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  1. #1
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    Grey water to reed bed to AP

    Lets see if you guys can lead me with this one...

    I have to get used to the idea that I need to conserve water.
    On the property that we have bought there are 4 houses on the land.
    It's an agricultural piece of 3.5 hectares. Each house has it's own septic tank..... Each household has 5+ people living in.
    My first concern or job that I will have to tackle there is the consumption of water.
    My idea is to collect all the grey water...( water from the shower, bathroom basin and washing machine) pipe it to an outside reed bed configuration where the water will flow and heal.
    This I would like to then pipe back to the individual houses for the use in flushing the loo's. (this obviously becomes black water and is never used... (goes to the septic tank, same as the water from the kitchen sink and dish washer)

    The extra water coming off the reed bed, I would like to have this then go into a a few settling ponds. With water cleaning reeds and marginal water flowers purifying the water.
    From the settling pond I would then have the 'cleaned' water go into the main water pond.
    This pond will be for the soul use for holding water.
    This pond too will have reeds and oxygenating plants.
    It is this water from the last stage pond that I want to use to supply the water to my AP/Hydroponic system.
    So................there you have it so far.....
    Has anyone used a reed bed to 'clean' grey-water? If so i'd love to see or hear of your set up.
    Please let me know if i'm crazy to even think I could do this......I believe it's possible....
    I just have to get the system figured out....
    Any comments?
    I do not have a BEER GUT.
    I have developed a LIQUID GRAIN STORAGE FACILITY

    I do not GET LOST ALL THE TIME.
    I INVESTIGATE ALTERNATIVE DESTINATIONS.

  2. #2
    Moderator davidstcldfl's Avatar
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    Re: Grey water to reed bed to AP

    Hi head rush, most of the USA uses water to flush our loo's, that's better then what a lot of the world drinks... Of course our water isn't what it used to be....
    The folks in AU are way ahead of us.

    Seems like were just starting to think along the lines of re-using gray water and such. I've been thinking about collecting the water from my shower, and using a 12 volt bilge pump with a float switch to re-fill my loo

    As far as your design/thoughts......have you considered also using duckweed ? It's an amazing little plant...really can do a great job on cleaning water...even picks up heavy metals.
    "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." - President Ronald Reagan

  3. #3
    Moderator badflash's Avatar
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    Re: Grey water to reed bed to AP

    Plain old Cattails work great. The go crazy on gray water. No need for a settling pond after.
    The best fertilizer is the farmer's shadow

  4. #4
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    Re: Grey water to reed bed to AP

    Thanks davidstcldfl
    Here are a few links to the grey-water factor
    I think that duck weed is a crazy plant. Great for feeding fish but not so great to control. If the duckwed is not thinned out, the sun can't get to the water which could render it useless.
    Reeds man... Reeds When duckweed gets into a system it's almost impossible to get out... I'm scared of that stuff.
    http://www.freewater.co.za/Products%20- ... ystems.htm
    http://www.earthactionmentor.org/articles/20100105
    http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load ... 27560.html
    http://www.dwc-water.com/technologies/g ... index.html
    http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/p ... m?aid=2153
    http://www.holon.se/folke/projects/open ... v_en.shtml

    Btw... How come you say you guys in the States are behind on this grey-water usage thing...
    I thought you chaps invented the idea
    I have a book called 'Other Homes and Garbage' My favorite self sufficiency book.
    It was compiled by Jim Leckie, Gil Masters, Harry Whitehouse, Lily Young. 1975 / San Francisco.
    Even these guys make reference to using this method....... those days the name grey-water hadn't been invented. Hydraponics, Aquaponics probably swear words then.
    But I think that you guys in the States have more stricter laws. Prohibiting the use of grey-water. Maybe that's why not so many people are doing it maybe?

    Fantastic plant to have in a reed bed badflash These are fantastic cleaners....
    BUT!!! they eventually dry out the water bed....Needs serious management.http://www.cattails.info/
    The ancient Egyptians cultivated it for a reason ?????
    I do not have a BEER GUT.
    I have developed a LIQUID GRAIN STORAGE FACILITY

    I do not GET LOST ALL THE TIME.
    I INVESTIGATE ALTERNATIVE DESTINATIONS.

