Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all

I've been searching for info on grey water systems and I wondered if anyone here has one or knows anything about them (I'm sure someone here does). I'm thinking more about the diversion and pumping onto the garden part, not the treatment or storage of the water.

My front yard slopes down slightly to the road and my down pipes are all at or near the front of the house. I would only have room for a small rain water tank at the front. Given that most of our rain falls in the winter, I wouldn't be able to store much of the winter rain for use over the summer in the garden. Therefore I thought it may be more cost effective to have a grey water diverter conected to the shower + bath as a family of 5 would use >100 litres/day.

Any thought/ideas?

KE, I have a grey water system.
From my experience pumping or even gravity feed is a difficult proposition prior to treatment!
In saying this, a system of baffles will collect a fair deal of solids,
and further solids removal via gravel (bluemetal) may be sufficent filtering of solids to allow retic.
The issues you will need to address are the efficent distribution of treated water, the siting which I expect will be underground as a significant aroma can be present at times.
It is possible, just need to look at the available grey water systems in the market place.
PM me if you want my system specs!

i've been planning for a while to have a grey water system on my kitchen sink that will incorporate a soleniod valve switch on the wall. I use a fair proportion of kitchen water on rinsing of veggies and waiting forthe water to run warm. This water i would be comfortable diverting directly to a 200L holing tank for input into my AP.

When i ever get around to it i will post some picks, but it will involve a car door actuator solenoid onto a 3 way diverter fitting available from plumbing stores. i will mount a switch on the kitchen sink.

Another method KE, again depending on your space and proximity to it. You can dig a 'maze' of channels in the ground, line the whole lot with black plastic, fill with gravel and plant native water plants like reeds. These plants are very tolerant of the detergents in the greywater, they also aerate and help break down the bacteria in the water. Basically the water goes in one end and the clean water comes out the other. Ideally you'd have an underground storage tank at the end to store the water.

TC- have you been to my place?
cept we have a maze made from rammed earth, about 30mtrs in length!
We use blue metal as a pre filter!
The chooks do the solids collection.hehe

Yeah thats cool C1... See there you go...

Heres a good website... Puts it in laymans terms...

www.ceres.org.au/watertrail/files/reedbed.html

Yes that ceres park is a good spot on grey water i have 2 systems running 4 years without hitch so far the onsweet shower water goes to a burried 50 litre dum then runs downhill to any newly planted trees and the washing machine water goes to a grey water tank with a submersable pump witch is pumped up hill to the front lawn and gardens

I thought I'd add my grey water thoughts to this older thread, it's becoming ever more relevant as drought conditions continue (at least water restrictions).

I've been mucking around with grey water for a couple of years now and developed a system I'm happy with. I found that the shower was the best source followed by the washing machine final rinse water, both are relatively low on biological oxygen demand (BOD = food for bugs or treatment required) the washer water can be a bit caustic though.

After 12 hours or so (depends on the temperature) stagnant grey water can get pretty smelly which is a risk of transmitting disease via whatever you use the water for (vegies in my case). The stagnant conditions tend to become anoxic promoting the growth of smelly, potentially nasty bacteria (just think about what you wash in the shower). After getting fed-up with carrying water every morning to use it while fresh, I got into treating my grey water. Basically the continuous flow gravel bed aquaponics set up without the fish is ideal for grey water treatment.

I converted a system I'd been using as a AP trial to grey water treatment service. 250L sump dug in below the fall of the shower water diverter with 3x 60L gravel filled grow beds above. The circulation pump needs to be fitted with a pre-filter / strainer (mine's a submersible in the bottom of a small bucket filled with gravel) so that hair and leaves and stuff doesn't get into the impeller. After 12 - 24 hours of treatment, the aerobic bugs have used up allmost all the BOD meaning I can store the water indefinately in tanks etc. without it going smelly. This makes the grey water a little more independant from my irrigation system, I can build up an inventory and use it on hot days or when there's not been rain for a while.

I introduced a few reed type plants (weeds I had growing in the lawn) which has really helped polish the water better. I kept one gravel bed clear though to have a high flow really oxygenated bed since the reeds tend to choke things up a bit. Chior mulsh and garden lime added to the grow beds also help smooth out the pH swings (shower water with not much soap tends to go acidic once it's treated while washing machine water is caustic).

The water parameters are pretty good after treatment. I had to re-line a 2000L pond recently (punctured liner) and re-filled the pond with 50/50 rain and treated shower water. The fish are fine (Aus. Bass, Silver Pearch, Tandanus / eel tail catfish and goldfish) and I've had no algal blooms either (quite a suprise) and used no tap water. The treated water is low in nitrates (unless you pee in the shower) and should be suitable as a 'fresh' water source for AP water changes too.

This type of treatment apparantly constitutes a septic system and the council rules say that I need a septic system permit. I therefore changed the name to a "grey water fed hydroponic reed garden".

My gray water system consist of a 55 gallon drum for collecting solids and a couple hundred feed of 3 inch slotted flex pipe.

pictures we love pictures

http://www.wormfarm.com.au/domestic_waste_systems.php
This is a link to a system I've been looking at for my "green" house. It's meant for blackwater(poo) however I can't see why the principle couldn't work for a grey water system. It uses earthworms to break down the waste and convert it into liquid plant food. I think the plants would like it more than the fish for AP but I think your lawn or soil rooted plants would benefit greatly. I want to hook a system like this up to run into a seperate tank, dillute the worm urine with water and irrigate small crops on my property, eg. corn. From a little more research while typing this, you may still need the reed bed system or seperate hydro system to clean the water completely before putting it in your AP. Anyone thought of using a distilling process to purify water?

This is what we have...
Is made of rammed earth and has a maze about 30mtrs in length.
Currently as you can see tomatoes, dianella(?), choc mint and frogs oh and the occasional carpet python.
...and a grapefruit (red)

I forgot bananas

Exactly what i have been thinking about Ben.
I thought I might divert the grey water to a blue metal bio then drain by gravity to an inground pond. (More digging for TT.) An 8-9000lt pond would take about a month to fill, we have 300lts of waste water a day. I could put a sliding gate valve on the grey water exit from the property. When the pond is full, we could just open the gate valve. Could have all sorts of things growing in the pond and it would just about get us off the water grid.

You could use skimmers to extract all the colloid product you use like oily stuff, shampoo, soap and others. It would make you be sure that you would have less excess chemical build up concentration in the pond. It could be done with a sort of venturi. It is what they use as a first treatment in water treating plants. Then an AP system and a pond to grow feeder fish, daphnia and green water...
Just have to be cautious of the use of the water in case of a disease outbreak, it would be pretty bad for you and the family if you had a problem.
But that would be really good to have a real good use of water.