[Alpharius]

Do you know where the nearest aquarium shop is?


Aquaponics:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.ph...=aquaponic adjective; a plant growing technology dependent on the naturally occurring symbiotic relationship between fish and plants, living and growing, in a water circulating soilless sytem contained within a controled environment/facility.

Back in December/Early January I started looking for a new hobby. I wanted to try aquaponics, but I had one problem - the windows in my house don’t offer any sun! I also live just south of Winterfell, so any sunlight that did manage to get in would be limited to a couple hours a day, at best. I finally stumbled across a solution, and after a spending a couple hundred bucks, I have a sweet system set up with dozens of plants growing and some scenery that keeps my house a little more lively.

Hydroponics:
Any plant grown without the use of soil in nutrient rich conditions.

I decided when it came to hydroponics I would either go big or go home. I went all in and bought the Aerogarden LED Extra with the salad greens kit for $200 or so. I spent all of 5 minutes assembling it, putting it where I wanted in the house, filling the tank with water, adding nutrients and the seed packs, plugged it in, and voila! It was ready to go. It took about 3 weeks to get the plants to where I feel comfortable cutting them back consistently, and ever since it’s been supplying me with 3-4 salads a week ($10USD or so). About once a week I add water and nutrients to the system. The lights are automated, and alerts me to when I need to add water or nutrients to the system. It also has manual settings to turn it on and off whenever you want. It’s that easy.

I’m pretty lazy when it comes to doing stuff around the house, so it’s the perfect system for me. I’ve thought about getting another one and having a salad every day that I grew myself. There are some other systems you can buy and homemade systems you can set up yourself. The Aerogarden has 7 pots of lettuce growing. As it’s not exposed to wind like it would naturally be, the lettuce is amazingly soft and practically melts in my mouth. Apparently if you like your lettuce crunchy you can set up a small fan next to your garden and toughen it up.



The LED growlight attached to the Aerogarden allowed me to buy my first aquaponics tank. I got an Aquafarm for $60 at a petstore, grabbed a Betta fish with a couple snails and started growing wheat grass to test it out (I actually went a little overboard and still have too much wheat grass…) The light from the Aerogarden allowed me to grow the plants above the tank, and it worked out pretty damn well. Gives my home office some extra light and something pretty to look at. The Aquafarm came with everything I needed to get started and it got me totally hooked. It has five pots, which right now are growing a combination of wheat grass, arugula, and kale. I lost one Betta cycling the tank, but now I have a beautiful fucking Crowntail Betta swimming around helping my plants grow.



Having the Aquafarm inspired me to go shopping, and led to me setting up a 20 gallon aquaponics tank (the Aquafarm is only 3 gallons) which has begun supplying me with more kale, arugula, basil, parsley, microgreens, and cilantro than I know what to do with. Now that I have an idea of what I’m doing, I can walk you through the steps to set up your own. Easy organic food you grow yourself while pimpin’ out your place and making it look badass.

Buy your own Aquafarm here: https://www.backtotheroots.com/shop/aquafarm



Post a couple pics of it on Facebook and watch people start to make excuses to come over...

[Alpharius]

How I Set Up My Twenty Gallon Tank



Step One:
The first step was to buy everything I needed.
*A growlight - Important not to use windows to for sun/heat. Temperature can vary as sun comes through a window and can seriously fuck up your fish if a tank gets too hot or too cold. I knew the growlight from my Aerogarden wouldn’t be enough. I bought a 2ft growlight for about $25 and mounted it on the wall above where I wanted the tank.
* I bought a 20 gallon tank with all the decorations I wanted in it. Tip: Don’t get live aquatic plants, they’ll compete with your plants on top for resources.
* An air pump/bubbler + tubing.
* An air stone to hook the pump/bubbler to.
* Hydroponic pots and grow media - important note: don’t use dirt or rocks from outside, you want chemical free, food safe materials or you’ll be poisoning your fish, plants, and possibly yourself.
* You can get organic heirloom seeds fairly cheap here.



I set up the aquarium and added water. You can either use ph neutral water found at some aquatic pet stores, or treat tap water with a dechlorinator. I used tap water and some of the dechlorinator that came with the Aquafarm. You can either cycle your aquarium without fish (Google “Fishless cycling”), or get some bottled bacteria and add your plants right away. The plants take ammonia, and nitrates/nitrites from the water that would otherwise kill your fish. One way to cycle your aquarium is to heavily plant it, making it perfect for an aquaponics tank that has a lot of sprouts already established.

