Removing Salt From Your Fish Water Before Re-use Watering Landscaping

Aquarium salt is widely used in the keeping of fish .... but little caution is provided warning that disposing of the salted water can harm the landscape, etc and really shouldn't be put down the sewer either .... in fact, I suspect many fish keepers are improperly disposing of their salt water from their aquariums ... (even freshwater fish water uses aquarium salt to keep the fish healthy) .... As a gardener and nature lover, I realize the permanent damage done to soil if salted .... salt accumulation is a global problem!

 

So since some of my Koi pools have significant amounts of salt, in the water (those pools that don't have water plants), I need to learn how to remove salt from the water so that I can reuse the water directing it safely to my landscape ...

 

A search of Google provided this technique..

 

How to Remove Salt From Water

By Shaun Juan, eHow Contributor

updated: August 22, 2009

I want to do this! What's This?

The cheapest way to remove salt from water is by using a solar water distiller. Think of a solar distiller as the same natural process of the sun heating water in our oceans, turning it into gas and then condensing into a cloud that drops unsalted water back down to earth. You can replicate this process by following some simple steps. These steps can also be used to remove salt from water in a survival situation.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Clear plastic sheet, 5 feet by 5 feet
• Shovel
• Containers to hold water

1. 1
   Dig a hole roughly 3 feet by 3 feet and 2 feet deep. If you are in a survival situation and don't have a shovel, use anything that will dig a hole, including your hands. Dig your hole in an area that receives the most sunlight possible.
2. 2
   Place you container in the middle of your hole. Make sure your container is dug halfway into the ground so it will not tip over.
3. 3
   Use another container to transport the salt water to your hole. If you do not have another container in a survival situation, use the same container you used in Step 2. Make sure the bottom of the hole is thoroughly saturated with the salty water.
4. 4
   Place your plastic over the hole. Make sure the middle of the plastic is sagging a bit over your container in the middle of the hole. In a survival situation, any color plastic will work, but it will take longer to evaporate.
5. 5
   Anchor your plastic over the hole. You can anchor the sides of the plastic with whichever material you have readily available--tent stakes, dirt, sand, rocks. Just make sure you have a tight seal around the plastic cover so the water vapor cannot escape.
6. 6
   Weigh down the center of your plastic sheet. Ideally you can use a small stone placed on the plastic directly over the container in the hole, but you can use whatever you have available to weigh it down in a survival situation.
7. 7
   Wait 3 to 4 hours for the solar distiller to complete the distilling process. Your solar water distiller works by the sun evaporating the salty water into a gas (which leaves the salt behind). The plastic cover stops the water vapor from escaping the hole, water condenses on the underside of the plastic, gravity pulls the water toward the center of your weighted-down plastic and the unsalted water drips into your container.

Read more: How to Remove Salt From Water | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_5188575_remove-salt-water.html#ixzz10ZFHkede

 

Anohter useful lesson was this one which basically provides a better understanding of how of how the above process works ... this one is a small scale removal of salt from salted water ...

 

How to Remove Salt From Salt Water

By Claudia Henning, eHow Contributor

Excerpted from .... 

http://www.ehow.com/how_5127351_remove-salt-salt-water.html

 

Remove Salt From Salt Water

All images courtesy of Photobucket photo pool

The easiest method of removing salt from salt water is a process called distillation. The water is heated, turned to a gas, condensed and collected in a purified form. The salt will be left behind. Follow the steps below and be amazed at how easy it is to replicate the distillation process yourself.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Plastic bowl Small glass Plastic wrap Small rock Small pitcher of salt water (tap water with 2 tbsp. of salt added)

1. 1
   Large plastic bowl
   Pour a couple of inches of salt water into a large plastic bowl. One similar to the bowl pictured will work.
2. 2
   Place a small glass upright in the middle of the bowl. Make sure the glass is shorter than the edge of the bowl and that it remains dry inside. A juice glass would work wonderfully for this.
3. 3
   Cover the bowl with clear plastic wrap and secure tightly with tape on the edges. Keep the empty glass upright and center as you cover the bowl.
4. 4
   Use a small rock to create the condenser.
   Place a small rock on the center of plastic cover, directly over the empty glass. It should bend the plastic wrap in toward the glass without breaking through. The angle will aid in the collection of purified water. Place the bowl carefully in the direct sunlight. The heat from the sun will heat the water, evaporating it to a gas. The gas will hit the inside plastic covering and condense back to liquid as it cools. The liquid will then drip down into the glass. This is called solar distillation. The process distills or purifies the water. The longer it is left in the sun, the more pure water you will collect. What will be left behind in the bowl is the salt.
5. 5
   Remove plastic cover and try a sip of the water in the glass. You will find it to be salt-free. Distillation is done on a larger basis by providing artificial heat to salt water, collecting the steam on a cooled condenser surface and routing the purified water into a separate tank.

Read more: How to Remove Salt From Salt Water | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_5127351_remove-salt-salt-water.html#ixzz10ZGbr5b6

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