Pro tip: My best propagation day ever was after our fish tank filter died

Last Tuesday our filter broke and we had to do a full water change. I didn't want to waste the old tank water so I used it on my pothos cuttings and some spider plant pups. Every single one rooted within a week, which never happens for me. Usually I kill half of them. The ammonia and bacteria in that dirty water really seemed to kickstart the roots. Has anyone else used aquarium water for cuttings?

3 comments

3 Comments

blair_webb14d ago

How long did you let the filter water sit before using it on the cuttings?

the_miles14d ago

@blair_webb I never actually let it sit. Just pour straight from the Brita into the cup and dip the cuttings right in. Letting water sit is one of those things people swear by but I've never noticed a difference. Tried it both ways a bunch of times and the cuttings that got fresh filtered water did just as good or better. Honestly I think the whole "let it sit 24 hours" thing is more about tap water with chlorine than filtered water anyway.

barbarah1913d ago

My friend Sarah tried this after her betta fish died and she had to drain the whole tank. She was gonna dump the water but I told her about your post and she decided to try it on her sad little philodendron cuttings that had been sitting in plain tap water for weeks with zero roots. Within 5 days she had tiny white nubs starting on every single stem. She was texting me pictures every morning like a proud plant grandma. The only downside was the water smelled pretty bad by day 3 so she changed it out for fresh aquarium water from her surviving tank. She's been religiously saving her tank water ever since and swears by it now.