What do you with your RO-unit waste water?

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SeeK828

Member
Hi all,

I have been wondering if I can put the waste water from my RO unit to some good use instead of just letting it just go to total waste by going down the drain.

With the many environmental problems we are facing around the globe today and the many people/countries that are suffering from not having clean drinking water, I'm starting to feel extremely bad for using my RO unit, and to some extend keeping fish at all. (Because of alllll the water needed to keep up with the waterchange..)

Currently my unit is set to have the Good/Waste water ratio of around 1:3
With the weekly waterchange that I need do and the daily top off, the unit is almost running at all time. That is A LOT OF waste water going down the drain.

So, can anyone share some idea and suggestion on what I/We can probably do with all those waste water?
Storage would be a problem but even if we only managed to store and save a portion, its still better than just wasting them all down the drain.

While we are on the topic, what about the old saltwater we take out from waterchange? Can we do something with those too?
I guess this is even harder?

Anyone?
Thanks for reading!
 
lcstorc

lcstorc

Well-Known Member
I have the waste water run out into a garden. I keep saying I am going to plant vegetables there and make it really useful but for now it is just flowers.
 
jgking21

jgking21

Member
My saltwater goes to the street, I don't want it anywhere near my grass. It is too nasty and kills it quickly. I don't have an RO unit yet, but planning on one. We use all excess ice and stuff to water plants, so I planned on having the RO waste go into a tub that we can pull from. Good thinking on not wasting!
 
Wakeskater02

Wakeskater02

Member
Good call to all of you.

On this note, I wonder if someone could come up with a way in, which an RO/DI unit would produce no waste water. This might be accomplished by creating a loop of some sort. In which water that is waste water would then go back through the loop again and again until it is all filtered correctly.

If someone could create that, they would be a hero! Think about how much water just the aquarium industry would save!

Just an idea
 
degibson84

degibson84

Active Member
mine goes down the drain and back to the treatment center and then comes back through my faucet a few days later
 
B

BLAKEJOHN

Active Member
Your waste saltwater can be used for weed control. If you have weeds growing through cracks in your steps, sidewalks or driveway you can use your old saltwater to kill the weeds.
 
jcgardner

jcgardner

Member
We water the trees and plants like many people have stated, but we also bottle it and using it as drinking water as well, since the water really isn't waste in my opinion. Our tap water is fine, the first stages of our RO/DI just takes out the chlorine taste when they treat the water and filters it.
 
P

pharmboy

Member
I have the cold water line to my clothes washer split using a garden spigot splitter with shutoff valves. One goes to the washer and the other line has an adapter from Home Depot that connects to my RO-DI above the clothes washer and dryer, on a rack. When I turn on the RO-DI, the water is collected in a bucket on top of the dryer (so I don't forget) and the drain goes into the washer, to be used for the next load of laundry.

I use a drying dish rack under the bucket to catch any overflow and is directed into the washer, so no more wet floors!
 
Wakeskater02

Wakeskater02

Member
pharmboy said:
I have the cold water line to my clothes washer split using a garden spigot splitter with shutoff valves. One goes to the washer and the other line has an adapter from Home Depot that connects to my RO-DI above the clothes washer and dryer, on a rack. When I turn on the RO-DI, the water is collected in a bucket on top of the dryer (so I don't forget) and the drain goes into the washer, to be used for the next load of laundry.

I use a drying dish rack under the bucket to catch any overflow and is directed into the washer, so no more wet floors!
Click to expand...

Good thinking!
 
kragon

kragon

Member
i have my waste water going back to my systern since we get the water from the rain so we dont have to buy more water and haul it up
 
S

SeeK828

Member
WOW!
glad to hear so many people are doing so much to save those water!
I see lots of you use it for the lawn but unfortunately I don't have a lawn.
I do have a few plants outside my house so I guess I can water them too.

I was thinking if I can use those waste water to keep some less demanding fish, such as fancy goldfish or some easy freshwater tropical species.
Is it safe?
razorvines mentioned you use it for your oscar tank. How has that been going?
 
S

SeeK828

Member
Hey all,
sorry for posting the question again but I really want to explore my options here.

I was wondering if the waste water is safe or acceptable to be feed back into the system and be filter again

Say, I start with the tap water as usual.
get my 1:3 ratio going and collect both the good and waste water with a bucket.
when the waste water fills up its bucket, i stop the tap and disconnect the tap from my RO Unit input.
Then I put some kind of a pump in the wastewater bucket and make the connections so that the pump pushes the wastewater from the collection bucket to the RO unit input. So effectively I make my wastewater bucket the input to the RO Unit.
If i keep doing this and keep my good/waste ratio I should eventually run low or even out of the waste water right?
When the waste water is used up I disconnect the pump and reconnect the tap to the RO Unit and the whole process begin a new cycle.

Would that work?
sounds reasonable if i can make the pump connection.
The only problem I have is that I don't know if the wastewater is even safe to be filter again to begin with.

Anyone?
 
lcstorc

lcstorc

Well-Known Member
I believe there are ph issues with the RO water and fresh water tanks but it is a vague memory so definitely check that one.
As far as re-filtering they make units that do just that and it does significantly reduce the waste but it also significantly reduces the life of your RO membranes.
 
S

SeeK828

Member
lcstorc said:
I believe there are ph issues with the RO water and fresh water tanks but it is a vague memory so definitely check that one.
As far as re-filtering they make units that do just that and it does significantly reduce the waste but it also significantly reduces the life of your RO membranes.
Click to expand...

O ya.
Thanks for reminding me.
I think I've heard of the pH problem too.
I'm also quite worry about the quality of the wastewater since my wastewater is rather yellow in color
 
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