# Coffee anyone?



## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

Good stuff, keep us posted on this coffee grounds experiment..Wild!


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## bgoodwins (May 3, 2007)

It might make your water murky...Like coffee....Interesting idea though.


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## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

Let us know how it taste?


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## JenThePlantGeek (Mar 27, 2006)

I'm guessing it'll work very similarly to peat, but it'd be cool to see. And it'd smell good.

I saw an experiment at a science fair once where plants reacted to mind-altering chemicals by growing super fast and dying off. I can't remember if the experiment used alcohol or caffeine to get this behavior though, but if it was caffeine, then it'd be very cool to see how it does with aquarium plants!


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## jinx© (Oct 17, 2007)

Why do I envision fish bouncing off the glass?...lol


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## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

I wonder if you will use organic fair trade coffee? HMM


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## tom91970 (Dec 31, 2007)

jinx© said:


> Why do I envision fish bouncing off the glass?...lol


Just give 'em decaf!


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## stev0205 (Nov 5, 2007)

yea i was going to say, caffeine is toxic to humans in smaller amounts than you might think... i dunno if it's toxic to fish, but i would assume so. I would say, make sure it's decaf...


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## rolloffhill (Jan 18, 2008)

That'd make the house smell GREAT!!!!


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## neilfishguy (Dec 16, 2007)

your ph is going to be like 5....


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## Blackthumbwoes (Feb 27, 2007)

my only worry is thinking back to the days of going into work to see a coffee pot that had been sitting since friday.....thankfully the grounds weren't much of the smell.

should be interesting either way, can't say that even remotely thought about trying anything like that though lol.

Good luck 

Jason


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## marrow (Feb 4, 2007)

I have grown oyster mushrooms in coffee grounds and that worked well. I would try this in a bucket first as coffee grounds seem to float pretty well initially. You might want to try it in a tank without fish you are terribly fond of as caffeine is quite obviously a cns stimulant and may have adverse effects on the fish. The fish may also get coffee breath, tend to smoke cigarettes more often and experience headaches when the coffee is withdrawn. A fish may consider this a small price to pay in order to be a coffee achiever.


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

marrow said:


> . The fish may also get coffee breath, tend to smoke cigarettes more often and experience headaches when the coffee is withdrawn. A fish may consider this a small price to pay in order to be a coffee achiever.


:red_mouth


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

JUST USE FLORABASE!!:hihi:


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## Rod Hay (Feb 11, 2006)

Myself, I'd advise against this. I collect my coffee grounds and then take them outside to put in my own garden. If I get lazy and wait too long before emptying my bucket outside there are plenty of strange looking molds growing.

I also know with the Soil based tanks they recommend that you use plain topsoil - not soils overly rich in humus or organics. Too much decomposition can create bad gasses in the soil layer. 

If you still want to use coffee grounds I would never try it as the only substrate. Maybe you could try a soil tank with the grounds as 10% of the soil mix, Still capped with inert PFS or gravel to keep it from entering the water column too quickly.


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## psybock (Jan 12, 2007)

I was thinking about experimenting with a coffee ground/gravel mix in peat pots per my experiment with peat pots...

here's the thread (http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/substrate/57804-peat-pots.html)

I am full aware of what happens to coffee grounds that stay damp too long (I left a filter in the maker for 3 weeks one time and forgot about it...needless to say I had an entire civilization growing in there).

I'm just experimenting, and I have plenty of common guppies at my desposal. I keep them breeding so I can have live foods for breeding bettas, gourami's and killies...although I do select the prettiest ones and put them in my main tank...

Anyway, so it's at least worth a try...

Kevin


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

I'd be very careful and try this on an isolated experimental tank. As someone who drinks a lot of coffee (like right now), I can tell you that coffee often has a shiny oil slick on the top of it. Supposedly, it dissolves in water and is not really an oil.


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## imeridian (Jan 19, 2007)

Well, it's not oil as in petroleum (which you obviously know, hehe), but it is oil in the sense that it's "essential oil" of the coffee bean itself. The more oil, the better your coffee... or it's flavored with oils from the supplier.  

I agree with those that suggest against it, the grounds are used as a soil amendment more so than anything else, the actual level of coffee grounds in the soil once mixed is pretty low. Definitely be careful when experimenting.


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## yadab (Sep 16, 2020)

How did the experiment go ? 
Did the fish survive?
Hope you would answer. I know it's been decades......


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## victorusaconte (Jun 20, 2020)

Any answers?

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## jellopuddinpop (Dec 12, 2016)

This is a fun necro!

I actually read about this guy in the news. His coffee experiment was successful. As it turns out, fish are a lot smarter than we think, and given enough extra energy this guy managed to teach his to herd his shrimp into spelling dirty words for likes on the internet. Then it all turned for the worse. One fateful night, the fish all met underneath the not so realistic blue moonlighting, and unionized for better working conditions. Last I heard, the owner is now chained to the column in his basement producing Spirulina tablets and Tubifex worms for his new masters.


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## victorusaconte (Jun 20, 2020)

jellopuddinpop said:


> This is a fun necro!
> 
> 
> 
> I actually read about this guy in the news. His coffee experiment was successful. As it turns out, fish are a lot smarter than we think, and given enough extra energy this guy managed to teach his to herd his shrimp into spelling dirty words for likes on the internet. Then it all turned for the worse. One fateful night, the fish all met underneath the not so realistic blue moonlighting, and unionized for better working conditions. Last I heard, the owner is now chained to the column in his basement producing Spirulina tablets and Tubifex worms for his new masters.


Omg, thats incredible i would like to know the sources and study about it if u can provide so

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## Kubla (Jan 5, 2014)




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## victorusaconte (Jun 20, 2020)

Kubla said:


>


?

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## Fishly (Jan 8, 2010)

For those who are curious about the effect of caffeine on fish:

https://youthscience.ca/does-caffeine-affect-goldfish

https://www.ekoconception.eu/en/caffeines-potential-impact-on-aquatic-ecosystems/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0091305782902751

Spent coffee grounds contain 3.59 to 8.09 milligrams of caffeine per gram. https://www.caffeineinformer.com/ca...nt coffee grounds,gram of used coffee grounds.

Toxicity to fish LC50 - Leuciscus idus (Golden orfe) - 87 mg/l - 96 h
Toxicity to daphnia and other aquatic invertebrates static test EC50 - Daphnia magna (Water flea) - 182 mg/l - 48 h
Toxicity to algae static test - Desmodesmus subspicatus (green algae) - > 100 mg/l - 72 h
https://www.nwmissouri.edu/naturalsciences/sds/c/Caffeine.pdf

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Let's assume coffee grounds have half the density of sand, or about 16 grams per cubic inch. For a 10 gallon tank with 1" of coffee grounds, that would take about 200 cubic inches, or about 3,275 grams. With a caffeine content of 3.6mg per gram, you would have a total of 11,790mg of caffeine in the substrate.

Assuming the substrate leeches .1% of its caffeine content into the water per day, and that there's a total of 9 gallons of water in the tank, you'd have 11.8mg of caffeine in about 34 liters, or about .35mg/l.

Assuming an LC50 of 87mg/l, half the fish would die in about a week.


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## SardinePatheNews (Nov 12, 2019)

and there is this golden oldie https://www.businessinsider.com/how-powerful-is-caffeine-nasa-spider-web-study-2019-5?


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