Has anyone used aquarium water on their orchids?

[ridethespiral]

Before I switched my two orchids over to semi-hydro, I used my fish tank water alone for a majority of the waterings. I've had them bloom while I was using just fish tank water, but that was when I wasn't watering my orchids enough. Stressed them until they bloomed I suppose.. I would still add in fertilizer every second or third watering since a healthy tank does not have enough nitrates. I tried using fish tank water for semi-hydro but it got stinky..

I still use the fish tank water for the plants I have in soil. It's honestly a lot easier just dipping in my 1.5l watering jug into the tank to fill since the plants are on top / very near the tank. Lately I've been using regular tap water with some miracle grow fertilizer, a drop per liter of Seachem Flourish (Old bottle of micros meant for fish tanks that I very rarely use anymore), a drop a liter of superthrive, and .5mL/L of seaweed extract. Ever since I switched to using tap water with additives, my plants look WAY happier and are exploding with growth.

The best fish tank water to use would be a high-tech planted tank with EI fertilizer dosing since it is purposely over fertilized with NPK and Micros. Even then, I still don't think that it has enough nutrients for plants, but surely has tons of micros in it to suppliment fertilizer. My tank generally runs around 10-20ppm nitrates, and I think I read people are using 150ppm nitrate for their semi-hydro orchids.

[JMLand]

Originally Posted by ridethespiral

Before I switched my two orchids over to semi-hydro, I used my fish tank water alone for a majority of the waterings. I've had them bloom while I was using just fish tank water, but that was when I wasn't watering my orchids enough. Stressed them until they bloomed I suppose.. I would still add in fertilizer every second or third watering since a healthy tank does not have enough nitrates. I tried using fish tank water for semi-hydro but it got stinky..

I still use the fish tank water for the plants I have in soil. It's honestly a lot easier just dipping in my 1.5l watering jug into the tank to fill since the plants are on top / very near the tank. Lately I've been using regular tap water with some miracle grow fertilizer, a drop per liter of Seachem Flourish (Old bottle of micros meant for fish tanks that I very rarely use anymore), a drop a liter of superthrive, and .5mL/L of seaweed extract. Ever since I switched to using tap water with additives, my plants look WAY happier and are exploding with growth.

The best fish tank water to use would be a high-tech planted tank with EI fertilizer dosing since it is purposely over fertilized with NPK and Micros. Even then, I still don't think that it has enough nutrients for plants, but surely has tons of micros in it to suppliment fertilizer. My tank generally runs around 10-20ppm nitrates, and I think I read people are using 150ppm nitrate for their semi-hydro orchids.

There's also the co2 if you have a co2 setup in your tank. Just a thought though. I have yet to get into co2 for my tank

[ridethespiral]

I couldn't be bothered with CO2. I went with a low-tech approach to my tank. Substrate is miracle grow organic potting soil capped with a layer of play sand and I do water changes once every 4-6 months. By the time I do the water change, my nitrates are about 20ppm. I based this tank off of Diana Walstad's book. It's basically a self running ecosystem and the only thing I add is food, and maybe some micros once a month. Since the tank has been running for nearly three years, I do add osmocote plus pellets into the substrate every four months or when the plants don't look so happy. I run 2x 4' T5HO bulbs 1' above the tank which does wonders for the vals, crypts, anubias, and amazon sword I have in the tank.

Certainly the 6 month old water must have tons of nutrients for plants, and it doesn't affect my fish. The most sensitive of the fish I have are three golden oto's which are still alive, three years after setting up the tank. You should see the Aloe Vera plant I have that was watered with tank water almost exclusively (I did use regular tap water every now and then, and only just started adding ferts and seaweed extract). It's huge!

[NYCorchidman]

I've been watering all my houseplants including orchids for years now and I see no ill effect of any kind.
NYC tap water is fairly soft as long as one lives in a relatively new building. I hear most water issues in NYC gets bad stuff in it via old pipes.

For my fish, I use chemicals. one drop per liter kind of thing that comes in a small plastic bottle.
My fish is happy.