I wonder if Park Bear and Lien (Lien do you use your fish water to water?) and anyone else who waters with fish water can help me figure this out. I've been watering once a week w/ rainwater, and once a week w/ rainwater w/ MSU pure water fertilizer added at 125 ppm. Sometimes, it is half distilled/half rain, if I am low on rainwater. I tend to water Monday/Saturday/Wednesday/Monday... repeat. If I don't have the rain available I'll occasionally water w/ tap, for the flushing, but it is maybe once every 8th watering, if that.

So now, I'm getting some fish from Lien (Thanks Lien!) to help out in the rain barrel. How should this change my fertilizing? I'd like to continue to use the MSU at least part of the time, because it seems to be helping to green up some of my plants that were a bit chlorotic. However, I don't want to be adding too MUCH nutrients to the fish/rain water. Or is it maybe a matter of cutting it w/ some distilled?

Any thoughts would be most helpful and appreciated. Thank you!!!

heather i dont know the answer but i use my terrarium water from my frog tanks and but i never fertilize maybe 1 every 3 months

I never use tap water to water my plants because of the mineral content so I would suggest you do the same as me and use distilled, 1 gallon bottles and mark additives on the bottle as needed. I've a few doctored with Physan-20, 30-10-10 25% and some with 19-31-17 25%. The fertilizer can hurt the fish by burning their gills. I buy the distilled water at about 50 cents each and have maybe 25 which I fill with rainwater as they empty which is a really cheap way to get both containers and water.

Ernie - I meant in my sprayer- I'll empty rainwater to sprayer, then add fertilized if necessary. Not to the whole 75 gal. tank.

I use my fish water to water my orchids, but I don't usually add fertilizer. When I fertilize I use RO water. The fish water probably only has trace elements, but I haven't taken any readings. I keep several different kinds of fish that require different types of water. I usually use my more neutral to acidic water on my orchids, I never use my hard water. I keep live plants in most of my tanks, so the nitrates, nitrites and amonia levels aren't too high, that's why I consider the fish water as having only trace element like levels.

I don't have fish or fish water. Until recently, I used well water. Since I've been collecting rain water and adding MSU, I've noticed that the leaves on my plants are "greening up" very nicely and they look really happy. Of course, it might also be because they are outside and are getting more humidity and good filtered light.

I'm not looking forward to going back to well water in the Winter. (Maybe it won't be that bad... can't tell, as I did not use the MSU that long with well water.) We have a river near by. I was wondering whether I could use the river water (of course warmed up) to water in the Winter? Does anyone have experience with this??? I would imagine it would also have nutrients from fish?

Thanks!!

All water has trace elements from the things it's come in contact with. It's the universal solvent after all so it's supposed to. River water, well water or tap water, the only difference is the quantities of the trace elements.

Rain water contains particles of sulfur and carbon and other impurities that are airborne and "washed" out of the air during storms. Run-off contains and adds the impurities of the asphalt probably used in the shingles on your home. Nothing is really pure except true distilled water that has been sterilized. Sterilization is usually not among our common abilities, so we use store bought or self-made which is fine.

Is river water safe? Check what grows in the river. Does it have healthy plants and fish? If mother nature allows things to thrive in your water then it's probably okay but consider it a bit acidic just from the nature of your location and the acid rain and pollution issues.

Heather...I didn't have a clue how you handled the water you store in your rain barrel so I wanted to make sure you knew not to do the whole barrel with fish in it. My point about the water bottles was just my way of keeping things organized so I figured I would share.

I use a either Tap water, Tap water and Fertiliser or pond water weekly, but only from my Koi or Gold fish ponds which have aquatic plants growing in them. Since using the pond/fishy water my plants have steadily regained a nice green colour and rewarded me with plenty of flowers.

My Koi ponds which don't have plants in, has rock salt added to it, so this would be unsuitable for watering.

Ah, okay, thanks everyone! That's pretty much what I figured. I'll plan to fertilize w/ distilled then.
I do the same thing, Ernie, w/ gallon jugs of water.

I forgot to mention that I use my pond water in the summer to water the plants and I do use fertilizer once a week. The water is a combination of rainwater and tap. It has a lot of leaf litter that keeps the water more neutral to slightly acidic. The plants seem to thrive outside.