Greetings all,
Congrats to me, this is my first time posting on AC. Long time reader first time writer if you know what I mean. I joined because in the next 1-2 years I will be moving to a new place (will be recent college grad) and after being in the hobby for nearly a decade already, I will finally have the time, space, and money to set up my first serious fish room complete with automatic water changing systems, lights, the works.
I'm currently in the planning stages and making an excel file with all the necessary components of my system to ball park construction costs (estimating for 8 40-breeders, 12 20-longs, 18 10-gallon quarantine/growout tanks, and eventually a 200-300 gallon plywood tank/pond for small-scale personal tilapia production), when I realized I could potentially kill two birds with one stone by using the waste water from the dehumidifier in place of R/O water when making up soft water for some of the more delicate species I will hopefully keep.
I know that the water that is produced by a dehumidifier is borderline unsafe for fish, or downright dangerous depending on materials used in the condensing coil construction. I've looked into the matter a bit to see what other people have thought about using this water for fish/plants/etc as a replacement for R/O or DI water, and wasn't surprised to see this matter has been discussed here in the forums and elsewhere. More often than not the conversation ends when someone mentions the potential dangers presented by the condensing coils or by the concentration of pollutants in the air being pumped through the machine, but nobody considers processing this waste water prior to use. My concern isn't mainly with the cost of an R/O unit, as I'm already looking at ~$8k for initial setup of my system (although saving a couple hundred wouldn't hurt!), but rather the tremendous amount of waste water these units produce. I grew up not wasting anything if I could help it, especially water (I grew up in the southwest where water's always been at a premium!). Being able to use the waste water from a dehumidifier unit would prevent wastage of tap water used in production of R/O water, and prevent the wastage of water from a dehumidifier unit.
So, my challenge to all you DIYers out there is to help me come up with a solution to this problem. How could one safely utilize the essentially distilled water produced by a dehumidifier for making soft water for sensitive fish? These are some of the ideas that popped up in my head off the bat:
1) Select a dehumidifier that has an air filter, or jerry-rig something to filter the incoming air. This wouldn't solve the metal problems caused by the coils however.
2) Coat the condensing coils in a non-toxic, non-leaching substance that would still allow for the rapid cooling of water vapor (anyone know what substance they use on the coils of atmospheric water generators?).
3) After harvesting the water from the dehumidifier, run the water through a carbon cartridge or other filter to remove heavy metals and other contaminants before usage. This type of system could be set up in a manner similar to many rainwater collection systems.
Thoughts, anyone?
Congrats to me, this is my first time posting on AC. Long time reader first time writer if you know what I mean. I joined because in the next 1-2 years I will be moving to a new place (will be recent college grad) and after being in the hobby for nearly a decade already, I will finally have the time, space, and money to set up my first serious fish room complete with automatic water changing systems, lights, the works.
I'm currently in the planning stages and making an excel file with all the necessary components of my system to ball park construction costs (estimating for 8 40-breeders, 12 20-longs, 18 10-gallon quarantine/growout tanks, and eventually a 200-300 gallon plywood tank/pond for small-scale personal tilapia production), when I realized I could potentially kill two birds with one stone by using the waste water from the dehumidifier in place of R/O water when making up soft water for some of the more delicate species I will hopefully keep.
I know that the water that is produced by a dehumidifier is borderline unsafe for fish, or downright dangerous depending on materials used in the condensing coil construction. I've looked into the matter a bit to see what other people have thought about using this water for fish/plants/etc as a replacement for R/O or DI water, and wasn't surprised to see this matter has been discussed here in the forums and elsewhere. More often than not the conversation ends when someone mentions the potential dangers presented by the condensing coils or by the concentration of pollutants in the air being pumped through the machine, but nobody considers processing this waste water prior to use. My concern isn't mainly with the cost of an R/O unit, as I'm already looking at ~$8k for initial setup of my system (although saving a couple hundred wouldn't hurt!), but rather the tremendous amount of waste water these units produce. I grew up not wasting anything if I could help it, especially water (I grew up in the southwest where water's always been at a premium!). Being able to use the waste water from a dehumidifier unit would prevent wastage of tap water used in production of R/O water, and prevent the wastage of water from a dehumidifier unit.
So, my challenge to all you DIYers out there is to help me come up with a solution to this problem. How could one safely utilize the essentially distilled water produced by a dehumidifier for making soft water for sensitive fish? These are some of the ideas that popped up in my head off the bat:
1) Select a dehumidifier that has an air filter, or jerry-rig something to filter the incoming air. This wouldn't solve the metal problems caused by the coils however.
2) Coat the condensing coils in a non-toxic, non-leaching substance that would still allow for the rapid cooling of water vapor (anyone know what substance they use on the coils of atmospheric water generators?).
3) After harvesting the water from the dehumidifier, run the water through a carbon cartridge or other filter to remove heavy metals and other contaminants before usage. This type of system could be set up in a manner similar to many rainwater collection systems.
Thoughts, anyone?
