water bill crazy high ato with rain water

[jesse'sgirl]

So our water bill is getting higher and higher and we also just added a 400 gallon system.

Has anyone used rain water for mixing or top off? We are thinking of using a couple of 55 gallon containers to catch rain water, We would then run it through a screen filter and use for salt water.

Does anyone have any input on this?

does and donts?

concerns?

any working in progress now?



We would love some input on this

thanx guys

 

[jesse'sgirl]

has anyone else thought of it? would an ro filter in line help or would it need more to have it reef ready

 

[jesse'sgirl]

the contaiments would filter out i would think,,but could be wrong

 

[miami dolfan]

I've heard that you can re-filter your waste water through the RO unit but you have to change the membrane out more often.

 

[jesse'sgirl]

what about if i had a pressure pump hooked up to the ro di and used the trash water to feed the grass and flowers?

we are moving soon to a house with basement, i could put a 500 gallon or so vat in the basement and store rain water in it, if we put a pressure rated pump on it we could save a ton of money woth water

we have almost 1000 gallons of system running and i hope to step my sump up when we move also

i also wonder if it will make the ro di go wear filters faster?

and do we need the ro part if no chlorine involved?


thanx for the input amici

 

[gnashty]

jesse'sgirl;696778 wrote: what about if i had a pressure pump hooked up to the ro di and used the trash water to feed the grass and flowers?

This is what I do

 

[jesse'sgirl]

gnashty;696792 wrote: This is what I do

Can we get any pics??

Please and thank you

 

[gnashty]

Im in NY right now but basically its a 275 gal caged storage tote. when it gets full I drop a Mag 18 in it and hook it up to my garden hose and cheap sprinkler. It could use a more powerful pump to be effective but its what I have avail. Its not a sophisticated system and sometimes I have more water than I can use on the lawn/outdoor chores so some does have to go down the drain once in a while in order to make more water.

 

[dakota9]

The water couldn't possibly be any cleaner than the surface it will run off from, into the drums.

Storing that much rain water in a basement is going to cause a humidity problem and unless circulated and used fairly quickly, it's going to grow bacteria of some sort.

Sounds like quite an undertaking. I do not envy a move with all those tanks......

 

[miami dolfan]

Run your rain gutter into the basement....just kidding of course

 

[jesse'sgirl]

Dakota9;696801 wrote: The water couldn't possibly be any cleaner than the surface it will run off from, into the drums.

Storing that much rain water in a basement is going to cause a humidity problem and unless circulated and used fairly quickly, it's going to grow bacteria of some sort.

Sounds like quite an undertaking. I do not envy a move with all those tanks......

i was thinking more of having the rain catchers more of an open area rather than off of a surface.

of course we have some kinks to work out.

and yes, we are dreading moving all the tanks


the completely stuffed 180 reef will be the most work

 

[dan3949]

I would think electricity cost of running a pump with sufficient outlet pressure to operarate an RO membrane (to filter rain water) would be more expensive than using existing city water pressure to run an RO filter with city water.

 

[shrimpy brains]

I could be wrong, but I don't think you would catch enough rain water on a consistent basis to help with top offs for that size system.

Using you waste water to water plants, etc. is a very good plan.

 

[grouper therapy]

Use the rainwater/waste water` for other needs and city water for the rodi water. No difference ,still saving water and using more predictable for rodi.

 

[jesse'sgirl]

so rain water storage for outdoor use but stored in a large food grade container in the basement!!

and waste from r.o. to be used for flower beds?

 

[lifestudent]

grouper therapy;696923 wrote: Use the rainwater/waste water` for other needs and city water for the rodi water. No difference ,still saving water and using more predictable for rodi.

Definitely agreed with you Dave!

A unique idea that I researched a few years ago is to add a 2nd RO Membrane to process your waste water coming out of the 1st RO membrane. Here's the results of a http://www.thefilterguys.biz/test_results.htm">study done by TheFilterGuys </a>about how much having a 2nd RO membrane works.

I've spoken to Jim at TheFilterGuys a few times about this, but with my water costing me under $15 a month when I use ~3,500 gallons, it just was not cost efficient/justifiable for me. However, if we ever have another drought, then I'll revisit this.

Also please refer to a thread that [IMG]http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60211&highlight=water">Acroholic wrote about his findings when he added a 2nd RO membrane</a>.

As for me, I considered rain water, but it has far too many contaniments for me to find acceptable [e.g., leaves, tannins from decayed leaves, mosquioto larvrea (sp?)] versus simply reprocessing the waste water from the 1st RO.

I recently added a Aquatec 8800 booster pump since my water pressure is ~40-45 PSI without it and now my PSI is 85-90 at my RO unit! :D

So if ever we get into a drought situation again with water restrictions/household limitations, I'll be looking to add a 2nd RO.

 

[acroholic]

In reference to Lifestudent's mention of the 2nd RO membrane I added, the product water: waste water ratio went from 1:4 to 1:1, as promised by BRS. (actually, it was 1: .95). This ratio was obtained in summer, when RO production rates are the highest (RO production is temperature dependent), so in winter I would expect the ratio to not be this good.

 

[jrocker1]

You won't catch enough water for this if you just use an open air collection and it will look rather silly in the back yard. Catching rain off the roof is the best bet for high volumes. I'd think you'd have a holding tank in the yard with the RO unit plumbed from this to the large container in the basement, right? You could probably keep this going pretty consistently if we had a lot of rain. This would prevent the roof from accumulating too much nasty stuff (sun damage to roofing, bird droppings, tars and resins from trees, etc). If we have a dry spell, that first bit of water would probably be pretty nasty.

As for the thoughts of using collected water on the garden and city for tanks, I think this would work well. My parents have a reasonably large garden in Acworth, and they don't usually even collect enough water to maintain the garden without city water supplements. They also don't have a huge collection barrel.

I love this idea though. Good luck with it!

 

[jesse'sgirl]

well we are going to catch rain water for yard main for now and waste water from the r o as well


i will do sone research and have some rain water tested

 

[mr difficult]

I can turn on my RO unit and in 25 minutes I can fill up a 5 gallon bucket of waste water. I need to check how much good to waste I am making to be sure things are in line. I have only checked waste so far.