Dehumidifiers as a water source.
 

I have two dehumidifiers in the basement that produce a couple of gallons of
water a day that I poor down the drain. Does anybody know the purity of
this water and the advisability of using it to top of my 120 gal reef tank?

Thanks,
David

I'd say its pretty close to distilled water.....minus the fact huge amounts of
air have been blown over it and therefore contaminated. IMO I would'nt
recommend it.
~John

Thanks to all for the feedback. The consensus seems to be that it is a bad
idea to use the dehumidifier soI'll stick to the RO water.
"nanoreef" wrote in message
. rogers.com...
On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 23:43:21 GMT "david nack"
wrote:

I have two dehumidifiers in the basement that produce a couple of
gallons of water a day that I poor down the drain. Does anybody know
the purity of this water and the advisability of using it to top of my
120 gal reef tank?


Don't use it. The water is not that clean. The water will be
comtaminated by all the junk in the air. And is often a huge breeding
ground for bacteria. The water will also be contaminated by the chilling
coils which are probably made from a collection of metals you don't want
in your tank. Such as copper.

I am a recent convert to RO/DI. The cost of the unit it is much
cheaper then the contents of a tank.

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 23:43:21 GMT, "david nack"
wrote:

I have two dehumidifiers in the basement that produce a couple of gallons of
water a day that I poor down the drain. Does anybody know the purity of
this water and the advisability of using it to top of my 120 gal reef tank?

Thanks,
David


No good for the tank, but you can use that water in a clothes iron.
It's not worth risking the inhabitants.

Joe

you can use that water in a clothes iron.

Or houseplants, they love it compared to tap.

On a side note, I've been giving my houseplants the gunk from my skimmer and
theyre doing very well since :o)
~John

"John" wrote in message
...
you can use that water in a clothes iron.

Or houseplants, they love it compared to tap.

On a side note, I've been giving my houseplants the gunk from my skimmer
and
theyre doing very well since :o)
~John

You plant should be doing better since those waste RO hold higher nutrient
and such.

CapFusion,...

"John" wrote in message
...
you can use that water in a clothes iron.

Or houseplants, they love it compared to tap.

On a side note, I've been giving my houseplants the gunk from my skimmer
and
theyre doing very well since :o)
~John

really? what kind are they? most plants don't survive sal****er. ever hear
of salting the earth (sparta) and nothing ever growing again there?

"CapFusion" CapeFussion...@hotmail.., com wrote in message
...

"John" wrote in message
...
you can use that water in a clothes iron.

Or houseplants, they love it compared to tap.

On a side note, I've been giving my houseplants the gunk from my skimmer
and
theyre doing very well since :o)
~John

You plant should be doing better since those waste RO hold higher nutrient
and such.

CapFusion,...


well, if there's any salt or metals in your tap water, the ro would be
concentrating it which would quickly do in house plants.

On a side note, I've been giving my houseplants the gunk from my skimmer
and
theyre doing very well since :o)

Maybe I wasnt clear enough.

I use dehumidifier 'waste' to water my plants.

I use the brown stuff from the skimmer to add to my plants _before I water
them_. I have a small 12 gallon tank, maybe you were thinking I was dumping
skimmate from a 150 gallon in there. Even still, IMO there's probably not alot
of salt carried in the foam, I haven't noticed any salt creep on my skimmer and
there's plenty of evaporation going on. Also, if the skimmer was removing our
salt, salinity would go down over time.
~John

"John" wrote in message
...
On a side note, I've been giving my houseplants the gunk from my skimmer
and
theyre doing very well since :o)

Maybe I wasnt clear enough.

I use dehumidifier 'waste' to water my plants.

I use the brown stuff from the skimmer to add to my plants _before I water
them_. I have a small 12 gallon tank, maybe you were thinking I was
dumping
skimmate from a 150 gallon in there. Even still, IMO there's probably not
alot
of salt carried in the foam, I haven't noticed any salt creep on my
skimmer and
there's plenty of evaporation going on. Also, if the skimmer was removing
our
salt, salinity would go down over time.
~John

if the skimate is at all liquid, how is the salt leaving it? a skimmer
doesn't distill the tank water to make the skimate liquid.

it might not be very much, and since you have evaporation in the tank, the
salinity would tend to rise/fall as you add replacement water and you'd not
notice much of a change anyway. however, salt builds up in dirt. you add
salty water, the water gets absorbed by the plants or evaporated, the
salt/minerals stay. you'd have to pour a LOT of water through the dirt and
discard the water going through to wash the salts away. that would tend to
wash a lot of nutrients away too.

it's a bad idea to use skimate for house plants.

dehumidifier water has traces of whatever metals your module uses for
evaporation. typically, it would be aluminium or copper. also, there's
usually lots of mold spores in there.