Water bills

[MistressOfAxies]

Hey guys. I was wondering if there was any other water you could use to do water changes & fill tanks as this whole weekend my partner & I have been using the water to do our aquariums. In total this is going to exceed the water usage (as we have water restrictions here in Australia.) We are only renting, the excess water bill no problem we can pay it but I don't want water patrol to come knocking on the door or the landlord getting mad.

Is there anything else you could by in excess of water so its not affecting our water bill?

 

[lilsoul]

some pet shops here sell treted water you could check and see if aney buy you do it.

 

[MRIGUY]

sympathetic non-aquarium owning neighbors come to mind. The exchange rate could be a bottle of wine per 20 gallons of water. Just a thought.

 

[MistressOfAxies]

The treated water you could buy isn't cheap priced it & came to I think $15 per 20 Litre tubs. What about if you bought those big bottles at the shops of mineral or spring water?

 

[Casaloxl]

do what we did when we didnt have rain water, get a few big blue water containers and go to your local park or whatever, and fill it up at the local councils expense.. there are no signs posted saying you cannot use their water so why not? they make people pay through the eye tooth just for a neccesary item...

 

[Levo]

You can use spring water, I have been using it to start up my tank and I am now going to move on to tap water. But for more information on spring water take a look at this article:

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Spring_water.shtml

 

[Jennewt]

Using bottled water seems like an illogical solution. MissOfAxies is concerned about her overall water usage, and bottled represents the same amount of water, but at a much higher cost. Actually, if you buy water that has been purified by reverse osmosis, one liter of bottled water actually represents the waste of several liters of total water (a lot of water gets wasted in the RO purification process).

How much aquarium water are you using per week? I find it really hard to believe that it makes a significant contribution to overall household usage, unless you have several huge tanks and do large % changes. The weekly water for 1 typical tank would be about the same as 2-4 toilet flushes or <1 shower. I really think you're more likely to be able to cut household usage with other forms of conservation. (Since I don't know your specific aquarium/household situation, please excuse my speculation if I'm completely off base.)

 

[Saspotato]

Yea I agree with Jennewt. Given the resources that go into producing bottled water, it much less environmentally friendly and also a lot more expensive than your tap water. Do you have large tanks or something? As was mentioned before, water usage should not be significant for the average tank set up.

If you are concerned about your water usage in general, use a laundromat instead of having your own washing machine, though I understand if that is not practical! Washing machines consume a significant amount of water. After I moved in with my partner, I no longer had a washer and we have a $10 water bill each quarter now...

 

[Casaloxl]

a note about washing machines, my machine uses less than a shower uses, and a lot do these days, we know for a fact our usage is 1500L per 7 days, and thats is with in the past 30%water changes everyday (as tank cycled) 7 people drinking, toileting, filling pool and washing cars and washing people.
I remember when we lived in the city, it was a hassle with water restrictions, which is why we first thought of the idea of sequestering some council water, it just needed treating for the then trop tank we had. There was no rule nor regulation that we couldnt use it, believe you me, we checked, and every now and then when our rain water runs out here, which is rare, we go and get some water from our local park etc....it works, and it is surprising how many people you see doing it..

 

[Saspotato]

Oh that is interesting. On our water bill it has a leaflet sometimes showing average water usages depending on your set up and it has one specially for washing machines and it shows a significantly higher average water usage. That is one reason we use a laundromat as it has saved heaps of money in water and the laundromat ones are more efficient and use less water. But yea if you have long showers I guess a washing machine could use less. I had a top loading one so maybe that was my issue...

 

[MistressOfAxies]

Well we have about 4 tanks here in the house. My partner got cranky with one of his new tanks he was setting up cause his nitrate level was bad so he drained all the water rinsed the gravel, replaced the gravel & that was 80litres. We also had to do a few litres of water change for my feeder tank. This weekend I will be siphoning the sand in my axolotl 6 foot tank & doing a water change as well so it all adds up. Seems so stupid you have to think about something that should be taken for granted like water. That's whats wrong here it sucks.

 

[Kaysie]

For my dozen baby tubs (changed 100% every other day), my turtle tank (about 30 liters of water), and my adult axolotl tank (about 110 liters), I use approximately 40 liters of water a week for water changes. If you're not doing any drastic changes (like draining a tank), you shouldn't use terribly much water.

 

[Amiracle]

In the past I have done was Casaloxl is suggesting. You can also put some buckets outside to collest any rainwater, or perhaps try things like setting your washing machine and dishwasher on an "eco" cycle, and taking a minute less in the shower. This is what we did when water bills got out of hand and it did save a lot of money. Also, use the water that you siphon out of the axie tank to water the garden. This also saves some water.