Jferrante
Aquarium Advice Activist
I'm sure this has been thought about a million times.
I've worked in a garden center and from my experience one of the best fertilizers of all time for a lot of plants is fish. A lot of anglers that I've know keep home gardens and instead of tossing the remains of fish they've eaten in the trash they will usually bury it in their garden. Which typical provides a massive growth spurt do to the high nitrogen and phosphate in fish. So I believe in most cases using the water taken out can be used to water herbs and vegetables and will probably be even more effective if it's a planted tank but not without limitations.
If the water has a lot of ammonia and nitrites it should not be used but for a typical water change with 0-0-X, it's great. As for planted tanks I figure the water should be diluted a little so not to add too much nutrients in the soil since soil can hold them longer. As for algae I'm pretty sure it will die in a typical garden.
Also leafy plants are the best to use this water on but for vegetables you will probably need to add some potassium to the soil and to lower the PH if it's high which is easily done by adding spent coffee grounds and banana peels to the soil.
I'm no expert but I've picked up on a few things these past few year and if anyone else would like to add to the idea feel free to expand.
Also I think it's a million times better to bury deceased fish in the garden than flush them in the toilet but I am sure almost every one hear knows this.
I've worked in a garden center and from my experience one of the best fertilizers of all time for a lot of plants is fish. A lot of anglers that I've know keep home gardens and instead of tossing the remains of fish they've eaten in the trash they will usually bury it in their garden. Which typical provides a massive growth spurt do to the high nitrogen and phosphate in fish. So I believe in most cases using the water taken out can be used to water herbs and vegetables and will probably be even more effective if it's a planted tank but not without limitations.
If the water has a lot of ammonia and nitrites it should not be used but for a typical water change with 0-0-X, it's great. As for planted tanks I figure the water should be diluted a little so not to add too much nutrients in the soil since soil can hold them longer. As for algae I'm pretty sure it will die in a typical garden.
Also leafy plants are the best to use this water on but for vegetables you will probably need to add some potassium to the soil and to lower the PH if it's high which is easily done by adding spent coffee grounds and banana peels to the soil.
I'm no expert but I've picked up on a few things these past few year and if anyone else would like to add to the idea feel free to expand.
Also I think it's a million times better to bury deceased fish in the garden than flush them in the toilet but I am sure almost every one hear knows this.
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