My not aquaponic garden

[BigM]

So I bought some herbs to use on top of our fish tank. I will be getting some fish (and a few more herbs) soon.  I set them up yesterday and the plants seem to have perked up since then.  I think the trick is going to be having enough fish to provide the nutrients needed, but not so many that they kill the plants.

[joanfromzonesix]

gotta avoid them danged root-eaters -

[Valerie]

Keep an eye on your plants, too. Many plants can't survive having their roots submerged. They need oxygen and will drown if they stay in water too long. (Ask me how many gardens I've lost because of this. *sad face* )

[BigM]

I'm watching for that Val. From what I've read, having the air bubbler in the tank will provide them the O2 they need. If it starts to go bad I'll just put them in the ground as a back up plan!

[Valerie]

Hey, M, I thought you might be interested in this: www.attainable-sustainable.net/raising-tilapia/

[BigM]

Thanks for the link Val. I'll check it out!

I think I jumped the gun and put the plants in to soon. I took them out and will try with fish first this time and add in the plants later.

[Valerie]

Mar 26, 2014 4:04:33 GMT -5 BigM said:

Thanks for the link Val. I'll check it out!

I think I jumped the gun and put the plants in to soon. I took them out and will try with fish first this time and add in the plants later.

What happened?

[BigM]

When I started them out I had put some organic liquid fertilizer in there and they did great. Then I added fish and didn't want to put to much fert in the water and the plants started getting droopie, then the all the freaking fish died. Probably because I added to much fert trying to get the plants back! I did notice that the larger plants did better. I think it was because they had an easier time keeping half their roots out of the water.

[Valerie]

If you try again, use this stuff called MaxiCrop. It's a liquid seaweed extract (with no smell!) and it's the only plant supplement that won't hurt your fish. It does turn the water dark brown, though, so it's not real pretty.

Hey, I bet you could do it like airponics. With that they have the plant roots above the water and bubblers keep the surface stirred up. The bubble popping action keeps the roots moist with the water and nutrients, but they also get plenty of air! I think you'd just have to lower the water level in the tank and add a couple of the big airstone bars.

Oh yeah, that wouldn't remove the ammonia from the fish water, though. Hmmmmm....

[BigM]

The plants use the ammonia don't they?

Looked up aeroponics and it turns out that was what I was trying to accomplish using fish to "feed" the plants. Hmmm, maybe I need a water testing kit for better starting results.

[Valerie]

Yeah, there are nitrifying bacteria in the air and they collect on surfaces where there is ammonia. They turn it into nitrates and nitrites that the plants take up. By doing that, the plants use up the ammonia so it doesn't kill the fish. Don't carbon filters take out the ammonia in regular aquariums?

[BigM]

They do. I put the pump in but took the filter out.

[Valerie]

It's kind of a catch 22 huh? You need the plants to filter the water and the plants need the fish water, but they also need other stuff and to not drown.

Have you thought about doing something like this? I saw one that was established on a youtube video once, and it was pretty amazing.

www.instructables.com/id/Window-Aquaponics-Garden/?ALLSTEPS

[BigM]

That looks cool.

[BigM]

So I stopped by a petsmart yesterday to get more fish. Turns out the "fish girl" has a degree in aqua~science and has a similar set up at her house. When I told her what happened she suggested that the fish I had weren't putting out enough ammonia and that the water wasn't ready for the fish yet. This time I bought gold fish (high ammonia creators) and put some water starter stuff in the tank for them. I plan to add herbs to the top again at the end of this week so it will look pretty for the open house on Saturday!