxic effects from the reclaimed water in copper-coiled units.

 

[DasArab]

On that note, I'm going to derail a bit.

We've had members experience problems upon moving into new construction homes. Same water, same plumbing, and same municipal reservoir. However, their fish/inverts suffered inexplicably. I asked a civil engineer for the county water district for his insight and he suggested that aged copper pipes usually have mineral/salt deposits on them. This "skin" prevents copper from being leeched into the water within the piping. The new-home pipes haven't had time to build up this coating and, therefore, the aquariums suffered.

In dehumidifiers, there's no chance of building this coating. So, copper-sensitive species will always be at risk of suffering toxic effects from the reclaimed water in copper-coiled units.

No I totally agree with that but it doesnt take long for that skin to build up, in fact I had the misfortune to burst an outside pipe lately and saw the skin first hand, but unless your dealing with invertabrates it really shouldnt be an issue.

 

[ercnan]

Water from dehumidifiers is condensate, the same thing that your home a/c produces.
It's produced by moving the air in the home across a cold coil and will hold containants from the air that the filter misses.
It may be usuable, but as an HVAC tech. I would NOT.
The things I've seen in ductwork, the "mat of fur" built up on some a-coils, the numerous times I've had to clean out condensate drains because they are stopped up from the "junk" in the water sticking and building up, etc.
IMO, it's not a usable source unless it's very well filtered before use.
It's a by-product of a process, and most by-products are contaminated to some degree.