Organic aquarium - Human Urine as plant fertilisers!?

[zyblack]

Haha, I think this post might set some people off and might churn the stomach of others. Anyone tried using human urine as fertilizer? Be it for aquatic or non-aquatic plants?

I have been doing some digging on the net and found out that urine was considered an alternative to commercial fertilizers and were being used in agricultural farming in some countries. Urine contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium which are important for plant growth. I see that a lot of people are dosing KNO3 and KH2PO4 as part of their fertilizer regime, so why not turn to our own urine for those substance?

I think in the olden days farmers were using manure and urine as fertilizers so it should be feasible even now. Below are some links to websites with information regarding the use of urine as fertilizers for plants. Do post some comments for discussion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_urine

http://www.geocities.com/impatients6...Fertilizer.htm

http://www.holon.se/folke/kurs/Dista.../urin_en.shtml

http://www.wecf.de/cms/articles/2005/09/maize_urine.php

http://ezinearticles.com/?Using-Huma...izer&id=392596

Even found a website promoting a book on the subject. Liquid Gold

http://www.liquidgoldbook.com/

[stephen chung]

Well, I am not surprise. My grandma used to do that.

[tcampbell]

maybe why we don't use it in a fish tank is the smell and the color.
"Is that yellow water from the drift wood?"
"None, I just forgot to dilute my urine this time and it will pass? So will the smell, I hope"

[zyblack]

Haha, it could be the tea that I accidentally spilled into my tank...

Colourwise and smellwise, it might not be exactly pleasant. But I noticed the liquid fertilizers I used like SeaChem Flourish and Ferka Aqualitizer both have a strong smell and dark colour as well though you could hard see them once they are dissolved into the water.

I think unless you empty the whole content of your bladder direct into the tank, the colour and smell would not be too overpowering. Perhaps a few drops per 20 liter? Who knows...we might come up with a "Urine fertilizer regime calculator" soon.

I also wonder if a proper diet should be imposed if we decide to go the "natural way" (pun intended) since our diet might add extra stuff to our urine.

[tcampbell]

Exactly what I was thinking. You would have to control what you eat. Sorry honey I can't eat that lovely dinner of beets and cabbage you made. I have to urinate in the fish tank tomorrow. I wouldn't want to hurt the fish.

Guess it would give a new meaning to "piss poor tank"

[bryan]

I once met a hobbyist that swore by dried chicken poop for base fertilizer. I've seen his tanks, they look fantastic. I don't have the guts to try though.

[Aeon]

Urine has a pH 4.5 - 6 and the decay of urea releases ammonia. It also contains heavy metals.

[zyblack]

Urine may go as low as pH 4.5 or as high as pH 8 according to this article: http://www.rnceus.com/ua/uaph.html
Of course by dosing a few drops or so would probably not affect the pH of a tank too much. I was thinking if we can dose it the way we dose liquid ferts, a teaspoon or a few drops a day, not an entire bladder.

I wonder what sort of heavy metals are released in urine? Anyone has any idea? If I remember correctly certain vitamin pills are not soluble in water and can get expelled via urine. I look up the ingredients of a multi-vitamin pill and saw zinc, copper, magnesium, calcium, iron,phosphorus, potassium, manganese..etc..if we consume such pills and have these metals expelled via urine..will the plants benefit or suffer if we dose "natural ferts" in our tanks?

It is a topic of interest for me and I do hope to hear opinions from the people in the forum.

[zyblack]

Oh yah, one more thing, I read that if you are a STRICT vegetarian, your pee will have a pH of 8 or slightly more alkaline. Carnivores? pH 6 or even lower, not below pH 4.5 though.

If your pH of your pee is too acidic, it could mean that you might have some health problems that be of concern. One way to find out is to dose your planted tank in copious amounts and watch if your plants start to "burn" Free health pre-screening test anyone?

[Aeon]

Ya I think the acid comes from dissolved urea which is higher when the diet contains more proteins.

