Safety of drinking catchment water?

[David M]

ef9 - Just for grins, would like to see blind testing - County vs Walmart water vs HD Menehune vs your catchment.

David

Ninole Resident

[ef9]

Hahahaha, my co workers tease me that my water is guaranteed to be cleaner than county water for sure. When I do the bacteria test (kit purchased from Ace Hardware), I get zero bacteria colonies after the 48 hours in my warm kitchen pantry). I believe the test calls for 7 or less bacteria colonies is considered safe. I don't know if that is a good test or not to use, as Tricia Macomber said it should be okay.

Oh, also, I do bacteria tests once a year, and I do a clorox-flush of my in-home water piping, once a year as well(including water heater).

I guess since I am striving to have a "near perfect" water system in my home, I stress myself out so much, that is probably the main reason why I am so pessimistic about catchment systems.

I purchased a Stenner chlorine injector pump that I was planning on using. My plan was going to be a bit different tho. I was planning on injecting a preset amount of clorox (or food grade chlorine) into my catchment tank, say once a day. You can adjust the flow rate of the pump, and I was going to install a digital appliance timer to turn this pump on and off for 1 or 2 minutes a day, say, to inject 4 oz of bleach a day directly into my catchment tank.

That project got sidetracked when I thought about using an adjustable floating swimming pool chlorinator utilizing food-grade chlorine tablets.

All that got side tracked when last year's Christmas lights came into the picture

Anyone on here use a water meter to track your water usage throughout the week/month/etc.?

[Hotzcatz]

ef9, from what I understand using reverse osmosis water as your only drinking water source isn't good. Something about a lack of minerals or something. You may want to see what healthy drinking water consists of? I know if it is "too clean" it isn't as healthy for you as water with some stuff in it although I forget which was the good stuff.

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"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson

[mgeary]

http://www.hawaiidws.org/Here is the website for the County of Hawaii's Department of Water Supply website. If you want factual information about the quality of County water, hit the "About the water" button and browse around to see the water quality reports for the various locations. I did.

Aloha! ;-)

[David M]

"adjustable floating swimming pool chlorinator utilizing food-grade chlorine tablets. "

ef9 could I get more info on this system?

David

Ninole Resident

[ef9]

You know the standard floating pool chlorinator used in swimming pools? The blue and white one, with an adjustable ring (to adjust the amount of chlorine dispensed).

You could use that chlorinator, but you need to use food-grade chlorine tablets. The chlorine used in swimming pools contain strong biocides, which is not good for drinking.

Now..... for being the devil's advocate....... the floating pool chlorinator is plastic, and am not sure how "food-grade" it is. Especially with the heat cycles that we see in Hawaii. That is why when I made my floating intake, I used 100% food-grade products in it. I didn't want to use the "gatorade" drink bottle as the float, as the prolonged heat may raise the question of leaching into the water.

quote:

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Originally posted by David M

"adjustable floating swimming pool chlorinator utilizing food-grade chlorine tablets. "

ef9 could I get more info on this system?

David

Ninole Resident

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[David M]

Thanks for the info....now, where would I get food grade chlorine tablets? Also how much do you dispense? Assuming you treat a 10K gal tank, I'd have to adjust to treat a 4K tank.

David

Ninole Resident

[ef9]

Tricia Macomber recommended me to call the various catchment tank companies and swimming pool places for the food-grade chlorine tablets.

Keep in mind, I never done this (floating pool chlorinator method, I'm sorry if I misled you). It just fell through the cracks, and I never pursued it, just like with my Stenner chlorine injector.

As for the adjustment, or the amount to dispense, you have to do it almost by trial and error. I used to put in 12oz of regular clorox bleach into my tank, once a month. I noticed that the water was a bit green with algae, so I increased to 16oz once a month... still a tinge of green. I then used 8oz of bleach once a week. I slowly increased it to 12-16oz of bleach, depending on water level and amount of rain, etc. My carbon block gets rid of the clorox smell/taste, so I do not know if I am putting too much (I probably am, but I do not notice any problems with my water when showering or washing my hands or even when brushing my teeth).

For your 4k gallon tank, before using the floating chlorinator, you can try and add 4 to 6oz of regular clorox bleach once a week and see how that goes. This is assuming you don't mind doing a weekly routine maintenance. This could give you a "feel" on how effective the amount of bleach would be for your tank. If it doesn't rain for a while, you may have to increase the amount of bleach you put in. For me, I put in bleach every week irregardless of how clean the water looks or even if it is very rainy. Also, if you do put in bleach, it is good to try and mix the water in the tank to disperse the bleach.

If you want to take this conversation offline you can send me an email through punaweb.

[ef9]

Hi Hotzcatz,

I missed your post. I also read that somewhere, but later came under the impression that it was an "urban legend" of the "too clean water not being healthy for you." I think everyone could get the "lack of minerals" from other foods/liquids that one consumes everyday. I remember reading a website that talked about all of the myths associated with water purified through the process of reverse osmosis. This site was not a commercial site promoting the use of a water purifier, but that does not mean you should believe what I read..........

quote:

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Originally posted by Hotzcatz

ef9, from what I understand using reverse osmosis water as your only drinking water source isn't good. Something about a lack of minerals or something. You may want to see what healthy drinking water consists of? I know if it is "too clean" it isn't as healthy for you as water with some stuff in it although I forget which was the good stuff.

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"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson

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[oink]

I thought these diagrams were pretty good: http://www.cleanwaterstore.com/chlorinator.html

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.