Going Green / Saving money?

since water is not cheap i was wondering if anyone has an idea of how i could pump my fish tank water from water changes into a container, which i could use in turn to water my plants?

Holey Rock of Texas wrote:

since water is not cheap i was wondering if anyone has an idea of how i could pump my fish tank water from water changes into a container, which i could use in turn to water my plants?

Use a siphon!

i was thinking of using a pond pump to pump it into the container and then another pump with a float to pump it into the yard.

Holey Rock of Texas wrote:

i was thinking of using a pond pump to pump it into the container and then another pump with a float to pump it into the yard.

Doesn't using a electrical pump defeat going green? I've use a regular garden hose to siphon water out of my tank before. Easy way to do it is to run water from an outside faucet into your tank then clamp the hose and unscrew it from the faucet. Unclamp the hose and the water in the line will run out causing it to suck water from your tank... I use this method when doing water changes on my 100G tank.

Dirty fish water is great for the plants!!

dirty fish water killed all my plants

popebosephus wrote:

dirty fish water killed all my plants

Dirty freshwater is good for plants...

Dirty saltwater is bad for plant...

brokeashell wrote:

popebosephus wrote:

dirty fish water killed all my plants

Dirty freshwater is good for plants...

Dirty saltwater is bad for plant...

OH... that splains a lot.

I use a an industrial pump that I got from Lowe's to do my water changes. It drains about 30 gallons of water from tank in a matter of seconds. Literally seconds... It's a pump thats actually suppose to be used for flooded basements and homes to drain the water out, so that tells you how heavy duty it is. It wasn't cheap but its energy efficient (Or so it says) and works fast! One would work great for what you need it to. Or you could buy a pond pump, but for about the same amount of money you can buy a wayyyyy better one from Lowe's or Home Depot.

make sure you dont have any salt in your tank water....

I frequently pour the buckets of water into the base of my plants indoor and outdoor, also if you grow tomatoes then you may well find they love it.
In the UK I used to grow them, and the tip I got from an old timer was put sheep .... droppings in the water barrel.
I had 2 big plastic water barrels attached to the down pipes from the gutters that collected the rain, that water plus sheep dung was like home made Miracle Grow. (If you grow tomatoes then put an old empty flower pot sunk into the ground next to each plant, pour your water into that, it lets you see how much you have watered, it seeps the water to the roots and stops erosion of the upper roots..as an aside.
It's strange here in TX, I haven't seen a similar system....then again, in the UK it rained nearly every week of the year.

Recycling fish water is an awesome way to fertilize your plants I know first hand I used on all the plants in my home and my vegetable garden and the results were amazing the beefsteak tomato plants or vines shall we say were 18ft long when I cut them down at the last harvest and produced softball size tomato's.

I use a small 500gph general purpose supreme pump with 1 inch clear tubing attached to the pump for water changes but it would work the same way in your application. put the pump in the tank and the tubing in your container plug it in and fill, its much easier than siphoning and doesn't require much electricity and its fast I can do a 50 gallon water change on my 180 in 15 minutes I pump the old 50 out into a brute can and the new 50 in and I'm done lol my waste water usually go's out the window onto the driveway and helps melt the ice in the winter or I put it in buckets and give it to people needing to seed a new tanks.

so pump it to a container and them i could pump it later into the a hose with a sprinkler lol.

Holey Rock of Texas wrote:

so pump it to a container and them i could pump it later into the a hose with a sprinkler lol.

or you could make the tubing on the pump long enough that you could use the pump like a water hose to water your plants, depends how far ya need to go.

nice sounds simple enough

Not sure how your set up is, but with mine for the rack and tanks in that part of the house went to the local hardware store and bought 50' of tubing that attaches to the syphon this allows me to water 75% of my flowerbeds. Then the other tanks I run the syphon house into the garden beds. Will probably be investing in even a longer legnth simply in the long run will be even easier.

Oh and when all the flowerbeds that I can reach are watered I either drain enough into a kiddy wading pool or take water from the pond to water the plants out by the tree in the front yard. Then any leftover/extra I just let it run in the yard since it has a slope to it works somewhat well just have to remember where the extra went from the previous water changes or I have really pretty green stripes in my yard mid summer LOL And when I use the kiddy pool alot of times I just set the end of the hose in one of the watering cans

Our water here is crazy spendy which never makes sense to me with all the rain we get, rivers running high and them having to release water from the upper reseviors already since we aren't into the heavy spring melt from the mountains yet.

On the serious side, I used to just siphon my 55 (FW) straight out into the flower beds. It worked quite well. Now I have no FW fish.

nothin like good ol fish emulsion!

I agree with c-whip,but carrying buckets is good exercise!

Hey Shays you live in a beautiful part of the country, and what you say about the weather is true. I used to come over here (pre having moved to the US) and enjoyed my middle weekend of each 2 week business trip in OR. By choice. Then on the Sunday I would be at the Motel by the Interstate, and Monday visit Entek, a great bunch of folks. But, I really can't see why you need to water the plants. Summer = warm rain, Autumn/Fall = cooler rain, Winter = Cold rain/Snow and Spring = dam cold rain!