Dumping saltwater down the drain

[rommelgin]

So, Me and the better half will be getting our own place soon.(hopefully) looking into townhomes or condos and as you all know, townhomes are usually three level. (garage, living space, then bedrooms) cant wait so i can finally set up a reef again!! woo hooo!!!!

i cant stand the thought of lugging 5 gallon jugs up and down the stairs everytime i do water changes. so with that said, will dumping salt water down the drain cause any type of plumbing problems? i plan on letting fresh water run for a while after i do this but just wanted to hear from others experiences.

Thanks all!

[jedininja]

I've been dumping down the toilet for years.

[GreshamH]

You shouldn't experience any problems doing that. Waste water will flush any residual salt water away very quickly. It won't cause any more harm to your pipes then any other normal waste water would do.

[montanabay]

Depends on the level of your local treatment of the waste water, in risk of introducing invasive pathogens, plants, etc to nearby aquatic ecosystems please add a cup of bleach to the water before you flush it, especially if you live near the ocean.

Cheers,

Josh

[rommelgin]

Thanks everybody for the quick replies! Now i REEEEALY cant wait!! if only the wifey would agree with the 180 .......but a 90 will do!

thanks again!

[GreshamH]

I totally disagree. Bleach isn't all that great for aquatic life, nor is the production of bleach.

Since it's an area of interest to you, I'm sure your up on the treament locally of waste water, and the great lengths they go to insure stuff like that can not happen. Pathogens maybe (doubtful), but little of anything else could make it thru the treament. Storm drains are a whole different animal and are not treated (except SF IIRC).

We're talking about adding an extremelly small amount of saltwater life, to a major amount of freshwater prior to ever even seeing the treament plant.

[CookieJar]

It's good to know dumping old tank water down the toilet/ bathtub or sink isn't a problem. I was always dumping it in the street to prevent the saltwater from corroding the pipes- I guess that fear was unfounded.

[GreshamH]

The one time you really need to be careful dumping saltwater down the sewer, is when your on a septic tank system.

CookieJar, definitly don't dump into the storm drain. It's questionable if that is even legal, but it's definitly not a good idea for the reasons put forth above.

[montanabay]

I agree Gresham, but you'd be surprised how much doesn't make it to the plants and actually leaks out along rivers/water bodies, especially after big storms when things back up from the storm drains and sewers. Bleach is bad, but people use it to clean their toilet bowls all the time and it is what a lot of municipal waste systems use to treat waste water…they also have a process to remove it. If there was an easier solution for people I’d recommend it, but bleach it is

With the onset of globalization, the changing of water temps, levels, currents, it’s just a matter of time that some nasty bacteria, algae, snail, etc. gets into the Bay…then there’s nothing to do about it.

If you love the hobbie and the oceans, please think about where you are dumping your water!

Cheers,

Josh

[Elite]

Originally posted by GreshamH
The one time you really need to be careful dumping saltwater down the sewer, is when your on a septic tank system.

Why is that Gresham???

[jedininja]

I'm guessing it might disrupt the bacteria already in there?

[Ooulophilia]

Some guy dumping his waste water down a storm drain is where the caleurpa down south came from.

[fishnfst]

San franciscos storm sewers and sanitary waste are both tied together.. They all go through the waste treatment plant.. Other localitites have seperate storm and sanitary sewers.. Many storm drains do drain to bodies of water ie ocean or bay.. Dumping the sea water down into your sanitary sewer would be the most responsible thing to do... You shouldn't pour it into your storm drain...

The saltwater will not harm your waste pipe in anyway.. The ammonia and such from human waste is much harder on it.. Soda is the worst.. Second only to some labaratory wastes that already take special waste piping...

[Thales]

Originally posted by Ooulophilia
Some guy dumping his waste water down a storm drain is where the caleurpa down south came from.

Do you have a link to evidence? Not trying to be a weenie, I have just heard a billion stories...

[montanabay]

http://www.usc.edu/org/seagrant/caulerpa/casestudy.html

"All three invasions are believed to be the result of releases of Caulerpa taxifolia from salt-water aquaria. If the unwanted C. taxifolia had been disposed of properly, these invasions would have been prevented!"

[fishnfst]

I know some of the freshwater tropical plants like hygro sunset and such are illegal to have as well.. Some guys got caught with some up in sac somewhere.. They just wanted to see it and asked him how he was disposing of it. USFW checked his compost pile and such where he was disposing of clippings..

