Bad well water and useless water softener water, what to use?

[myswtsins]

I have an old shallow well that produces cloudy, smelly water that is high in iron. For drinking, washing etc purposes we use a whole house water softener but this is of no use to fish or plants because it contains NO minerals besides sodium. I use reconstituted RO water for my freshwater planted tanks and add extra minerals to the "softened" water for my rift valley tanks but these are not feasible options for a 3k gallon goldfish pond with tons of plants. One day when I have the money I plan to deepen the well but that day is not today. What kind of options do I have here?

 

[sissy]

You can buy water also a big tank truck shows up ,but you have no idea of the quality of the water you get .I know that's how they fill swimming pools here .Or you could collect rainwater I have tanks in the ground and the collect water from the roof that I use to water plants but have never used it in my pond .A whole house filter may work .

 

[j.w]

Wonder if a filter would help w/ the well water?

 

[sissy]

one of those reverse osmosis ones like they use in Florida may work .

 

[myswtsins]

I am not as concerned with the initial fill as I am with the long term WCs and top offs. Rain water again is pretty pure with no minerals for the plants or fish. Plants can get it from the soil and fert sticks but the poor fishies need trace minerals too.

What kind of filters are you guys referring to? I don't even want to think about how much a RO unit of that size would cost, scary!

 

[Waterbug]

People add baking soda to raise KH, calcium chloride and Epsom salt to raise GH. All cheap for large amounts. Only the KH is really consumed. That takes care of hardiness, buffers pH. Trace minerals come from fish food primarly, plant decay cycle and bacteria conversions.

 

[myswtsins]

Hmm, you know you are right. I should have known this too because that is what I use for my planted tanks. I think that is what I want to do. Now to collect 3,000gs of rain water! That's a lot of 55g barrels and again not a lot of spending money. I also just patched a leak, with that tar stuff, in the roof last week so that makes the whole one side of my house unusable for gathering water doesn't it?

 

[sissy]

They use that tar stuff to seam 2 liners together and for in between rocks in a waterfall .I know addy has used it and several others with no problems.Bio filters we build ourselves there are builds on here for you to follow and on you tube

 

[addy1]

I use gutter water for my pond, one roof is metal, one is asphalt, about 3 yrs old. No issues, this is the third summer. I never see any oil sheen or yuck coming out of the gutters, I have had it run into buckets to "check" it out, visually.

The black repair stuff, I use all the time in the pond. pl roofing construction goop

 

[Waterbug]

I'm not following the preoccupation with rain water. Is this a Dr Strangelove type deal?

The tar patch is kind of the least of your worries if you're concerned about trace amounts of harmful chemicals. Rain can pickup a lot of not so nice chemicals as it fall through our polluted air. And the polluted dust that settles on the on the roof isn't going to help. There's even a bacteria, Pseudomonas syringae, adapted to living in clouds, but it isn't harmful to us or fish.

Growing up our home had a rainwater collection system, a cistern, and also a well. Only one tap was connected to the well and we weren't suppose to drink the water from the taps connected to the cistern.

Also, I once collected rainwater from a roof and the water was black like English breakfast tea. And it didn't settle. I'm sure that isn't common, but it changed how I view rainwater.

General Ripper disagreed thinking rainwater was the perfect fluid, especially when mixed with pure grain alcohol. City water is how a "foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual, and certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works. I first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love...".

 

[myswtsins]

Thanks for the input Sissy and addy1!

So were you telling me to add those ingredients to RO water, Waterbug? I am not prepared to get a RO unit for a pond, because of the wasted water alone.

 

[sissy]

Thing is rain water goes in your pond and there is no stopping it so whats the difference between collecting it and what goes in the pond naturally .Runoff falling rain all goes in .If he is worried he could get one of those cheap filters at tractor supply that they use on houses that have wells and just connect the right houses .I even use one on my pond with a charcoal filter in it .Those blue ones at tractor supply are less than 20 dollars .I had the one left from my well pump when my son put the big self cleaning one in .So cheap and so easy to hook up a couple of hoses and clamps

 

[crsublette]

RO units waste water volume is dependent upon quality and quantity of membranes and how well the water is filtered prior to reaching the membranes. RO can recycle the waste to the point where you only have 1% or less waste water. Some of these low waste water units require a booster pump to maintain at least 60psi.

Bulk Reef Supply, online store, allows ya to build a unit that recycles waste water and does not require a booster pump. They are the cheapest I have found but only go up to 75 or 150 gallons per day.

I bet you could by a 1000 gallon black polyurethane tank, add the ingredients in this, then pump it out when it is ready. You might be able to buy a used tank from a farmer for cheap that has used it for ferti-gation; just add a chemical that neutralizes the fertilize and clean it out really good with a high pressure washer to rinse it out several times. Then hook up a carbon spin filter on the bank's outlet to trap any remainder residue before it goes into the pond.

Stay away from the used tanks that were for chemigation. These would have had all sorts of pesticides and herbicides in them that have a residue tough to remove.

RO units can use specialized carbon and other filters to neutralize just about everything including minerals. Watch out though, RO water will be more acidic than your fish will like if you get a de-ionizer filter.

 

[Bluerooster]

Rainwater is what filled my pond in the first place, and is what keeps it topped up, except in extreme cases, where we've had no rain for a week or two, then I'll break out the hose, and fill from the cistern.

 

[Lisak1]

Old old old old thread @Bluerooster . Lots of interesting viewpoints in this thread though!