Has anyone used aquarium water on their orchids?

[Orchidhound56]

I have a friend who uses his aquarium water from his fresh water aquarium on his orchids, because of the fish urine and feces in the water his orchids are growing and blooming like crazy. Has anyone tried it?


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[Island Girl]

I know others have, and if I still had my betta, I'd use the water from his tank. I'm sure someone who has done this will come along shortly, but I do remember hearing a few ppl say they do this... I think Leafmite used to use her goldfish pond water for her plants... Don't remember anyone else's names.

[Leafmite]

Great stuff! I miss having the pond!

[nikkik]

We also use water from our fish pond.

[RandomGemini]

I've been debating on doing this… switching my watering date to the same day as water change day on my aquarium. I haven't tried it yet though. If you give it a shot, let me know how it works for you!

[catherinecarney]

My orchids get first dibs on water from the fish and turtle tanks. I'm pretty new to orchids, so I don't know how it will work over the long haul, but in the short term they seem to be growing well.

I do have experience with using fish/turtle water on houseplants over periods of years, and the plants seem to thrive on it, including heavy feeders like Brugmansia and edible figs.

Catherine

[Kevin_PR]

Never tried it. You might want to read the labels of any additives you add to the tank first. I filter naturally and don't add chemicals, and never change the water, but have never tried it.

[RandomGemini]

Couple questions about that: How are you removing chlorine from your tap water without chemicals? The new chlorines do NOT outgas by simply leaving a bucket sitting overnight. You HAVE to use a chemical dechlorinator to remove it from the water.

How do you grow plants without doing water changes? Your plants will soak all of the nutrients out of the water eventually and their growth will stunt if you don't do water changes. That's half the point of having an aquarium for me, is the freshwater plants. I grow several varieties of anubias, african water fern, java fern and java moss… and I LOVE it. It's what got me to consider orchids in the first place.

[Sharry]

This year I started to collect rain water. The barrels soon turned into mosquito farms, so I put a few fish in each. The soft water with small amounts of fish mulm should be similar to what wild epiphytes get.

OTOH, I've heard that aquarium water can accumulate salts over time depending on hard the water as water evaporates and the tank gets topped off. Also maybe fish mulm from siphon water is too concentrated?

[Kevin_PR]

Originally Posted by RandomGemini

Couple questions about that: How are you removing chlorine from your tap water without chemicals? The new chlorines do NOT outgas by simply leaving a bucket sitting overnight. You HAVE to use a chemical dechlorinator to remove it from the water.

How do you grow plants without doing water changes? Your plants will soak all of the nutrients out of the water eventually and their growth will stunt if you don't do water changes. That's half the point of having an aquarium for me, is the freshwater plants. I grow several varieties of anubias, african water fern, java fern and java moss… and I LOVE it. It's what got me to consider orchids in the first place.

If you let the water sit overnight it dechlorinates. I keep 1 50 gal reef tank, 1 freshwater(lightly planted), and a small 50 gallon pond with koi. I never need to change the water, or any filters. because I don't overstock or over feed my fish. I also have detritivores in every setup. Basically I set up ecosystems. Anything else that requires me doing extra work is not happening. "Work smarter not harder"(not directed to you)

I only use pumps in my setup for filtration no carbon or anything. I Pump the water over plenty of rocks for mechanical and biological filtration and all excess chemical that build up from fish excrement is absorbed by the plants. I don't like using chemicals in anything, they upset the balance. Once a system is in balance "nature" takes over. In the reef tank I do top off once a week with fresh caribbean sea water to replenish calcium and what not. I grow Marco algae in my reef tank and a mangrove tree and elephant ear taro in my koi pond. Keeps the water crystal clear.