First timer, Fish Poo

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Going to clean my tanks today and ditch the chem nutes at the same time. First I'm heading out to buy a 30ish gallon trash can and an air pump/stone. I'll put the dirtiest 25 gallons of fish waste water in. Now, from what I've read here, if I just bubble that for a week or 2 it'll be good to go. But I tend to overthink things, so theres a few things I'd like to know so I don't love my girls to death.

How much should the end product be diluted?
Apply weekly?
Can I add anything to the brew or will that be too much? I have access to chicken poo, would a nylon sock full in the barrel of fish poo be a bad idea, or would it be pretty much the same, just would have to dilute more before applying? We also have a "compost bucket", just a bucket we put our compostable kitchen scraps in, I empty it periodically. Willing to do whatever will improve the results without going overboard.
 
Richard Drysift

Richard Drysift

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You can use spent fish water as it is or dilute it; up to you but it shouldn't burn your plants unless it's really full of nitrates. If it is very dirty...maybe sourced from a koi pond and you can see pieces of fish turds in hi concentration maybe you should dilute it down with clean water but if this is fish tank water that's been in circulation for a couple months it should be fine as it is. No need to bubble it unless you want to use it as a base for a tea or to store it for a long time. I use fish tank water all the time & your plants will love it. Weekly or even more often should be fine during veg phase but hi levels of N should be avoided during flower cycle as hi N spikes are not tolerated by fungal dominant soils ...found that out the hard way.
I would advise against trying to bubble it with chicken poo but I use composted chicken manure in my mix directly as a good N booster; works great! Your kitchen scraps and poultry manure should be well composted before you add it to your mix. You should either startup a backyard compost pile/bin or even better start a worm bin to break it all down & then you can add it in your soil. In order to add it to your mix you may need to start a recycled soil bin or learn about no till methods. Compost and other amendments typically need time to cook in order to be available to your plants root system.
 
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Richard Drysift said:
You can use spent fish water as it is or dilute it; up to you but it shouldn't burn your plants unless it's really full of nitrates. If it is very dirty...maybe sourced from a koi pond and you can see pieces of fish turds in hi concentration maybe you should dilute it down with clean water but if this is fish tank water that's been in circulation for a couple months it should be fine as it is. No need to bubble it unless you want to use it as a base for a tea or to store it for a long time. I use fish tank water all the time & your plants will love it. Weekly or even more often should be fine during veg phase but hi levels of N should be avoided during flower cycle as hi N spikes are not tolerated by fungal dominant soils ...found that out the hard way.
I would advise against trying to bubble it with chicken poo but I use composted chicken manure in my mix directly as a good N booster; works great! Your kitchen scraps and poultry manure should be well composted before you add it to your mix. You should either startup a backyard compost pile/bin or even better start a worm bin to break it all down & then you can add it in your soil. In order to add it to your mix you may need to start a recycled soil bin or learn about no till methods. Compost and other amendments typically need time to cook in order to be available to your plants root system.
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I'm just remembering now that I add aquarium salt to my tanks, about 1/3of a cup per 20 gal. Is this a deal breaker?
 
greasemonkeymann

greasemonkeymann

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I'm just remembering now that I add aquarium salt to my tanks, about 1/3of a cup per 20 gal. Is this a deal breaker?
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i'd say so, yea.
sodium can lock out other nutrients.
it's too bad too, cuz aquarium water is THE best water to feed your plants with.
did it for over a decade and wish I still could.
had a big ole planted Oscar tank, with plecostamus, a three foot tire track eel.
had two biowheel filtrations and the water was perfect
they poop a lot
keeps the plants nice and green till the end
 
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I always suspected that adding a bit of salt to freshwater aquariums had more of a placebo effect than anything. I'll start going without and see if there's any noticeable difference. My 55 has an oscar, been going 6 years now. Had a blood parrot in there too, died a year ago.

Organic growing seems to have a lot in common with maintaining an aquarium. Its mostly about promoting the right bacteria. Growing is much more complicated though, with fish you just focus on the denitrifying bacteria and that's it.
 
Richard Drysift

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
I
Upwards said:
I'm just remembering now that I add aquarium salt to my tanks, about 1/3of a cup per 20 gal. Is this a deal breaker?
Click to expand...
yeah id say...that's a lot of salt; salty water will dry out the microbes you plan to feed all that good fish poo. Regular water works just fine though; organic growing is simple once you get established but it does take time to get there
 
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