Rjohn Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 My wife asked me this question and I did not have a good answer. Perhaps yall can help me out. When I do a water change, I put the tank water I remove down the drain. She asked me if I couldn't recycle that in some way. It seemed to her a waste of salt, which can be a bit pricey. At first, I just said "No" but I couldn't give a valid reason. If you had a large barrel with a couple of hundred pounds of live rock, some powerheads and a light source, could that clean up the water before your next water change allowing you to put that water back into the tank as clean? Am I missing something here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefman Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 There are way more impurities and pollution in that water than a barrel and live rock could ever take out. It would take a pretty extensive filtration system to really get in clean again. With what said filtration system would cost, you could buy salt for 100 - 150 years. Stephen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rjohn Posted April 17, 2009 Author Share Posted April 17, 2009 What type of impurities and pollution? What about pumping it throught the RO/DI unit? or would that remove the salt as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iplantz Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 It would and probably would run down your DI and membranes faster. That said, I had a idea of a cool evaporation system to collect good old H20, but am having trouble with the idea of salt creep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 It would pull out everything, in theory at least. I think used SW would clog a RODI unit in no time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnoburns Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 It would and probably would run down your DI and membranes faster. That said, I had a idea of a cool evaporation system to collect good old H20, but am having trouble with the idea of salt creep. You could solve the salt creep by using 3 containers. One large outer one to hold fresh water, on medium one to serve as a barrier for salt creep, and one smaller container to put your saltwater. If you put a cone shaped lid on the large container the evaporated water will go down the sides into the big container. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 You need a de-salination system to get fresh water from sea water - a typical RO system isn't going to have enough water pressure behind it to handle sea water. However, such systems exist and are not radically expensive. Whether they would be economical to use with just a few gallons of change water or not, I don't know. Usually you find them in houses near the sea that need drinking water. That or big commercial installations supplying drinking water to a city. Here's a link to one. http://www.raindancewatersystems.com/desalinators.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caferacermike Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 From what I've read this isn't about making freshwater, it's actually about reusing the salts. Why not? Because you can consider your trace elements exhausted from the growth of your corals. This is another reason why frequent water changes with a good salt are important. The mix is supposed to recreate natural sea water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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