I remember years ago I read that it is possible to recycle tank water by putting it outside in a barrel or something, has anyone ever heard of this?

Hi blueguppies, welcome to the forums :bounce:

I've never heard of recycling tank water.....I use it to water my plants

I never heard of it. Couldn't you just use the barrel to collect rain water.

We do water changes to get rid of the nitrates. Just storing it in a barrel will not remove the nitrate, though growing plants in it, like watercress, would help.

Not sure that it would work perfectly, and who knows what other chemicals would build up over time.

Really only any point in trying if you live in a desert, or feed it to your plants - the fish poo etc is fertiliser!

I have been grappling with this problem myself recently, I have been wanting to set up a second tank, but since we are on tank water I have been trying to come up with ways to recycle or scrub the waterchange water since water is at a premium for me.

I was thinking about setting up a sort of outdoor natural distiller powered by the sun where I could dump my WC water into it and then reclaim at least a good portion of the water to use again.

But recently I have been investigating using an algae scrubber which seems like the easier and cleaner solution, links to threads on MFK here,

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... p?t=180385

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... p?t=115444

Hopefully I will set up and test one of these in the next few weeks, it probably won't completely eliminate WC but should significantly reduce the volume of them.

I am hoping that by WC you are meaning water change and not water closet

Yep :lol: :lol: :lol:

setting up trays outside with marsh or bog plants etc growing in them then recirculating the water through them like a mini wetlands may work

as stella mentioned watercress in them may give you a cash crop as well

duckweed would be good for sucking up nutrients..its used for that purpose in sewage ponds overseas.

also less feeding and a having a well planted tank, with less light and lower temps with a fittig lid will mean you dont need to change the water as frequently

i use mine on the garden, great for tomatoes etc. You could grow a few in pots to use your water so you're not wasting it?

Otherwise unless you're changing massive volumes each week it would be hard to make it worthwhile, during the hot dry part of the year where you have to worry most about the tank level any water you set aside to recycle will evaporate really fast too, unless you keep it well covered or something?

If you have a tank set up with a lot of plants, few fish, and really good filtration, you do not have to do as many water changes.

As most know, I only do water changes once a month at most (and more usually once every 3 months).