  5. #5
    Moderator davidstcldfl's Avatar
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    Re: Grey water to reed bed to AP

    Sure the 'mother earth'...'tree huggers' love that kind of thing ! They've been talking about stuff like that for years. Some even have dry/composting 'loos'

    I'm talking the general public...or more the public utilities. My little city, like a lot, are now using gray water for sprinkler systems...public and private. Just got to keep those 1000's of acres of golf courses green....
    Most citys don't want condensate water from Air condidtioning put into the waste water sytems. Here in FL, we have 1,000's of gallons of (almost) clean water, every day, just being dumped on the ground....

    'Giant' duckweed is pretty easy to keep control of...it's one of the varitys we have in FL. I can see where the little stuff, could be a pain.
    "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." - President Ronald Reagan

  6. #6
    Moderator badflash's Avatar
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    Re: Grey water to reed bed to AP

    Harvest the cattails periodically to keep them under control. They produce more starch per acre than potatoes or corn. They can easily be converted to ethanol. There is a nice section on it in the book "Alcohol Can Be a Gas".
    The best fertilizer is the farmer's shadow

  7. #7
    Moderator jackalope's Avatar
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    Re: Grey water to reed bed to AP

    Welcome to the forum, glad to have you here! Questions are always welcome, don't be too skeeered to ask, we don't bite (well, maybe one or two of us, but not all of us We love questions, and we especially love photos

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    Once again, WELCOME TO THE FORUM
    I use the Linux Operating System ...... Free as in beer!
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  8. #8
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    Re: Grey water to reed bed to AP

    WoW
    I do not have a BEER GUT.
    I have developed a LIQUID GRAIN STORAGE FACILITY

    I do not GET LOST ALL THE TIME.
    I INVESTIGATE ALTERNATIVE DESTINATIONS.

  9. #9
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    Re: Grey water to reed bed to AP

    just a little info on this one, i looked into treating waste water with plants a bit check into bamboo it seems to love waste water and you can use or sell the bamboo, more costly but i was considering ferrocement trench with gravel flowing the waste thru it to feed the bamboo, hey believe it or not i had this idea long before i heard of aquaponics or even new about hydroponics,there is also a grass being used for erosion control called vetiver grass it has been tested on grey water i think in a raft system they had all the results online and seemed to do a very good job at cleaning the water, but it was not a flow thru they just filled the tank let it set for some time to clean the water, i think this was done in california usa, as a side product the roots store the toxic stuff and you can use the leaves as fodder for cows goats etc, it has a root system that grows to i think 4 meter or so, and is being used in reclaiming mining land and steep hillside farming to form natural terrace wonderful stuff, there is lots of research into other plants also, there is a factory here in vegas that treats every drop of water from chocolat factory including human waste with a varity of plants and what is left is used to water a public display cactus garden cool stuff

  10. #10
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    Re: Grey water to reed bed to AP

    oh an after thought look into slow sand filter, plans and info free on net and also info on " activated carbon" how to make or more often called activated charcoal, how to make the basic is first make charcoal ( coconuts shell is best they say ) then take the charcoal and 2nd step is to " activate it " most use i think battery acid, but i did see something on using steam under pressure to activate it, the activated charcoal is used for medicen can be sold as a business idea using steam would be more expensive i think as you need a container to hold and regulate the steam under pressure but is more natural and safe as long as you dont blow up the pressure vessel, there is info on the net regarding toxins that can be filtered with activated charcoal try a search on toxins removed with activated charcoal might find that info, same with slow sand filter, hope this is usefull info, if you try slow sand filter look into ferrocement water tank construction, if you choose ferrocement construction you might have another part time business to help others in construction of tanks ferrocement dot com has tons of info on this. very helpfull people including low cost building methods using bamboo and bio fiber, hey if you grow bamboo in waste water you , and gain knowledge in ferro cement you can make a side business building with bamboo ferrocement, they show how to make low cost panels etc and bio fiber with acrylic cement is really cool stuff also this has all been used in africa also

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