Take a small sample of water from the aquarium to your local pet store when you think it’s ready. They should be able to test the water quality and let you know if it’s safe for fish. Once your water is ready, add a few fish at a time, too many too soon and you can fuck up the chemistry of your tank and leave you with a bunch of dead fish and lost money.



Alternatively you can throw some fish in the tank, hope the odds are ever in their favor, and let them sacrifice themselves to cycle the tank. Seems like a waste of money and life, to me.

While I was setting up the aquarium and waiting for it to be ready, I grabbed seeds of what I wanted to grow in my new garden. Since I had lettuce from the hydroponics tank, I started with arugula, kale, microgreens, parsley, basil, cilantro, and a couple flowers I plan on potting outside later in the year. I started the seeds in ziplock bags, and let them get an inch or two before transplanting them into the pots. Pouring seeds directly into the pots seems like a good way to get seeds floating and sinking all over your tank.

For my tank I grabbed a regular 20 gallon fish tank a friend had in her closet for the past few years, washed it out, placed it where I wanted it in the house, then added the decorations, the airstones, then finally the water. I cut holes in the screen top that came with the tank and added some support to it to keep the pots in. I layered growing sprouts with my grow media making a tiered system of plants at varied levels inside the pots, so that all the plants weren’t clustered together and didn’t escape the pots and float away.

Once my water was given the go ahead, I grabbed two snails and added them first. I kept an eye on them to make sure they didn’t keel over and die or shoot straight to the surface right away. They help keep the tank clean and clear of algae. Again, I’m lazy so I’d rather let one or two of these guys do some work for me. The tank doesn’t need to be cleaned much, if at all. As the waste breaks down, the plants and bacteria utilize the ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites, keeping the aquarium from being a 20 gallon poisonous death trap.

Quote:

“Nitrite is a moderately toxic nitrogen based compound in the aquarium. Most of the time we wont and should not be able to "see" this form when using test kits. This is because nitrite is an intermediate molecule in the nitrogen cycle and is quickly oxidized to nitrate NO3- by bacteria in the genus Nitrobacter. When the nitrogen cycle is running efficiently and to completion, nitrite should be undetectable in the aquarium. Its toxicity is not as high as ammonia, but can still damage fish at moderate concentrations.

Nitrate is the most oxidized form of nitrogen in the aquarium. It is the least toxic of three main nitrogen based compounds NH3 NO2- NO3-. However, Nitrate can still "shock" fish if they are pulled from an aquarium with a low concentration and put into tank with a high concentration and vise verse.

Nitrate can be consumed by plants, algae and microorganisms for nitrogen assimilation. It can also be used by bacteria that live deep in the substrate where oxygen levels are 0. These Anaerobic zones promote a process called denitrification where nitrate is converted to nitrogen gas which then bubbles out of the aquarium.”

After the snails seemed to be doing well and my plants were growing in their pots, I checked the water again, then once I got the green light, I grabbed my first couple fish and added them in. Fish can be added every two - four weeks so as not to put your carefully balanced chemical equation off. Remember, one inch of fish for each gallon of aquarium.

I turn the growlights off at night and leave the bubblers on 24/7. They’re not that loud - I can hear my music at it’s normal levels. This second tank allows me to grow arugula, kale, microgreens and herbs to supplement my salads and meals throughout the week.



There’s an awesome DIY system you can set up on the cheap that can be found here: http://gardenpool.org/online-classes/int...helfponics - This will probably be my next project. I’m also thinking about getting a big 55-100 gallon tank and growing trout in it. Getting a good catch of smoked trout to treat myself to or give to people as Kwanzaa gifts seems like a pretty sweet idea...

So there we go, a $400 investment is turning into $15/week in fresh vegetables that haven't been sprayed with God knows what. My home looks nicer and has something unique for people to be interested in and look at whenever I entertain guests, and it's kind of fun to check up on the fish and see them swimming around from time to time. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go make a salad to go with dinner!

[Luvianka]

I am going to buy this baby:

[BBinger]

I'll offer the obligatory precaution that if you try the aquaponics set up, you need to not go cheap getting goldfish or other colored carp. They will eat any part of a plant they can access and while doing so they will grow fast and create insane amounts of nitrogen products. The nitrogen production could be a boon if it isn't for their insatiable appetite.

