# New idea for water recycling



## jkam (Apr 21, 2010)

So I got this idea when I went to the Seattle zoo. (they recycle the water from their penguin exhibit)

I'm gonna use one of my spare tanks (prob 33g) and put a bunch of potted household plants in it. The idea is to put my old tank water from some of my tanks into this and have the plants eat up all the nitrates/nitrite/etc and then put it back into the tank when I do a water change. 

I'll post some pics when I start the project. 

What I want to know is where can I get:
- Golden pothos
- Umbrella Papyrus
- lucky bamboo
- Echinodorus grandiflorus

All of these plants can be grown with their roots submerged.


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## Ursus sapien (Apr 21, 2010)

you can grow all kinds of terrestrial plants (especially those that like damp or wet places) rooted in water- I have a weeping willow filtering a ten gal (for now).


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## EDGE (Aug 24, 2010)

You can grow pretty much any marsh plant or aquatic plant to use as a water filter. Do you plan on filling the whole tank with water or run the tank like a wetland system?

Most Echinodorus will do well emersed. Marble queen is quite common and is a prolific grower emersed.

Constructed wetland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## AvianAquatics (Apr 29, 2010)

This person on Kijiji is selling Mangrove plants which is suppose to filter the water, here's the web:

Aquarium filtration, MANGROVE PLANTS. - Calgary Pets For Sale - Kijiji Calgary Canada.

This is in Calgary so not sure about Vancouver


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## Ursus sapien (Apr 21, 2010)

red mangrove ideal for this purpose- growth is easily managed and it eats like a goldfish.


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

i've seen someone use like about 15 stalks of lucky bamboo as a filter sump. the lucky bamboo's grew to almost like a forest in the guy's living room. you can pick up the lucky bamboo's for cheap at the night market or your local T&T.

hope your idea works out well for you.


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## jkam (Apr 21, 2010)

I'm planning on filling the whole tank with the water and make part of the tank have an elevated platform to place all the plants on. 

Thanks, I'll look for lucky bamboo at T&T tomorrow!

If this idea eats up the toxic material quickly I might even take down my 75 to do this and get a new tank


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

jkam you from surrey. if you are, go to the T&T near guildford mall. inside the T&T, there's a food court. across from the BALE vietnamese sandwich store is a store selling potted plants. i know they sell dirt cheap lucky bamboos for like $2 or $3 for a bunch of stocks!

i remember now b/c i was going to pick some up as decor in the office.

let me know if you're able to find it.


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## thharris (Jun 29, 2010)

Sorry just to confirm but your going to put the recycled water back into your fish tank?

I'm not sure if I would recommend that, seems like it could cause trouble with your fish.


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## Captured Moments (Apr 22, 2010)

Sounds a lot like Aquaponics.


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## jkam (Apr 21, 2010)

thharris said:


> Sorry just to confirm but your going to put the recycled water back into your fish tank?
> 
> I'm not sure if I would recommend that, seems like it could cause trouble with your fish.


yes that's correct. Why would it cause trouble with my fish? It's pretty much the natural cycle of water. Care to explain?

From what I know it goes like this
1. animals eat and poo
2. poo turns into plant food (in this case poo gets diluted in the water)
3. plants use up the "poo/toxins" (nitrates, ammonia etc)
4. no more toxins

The reason why people change water is to rid the aquarium water of toxins. I'm just recycling the water to be more eco-friendly.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

when i used to live on planted tank they had quite a few die hard low tech members who'd have awesome looking tanks, no water changes (or like 1 every 6 months) and little maintnence at all. The only downside was a bit of detritis build up, but they limited their tank stock so much it wasn't much of an issue.


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## rescuepenguin (Apr 21, 2010)

My wife and I have discussed this, her idea was to filter it first, then detoxify it. The idea is a good one, I'm sure that if we all put our heads together we can figure something out. The trick is to find an inexpensive way to clean the water. 

Keep notes, I'm interested in working on this project.

