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"Refurbish" used nutrientsolution in dtw

Lemmiss

Member
So I've been pondering about drain to waste systems, wich can give perfect nominal pH and nutrient EC. I can't stand the thought though of the "waste" part though. I would feel like a bad person, litterally, throwing all those extra nutrients away. Not that it's especially much more than when doing regular swaps of whole tanks in recirculating systems. and just our daily piss, probably is much more each day than what's wasted in our hydroponical systems. But you just don't do that!

Anyway, if I'd do a run to waste system, saving all the "waste" to a tank, wich I'd then refurbish by heating to almost boiling point(97-98C), keeping it there for a while. It would then close to sterilised. I'd then top it off with new extra nutrients up to the correct EC, then start using it in the system. Could do this pretty easy since I already got the "tank" with heating from a no more used make-moonshine-set-up.
Anyone know if we'd have any problems with this refurbished nutrient solution? I don't find much on this googleing. The sterilization/killing germs part must surely be enough(I could add some bleach or h2o2 if heat is not enough)?

But will the heat break down any nutrients or do something else? I understand the proportions between nutrients will be another than what was started with, but I'll gamble it'll be sufficient, and when mixed with new nutes according to recepie, guessing it'll be at least better than most of times/generally in re-circulating systems.

It would feel good never wasting any nutrients, always reusing that last part, and at the same time probably have a better "Nute-In" value than in most recirculating systems.

If it works as I hope, you'd minimalized your waste. If working the heating/pasteurization
 

Lemmiss

Member
wont degrade and destroy the nutrients, but will make it "clean" enough to be able to be used again. If working, what will end it, will be the salt-nuildup/concentration. But by then you will have reused it to save I don't know how much unnecessary nutrients to waste...
 

Speed of green

Active member
youre asking for problems.

for starters re-mixing nutrients to an already concentrated solution is bad practice, the mixture could precipitate and the insoluble salt will fall out.

Next up, without a water analysis of your waste water you will have no idea what to add back to it. The ratios will be off.

finally i think the effort and energy required to boil all your waste water would probably equate to more of a carbon footprint.

maybe get some houseplants and feed all your runoff to them. i rescue plants all the time, people put them in the trash or on the curb.
 

Mudraya

Active member
Commercial growers tend to use UV sterilization and sophisticated testing and subsequently dosing equipment to do what you're proposing. Short of that I wouldn't recommend it.

As for the waste issue: get a digital seconds timer. Best investment in my sanity in awhile. No more recirculating! If you time it correctly with your added standard 10-15% runoff your waste goes DOWN compared to tossing not just your main reservoir but the occasional incorrect topoff res. and costs also of course go down.
 

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