Ick.

Patty S.

yes... never waste tank water down the drain.

I've got 74 vegetable plants growing on the water from the goldfish pond.

Google aquaponics

"Ick" Is an infliction that attacks tropical fish in water that is slightly cooler than tropical.

Check with your tree supplier and make sure that the rootstock is compatible with fish manure.

Steve

It's fine for any plants.

However, if you have to change it once a week, you must be overfeeding or something. A well-balanced tank doesn't need frequent changes.

i dont have to change it once i week i do. I dont wait for it to get bad before i clean it I do it to prevent it and keep my water good. They are from cuttings?

lots of people recommend doing weekly water changes. Ive done alot of research on it and thats what is recommended

I agree, weekly water changes are good, but not 100% changed. 30% to 50% change is a better amount, more than that can be rather a shock to the fish. Small and frequent water changes are best.

Filters are very important to convert ammonia and keep the water cleaner, but the fish use up carbonates in the water, which the filters don't address and the by-product of the filter cycle is Nitrate, which in small amounts are not a problem, but in larger amounts can affect fish health. Water changes are the best way to lower the Nitrates, and add fresh carbonate, and the plants love the Nitrates.

Yeah, fish tank water is great for plants. Ick is something only fish get, not plants.

I would use it in the garden or for in-ground plants.

Josh

Lol I do 50, percent changes not 100 percent I've never done that

Ick, as in, I don't think this is a good idea for container citrus. Not, Ick as in a fish infection. What Josh said, exactly. The biosphere in a container plant is very different than that of an in-ground plant. I would not recommend this for indoor citrus (or any indoor plant). Pour your fish tank water onto plants outside.

Patty S.

I wouldn't consider it a fertilizer, and if she's doing 50% water changes each week, it would not be very dirty, probably fairly clean actually. I don't think it would be a problem in a container, but I surely could be wrong on that.
I have a pond and I use the changed water on my in-ground plants and my container plants with no problems, but all my container plants are outside on a concrete patio. And I only use it on the container plants every once in a while. I mostly use hose water.

I don't have experience using it on indoor containers.

If fish tank water does your plants any good, there is something wrong with your approach to nutritional supplementation.

Nutritionally speaking, there is nothing better for plants than just the right amount of each of the essential elements. The easiest and most efficient way to do that is by using a single fertilizer with an appropriate ratio of nutrients that provides those nutrients in 'just the right amount'. The minute you deviate from a plan like that, and start providing a little more of this and that than is necessary, limitations are assured.

Al

If fish tank water does your plants any good, there is something wrong with your approach to nutritional supplementation.

Nutritionally speaking, there is nothing better for plants than just the right amount of each of the essential elements. The easiest and most efficient way to do that is by using a single fertilizer with an appropriate ratio of nutrients that provides those nutrients in 'just the right amount'. The minute you deviate from a plan like that, and start providing a little more of this and that than is necessary, limitations are assured.

Al

I don't consider it a fertilizer. It's just water. I don't know if the OP is thinking it's a fertilizer or not. It does have some Nitrate in it, but not a lot, so I would not consider it a fertilizer. It's just water.

I use it because I live in a dry, low rainfall climate and water is expensive and scarce here. So I do not waste any water if I can help it.

She asked if it would be good use it to water her plants.
In my opinion, it is OK to use it to water your plants, and to not consider it a fertilizer, with the disclaimer that I have not used it on indoor container plants.

I just have 2 ten gallon tanks that are stocked heavily you'd be surprised how much waste comes out of the bottom I vacuum it out every time I do a water change

It has much more than just compounds of nitrogen in it, and if it started out as tap water, it has a higher concentration of undesirable dissolved solids due to evaporation. When you put it on plants, it becomes part of the soil solution and its contents become part of the soil solution's TDS (total dissolved solids).

IOW - it doesn't really matter whether you consider it a fertilizer or not, if it has dissolved solids in it, they need to be considered in determining whether fish tank water on plants is a good idea or a bad idea. If there is a deficiency of whatever might be in fish water it might be a good thing, but if adding the fish water creates an excess of any one nutrient, or (in particular) introduces something into the soil solution that isn't needed by the plant, it becomes a bad thing. Since there is no way of knowing what's in the fish water, the probability favors it as promoting limitations more than its being a plus.

I suggest the goal for fertilizing containerized plants can easily be described. We should work toward ensuring that all the nutrients plants normally secure from the soil are in the soil solution at all times, in the ratio at which the plant actually uses the nutrients, and at a concentration high enough to ensure no deficiencies yet low enough to ensure the plant isn't impeded in its ability to take up water and the nutrients dissolved in water. If you disagree, point to the error in my thinking, if you agree, you can see how fish water doesn't fit the program.