Steve


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## Kitsune (Jul 17, 2010)

I've heard of this being done before. Actually it seems to be catching on quite a bit. But generally the purpose is the other way. People grow vegetables using hydroponics/aquariums so that the fish poo feed the plants.... here's an article from google: Aquaponics: Combination of hydroponics and fish farming produces food, water and a sustainable future | Earth Odyssey Magazine

I like your idea, but i personally would still keep your filter running (or put a filter inline with the system). If there is a sudden nitrate/nitrite/ammonia spike the plants might not be able to react fast enough, where as the bacteria in the filter would. And the bacteria in the filter will increase/decrease as necessary (i.e. by how much food there is available to them). You should totally grow veggies or herbs though! (Hydroponic Herb Garden)

Also, i believe the trick is to have a variety of plants. Each plant has a different function (like remove excess iron, remove excess salt etc). I don't know how the GH/KH is affected by this method though... you might want to keep an eye out for that.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

it would be interesting to just have an overflow from your tank and have the water run down a trough with a bunch of hydroponic plants of your choice, tomatoes, "herbs" etc etc, then pump it back into the tank.

heres a link to a related thread elsewhere i found on google, mentions alot of good plants you might try
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-221220.html
another
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum/showthread.php/47469-Which-aquatic-plants-absorb-nitrate-most


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## jkam (Apr 21, 2010)

Kitsune said:


> I like your idea, but i personally would still keep your filter running (or put a filter inline with the system). If there is a sudden nitrate/nitrite/ammonia spike the plants might not be able to react fast enough, where as the bacteria in the filter would.


I'm not replacing my filters, just recycling the water. All my tanks will still have their filters, just when I do a water change, the water goes into the "recycling" tank.



Mferko said:


> heres a link to a related thread elsewhere i found on google, mentions alot of good plants you might try
> Plant to absorb nitrates? [Archive] - Aquaria Central
> another
> Which aquatic plants absorb nitrate most?


I also found a link of plants that grow very quickly, thus absorbing lots of toxic material. I just need to find out where to get them now. The plants are posted in the first post.


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## 182 (Apr 21, 2010)

This is all kinds of cool. I saw a pond journal a few months ago that ran in a very similar, but automated, fashion. I'm sure a lot of ponds work like this, but it's still an awesome journal:

Erik's Swimming Pool to Koi Pond Conversion

But I do wonder what the final cost/benefit will add up to be for you. How large are your typical water changes? How often do you do them?

If I were to go this route (I change my 72 gallon, maybe %30, less than once a month) I'd probably just store the used water in a sistern or barrel, and feed my plants with it instead of the typical tapwater. In that case, the water is essentially "recycled" and lost to plant growth/evaporation.

Of course, this kind of kills the idea of a 'closed loop' that I think is the really interesting goal here. But still quite eco friendly.


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## Ursus sapien (Apr 21, 2010)

I used different plants, but my tilapia pond was filtered primarily by plants. it works really well- not only does it filter water but is beneficial to your set-up in other ways, such as fostering the growth of beneficial microorganisms.


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## jkam (Apr 21, 2010)

Otter said:


> But I do wonder what the final cost/benefit will add up to be for you. How large are your typical water changes? How often do you do them?


In total about 100gallons. I do them once a week. I'll probably only try this out for about 50 gallons first and then possibly do it for all my tanks if its not that much more work.


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## 182 (Apr 21, 2010)

Wow, a lot of turnover in your house! How many tanks have you got?

Man. I need to get out of my rinkydink aparment and get a place with a yard. I could have such a wicked garden if I reused all my fish water!

Good luck.... I can't wait to see how this works out.


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## TCR (Jul 13, 2010)

Thats funny as thats the same sort of concept im planing to have in my sump.. I'm planning of having a resivour with a bunch of plants right after the actual filtration part of the sump

sump goes down through a bio media holding area with 2 baffels with filter floss, bubbles under a egg crate with bio media above overflowing into the plant resivour into 2 baffels of filter floss (so plants dont get into the pump area) and then pumping water back up into the tank.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

TCR said:


> Thats funny as thats the same sort of concept im planing to have in my sump.. I'm planning of having a resivour with a bunch of plants right after the actual filtration part of the sump
> 
> sump goes down through a bio media holding area with 2 baffels with filter floss, bubbles under a egg crate with bio media above overflowing into the plant resivour into 2 baffels of filter floss (so plants dont get into the pump area) and then pumping water back up into the tank.


sounds like a really nice setup


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## TCR (Jul 13, 2010)

i'm hoping it works.. i'll be posting the drawings when i'm finished on my 250 thread for imput


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## EDGE (Aug 24, 2010)

Don't mixed tank water from different fish tank into 1 recycle tank water and reuse them after This is a good way to spread fish disease to other tanks.