Metals in urine (in μg/kg wet weight), wikipedia

* Copper: 67
* Zinc: 30
* Chromium: 5
* Lead: 1
* Cadmium: 0

[David Moses Heng]

Well, I am not surprise. My grandma used to do that.

mine too. i remember those days when my grandparents use to have plantations at Lorong Ah Soo(many decades ago, when i was below 10. I'm now 31) and they would tell all the grandkids to wee into the foam boxes that my father supply them with(my father is a seafood dealer and still is) so that they can water the veges.

[CK Yeo]

hmm... If used for the fish tank, won't the ammonia kill something first? Doesn't the heavy metal content depends on what you eat? And I don't think you are going to use it so concentrated that it will affect the pH of the water. I will worry about the ammonia first.

If for terrestrial plants (or emersed plants), it may work for certain plants after dilution but I don't think it is complete or balanced enough. May need to supplement something.

Dung is a different issue altogether. Bacteria like samonella and E. coli present in dung will be quite a health issue. Having said that, I know that fish farms still fertilize their grow-out ponds with chicken dung to boost inforsoria growth. Daphnia/Moina culture are also located near pig farms so that the waste produced can fertilize the culture ponds.

ck

[zyblack]

There were a few websites describing how some of the farmers in certain poor countries were unable to afford commercial fertilizers to grow their crops which cause their crops to be shrunken and not competitive against more industrialized countries.

I think before the advent of commercial fertilizers, crops were mainly fertilized from compost of dead leaves and dung which has the limitation of being slow to decompose and might not be available all the time. Cow dung is also used to fertilize our soil to grow the trees and grass in Singapore isn't it? I am not trained in Biology so most of these I just gather off the net.

Of course since this forum is mainly targeted at planted tank enthusiasts, we should look more into the context of the viability of using human waste as fertilizers for our tanks. bryan mentioned that he has seen a hobbyist use chicken dung as base fert so maybe this method has been tried out by other hobbyists as well?

If using dung is too much for you to handle, how about liquid urine? You could dilute it before applying to your tank but I think since your tank has loads of water in it already a few drops of pure urine would get pretty diluted fast enough. Remember the idea is to use a few drops and not your entire bladder. Of course the risk is there for the nano tanks 1 foot or smaller.

I am testing this out on my two tanks (gross?! I won't go into much details then ) since I only dose micro and not macro and my plants are starting to yellow due to lack of the macro nutrients. I will try to keep feeding constant to see if my plants get any better.

Just remember not to get any plants, fauna or equipment from me for the next few weeks...

[David Moses Heng]

Do keep us posted of your outcome.

[zyblack]

Another way to look at this issue is the effect the production of commercial fertilizers have on our eco-system. The main commercial fertilizer used in farms are nitrogen and the extraction of 1 tonne of anhydrous ammonia fertilizer requires 33,500 cubic feet of natural gas which is...a lot of gas. Reference: http://www.noble.org/Ag/Soils/NitrogenPrices/Index.htm

Also the price of natural gas has gone up in recent years due to growing demands and slow discovery of fresh natural gas deposits. These in turn affects the price of nitrogen and crops. I noticed the vegetables being sold in the market is getting more expensive, GST or no GST. Reference:http://www.deere.com/en_US/ag/furrow...r_archive.html

[Jungle-mania]

I notice that on australian forums, people actually use bones and blood for fertiliser for their tanks because the cost of specialised substrate and fertilier are expensive (try 400 to 500% more on retail) Even their soils is actual soil, sand and other mixture of wood bark and stuff that they find around their area.

[zyblack]

Bones and blood? Animal origin or.... I wonder how they do it...Jungle-mania you mind listing the forum you go to so I can go take a peek to see what it is about?

[CK Yeo]

I think what they meant is blood and bone meal. See link below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_meal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_meal

Maybe it is more appropriate to change the title to "organic aquarium" or something like that.

ck

[David Moses Heng]

Hmm... maybe i should start one tank based on this findings... interesting...

[Goondoo]

I can sponsor the samples, just call to reserve before collection