I am getting ready to set up a grow in my basement and don’t have a floor drain near by. The upstairs kitchen drain runs along the unfinished basemt ceiling and I was thinking about tapping into that so I can pump my res drains right into it rather than haul buckets to a drain.
Anybody do this and have any tips or words of caution about doing this? Any photos would be awesome.
Where are you located?
In a general sort of way…
99
You would need some kind of non return valve, or two. You wouldn’t want sink waste in your res eh Apart from that you would have to try it and see i recon.
i am located in the midwest U.S.
Albannach - I assumed I would need a check valve or something.
It could easily be 100% gravity after you pump it up to height.
This image shows one type of connection you might use (between the clean-outs).
Word of caution, be sure you want to open up a waste pipe. 
99
Also, such a move would be highly frowned upon by local inspectors in Mass. Not sure about where you are.
I didn’t even get around to asking where your super nutrified waste water would end up??
Not always great for a public system, and I would not pump it into a private system. That will shorten its life.
Thanks for the feedback. I considered the smell but I figured a valve would eliminate that. I was wondering if it would be a code issue. My problem is that I have a pretty nice theater room that sits between the area where I want to grow and the rest of the basement and I’d really rather avoid hauling my waste water through there.
EDIT: the drain leads to the local sewer system. Where else would i drain it? Outside would be too much work.
No question about this. Plumbing Inspectors are very particular about the inflow and outflow pipes. And again, if this is going to either a public or a private system, it is anything but beneficial.
PS Do you need to maintain stealth too? I might rig up a sump pump and leach pit in the yard. There could be a PVC pipe extending from just above the foundation and into the ground outside of the building.
99
Yes, need stealth. So your saying the only good place to drain the waste is out in the yard or something? You mean that drined nute water is worse than feces and all the other stuff people dump down drains?
By a factor of 100 +/-
Can’t account for idiots.
Yeh on thinking about it probably not a good idea. How much are we talking about, can you not just use a 5 gallon can on a sack barrow?
But why is it a problem if the water department treats it? I understand not draining it into the storm water. I cant imagine too many growers are pumping it into a leach bed. Don’t most people dump it down the drain?
I use organic soil, so, things are a little different for me.
I do collect the run off from my plants and either feed the house plants, which love it, or I toss it into my compost pile.
99 - Thanks for the link. I didn’t know all that.
Albannach - Yes, I can carry buckets but I was trying to avoid that. But I can’t go hauling them upsatirs and out into the yard like 99 suggests. The neighbors wondering what the heck I’m doing dumping 4-5 buckets of liquid into the yard every few weeks (especially in the winter snow) sin’t exactly stealth either.
I first give it to the plants. About half gets captured by my dehumidifier and recycled right back into the system.
I get you bro, not an easy one. I do small scale compost grows these days but when i used to do hydro no one gave much of a dam about dumping nutes. I had a piece of waste ground behind the house back then which was handy, there were some huge examples of local weeds and bushes in there for a while 
I honestly don’t know what the answer is nowadays, probably want you to run it through an RO filter before dumping it 
yes, a switch to soil growing would eliminate this problem completely but this is the Hydro forum! My basement furnace and central A/C system uses a little $20 external pump on the floor to move condensation water up into the overhead drainage pipes, it looks ghetto to me but it’s up to code.
Yeh i hear you bro but what is the answer to how to responsibly get rid of it. How do large scale commercial hydro outfits get rid of all the spent nutes, into a river?
I see 500,000 sq-ft greeenhouses dumping blue water onto the grass, directly outside the greenhouse. Same place where the rain gutters drain usually. Not sure of the environmental effect,
Yeh i bet that goes on a lot. The quantity involved must be vast too I never did large scale and i used to try to keep the res size as small as i could even though it meant more work, it did save on nutes though and saved a bit on heating it. Some nice big hedge bushes outside in just a few years too.
I see no issue with pouring these nutrients into any sort of man involved agricultural endeavor such as lawns watering potted plants, garden plants or baseball fields.
Lacking a room devoted to house plants, you may start dumping it small amounts on your cigarette break I guess. Couple of cups a day would do it.
99
