aquarium water and ferts

i have a 125 gallon planted aquarium that i run t-5hos and pressurized co2 on and dose ferts 3x weekly. the ferts i use are dry and as follows:

Plantex CSM+B (trace)
Potassium Nitrate (KNO3)
Potassium Sulfate (K2SO4)
Mono Potassium Phosphate (KH2PO4)
Iron Chelate

this keeps my water at about 30 ppm nitrate, 3 ppm phosphate, .5 ppm iron and 20 ppm potassium, plus micros. with GH of 3, KH of 3, PH around 6.0, and also dechlorinated and co2 pre-dissolved in it. so pretty much is this perfect water to use for my plants? do i even need to use nutes? or will i be ok with a good soil, good light, and good water from my fish tank?

hmmm....a whopping 4 views including mine. does anyone who knows alot about ferts have any thoughts?

blacklabel said:

i have a 125 gallon planted aquarium that i run t-5hos and pressurized co2 on and dose ferts 3x weekly. the ferts i use are dry and as follows:

Plantex CSM+B (trace)
Potassium Nitrate (KNO3)
Potassium Sulfate (K2SO4)
Mono Potassium Phosphate (KH2PO4)
Iron Chelate

this keeps my water at about 30 ppm nitrate, 3 ppm phosphate, .5 ppm iron and 20 ppm potassium, plus micros. with GH of 3, KH of 3, PH around 6.0, and also dechlorinated and co2 pre-dissolved in it. so pretty much is this perfect water to use for my plants? do i even need to use nutes? or will i be ok with a good soil, good light, and good water from my fish tank?

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Do you end up with any readable nitrate level? Or do the plants take that up fairly well? (I've been wanting to do a f/w planted tank for years, but... well, hubby and I would have to agree on some things first, like the fact that I'm the one with the experience, so I get to make all the decisions. )

In almost all other aspects, I think it's probably great to use for general watering, especially for seedlings. Nice and soft, with easily usable nutrients and micronutrients. Only thing is that the plants do need a source of nitrogen once they really get going.

yeah my water always has around 30 ppm of nitrate. more if i havnt dont a water change in a few days. what im wondering is can i use the ferts that i already have (kno3, k2so4, etc) for my plants. and if so how? do i mix the ferts up with the soil before i plant, or do i just water with a solution (aquarium water), or what? or should i just buy the common ferts mentioned here like bloom and so on. thanks a lot for your help.

Dammit, I knew I thought I read nitrate somewhere, what a doofus. I am not sure about those ferts, if they meet the needs of our mary jane, then why not, yeah? However, those are pretty specific ferts you've got going on there, and the K is something that's needed in smaller amounts. The problem, as I see it, is how you would translate to appropriate percentages for terrestrial use?

Since I haven't touched a freshwater plant since working the trade, and since it was only working the trade and we had a high turnover that I got any experience with planted systems, I know very little about those particular fertilizers.

So, the real question is this -- Are these ferts interchangeable with those created for terrestrial plants? I hesitantly suggest they might be interchangeable. Also, I think they may be expensive. And, they're devised for aquatic use, so.. maybe good for hydroponic growing, but to that end I honestly don't know. I do know that plants of all sorts love that oxidized ammonia sure enough (N in whatever form they can use it).

Hmm... I may know people who know about both subjects (freshwater planted and growing weed), but it would take me a while to get in touch with them to find out what they think.

well i found this thread where he lists the ferts i have but he just doesnt go over the basics. i think people in this hobby call it a "chemical salt fertilizer" and these dry ferts are much much cheaper than liquid ferts such as "flourish", which is why many people use them. im assuming its the same thing as far as ferts in this hobby as well, as i read that flowering nutes get expensive fast (when all they are is the chemicals i listed mixed with water...) anyway it looks like i have quite a bit of research to do. hopefully someone has some insight.

I'm not sure why the poster is calling these chemicals mineral salts. Salt infers a sodium bond, and not all of these fertilizers have a sodium bond of any sort.

Blacklabel, Back in the 80's I used to hydro.. It was trendy and challenging - so I got onboard that boat. I bought beakers, pH testers, a lab coat, a highly accurate scale & a special calculator. I spent hours trying to perfect the perfect feeding schedule. I grew test crop after test crop - testing my therioes. Then one day I woke up & relized, Hell - it's just a weed. Before the 60's - it was doing OK on it's own.
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Now, I hate to say it - because these days - I grow only Organically and in soil or semi-soilless mixes. But it's much easier, to just use Peter's 20-20-20 if your going that route. It mixes very well, it's cheap & contains macro & micro nutes.
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You just drop the dose down to 2-2-2 & change the res. every two weeks. Simple, effective & proven. Then a few cheap amendments, kicked in, to round things out.
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Then when you start to flower, buy a Higher P fert. and cut it's dose down to a nice low dose as well. Like 1-8-3 NPK.
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The plants will take what they need. Start low and build as you go. The leaves will tell you what's missing, if you watch them.
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You can spend too much time, effort and money growing - if your not careful. Plus it's a bitch to quickly break down a big hydro - if the shit hits the fan.
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Just a thought, I don't mean to down play or insult your efforts. I like experiments - sometimes by accident we make neat break throughs.
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long time reader first post

well matey i got a planted fish tank too, simmiler setup to you (co2, ferts etc)

any way i would not recomened useing them, they may work but not as good as something more desighned for you needs, if you can afford all the tank goodies im sure $20-30 bucks more for the right one wont hurt and will be more accurte.

