fertilizing with a filter

here's one to mull over would fish feces and wasted food make a good fertilizer for plants? if you were to plant some aquarium plant in a flower pot using just natural gravel then connect the return tube to the bottom of the flower pot everything loose in the aquarium water that would be drawn into your filter would have to pass through the gravel in the flower pot trapping most of it before it made it to your filter media wouldn't that stuff that was trapped in the gravel be fertilizer for the plant something that grows fast the flower pot would elevate the plant closer to the surface and give it more light than the other plants anyway any suggestions? maybe just a powerhead attached to the side of the flower pot that could be turned on when you want to clean the water turn it one and stir the water it would filter it out rather quickly and feed the plant or heres another suggestion a natural filter tip for the return to your filter would give my shrimp access to clean it off and could be removed and cleaned easy enough maybe a bad idea like this one have two filter cartridges and just rotate them out with one actually in the tank for the shrimp to pick over after a few days take it out and clean it, then just put it back in the tank to regrow the good bacteria before you replace the dirty filter with it I don't know like I said just mull it over drop your two cents worth and let's see if we can start something new Lee

 

Oh yeah...you can do that. On another site, someone asked that very question and like 20 home owners posted asking...What...you don't use the aquarium water for gardening??? Heck, I don't own a house right now, so if you need some extra water, let me know. LOL

 

Somewhere around here is a thread talking about something similar. Someone set up a whole tray of plants that sat over the tank. They used a pump to pull water up into the tray, and then the water drained out of the other end.
This is actually an excellent idea. It's just hydroponics. I think I'm going to have to try this.

 

timg did that. It's around in this section some place.

 

yeah his idea led to mine mine is inside the aquarium and requires no tank construction just a hole drilled in a clay pot or plastic even and a power head Lee

 

his idea led to mine

Got any pics? I'd like to set something similar up over mine!

 

this isn't a working idea it's more of a mental sketch but tim's is above the tank and waterfalls in where my idea is to have one on the bottom of the tank that way the water has to flow through the gravel in the pot to be pulled into the powerhead and returned where ever you want it to go if it were to be left circulating all the time it would pull food into it so I say only turn it on when you're cleaning you could hook up to the other side of the flower pot with a gravel vacuum and use it inside the tank with no need to remove and replace water only the debris would be trapped in the gravel and used by whatever was planted there something fast growing like anacharis to use up the trapped fertilizer Lee