How to conserve water?

[PygmyPepperJulli]

This may seem like a dumb question, but I'm happy to wear that.

How do you all change so much water in your tanks every week? (Not as in, how do you actually change it, just clarifying). Just thinking about the amount of water a fish room with a few huge tanks and the amount of water that would use every year makes me shudder.

Only asking as I am likely about to get a 64gal tank (it's an excellent deal and have been looking for a larger second tank for ages), and was wondering if there were any water-conserving strategies I could use so I didn't waste (I did the math) over 400 gallons of water every year (which is only if I changed 15% every week!)? We're going into severe drought for about 5 years, and if I can't find any way to save water (we're on tanks as well) I'll probably buy a smaller tank. I'm already using the water water from my 10gal to water my plants, and any water heating up to put into the aquarium (without chemicals and stuff, obviously), but 64 gal is MUCH more water, so I don't know how it'll go.

Thanks!

 

[Colin_T]

I have always been on scheme water so as long as I was willing to pay the water bill, I could use as much water as I like. I just used the aquarium water to water the lawn out the back. That meant we didn't need to specifically water that section.

You must be in south-western Queensland if you're not getting much rain but even then you should get some because the east coast of Australia gets a lot of rain. What you need is more ways to capture the rain that falls and more storage so you can collect more rain and hold more rain.

Having more rainwater tanks and hanging plastic sheets or tarpaulins everywhere to gather the rain water would be your best bet.

Having fewer fish in the tank will help reduce the number of water changes needed, as will feeding less often (once a day instead of twice a day (or once every second day).

Having lots of plants in the tank will help keep the nutrients down and reduce the number of water changes you need to do. Floating plants are the best for this and Water Sprite and Duckweed are two good options (Water Sprite being my favorite).

 

[Lcc86]

I'm in the UK and not on a meter, I don't like to waste water but I do a 70% change on my 30g once a week and don't have a garden so unfortunately it goes back down the drain. Our waste water gets treated and eventually reused so I suppose it does go to good use eventually... if I had a garden I would definitely use my waste water for that. Changing 15% a week probably isn't anywhere near enough to keep a tank clean - you're still leaving 85% of the waste in there. Ideally you'd need to experiment with capturing water using other methods to see what works before upgrading.

 

[GaryE]

I am surrounded by clean water, and I guess a bit wasteful. In summer, I can use water change water for the garden vegetables, but in winter, it all goes down the drain.
It's my crime. There is no other option if I want to keep fish. I don't know how I would approach things if I were in a drought zone. When you read people here, we all face different conditions and react to them. I have unmetered softwater from a series of large blackwater lakes 20 minutes' drive from here, and if I dug a hole out back, it wouldn't be long til I had a pond. Right now, there are sheets of icewater rain falling outside my window.
That affects my advice, but the basic principle that if you are going to have tanks, you need to change water stands.

 

[Uberhoust]

If you have a garden that you water then your water usage for it will vastly use more water than your fish tank water change for most people keeping 1 to 3 tanks of reasonable size (ie 30 to 75 gallons). I estimate each water change event for me uses 5 cubic feet of water resulting in 260 cubic feet per year, or 7.7 cubic meters. A typical home for two persons here uses about 800 litres per day for 292000 litres per year or 292 meters per year. Water for the fish amount to 2.5 % of my total water usage. Plus as others have noted this water does not have to be thrown away down the drain. Mine goes into our front flower bed and significantly reduces the amount of additional water I have to apply there.

 

[Sgooosh]

where i live, its basically a desert so I use the changed-out fish water to water the dry bits of the lawn and garden. that way there is no water wasted

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

I really take for granted what I have despite us being on a meter, we have never had to worry about there not being enough water to meet our needs. I turn the tap on, and out comes the water. I wouldn't say we were wasteful, we collect rainwater and the lawn gets what's changed out the tank...but admittedly it's something I should be more thankful for

 

[PygmyPepperJulli]

Thanks everyone.

I can't really use it on our garden and lawn, because I don't actually need to- we have a magical hole in our yard called a bore. I can't use the bore water for my tanks, though, because even though it's technically safe for drinking, it has an super high hardness (fine for the plants, not for the fish).

Yes, I know 15% isn't a lot, it was just saying 'even though it's not a big water change, it still uses this much water!' I WILL understock this one and stuff it full of plants though to decrease the amount that needs to be changes this week. Thanks for that Colin.

Also thanks for those stats Uberhoust, knowing it'll only account for about 2% of my total water usage makes me feel much better

 

[Ram419]

Thanks everyone.

I can't really use it on our garden and lawn, because I don't actually need to- we have a magical hole in our yard called a bore. I can't use the bore water for my tanks, though, because even though it's technically safe for drinking, it has an super high hardness (fine for the plants, not for the fish).

Yes, I know 15% isn't a lot, it was just saying 'even though it's not a big water change, it still uses this much water!' I WILL understock this one and stuff it full of plants though to decrease the amount that needs to be changes this week. Thanks for that Colin.

Also thanks for those stats Uberhoust, knowing it'll only account for about 2% of my total water usage makes me feel much better

I learned something new today. Bore water, which is deeper then well water.

 

[GaryE]

Many of us are human water bores.