* BBinger remembers getting three "feeder" goldfish as a wee lad for 29 cents a piece. They lived 9, 11, and 12 years respectively growing the first few years from under an inch to a respectable 5" eye-to-fork length before slowing down their growth. As they grew and I threw my child earning power money at keeping them alive they went through progressively bigger tanks and ate a number of hornworts and other plants selected for their inedibility.

If you go aquaponics still to carnivorous fish like bettas, guppies, and tetras. For their weight they are better nitrogen producers and they have far saner limits to their growth.

[Alpharius]

(04-09-2015 09:34 PM)BBinger Wrote:  

If you go aquaponics still to carnivorous fish like bettas, guppies, and tetras. For their weight they are better nitrogen producers and they have far saner limits to their growth.

Yeah, I have the betta in the small tank with tetras & platys in the big one.

[BBinger]

(04-09-2015 10:55 PM)Osiris Wrote:  

(04-09-2015 09:34 PM)BBinger Wrote:  

If you go aquaponics still to carnivorous fish like bettas, guppies, and tetras. For their weight they are better nitrogen producers and they have far saner limits to their growth.

Yeah, I have the betta in the small tank with tetras & platys in the big one.

Platys are still carnivorous, mostly, which is a plus. Some platys might be herbivores which could be a concern. If they so much as bibble at the roots all guppies are carnivores/insectivores. Still very cheap fish and cheap nitrogen sources.

[Oz.]

What is this magical shit I just read about

[BBinger]

Tldr; Edible plants grow in water. Fish shit in water and fertilize plants. General fish that don't eat plants are the safer choice to provide shit.

[kbell]

What are the best type of fish? And I guess your not limited to seasons like outdoor planting? Also does the indoor plants attract bugs indoors?

cool video on it. I also didn't know you could grow edible fish like tilipia in them.

[Alpharius]

(04-10-2015 09:40 PM)kbell Wrote:  

What are the best type of fish? And I guess your not limited to seasons like outdoor planting? Also does the indoor plants attract bugs indoors?

Depends on what type of system you have and what you want out of it. I went with tropical fish because I thought the aquariums would add to the ambiance well. For bigger systems I've seen and read that tilapia are pretty forgiving, but living in a place that routinely gets snow from October to April, I think trout would be an easier investment due to trout needing a lower water temperature. Really you can grow whatever freshwater fish you want.

So far the plants have not drawn any bugs to them. I did see a giant set up in a basement about a week ago that had expanded on the "make your own ecosystem" premise quite a bit. Apparently the system had attracted gnats and aphids, so they were planning on releasing ladybugs and praying mantis later this spring. They were also growing shrimp to help clean their tanks and had earthworms in their grow media.

The season doesn't affect the system at all since it's inside. I'd definitely want a bigger system outside, however, and just harvest and shut it down come November or so.

[Goldin Boy]

(04-10-2015 09:40 PM)kbell Wrote:  

What are the best type of fish? And I guess your not limited to seasons like outdoor planting? Also does the indoor plants attract bugs indoors?

cool video on it. I also didn't know you could grow edible fish like tilipia in them.

If it's their food source, yes you could attract them.

I know this from growing, um...other things in my home.

It's nothing to worry about. But I'd suggest put up some fly paper or the sticky cards, to monitor.

1) Sprinkle the soil with diatomaceous earth. It's edible and the dust absorbs the lipids from bugs' exoskeletons causing them to dehydrate.

2) Neem Oil: Spray the soil. It's an effective, non-toxic insect repellent. You just have to do it weekly.

3) Like Osiris said, preying mantises (if the adults don't bother you). I've never done it but maybe if you have an infestation you can handle it naturally with pitcher plants or venus fly traps?

[BBinger]

(04-12-2015 08:29 PM)Goldin Boy Wrote:  

1) Sprinkle the soil with diatomaceous earth. It's edible and the dust absorbs the lipids from bugs' exoskeletons causing them to dehydrate.

I'm a big fan of diatomaceous earth around any ingress points of the home generally. When its possible, the time to stop vermin is before they enter your home.

[jamaicabound]

I garden outdoors in the summer and used to also grow hydroponically. One thing I notice, yes it's nice having fresh produce and its kind of fun eating something you grew yourself, however the yield isn't even enough to keep up with me myself eating let alone anyone else in the household.

For things like herbs or green onions its okay because they grow fast and you don't eat that much but lettuce you need quite a few plants to be able to keep up with eating a salad every day or every other day.

