Has anyone used aquarium water on their orchids?

[RandomGemini]

That only works if your tap water is treated with chlorine and not chloramine. Most municipal water sources in the US use chloramine to decontaminate the water supply. Chloramine does not evaporate.

What Is Chloramine? | Chloramine Information Center

So, while it might be true for you that the chlorine evaporates, since my municipal water source uses chloramine, it does not evaporate from my tap water. I have to use a chemical dechlorinator here. It's either that, or don't keep an aquarium.

I do like your approach. It's not possible where I live though. The ocean is about 400 miles from here. I have always kept lightly stocked aquariums, I prefer them, but I've never been successful with a reef system, without a significant amount of mechanical filtration.

[MrHappyRotter]

I do it. But with some precautions.

First, I do use a dechlorinator (Seachem Prime, simply the best). It doesn't seem to cause any ill effects. Because my tanks are almost all heavily planted, I also use Seachem Excel (a carbon source) and one of several fertilizer products. I've been watering with post-water change aquarium water for years, so I imagine I'd notice if these were causing any damage.

The precautions I take are that I filter out any big chunks of waste. A simple brine shrimp net handles the dirty work. The next thing I do is I monitor the TDS with a handy little electronic TDS meter. The old tank water varies from 150 - 250 ppm for the most part. I then dilute that so that it's less than 100 ppm. I'm not saying that's a hard number, it's just a random number that's worked well for me. For most of my orchid growing experience, I did not have a TDS meter, and used to use the aquarium water straight -- that never seemed to be an issue. I only keep it low now because I'm more into phrags and some of them are very sensitive to water quality.

Also, this is a once or twice a month thing at most, and I treat it like a supplemental fertilizer. Pots are flushed in between uses.

I look at it this way, it helps conserve water use. No reason to flush all that aquarium water down the drain when I can reuse it AND benefit the orchids.

[vjo]

I have a 50 gal rain barrel that I keep 8 gold fish in. I use that water on all of my orchids. Haven't had any problems from it that I can tell...Jean

[catherinecarney]

Chlorine is not an issue for me as I am on well water. However, I have extremely hard water (affectionately known as "liquid rock") with plenty of calcium, magnesium, and iron in it, so straight from the tap can be problematic. How hard, you ask? Try 300 ppm and up straight out of the tap.

I find that water from the tanks is missing a lot of these ions, possibly because of the absorption and usage of them by the aquatic plants in the tanks. Also, my water tends to have tannins in it from the plants (and some filtration with peat) which seems to bind the minerals to some extent, acidifying and softening the water.

I also collect rainwater and use it 50/50 with my liquid rock for fish (and plants) that are touchy--although I am finding that most of what I keep seems to be pretty adaptable. Mollies (sphenops and latipinna species, haven't gotten my hands on velifera yet) absolutely ADORE my hard water (they actually do quite well in brackish and salt water conditions as well, and there's some research out there indicating they need pretty high calcium levels in the water to be healthy over the long haul).

All I can say for those who want to try it is: go for it! Your plants will tell you if it's working or not.

Catherine

[JMLand]

personally i only use RO water for my south american cichlid tank. they like a low ph that conveniently is perfect for my orchids.

[catherinecarney]

One drawback to RO water is its lack of buffering capacity--the pH will swing and crash if you're not careful.

IME, some SA cichlids truly do need soft and acidic water. However, many of them are pretty adaptable and do well in moderately hard water as well.

For those who want to use RO or DI water (and there is a difference between the two), remember that such water will be lacking in many or most ions and you will need to add them back into the water where needed for your orchids (and fish).

Catherine

Given that my water is somewhere between "liquid rock" and "OMG, the test kit must be wrong" I don't even try to work with soft water species any more, and stick with Central American and African cichlids.

[JMLand]

Originally Posted by catherinecarney

One drawback to RO water is its lack of buffering capacity--the pH will swing and crash if you're not careful.

IME, some SA cichlids truly do need soft and acidic water. However, many of them are pretty adaptable and do well in moderately hard water as well.

For those who want to use RO or DI water (and there is a difference between the two), remember that such water will be lacking in many or most ions and you will need to add them back into the water where needed for your orchids (and fish).

Catherine

Given that my water is somewhere between "liquid rock" and "OMG, the test kit must be wrong" I don't even try to work with soft water species any more, and stick with Central American and African cichlids.

I have yet to have a ph swing issue. But i use lots of drift wood and peat moss in pantyhose(yess it helps). Everything else i add to the tank is ph neutral. Even the sand you add can raise the ph if you dont do your homework on it. my ph stays at a constant 5.4. I also do weekly water changes and treat the ro water by squeezing the peatmoss ball in the new water.

[catherinecarney]

Yup, all the tricks you're doing help with water quality!

The driftwood and peat moss will release tannins into the water over time, too, which can help with spawning the "difficult" species.

Now, question for all of you lucky people with soft water: how do you meet the calcium and other mineral needs of your orchids?

Catherine

[Ferns Daddy]

I've been using water from my aquarium for orchids and other house plants for years and they do just fine with it, I don't see any different in my orchids but I only have 2 gold fish and 1 cat fish in a 30 gal tank so I'm not sure if any better than regular water

[JMLand]

I supplement the media. Here is dallas limestone is plentiful in our back yards. So I toss it in the bark mix. Works for me.