Using 'waste' water from humidifier??

[aquariaddictus]

Can anyone think of a reason why I can't use the water that runs past the panel in my whole-house humidifier to top off my tanks? The throughput is pretty high, as our house needs all the humidity it can take. We have the hose from the bottom of the humidifier draining into a bucket near the sewer, and it fills to overflowing very quickly.

The panel within the humidifier is well-caked with scale, so I doubt that it's giving off any extra minerals, especially with the water running over it as fast as it does.

Any thoughts? I would still use a dechlorinator, as we are on chloramines, and I doubt the hot air passing through the water would eliminate them as it might free chlorine.
thanks
judy

[Nippy]

Do you mean de-humidifier? I didn't know regular humidifiers made waste water but I am not totally familiar with them, either.
I would at least do a pH test on it. We have a de-humidifier and we use the water it collects from the air and have never had a problem. I also know people on another board whose friend does the same thing. The pH test on the water collected from the air happens to be the same as my tap water. The only problem is that it's very cold water so I wouldn't dump it into a smaller tank.

[aquariaddictus]

No. Humidifier. It's a whole house unit, attached to the furnace (not a cheap one, either). A drain allows the excess water that is not absorbed by the air to go to the sewer, just as the AC has a drain for condensate. Hot water runs over a panel, and the warm air goes from the blower, thru the panel, and to the ductwork. I just went down and dumped some in my platy tank. My bet is that it's no different coming out than it was going in. If it was a new unit with a new panel, I'd think differently. I just put out a new bucket, to see exactly how much water I'm 'wasting'. I think the faster it fills, the safer the water will be.

Thanks for the input - I'll let you know how it goes, and I will check the pH on the next bucket
judy

[wetmanNY]

...but it can't be the same coming out that it was going in--some water has evaporated away, to humidify the air, and the water that remains has a higher level dissolved solids. Rather than pH, what's involved here is "general hardness" or GH.

As for de-humidifiers, I'm often surprised that people would consider using the water that's condensed off its coils, but would avoid collecting rainwater because it might be polluted...

[aquariaddictus]

Ummmmmm. True. So it contains more minerals - I'll direct it to my Malawi tank, seriously; if I want to conserve on water, they're the best ones to take it. I think??
No?
j

[Harry Tolen]

Aquariaddictus: Aha! So it's a water conservation issue. I was trying to figure out what the point was to using overflow from a humidifier.

WetmanNY: I know (well, I think I know, anyway) you like to use rainwater, and here's as good a place as any to ask a few question about that. First, aren't you concerned about the stuff in the air that the raindrops condense around? Second, in order to collect significant amounts, don't you have to use roof runoff, and in that case aren't you concerned about what it runs over and absorbs on the way to the barrel? And finally, does it arrive often enough to actually take the place of a manufactured alternative (R/O, for example).

[wetmanNY]

Would like to Harry, except that I'm in Manhattan under a flat tar roof. ...and lucky to have this soft water from the Croton Aqueduct.

1.The stuff in the air that the raindrops condense around: Raindrops coalesce around "cloud condensation nuclei," which are aerosol particles on a scale that may be as small as a few nanometers, which absorb water vapor and become droplets. CCNs include inorganic aerosols and organic molecules like acids produced by oxidation of terpenes rising from forests. Some of the carbon is inorganic microparticles of soot; some organic carbon includes various carboxylic acids. Your own rain is coming in from the Pacific and methyl sulfide from ocean-surface plankton are major cloud condensation nuclei in your ocean-born rainclouds.

There are more hydrocarbons and terpenes and soot blowing around the house than in rainwater. I'd filter it for sure.

2. Roof runoff: Definitely you'd have to let brandnew roofing weather. But rain doesn't lie long in contact with the roof. Flat roofs are out. So are rusty tin ones etc. More troubling would be dirt and dust that collected between rain. More filtering.

3.Drought: Yup, just when you need it most, you'd hit a dry spell!

Mechanical filtration, and filtration through fresh activated carbon are wise precautions if you're using rainwater. But if I were struggling with hard water and high pH, I'd welcome rainwater.