Also, I find soil much more forgiving than hydroponics or aeroponics. You can put things in soil to stabalize the ph where as water and air you really need to be on top of your ph and also levels of how much nutes are in there. You need a ppm meter and a ph meter both which can run anywhere from $100 to a few $100.

As a beginner though its messier and takes up more space I'd recommend people start with soil.

[kbell]

I already do soil. Kale gives huge harvests try 6 seeds of it. You won't run out. Soil can be tricky for blueberries which need acid and sand and blackberries. Also bird have a nasty habbit of eating all of your berries right before harvest. Outdoors bugs, deer and weather damage are bigger concerns. I like complimentary gardening but so far I only know about marigolds near peppers and tomatoes. Its a slow learning process.

[Alpharius]

I've been gardening outside here and there for a while, never really got anything more than a couple peppers or whatever, definitely didn't get anywhere near a return on my investment. With the Aerogarden in particular I feel I'm getting a good, consistent amount of lettuce for salads.

That being said, I have 8 romaine plants in pots right now outside. Hopefully they'll do well and I'll be able to diversify a little bit over the summer.

[germanico]

Osiris, care to share a pic of your actual setup?

This is something I am interested in and I have around half a dozen 10 gallon tanks laying around. I used to breed convict cichlids back in the day.

[jamaicabound]

(04-13-2015 10:29 PM)Osiris Wrote:  

I've been gardening outside here and there for a while, never really got anything more than a couple peppers or whatever, definitely didn't get anywhere near a return on my investment. With the Aerogarden in particular I feel I'm getting a good, consistent amount of lettuce for salads.

That being said, I have 8 romaine plants in pots right now outside. Hopefully they'll do well and I'll be able to diversify a little bit over the summer.

I havn't checked the specs and not sure if you've gotten the thing but I think your going to be surprised by the size of the thing. Lettuce does grow pretty quick and grows pretty dense so you can get a decent amount in a small area but I think these things are more for growing fresh herbs on your countertop. If you grow some mint or cilantro you can definately keep up with how much you eat, if your trying to grow lettuce or peppers your going to be waiting months for one meal worth I have a feeling.

[Alpharius]

(04-14-2015 11:26 AM)jamaicabound Wrote:  

I havn't checked the specs and not sure if you've gotten the thing but I think your going to be surprised by the size of the thing. Lettuce does grow pretty quick and grows pretty dense so you can get a decent amount in a small area but I think these things are more for growing fresh herbs on your countertop. If you grow some mint or cilantro you can definately keep up with how much you eat, if your trying to grow lettuce or peppers your going to be waiting months for one meal worth I have a feeling.

This is my Aerogarden. I've been mowing the top of it with a pair of scissors and cutting the top 1/3rd from the leaves for the past month now every time I'm looking for a salad. So far it's been pretty spot on when it says 5x faster than soil.

The outdoor pots I'm growing romaine in have until September, then Mother Winter will come in and they'll be done one way or another.

[kbell]

How are you growing Romaine past July? It starts flowering and growing upward. It than tastes bitter and has plant semen inside the leaves.

[BBinger]

(04-14-2015 11:26 AM)jamaicabound Wrote:  

(04-13-2015 10:29 PM)Osiris Wrote:  

I've been gardening outside here and there for a while, never really got anything more than a couple peppers or whatever, definitely didn't get anywhere near a return on my investment. With the Aerogarden in particular I feel I'm getting a good, consistent amount of lettuce for salads.

That being said, I have 8 romaine plants in pots right now outside. Hopefully they'll do well and I'll be able to diversify a little bit over the summer.

I havn't checked the specs and not sure if you've gotten the thing but I think your going to be surprised by the size of the thing. Lettuce does grow pretty quick and grows pretty dense so you can get a decent amount in a small area but I think these things are more for growing fresh herbs on your countertop. If you grow some mint or cilantro you can definately keep up with how much you eat, if your trying to grow lettuce or peppers your going to be waiting months for one meal worth I have a feeling.

I like the aquaponics thing for leafy herbs and it seems it could do enough leafy greens for the occasional salad.

I vastly prefer dirt gardening outside for anything I want to grow in quantity. If you have enough dirt outside it can become a very low effort high return venture.

To my knowledge there is no way to aquaponically compete with an established asparagus mound. A few hours of hard work spread over three years can give you a small chunk of outdoor garden space that might boost your property value for decades.