Al

I am with you 99.9% on the importance of the correct ratios of NPK + micros. I can go to the citrus forum and find out the citrus trees need 5-1-2 and poncirus trifoliata takes 3-4-3/. However no one seems to know about my other trees when they have problem. I am left guessing and taking note on causes and effects and hope my plants improve.

Examples for NPK + micros
peach trees, Plum trees, I have lost 2 to some deficiencies and I got one left with green veins and yellow leaves, fig trees, blueberries, kumquat trees on their own roots. Filberts, I lost all to deficiency. Know one knew in the fruit tree forum or the container tree forum, I can say this my plants respond when I change my human water and give it to the plants.

Steve

Well I guess I've been doing it wrong. NM

This is a great use of your used fish tank water.

I have a Meyer Lemon in a container that has gotten all of my FTW for the past 15 years.

BTW,

from a fish tank veteran, a weekly 10% water change is perfect for a well managed tank.

..... and you're sure of this how? It's easy to logically illustrate how a well managed fertilizer program is much better than relying on FTW for anything beneficial, AND that FTW has only the potential to diminish the potential returns of a well considered supplementation program.

Can you tell us how you can be so sure that FTW is 'the way to go'? If your answer involves the fact that you've been doing it for 15 years, it's no answer. That's a logical fallacy called 'appeal to tradition'. In short, just because you've been doing it doesn't mean its the best way to look at fertilizer supplementation, or even a good way. It's not.

Al

I never mentioned anything but facts.

I have been doing it to the same tree for 15 years.

I still fertilize.

with FTW,.... I had a choice 1) dump down drain 2) pour on yard 3) water lemon tree.

I choice 3 and it has worked for me as a source of water.

Sorry to offend. I'm certainly no expert.

I go mostly by my experience. Which means for me FTW works great on my lemon tree, and it will continue to.

As noted, if you see benefit from your applications of FTW, there is something wrong with your primary supplementation program, which means you're leaving a lot of growth, yield, plant vitality laying on the table. Surely no one is suggesting that fish water makes their supplementation program complete, with no excesses. It's of no concern to me what one or a hundred growers DO, I'm more interested in seeing that the growers who want reliable info, get it. "It works for me" is a really weak argument, saying no more than you're happy with the status quo - which leaves wide open the question of how much better does it get?

Can you improve on this: We should work toward ensuring that all the nutrients plants normally secure from the soil are in the soil solution at all times, in the ratio at which the plant actually uses the nutrients, and at a concentration high enough to ensure no deficiencies yet low enough to ensure the plant isn't impeded in its ability to take up water and the nutrients dissolved in water. If not, can you show me how fish water fits into that program? It doesn't, but please continue whatever you think is best for your plants, even if it's easy to show it isn't.

Al

Al

I am not looking for a fight. As I said before, I am not an expert.

FTW on my lemon tree replaces water from the tap.

I have already paid for my FTW so this made more sense to me 15 years ago......and it still does.

I have one 30 gallon aquarium with African Cichlids. I change 5 gallons a week. I have had this tank set up for 23 years.

Al

Can you tell me where I can find info on what plants need. I know the needs of citrus trees. I would kike to find info on apple peaches pears and plums. They are in ground, My citrus trees are in pots with 2 sweet-lee tangerine trees in ground. My fig trees are in 30 gallon containers and I feel They would be better if I knew their best needs. My grape and kiwis grow so fast it doesn't matter. My goose berries could use improvements. My brassica crops all grow so well I don't use any fertilizers as with my sweet potatoes. My urine cuts down on my feed needs to about 30%+-. My rhubarb explode with urine. It is a trial and error/success process. But for god sake don't through the FTW down the drain. our sewers are already over loaded.

Steve

What your plants in the ground need in the way of fertilizer might be quite different from what the plants belonging a grower across town might need because of what is/isn't available in the soil. Without having the results of a soil test to guide you, it's a crapshoot.

For plants in containers, it's a little different because the grower can take nearly complete control over what is being supplied.

In either case, it's about the grower being able to take control over the plant's nutrition. Unless you know what you're starting with and what you're adding, you have little chance of giving the plant what it wants/needs for best results.

I'm about empowering the grower with the knowledge needed to manage a fertilizer supplementation program based on things we know and can easily control. To me, it makes no sense to use fishwater on containerized plants when a complete and well-balanced nutritional program is just a measuring spoon away.

All plant cells come into being under basically the same physiological process, and use the same nutrients as the building blocks from which these cells are constructed, so it shouldn't be a surprise that plants don't deviate a lot in the RATIO at which they use nutrients. Some plants use more nutrients than others, but they use them in a very similar ratio. Sequoias, sunflowers, snapdragons, sedum - all use plants in roughly the same ratio.