If you plann on creating a ledge, use inert substrate (gravel, hydroton, perlite, etc) and have the water trickle in there top down. 

Pump water from the tank to a distribution method to water the grow bed. This will help siphon up the mulm and put them into the grow area to help build up the beneficial microbes to breakdown the organics and convert them to inorganic nutrients for the plants to use. As an added benefit, the top down affect will help oxygenate the root zone. 

Add an air stone to the tank to help oxygenate the water to increase the beneficial to breakdown the organics.

Would be great if you can shield the recycled water from direct light source. With the organics at the bottom of the tank, the tank will definitely have an algae outbreak.

Kitsune is correct about different plants are strong at filtering particular type of nutrients. as a rough guideline without doing much research, any tuberous, bulbs, rhizome tend to use more phosphate. Anything leafy like Echinodorus uses more Nitrate. Cyperus helferi grows like a weed emersed.


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## gimlid (Apr 23, 2010)

Ditto on everything Edge said.
I am planning on using Epipremnum aureum which is a terrestrial but can be hydroed and clones easy (stupid easy) and apparently uses up alot of nitrates.
Oxygenation is a must. I really like the look of the mangrove plant I had no idea it could grow in fresh completely.
Fun stuff, hope to see some pics on this subject.



EDGE said:


> Don't mixed tank water from different fish tank into 1 recycle tank water and reuse them after This is a good way to spread fish disease to other tanks.
> 
> If you plann on creating a ledge, use inert substrate (gravel, hydroton, perlite, etc) and have the water trickle in there top down.
> 
> ...


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

those red mangrove plants actually look pretty cool
anyone seen them around here for sale?
im hoping since they can take brackish water they should be fine in the hard water africans like?


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## jkam (Apr 21, 2010)

found some lucky bamboo plants at the place in T&T. Thanks for the tip!

$2.29 or $2.99 each stem. not bad I think.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

I've also done this with lucky bamboo.

All our houseplants, vegetable patch and blueberry planter boxes are watered with "fish" water.

I even recycle my "cleaner" sw from the reef into the fish only & drain the fish only "dirty" water.

With the amount of extra water we use with our obsessions, its good to recycle, reuse & reduce when we can.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

i have some of the bamboo in my tank and while its staying green its not growing at all - it gets no direct light at the top where the leaves are :/
wouldnt mind trying one of the mangrove plants if it started nice n short, my tank is pretty tall


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## Kimrocks (Aug 30, 2011)

jkam said:


> So I got this idea when I went to the Seattle zoo. (they recycle the water from their penguin exhibit)
> 
> I'm gonna use one of my spare tanks (prob 33g) and put a bunch of potted household plants in it. The idea is to put my old tank water from some of my tanks into this and have the plants eat up all the nitrates/nitrite/etc and then put it back into the tank when I do a water change.
> 
> ...


Where did you get the Papyrus and Echinodorus grandiflorus ?

BTW - Did this set up work well for you?

I have Lucky Bamboo, Peace Lily and Pothos - would like to test and try other varieties of plants.


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Aluminum plant works too - Pilea cadierei. 

The emerged plants take out nitrates from my riparium very quickly. I have to dose EI in my low tech tank to keep my crypts alive...

I got my papyrus plant from a garden center. I noticed they're pretty easy to find but only between end of April through to end of June.
I find the cyperus plants need A LOT of light. Mine didn't hold up under even a decent amount of wattage from my custom LED fixture.

Where did you get the Golden Pothos?


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## April (Apr 21, 2010)

Anyone wanting aluminum plants or pothos...I can get and usually have in stock.also bamboo..I'm out right now...but I sell for 1.00 a stem 
Straight stems.


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## Kimrocks (Aug 30, 2011)

Reckon said:


> Aluminum plant works too - Pilea cadierei.
> 
> The emerged plants take out nitrates from my riparium very quickly. I have to dose EI in my low tech tank to keep my crypts alive...
> 
> ...


Walmart and HomeDepot seems to always have them - Pothos comes in a variety of shapes and colors and they seem to all work.

Thanks for the tip on the Umbrella Papyrus, will watch out for them at the local garden centre.

Other than nitrates, during power failures, I think these plants would support the conditions in the tank - as another backup measure.


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