What We Did With RO Waste Water...

I have read on RC and other sites that folks have used RO waste water to water their gardens or fill their washing machines. I have used it to cure concrete rock but have not made any lately so I thought how about watering the tomatoes. My wife Gail and I went to the hardware store and about 30 bucks later we had all that we needed for the little project.

We installed two valves and a tee in the waste water line of the ro system. The valves will allow me to shut the water off to the garden in the winter and return the water to the drain. Here is the pic.



We then passed the black line through the wall,. Our house has a brick venire so the line was passed through where the cable TV lines come into the house. It is the black line on the right, it looks just like the cable lines.



Gail dug the small hole under the garden timbers and I used a flat head shovel to cut a channel through the grass. The line is buried about 3 inches below the grass line. I understand the issues of winter freeze. I will blow this line out when I do the sprinklers. Not much can be seen in the pic, except for an un-mowed lawn. The grass was not disturbed.



If you look closely you can see the line for one of the tomatoes. Each ring has 3 drip emitters. Each emitter has 2 holes. We also installed a valve on each line to the tomatoes. They were not needed as the drip from each emitter is pretty even.



Now all we have to do is watch these babies grow. I am looking forward to my first vine ripe tomato

 

VERY nice!!!

 

mine fills my pond in my back yard. It seems to do the trick and my koi love it. My pond is 6800 gallons but eveparation causes it to go low every couple weeks. I also have my irrigation run into it though so it stays put. designed the pond long before the tank. Wish I knew salt wather tanks like the pond lol.

 

With droughts being a nig problem in many areas now, this is the way to go. k+

 

Mine goes into a storage container to water a garden. Rather than running the waste line outside, I simply put it into a container. When the garden needs water, a mag18 gets turned on and I water. When finished (or I run out of water), I turn it all off.

OT: With curing rocks in the waste water, have you ever had issues with the rocks absorbing - and later leeching - any chemicals back out?

 

I have made over 700 lbs of rock. All of the rock was cured in tap water. I do have a whole house filter that removes some of the bad stuff, but am not sure how much. I don't believe it to be a problem.

 

Can the waste water, be run back thru the RO unit some way..?
Like save to drums, and repumped back thru.. ?
I know it'll take a large place, etc..

But could a person end up with... No waste water ?

Just something I been thinking about..

Good Ideals People.. I do have ponds.. I still have to get an RO Unit.. LOL

Later, Larry

 

good idea, you could probably improve your water usage even more by planting the plants in inclosed planters like these
The EarthTainer™

 

Running a pure DI system (without RO), you have zero waste. With an RO membrane, its possible to get extremely close to zero waste but you wouldnt be able to get to zero. The issue is the cost of the pump, storage, etc. becomes more than the cost of the water itself.

Look into Water Saver RO/DI units. It takes the waste water from one RO membrane and feeds it into a second RO Membrane. In theory, with about 12 RO membranes (and enough pumps to maintain pressure), you could approach 0 waste water. thefilterguys.biz have a water saver RO/DI unit on there site.

 

I run two membranes just as you describe. Seems to work for me.