Here is the range in nutrient usage for plants. Nitrogen, being the largest nutrient component, has been given the value of 100. Other nutrients are listed as a weight percentage of N. So for every 100 parts of N a plant uses, it will use from 13-16 pph, or about 1/6 the amount of P as N - K is 45-80 pph or about 3/5 as much, and so on.

N 100
P 13-19
K 45-80
S 6-9
Mg 5-15
Ca 5-15
Fe 0.7
Mn 0.4
B(oron) 0.2
Zn 0.06
Cu 0.03
Cl 0.03
M(olybden) 0.003

Al

you are right Al

oh I forgot to mention that my Meyers Lemon tree is growing in a container filled with dirt.......pure Texas dirt

And it is over 10 feet tall and the fruits I harvest twice a year are bigger than a navel orange. But I am only getting 100-150 lemons each harvest and I let my mailman take one a day so it is closer to 200.

This post was edited by scottsmith on Sun, Jul 13, 14 at 21:04

Al

My soil has more than 2X the needed P & Ca, and is low in K. I have to add the Nitrogen anyway. My citrus trees are in 50% topsoil 50% rotted compost This puts me on par with the Ca and P. I add a 8-0-4 and a 30-10-10 with micros Miracid. The citrus in pots and my blue berries get elemental sulfur to help my PH 7.8 soil. So I am working from knowledge of what I have and fertilizing what I believe is needed. Urine is 3 to 1 N to P I don't believe that it has K. May be the roots of some plants can extract different nutrients more efficiently.

Steve

Hey, I'm happy you guys are happy, but the sum of your argument is 'it works for me', but obviously there is no guarantee it will work for anyone else. If you can find anything wrong in what I said, I invite the criticism and would be happy to discuss it; otherwise, I'll move along.

Al

punky1991

FTW will be good to water anything you want. Much better to recycle than toss. Gotta go green........

How did your thread get hijacked so fast?

The Thread hasn't been hijacked. Rather, the very question in the Thread Title has been answered.

Josh

thank you guys

Let me play devils advocate, my comments are meant with the utmost respect.

assuming someone in a lab coat knows what's best is a slippery slope indeed. Yes science is the key to knowledge, however, It is constantly evolving and new discoveries often contradict established norms. Dogma has no place in an open scientific thinking where the more you know the more you realize you have a lot more to learn.

We experiment and often fail, but finding what works for you, is the reward.
don't let anyone dissuade you from trying something that appeals to you.

take red wine as an axample.

If you were given the choice to eat the same meal prepared in a test tube every single time or a varied diet that covers the spectrum of available foods, what would you chose? .

If a person lives on fast food and a multi vitamin, Will they live Yes! If that same person Eats fresh fruits, vegetables and fish, will they also live, yes!!
My feeling is that perhaps there is still room for improvements in the way we as humans live, moving closer to how nature does things is the logical progression.

I say try it gradually, if it doesn't hurt, keep doing it. You could be onto something.

Please do share what you learn with us.

That's my 2c

I have already......a 15 year experiment

that is my 2c

Dogma is holding firm to the belief that something could neither be a conceptually or practically superior practice because you believe something else seems to be satisfactory - 'works for me'. Old beliefs are like a pair of old shoes - we often value their comfort so much we tend to ignore the fact they're full of holes. Almost everyone prefers the relative comfort of belief to the exercise of reason because believing is easier than reasoning; which brings us full circle to why there are so many more believers than thinkers. My $.02

I'm pretty sure you're not suggesting that a haphazard approach (a little of this and a little of that, even though I know neither what the plant needs nor what I'm giving it) is a superior approach to a well-reasoned supplementation plan. Discounting all reason because we're satisfied with the status quo is self-limiting by default.

BTW - if Punky's trees are in pots (don't think that was made clear), moving closer to how nature does things is an exercise fraught with obstacles. Growing in the ground and growing in pots are widely divergent cultures. On a scale of 1-10 with growing in the ground being a 1 and hydroponic growing a 10, conventional container culture is probably a 7 or 8.

Al

punky

Is your tree in ground or containerized. Can you post a picture of it. Last your rain fall during growing season.

My in ground trees get much more water including my human water and they also get good flushes to get the nasties out off the soil

Steve

I also do 50% water change. Weekly before it gets bad. In many websites and aquatic stores. Not Petco lol. An actual aquatic center. The once’s ive been to also recommend from 25-50% water change. I have a CrownTail Betta in a 6.7 Gallon tank.