[darcitananda]

i too am opposed to the product and use of bleach. you could always boil the waste water (mmm, bet that would smell good) before releasing it, or add some grapefruit seed extract to it before you flush it. I recently saw an episode of Dirty Jobs in which the SF waste treatment facility was explored. apparently, the water that comes out of there is almost drinkable (not that you'd want to), but as someone mentioned, it's the leaks and whatnot along the way that can cause problems. and i'm sure more crap comes in on the hulls of tankers in sf bay than anything we dump down our toilets.

[montanabay]

Bleach is bad, but would someone really boil 5gals+ of saltwater every week after water changes? That would be killer on your natural gas bill that would take me half a day. I agree 100% on the negatives of bleach, but those same SF facilities you cite use THOUSANDS of gallons of sodium hypochlorite and sodium bisulfate to treat that "drinkable water". Bleach is by far the most effective means to sanitize your waste water if there was possibly a way it could end up in a water way.

Ballast water is a huge issue to deal with and a major cause of introductions, but that’s not an excuse to dump your water irresponsibly, after all C. taxifolia caused huge issues and cost millions to control and that was just one reefer dumping his water like a chuckle head in southern California.

[darcitananda]

We don't have any control over the facilities, only what we choose to use in our own homes. I was half joking about the boiling of water, but my point was that we can try to think of some alternatives to outright poison. i think even a tablespoon or less of bleach would kill everything. a cup seems excessive. Some friends of mine are using grapefruit seed extract to treat water they drink in guatemala. apparently it does an excellent job of killing water borne pathogens, parasites, etc... it could be worth looking into more natural remedies. who knows, you could even set up a solar still on your roof and recycle that water! then you could just throw out the dried up gunk with your compost or trash.

[Qwiv]

Originally posted by montanabay
With the onset of globalization, the changing of water temps, levels, currents, it’s just a matter of time that some nasty bacteria, algae, snail, etc. gets into the Bay…then there’s nothing to do about it.

The snail thing has already happened in the Bay. Ilyanassa obsoleta was released here in 1907 and has made this place home. It has out competed the native snail species here and has spread all the way to Canada and Morro Bay. Luckily it was not the fault of a reefer who bought them off ebay and released them in the wild. (Don't buy these off ebay!!) They came in from an oyster farming apperation.

[GreshamH]

Originally posted by montanabay
but those same SF facilities you cite use THOUSANDS of gallons of sodium hypochlorite and sodium bisulfate to treat that "drinkable water".

So along that same line of thinking, since the power plants produce a ton of emmisions, I'm in the clear to produce minor amounts. It all adds up, no matter the source. You can't point at an abuser and cite them as a reason it's OK to do something.

Being there are an estimated million reefers in the US. You still thinks it's Kosher for everyone to bleach every water change with a cup of bleach You don't see any harm it that?

[fishnfst]

There was something here on the net from I think University of Wisconsins Cichlid Lab.. WHere they tested different concentrations of bleach against things like Ich and other common aquarium bacteria.. The concentration for it to be effective was somewhere around 25% if memory serves me correctly for 99 percent effectiveness... A teaspoonful in 25g of water wouldn't be enough I don't think...

[darcitananda]

I 100% agree with your points Gresham.

Okay, look how easily you could build a solar still, and then imagine what you could do with that waste water, even if you don't want to drink it, you could water your houseplants with it, or even use it to mix new saltwater from.

http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/surv/sstill.htm

[Natterjak]

Is adding bleach to your waste water that bad? As I understand it, bleach ends up breaking down into NaCl, H20 and O2. Hospitals and laboratories use bleach all the time for the neutralization of biologicals that goes to the sewage system.

I would think an aquarist putting a cup of bleach in 20g of water probably isn't going to do a whole lot. That said, I think you'd probably need a 10% concentration of household bleach (which is 6% sodium hypochlorite) to kill most things. If you do add 10% bleach to waste water, make sure to chase it with plenty of fresh water when you dump it to properly dilute the bleach.

[montanabay]

Gresham, point taken, but it is obvious we are preaching to the quire in our discussion with each other. I personally use 7th Generation cleaning products for all my home cleaning and I actually dump my water in the middle of our yard (no ill effects of the salt yet!). My fear is the people that aren’t aware of the issues of just dumping water, both down the storm or with their waste. I’m guessing that 95% of people out there use Comet to clean their toilets, so to getting them to add some to their waste water before they dump it or while they are cleaning their toilet or bathtub is a justified cost/benefit solution in my view than just dumping the raw water un-checked.

Darcitananda, maybe we should look into a water recycling co-op on a BAR regional scale...could be a fun little project that could extend to other waste issues related to our hobby, like the 80% waste water from RO/DI units that is needlessly going down the drain to be treated with all that bleach!!!

Cheers,

Josh