FIsh waste

[AudioBassiks]

i have a few fish tanks and i was told the other day dehidrated fish was good too you for fertilizer. so i got to thinking.. i have a lot of fish waste and when i clean my tanks i could gather the waste instead of dumping that water and then useing it for fertilizer.. anyone know if this is a good idea or a bad one?

 

[JJ Bones]

As long as the bacteria converted the ammonia to nitrites, and then nitrates it would make great fertilizer.

 

[AudioBassiks]

how would one know.. what i am thinking is to catch the water from when i vacuum.. so old food and mostly fish shit.. then using the water to feed the plants

 

[AlaskaMC]

Yeah, a first post and thanks for asking something I actually know the answer to. You should NEVER have ammonia or nitrites in a fish tank. They should be removed by the bacteria that naturally should live there. But, too large of water changes, too many fish, too large fish and the system goes out of balance and they will show up. Easy to tell though, go to a pet store (or even most grocery store pet dept) and get a dip stick tester for both. Cheap and easy to do. Your fish will thank you more than you can imagine.

And, if you are clean then you have a great source for nitrate ferts. I used to feed a huge outdoor garden with a house full of fish tanks. Works great. Did water changes and just took the bucket outside or to house plants and used it. Works great. I would think it would work for veg but maybe not so much for later in flower (just a guess on this one).

 

[AudioBassiks]

ok well my fish tanks are in perfict running order so i guess ill try this wityh a plant or too and start saving water.. ( a single water change in my house is almost 25 gallons

 

[AlaskaMC]

Be careful! Fish can actually build up a resistance and get used to the imbalance of their own home. So, if you are doing that much of a change (about 100G tanks or so?) I bet you are fine.

The only reason I say this is that I went through a period with my tanks when my testing fluids ran out and I didn't bother to check. Hey, all the fish were fine right? But, I got some new testing stuff and when I checked I was surprised that I had trace ammonia. I would hate for your plants to suffer!

 

[JJ Bones]

In normal aquarium settings you have a filter to help maintain ammonia and nitrites.

You should be good to go. We are currently highly immersed in the aquaponics world