The catch with dirt gardening outdoors, depending on the climate, is the variability. One year you might tons of tomatoes and peppers, the next you might have brussel sprout for the next year. A few years ago Grandpa only harvested one sweet potato tuber, but it was seven pounds and managed to cover Thanksgiving and Christmas meals with leftovers (There's seven aunts and uncles on that side of the family not all attend these gathering, but still on big fucking potato).

Aquaponics though offers consistency that can be scaled down to an insane degree. Things that grow fast and you can harvest without killing are perfect for small aquaponics systems. Your basil, cilantro, other herbs, and some portion of your salad greens work well this way. For annuals like peppers that fruit and die... fuck them they can take their chances outside.

As far as mint goes spearmint been growing as a weed in the back flower bed and I like it more than the flowers (flowers don't make juleps or mojitos) so... I just have to miss those drinks over winter.

* BBinger would hate to do that math that leads to a sustainable salad a day aquaponics system.

* BBinger would also hate to do the math to plan a sustainable aquaponics system involving tilapia for once a week personal consumption.

[Alpharius]

(04-14-2015 09:40 PM)kbell Wrote:  

How are you growing Romaine past July? It starts flowering and growing upward. It than tastes bitter and has plant semen inside the leaves.

I haven't, yet... We'll see how it turns out. I might just have some romaine for Caesar salads in the late spring/early summer.

(04-14-2015 09:58 PM)BBinger Wrote:  

I havn't checked the specs and not sure if you've gotten the thing but I think your going to be surprised by the size of the thing. Lettuce does grow pretty quick and grows pretty dense so you can get a decent amount in a small area but I think these things are more for growing fresh herbs on your countertop. If you grow some mint or cilantro you can definately keep up with how much you eat, if your trying to grow lettuce or peppers your going to be waiting months for one meal worth I have a feeling.

I like the aquaponics thing for leafy herbs and it seems it could do enough leafy greens for the occasional salad.

I vastly prefer dirt gardening outside for anything I want to grow in quantity. If you have enough dirt outside it can become a very low effort high return venture.

To my knowledge there is no way to aquaponically compete with an established asparagus mound. A few hours of hard work spread over three years can give you a small chunk of outdoor garden space that might boost your property value for decades.

* BBinger would hate to do that math that leads to a sustainable salad a day aquaponics system.

* BBinger would also hate to do the math to plan a sustainable aquaponics system involving tilapia for once a week personal consumption.
[/quote]

Some things it's better to grow outside, i.e... asparagus and flowering/fruiting plants. For leafy greens and herbs, hydroponics and aquaponics works fairly well. I have seen some hydroponic systems with tomatoes, but I've heard mixed results. Maybe I'll try them out next fall/winter, we'll see.

BBinger, I'll track down some specs for you if you want.

[The Beast1]

So... uh you guys ever grow anything of the 420 variety (where legal of course)?

[Alpharius]

(04-16-2015 08:44 AM)The Beast1 Wrote:  

So... uh you guys ever grow anything of the 420 variety (where legal of course)?

I don't, but it could certainly be done. There's plenty of info out on the interwebs on it.

Even if it is legal where you are, I'd be careful about where the growlights are placed - mine aren't that great and it's still really obvious at night which room has the lights in it. Lets potential thieves know exactly where in the house you're equipment is.

[Alpharius]

Moved all my systems and grabbed a couple pics before doing so. Here's what mine look like, you can see the Aquafarm (Notice the monster Kale plant that will not quit!)


And my homemade 20 gallon


I switched out a lot of the herbs and greens in favor of tropical plants because I was getting sick of forcing myself to eat so much salad and the herbs weren't doing too great.

[atlant]

Always been interested in this myself. Do you think an Aerogarden would be suitable to grow peppers? I've seen some comments that the yield will be low because of the limited horizontal and vertical space. The Aerogarden has my interest because it at least looks somewhat stylish, whereas all the DIY solutions where people use plastic containers and pipes from IKEA and the like are of course cheaper, but also a big eyesore.

I think the best one I've seen so far is this one: http://www.greenfortune.com/streamgarden.php, it looks pretty presentable, and also would let me use my own lighting and thus would be more flexible in regards to plant size. Unfortunately not directly available where I live. The system in kbell's video looks nice too. In any case, the little Aquagarden thing with the betta I could buy here, so I might just give that a try to start out with, just for fun.

Also, how maintenance heavy are these things once up and running? With lighting, pumps etc set up correctly could I go traveling for 2 weeks and come back to a not completely ruined system and/or plant (I mean for the ones without fish, which need to be fed more often, I guess)