Is there a use for waterchange water?

[speedingredline]

I was just wondering if there is a pratical use for this waste water. I am already planning on a system for the waste RO/DI water, gonna use it to water the plants outside and stuff. But can the waterchange waste water be used for this as well. I'm on a septic system, and don't want to dump it down the drain.

[Blown 346]

I am not sure if you would want to dump saltwater for your plants. I could see it drying the roots out and the plant dying.

[speedingredline]

good point, hadn't thought of that. I guess I will just pump it out to the ditch.

[Dholmblad]

Dont dump salt water on to plants, it will kill them.

[speedingredline]

noted, dumping saltwater on plants, bad

[hopper]

Pour the saltwater on any grass growing in the cracks of your driveway/sidewalk or any other concrete area. It will be dead grass after awhile. Granted, I think it takes a good dosing to do the trick. In the winter you might pour it over the walkways to help with any icing that might occur.

[speedingredline]

I dont have the ice problem! Thank Goodness

[Steven Pro]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6668167#post6668167 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hopper
In the winter you might pour it over the walkways to help with any icing that might occur. I tried this. I thought 80*F saltwater would melt ice well, but it doesn't. I ran a hose out the bottom of the garage door when I was doing a water change. It melted the first foot or so, but then got cooled and dilluted enough that it froze as well. :(

[hopper]

I thought that the salt in the water would keep it from freezing. Goes to show that I never have had the need to try this in Louisiana. It does kill grass in the cracks of concrete though. :D Just poured mine on some this evening.

[tkeracer619]

Put the used saltwater in a small bucket and put it on top of a slightly opened door. works every time and much better than normal water.

[Ira NZ]

Start a brackish tank and use the saltwater mixed with freshwater for that tank.:)

[BradL.]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6676193#post6676193 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tkeracer619
Put the used saltwater in a small bucket and put it on top of a slightly opened door. works every time and much better than normal water. :thumbsup:

[Abysswater]

If you have sago palms they love salt water, or any plam tree!

So some plants love it!

[tylerdj]

We have used waterchange water for a brine shrimp hatchery.

[GoldStripe]

wonder if there is a cheap way to reclaim the salt in the water? probably not by itself anyway, you'd have everything else too.

[tomlando]

Margaritas! For an annoying guest. haha

[Opcn]

Lay out a bunch of large baking pans (with rims, this is important)and fill them with the salt, then scrape that into buckets, the heavy metals and nitrates make it useless for marine tak purposes but you can use it on driveways in granular form or to throw at those pesky religious people who come knocking on your door with pamphlets about how there cult will save you from the evil lord sauragg

[rustybucket145]

There is a big green spot in my St. Augustine grass where I drain my water at. So I guess the St. Augustine grass likes it!

[speedingredline]

Hmm, I wonder if bermuda grass and zyosia would like it.

[Opcn]

Oh man Zyosia can grow in molten lava, at night. A nuclear bomb will go off one day and wipe out everything but cockroatches and zoysia, there will be lawns out in the middle of no were.

[GoldStripe]

Salt water has never hurt my St. Augustine grass either by the way.

[acroporid23]

i would say no although it might work for rusting stuff try using it to get the oil off the driveway LOL

[coralights]

Space permitting .... set up a tank and fill it with water & tons of live rock and some live sand including macro-algae leaving enough room to add the water from your monthly change ..... the size of the tank should be at least four times what your monthly water changes add up too, but bigger is even better ...... maintain the tank as you would any healthy aquarium minus any expensive filters or gadgets and keep the water circulation very high .... let the live rock & algae do it's thing and enjoy what materializes ..... when you do the first water change after setting up this tank ... put the waste water into it ....... and the second time you do a water change ... use the water in this tank to replacie what you removeand put the "new" old water into the live rock tank ..... suffice it to say that keeping the exchange water tank healthy is very important (but easy) even to the extent of adding supplements ... and will make a surprisingly enjoyable aquarium with other unique possibilities unto itself! Besides saving you tons of money over the long haul.

