Old tank water?

[Brookfish]

I have read in a few articles that you can use your waterchange water to water your household plants for greener healthier plants,
Does anyone do this?

[invadertoast]

I do! I water the plants in my bedroom with the old water from my two small tanks that are also in my bedroom, I don't know if it makes a difference or not but it sure is convenient.

[Gemini]

Yep I do! I was told that the nitrates and fish poop were good fertilisers. I don't know if it makes any difference - but seeing as though I have water restrictions in place here I try to save as much as I can.

[Mvjnz]

I do too. With all the water restrictions it would be a terrible waste of perfectly good water if I just poured it down the drain.

So I use it for the veggie patch and indoor plants, and some trees and bushes if there's any left over.

After I started doing that, we suddenly get heaps of strawberries every day, a tomato plant suddenly started growing (they haven't grown there for years and haven't been planted since then, some old seeds musta been dormant in the ground), suddenly started growing parsley out of nowhere (same as tomates), and we also have a ridiculous amount of brazilian spinach.

[Crispy]

The old tank water is full of nitrogen for the plants. It is one of the best plant foods around for plants in their vegetative state. Makes for quick new growth and keeps the plants greener than ever. Around here, we have some grow ops that only use fish tank water for their 'organic crops'. Regardless of the plant, it works great.

[mac]

Hi,
I do. It works great for me. It has been making my Bonsi grow very nicely.

mac

[gourami*girl]

Yes, I do water all my plants with water change water. It's amazing stuff, really! I've tried a few different kinds of fertilizer on my plants but none has worked better than fish water. Plus it's 100% organic and free, lol. thumbs2:

[Rue]

Yup! I've been watering with fish water for 3 years now...plants are looking the best they ever have...

[Northernguy]

Yup! I water all my grass and plants every w/c and have noticed a huge differencethumbs2:

[Gemstone]

....and my two bits worth out of africa....

.............indeed...we too water our veggies with the water....and it does indeed work wonders....

[fraggle]

I'm actually looking at something that uses the tank water, it's called aquaponics, check out this site [Only Registered Users Can See Links.].

It's basically a system that instead of having a filter as such, you pump the water through hyrdoponic grow beds and the media in the growbeds is where the bacteria grow and the plants eat the nitrates. I'm going to set up a PVC pipe over my tanks (when I get some decent lights) and just have a little pump that will pump the fish tank water up into the PVC and it can just drain back into the tank, and I'm going to grow some herbs!!!

Check out these pics! (This is off a very established system, been running for years)

This is just after the veggies have been planted.
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

This is 13 days later
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

And this is 25 days later!!!
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[fraggle]

I've been wanting to grow veggies for ages, but with the water restrictions, can't grow anything!!

This is some pics of a new set up (doesn't have the growth that the established set up does)

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

Then this is 10 weeks later, this will eventually get the growth that the established set up gets.
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

They actually have some really good info on cycling etc, telling people how they have to get the good bacteria growing and that it can takes weeks and all about the ammonia - nitrite - nitrate etc. I've become hooked! LOL
Really want to do this at home.

[Wild Turkey]

aquaponics is something ive always been interested in....need a mortgage first though :D It is a very simple but effective concept for growing gardens

Yes i use my waterchange water to water my plants and like the others, have to say it works wonders.

For one: the water is dechlored. That really makes a huge difference believe it or not. When i have lots of plants in a setup, i distill water for this purpose. And of course, all the nutrients from the fish poop and stuff is gold for plants.

[Northernguy]

I have noticed bugs in my plants lately and I was wondering if it was from my tank water. Any thoughts??

I would love to live in the proper climate for that set up!

[Dark Star]

Learned something new today. Once the nitrogen aspect was brought up, I was like duh. Look at how green your lawn is after a good thunderstorm.....mmmmm, nitrogen.

[Sharon]

I have noticed bugs in my plants lately and I was wondering if it was from my tank water. Any thoughts??

I would love to live in the proper climate for that set up!

NG...What do the bugs look like?

[Wild Turkey]

I have noticed bugs in my plants lately and I was wondering if it was from my tank water. Any thoughts??

I would love to live in the proper climate for that set up!

If you think you may be introducing the bugs via the water, you can heat up or cool it down a bunch before using it. Wont hurt the nutrients of course.

However, if you think the tank water is attracting bugs, and i would say thats more likely, i cant think of anything you could really do about that.

[Rue]

The tank water won't result in bugs, but Wild Turkey is right, it could possibly attract bugs that are already in your house, so your just noticing them now.

If you can post a picture, we could probably tell what they are...

...just guessing off the top of my head...soil gnats?