[wetmanNY]

wha'... wha' hoppen? I was in the elevator, talking to Harry Tolen, I think it was, when the lights started to flicker and then the elevator started banging against the wall... then the lights went out...and... who... who are all these people? why are we here?....

[aquariaddictus]

wetman, you're starting to repeat yourself;) I know, there's a glitch.


My grandparents lived for many years with their only water coming from a cistern. I remember it always being cold, clean and refreshing. It was always a fight to see who would get to go 'pump the water'. Sadly, at the age of 76, my grandfather took it upon himself to go down and scrub the walls of the cistern (what happens to the 'scrubbings'?). He fell off the ladder on the way back up and broke his neck - died in the ambulance. I was 5, and I remember my dad taking the phone call - I heard him say 'Oh, my aching back' - that was what he said whenever there was anything REALLY wrong.

Anyway - nothing wrong with the tank I topped off with the 'waste' water - so far.
thanks
j

[Rocketman]

Hey. That was a nice story, sorry about your grandfather. I'm too young to know what a cistern is, but it sounds something like a well to me. You gave me a good idea though; our water is realy pricey, becuase the city of rochester hills isnt on speaking terms with the Detroit Water Dept., and as a result Detroit decided to charge us extra. (obcenity)s.
I could use dehumidifer water from my basement; Id wanna test it thoroghly first though.

I know I can't spell.

[keely]

May be a stupid question Judy, but if the object is to conserve water, is there not some way you can adjust the amount that is fed to the humidifier in the first place? If there is a lot of excess not being used maybe it's just a matter of lowering a float or adjusting a valve? I'm asking with no idea what a whole home humidifier even looks like... ;)

[aquariaddictus]

A cistern holds water that is diverted off the rooftop during rains. How grandma and grandpa raised 10 kids with just rainwater, I'll never know. Maybe at some point prior, they had a well (at a different house?) Anyway, not too long before my grandmother went into a nursing home, she got indoor plumbing, woo-hoo!! I remember being attacked once by a nasty rooster on my way to the outhouse; the next day, grandma put him on the chopping block. One of my dad's surviving brothers lives there now, alone, and only leaves the house to step onto the front porch to get a piece of wood for the stove. Grandpa died in '67, grandma in '90.

Keely - you're right. I watched the bucket fill today, and the valve needs to be closed a bit. We've got condensation on the windows; between that and my sinuses, I know we're humid enough.
thanks
judy

[pinballqueen]

I've heard of wanting to bring your post count up, but sheesh, Wetman, with the same post over and over???;)

I used to use rain runoff to cook with, so I would feel perfectly safe in using it in an aquarium....

We live only a few miles from the county composting facility, which made our well water, well, let's say, "not the best". We had to use bleach in our dishwater, etc.... Plus, there's natural sulfur deposits in my area...which makes for some really nasty-smelling water...the rainwater was much better, trust me...

[Harry Tolen]

So wetmanNY: you'd take the rainwater, but then put it in a container where you could filter it through carbon and some sort of filter pads before you used it. OK. But...back to the drought question. If you have a tank maintenance routine that is dependent on the periodic injection of rainwater into the system, what do you do during the periods when there is no rainwater? Buy an R/O unit? Just wondering.

[wetmanNY]

Hmm, Harry, and here we've just come through a minor water emergency-type drought in the Northeast. Supposed to be untypical.

But-- you set me thinking-- don't I also read that the change in water conditions is sometimes the spawning trigger? Say for Cories, where you let the warmth rise, the water level drop, and hold back on the water changes for a few weeks-- then blast 'em with clear fresh cool, soft rainwater! Something like that anyway.

I think rainwater is an underrated asset. No more 'n that... not a cure-all.

[Harry Tolen]

So, it could be good for breeding corys (I might have to try that, although I will have to simulate the evaporation conditions before the rainwater will make much of a difference), but not as a staple for softening the water in your discus tank (unless you have a backup system available).

Another question. Without using the roof as a collection surface, how do you get enough into the barrel to make each rainstorm really count?