[Kelley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6676193#post6676193 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tkeracer619
Put the used saltwater in a small bucket and put it on top of a slightly opened door. works every time and much better than normal water.
:lol: :lol: :lol:

[coralights]

you could also brush your teeth with it :-)

[Kelley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6766145#post6766145 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralights
you could also brush your teeth with it :-)

Eww, just think about what is in that water!!

Why not sell it to hair product companies in that case, they keep coming out with sprays that have 'ocean water' in them to give you that day at the beach look.

[coralights]

Eww, just think about what is in that water!!


double ewwww! ... just think about what's in our mouths! :-)

"Why not sell it to hair product companies in that case, they keep coming out with sprays that have 'ocean water' in them to give you that day at the beach look"

hmmmm ..... i love the smell of ocean water in hair .... and napalm in the morning :-)

[Kelley]

yum, me too!! napalm and fish gunk

[cdraughon]

Smells like Cosmo Cramer's Beach cologne.

[jokeloma]

You could use it to wash out fresh cuts on your hands. Maybe make a nasal spray for someone special.

Personally I liked the fill a large container with it and LR and see what happens

[piranhaking]

I realize the washing out cuts comment was probably just a joke id like to mention that the water could contain toxins from the corals that would be really bad (possibly deadly) so i wouldnt advise that. Just thought id mention it incase someone took it seriously.

[Ti]

boil it till it evaporattes , then use the "sea salt" as food seasoning. :p

[Angel*Fish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6785550#post6785550 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ti
boil it till it evaporattes , then use the "sea salt" as food seasoning. :p Good one! But- sell it in teeny bottles for an outrageous amount of money. Specially processed sea salt in designer flavors:
tanks with cowfish would yield salt for steaks
hogfish for pork
tangs for vegetarian salt
etc

[FSOL]

wash your car w/ it :)

[DgenR8]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6826419#post6826419 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FSOL
wash your car w/ it :)

Bad idea. Soap doesn't get "sudsy" in salt water, and more importantly, the salt is not good for your car.

[FSOL]

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I was being sarcastic.

[DgenR8]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6826894#post6826894 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FSOL
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I was being sarcastic.

Sarcasm is one of many things that don't convey well in this medium. You have to understand that you are talking to people that might not know better than to wash their car in dirty salt water.
Case in point, all those people you see lined up for a car wash a few days after a big snow storm. Cars run through with road salt all over them. the water is reused time and time again, effectively coating every car it touches with road salt.
So what we have here now, is 4 posts in a row that are basically nothing more than a waste of bandwith, and have gotten the original poster no closer to the answer to his question.

[msman825]

LISTEN to DGEN RB , Dump it out . Make new go again. Very good POINT, SIR.

[speedingredline]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6829734#post6829734 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DgenR8
Sarcasm is one of many things that don't convey well in this medium. You have to understand that you are talking to people that might not know better than to wash their car in dirty salt water.
Case in point, all those people you see lined up for a car wash a few days after a big snow storm. Cars run through with road salt all over them. the water is reused time and time again, effectively coating every car it touches with road salt.
So what we have here now, is 4 posts in a row that are basically nothing more than a waste of bandwith, and have gotten the original poster no closer to the answer to his question.

Thank you, Very well stated. I guess I was asking for it when I started this thread.

[cutsupremetrib]

then why is everyone else being sarcastic i doubt you could seriously find any good use for old saltwater Gah why does everyone on here have to jump down everyone elses throats people need to get along

[davidcalgary29]

I use my old seawater in my LR "QT/development" tank. I recently upgraded to a 165g (from 70), and didn't have nearly enough LR for the new setup, AND didn't want to pay the $1000 CAD it would cost me to add 100 lbs of LR, so I decided to "make" my own by seeding cheap local tufa. Setup has been working well, and I've been able to harvest about 1 lb/2 weeks -- all of which goes directly into the sump.