the levels of ferts in the fish tanks are alway going to be changing so one day you might over feed you fish so the next day there might be more nitrite or nitrate.


something else i was thinking tho, inseed of using co2, use oxgen in a tank and desolve the gas into the water you feed you plants then youll have supper amounts of O in the water probley more than the hydo systems??

heres some of my tanks:

potofgold said:

long time reader first post

well matey i got a planted fish tank too, simmiler setup to you (co2, ferts etc)

any way i would not recomened useing them, they may work but not as good as something more desighned for you needs, if you can afford all the tank goodies im sure $20-30 bucks more for the right one wont hurt and will be more accurte.

the levels of ferts in the fish tanks are alway going to be changing so one day you might over feed you fish so the next day there might be more nitrite or nitrate.


something else i was thinking tho, inseed of using co2, use oxgen in a tank and desolve the gas into the water you feed you plants then youll have supper amounts of O in the water probley more than the hydo systems??

heres some of my tanks:

Click to expand...

DUDE! Nice discus! WHAAAAA..!!!!! Damn.. see? That's why my husband and I can't get any tanks together. He wants species, no consideration for plantings, I want a biotopic display with Discus as the centerpiece, but also with fat cardinals and other fishes that occur naturally. I think the Discus are happier for the dither fish at least. That is f'ing SWEET.

Blacklabel...I believe, I may have been too stoned to "get it" regarding your post. If, I have missed the point of this post by a mile. Let me apologize up front.
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I thought you were using fish water run-off as your food supply for a Mary Jane hydro setup. I've read about guppy-ponics before & thought you were bioconverting food sources to fertilizers - via the south end of a fish.
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I saw an article in High Times like 18 years ago, where this guy kept hundreds of guppies in a hugh fish tank - then feed them dead bugs - he harvested by putting a five gallon bucket under a Bug Zapper Light. He also gave them various food waste - like left over rice, oatmeal...etc.. I don't know much about aquarium fish, but I gather a guppie will eat about anything. I thought the whole thing was kinda out there - since you would never really have a stable NPK.
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No more mixing Skunk & LR2 in the same bong... whoa... I am just now returning to Planet Earth...LOL
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i used my planted fish tank water for my first grow . . . i wasn't ready to order any nutrients and didnt want to use the shitty ones they had at lowes or home depot

https://www.rollitup.org/attachments/general-marijuana-growing/125223d1212010888-how-does-she-look-p1010017.jpg

ps nice discus

Ohsogreen said:

Blacklabel...I believe, I may have been too stoned to "get it" regarding your post. If, I have missed the point of this post by a mile. Let me apologize up front.
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I thought you were using fish water run-off as your food supply for a Mary Jane hydro setup. I've read about guppy-ponics before & thought you were bioconverting food sources to fertilizers - via the south end of a fish.
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I saw an article in High Times like 18 years ago, where this guy kept hundreds of guppies in a hugh fish tank - then feed them dead bugs - he harvested by putting a five gallon bucket under a Bug Zapper Light. He also gave them various food waste - like left over rice, oatmeal...etc.. I don't know much about aquarium fish, but I gather a guppie will eat about anything. I thought the whole thing was kinda out there - since you would never really have a stable NPK.
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No more mixing Skunk & LR2 in the same bong... whoa... I am just now returning to Planet Earth...LOL
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Click to expand...

Actually, with regard to the fixing/oxidation of nitrogen. If one has a stable fish population and feeds accordingly, the nitrifying bacteria (the ones that actually oxidize the NH3 {ammonia}) will keep nitrate levels constant. Phosphorous and potassium are another issue, usually either plants or algae uptake those nutrients and fix them in that manner. It actually makes MORE sense to me, being the fish-woman thing I am, to have the plants' roots handle that nutrient uptake and load. The fish won't utilize the P or K held in aqueous solution to the best of my own knowledge on that subject, so it should be available for the plants again. This is also why, with regard to aquaria, I tend to recommend using "whole" water, rather than distilled. No more than reverse osmosis filtered water.

My own little bit if research shows that the aquatic ferts can be a little expensive, and I am kind of cheap, no, wait, frugal.

Seamaiden said:

My own little bit if research shows that the aquatic ferts can be a little expensive, and I am kind of cheap, no, wait, frugal.

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Yes..F-R-U-G-A-L, is good. Like Puppies & Sunsets...LOL...
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Power to the People...Recycle, Rethink, Reduce & Reuse.....
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Be Oh So Green.....
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I've been looking into stuff to green up my life beyond the particular shade inside my grow room. There's some pretty cool stuff with aquaponics, but fwiw I'm sticking with my AN nutes for the grow room.

I'd love to put a huge fish tank in the back yard and use the water to grow some vegetables, but I prefer the tailored nutrients for the indoors growing. Proven results that way.

BTW, a "chemical salt" doesn't necessarily have anything to do with a sodium bond. Chemical salts (salts as defined within the terminology of chemistry) are produced by the neutralization of acids and bases. They're positively charged ions and negatively charged ions crystallized into a solid or suspended in a liquid.

Great, that is very good to know. It's difficult at times to tease apart scientific definitions with the average layperson's (e.g. the definition of a theory).

I know what you mean. It'd be so much easier if everyone just used language more precisely, but then that'd suck in a lot of other ways too. There just isn't a good middle-ground and neither extreme is very good either. Who wants to have to worry about precise grammar and word use in casual conversation?