Home aquaponics kit - possible use for orchids?

[rosemadder]

Originally Posted by escualida

And I wouldn't want to put fertilizer in the water because who knows what would happen to the fish.

I do it all the time!

You can look up planted aquariums, it's pretty cool. My fish tank is full of nice lush plants. I even add co2 to increase growth. So long as you measure things correctly, the fish don't mind a bit. They need certain minerals and so on as well.

I actually have an aquatic version of a compost pile, too-- it has worms and snails and critters that like to eat plant trimmings, and I supplement my main tank with water (and live food for the fish) from the compost tank. It's like running a whole ecosystem basically.

I got several noid orchids from trader joes and I'll be watering a couple of them from my aquarium to see how they do with it.

Originally Posted by isurus79

You don't need to control the nutrients of the plants and you don't need to add fertilizer to the tank because the fish does that with their waste products.

To an extent, yes-- but a lot depends on what specifically you're feeding the fish, how many of them there are, etc. Not all plants have the same nutritional needs, so adjustments might need to be made. You also need to keep an eye on the pH and sometimes may even need to add chemicals for the fish, like calcium or magnesium (very important for their health!). It is a good idea to monitor phosphate and nitrate levels. Some things can't be measured very well, like potassium and specific trace minerals, so there's a bit of guesswork in there too.

I have so many plants in my tank that they eat up all the nitrate from the fish waste, and I have to add more to keep them happy.

I'm very curious how orchids will do with that water. It'll take time to test, but I'll be posting about it.

[escualida]

Cool, well there's space for a few plants in the tank so I might just do all herbs and then maybe 1 orchid that I can use as a gunea pig. Either way I won't be setting up the tank for a while, I have to move first lol

[NYCorchidman]

Also, fish goo is rich in N, but probably not so rich in other stuff. or maybe differen fish release different stuff in their goo. lol

By the way, I have that same kind of fish. A blue betta! I change water for him about once a week and I dump the water on my plants sometimes.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by rosemadder

To an extent, yes-- but a lot depends on what specifically you're feeding the fish, how many of them there are, etc. Not all plants have the same nutritional needs, so adjustments might need to be made. You also need to keep an eye on the pH and sometimes may even need to add chemicals for the fish, like calcium or magnesium (very important for their health!). It is a good idea to monitor phosphate and nitrate levels. Some things can't be measured very well, like potassium and specific trace minerals, so there's a bit of guesswork in there too.

Well ya, but I didn't want to scare here away! lol