My seawater cycle, in other words, is display -- > LR ---> onto the lilac stump that I'm trying to kill in the backyard. :D

[YoungReefer]

Well salt is ok to a certain degree for your car. I mean take soft water for example it's "salty".
I suggest donating it to your local college or high school microbiology or biology class for studying the bacteria that may be in it well that are in it...... Just a thought.

[DgenR8]

Salt corrodes metal. less is not as bad as more, but salt is bad for anything made of steel.

Donating your used salt water to a school is not a bad idea, but when I'm on schedule (I've slipped lately), I change 100 gallons a week. There is no way I'm dragging 100 gallons of dirty salt water around once a week (what if it spilled in my car? now I'm dealing with a wet, musty smelling rusting car!) There are also more Reefers near me than schools that I know of. It would be a very short time before all schools in the area had more dirty salt water to test than they knew what to do with. It might work in areas where we (marine tank keepers) are more spread out. There would still be that whole dragging it around thing though.

[YoungReefer]

True that idea came from the fact that I have 5 high schools and 3 colleges within 4 miles of me

[Mr. Ugly]

I use the old water from my sps/lps/zoa tank in my softie tank.

I use old softie tank water for curing rock.

I've also used diluted reef tank water for my brackish puffer tank.

[piranhaking]

I think some people in this world need to lighten up. Usually the smiley face would give most people a hint........ secondly im sure most people would know better than to use salt water for washing a car. I also think that if people are going to get chewed out for making jokes the person that made the seasalt for food joke should be chewed out even more, since that could potentally be dangerous to your health. Am i the only one that thinks its a little odd that if someone with 1950 posts makes a joke its ok but if someone with 120 something posts does then they get bashed for it??


also the water may be used again in carwashes, im not sure, but i know that even if it is the rinse water either isnt or is cleaned first. think about it. If it was all the same water then the rinse water would be soapy and that wouldnt rinse very well would it.

[YoungReefer]

Well put

[jpfelix]

soft water is not salty.

our flower beds enjoy the splash of 20ish gallons of dirty saltwater/week. they also get the waste water from the rodi.

[YoungReefer]

Soft water does have salt in it though. I personally dump my waste water down the toilet

[Angel*Fish]

Have you guys tried a Python? Your attach it to your faucet & it sucks the water out of your tank & down the drain - no buckets needed - of course you can't recycle it that way - but so far there haven't been very many solutions to the recycling anyway

[piranhaking]

My great aunt has a problem with hard water. Know what they do to treat it? it runs though a large container of salt. That is where the soft water is salty comment most likely came from. Im not sure one way or the other, but i know her water tastes nasty :P

[cinnamongirl]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6765689#post6765689 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralights
when you do the first water change after setting up this tank ... put the waste water into it ....... and the second time you do a water change ... use the water in this tank to replacie what you removeand put the "new" old water into the live rock tank ..... suffice it to say that keeping the exchange water tank healthy is very important (but easy) even to the extent of adding supplements ...

Call me an airhead, but I don't think I understand... Do you mean instead of throwing any waste water away, you just switch it back and forth between the two tanks? Do you never put freshly made saltwater in your display tank?

[Humuhumunuku]

im not sure how well this would work, but what if you put it in a large container, no live rock, perhaps plants (make it kind of like a refugium), but nothing else. Then hook up a protien skimmer and/or other filtration system and clean the water up. Kind of like the posts with the live rock water switching, but without trying to make a second tank.

[OrangeKoi]

My sons science fair project involved watering with saltwater on one set of bean seeds. The poor seeds, though they had thick stems couldn't find "up". Don't put it on beans.:lol:

[revance]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6880852#post6880852 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by piranhaking
My great aunt has a problem with hard water. Know what they do to treat it? it runs though a large container of salt. That is where the soft water is salty comment most likely came from. Im not sure one way or the other, but i know her water tastes nasty :P

Water softeners don't run water through salt. They run water through an ion exchange resin. It uses the salt to make a salt brine, which is used to recharge the ion exchange resin. Granted it does add sodium molecules to the water in the exchange, but it is a huge misconception that adding salt to water softens it. If that were true, our tanks would have very soft water :)