Getting ready for Aqaurium grow

I am about to do an aqaurium grow. i want to grow about 5 plants. i have some purple widow seeds. so it'll be purple widow hydro. i wanted to know what kinda system and what size tank i should grow and what kinda fish should i put in there. whada ya guys think??

anyone input?

you want to have fish and weed in the same tank ? im a little confused?

african ciclids are really nice cool fish, but i dont know how well they live with weed plants? lol

yes i want weed and fish in it supppose to be a fish tank with weedplants.

pandabear said:

i am guessing that was a joke as pot plants cant live in the same environment as fish, also scratch the fish tank idea you dont want a clear container cuz light kills the roots. read the grow faq above, the whole thing, then you will know everthing

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WRONG BUDDY! WRONG!

You can definitely grow fish in your hydro res! It's really a great idea, but let me warn you, it totally is difficult. Usually the fish produce waste as ammonia, gets broken down into Nitrogen and the weed uptakes them, so no need to add nutes to the res!

This is called Aquaponics. However, you are going to have to research which fish are capable of handling PH levels of around 5.8.

Aquaponics, Hydroponics Consulting, information, equipment, design, construction may provide you with some basic information.

sounds like wayyyyyyyyyy to big of a hassel to me. get a rubbermaid tub and make a dwc, drip or aeroponics for much cheaper and much easier.

interesting idea.. i have several aquariums but i doubt it would be a good way to grow anything except for aquatic plants.. UNLESS you used a sump tank for your filter and the plants were rooted in the sump, not the actual tank where the fish are.

in a sump system the aquarium has 2 actual tanks, one above for the fish and one below for the biological filtration. a pump is used to move water from the bottom tank to the top tank. gravity carries water back down to the sump. normally going thru some mechanical filtration and a drip plate. (i can take some pics of my setup if you like)

any other method will cause you issues..example.. you need to light the tank for the fish but you dont want to light your roots..

i dont think it would work. fishes need light to live or they will stop eating. and roots will rot in light....so no way you can do this for a long time.

Please check out this video and other video's on youtube.

YouTube - Aquaponic Gardening System

YouTube - Aquaponics Desktop System 2nd Month

YouTube - 2008 Aquaponics Instruction at The Kid's Culinary Academy

Aquaponics is by all means a very interesting way to grow.

No Nutrients needed!

sounds crazy to me. that girls lettuces look SCRUMPTIOUS!

wow, that is actually really interesting,

what if u could breed fish and plants together. wouldnt that be nuts?

I'm still wondering about the rerlationship between the light and the roots...and what a pain in the a$$ when you have to change the water and also having to deal with live fish and hoping they survive the whole deal. Surely in something as small a fish tank you would still want to change the water frequently...

NIce Jack Dempsy and OScar. Aquaponics is intense my friend designed a waste management system using talapia, wicked difficult though, may just want to use standard nutes and not a renewable source like fish.

i agree but if u have the time, desire, and money to do it. i say go for it. otherwise stick to the basics

pandabear said:

well i though he ment with dirt lol thats why i though he was kidding. i mean icould throw fish in my res too but it would hurt my plants and take away the oxygen from thier roots, so no its very bad to have fish i your res cuz u cant nute your plants and fish poop will be negligable for fertilizer unless u add a shit load of fish which then would take away more oxygen from the roots, i mean it would be cool if I could die my res hot pink too but dont mean its helpin my plants.,

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If the fish hurt your plants, do you even think aquaponics would be remotely successful?

It's a great idea if you have the desire. I've seen it done and it is really awesome

I have an aquaponic system that I grow lettuce and other things in (i don't grow buds atm). It consists of an 18 gallon rubbermaid and a small "under the bed" tote filled with pea gravel (about 3sq feet of growbed in 6-7 inches of pea gravel). I keep 3 goldfish and a cray in the tub and pump from the bottom of the tub up to the growbed with a rio 800. The growbed has about 18 1/16th inch holes drilled at the lower corner hanging over the tank and about 6 1/4 inch holes at the top of the pea gravel. That's to make sure any overflow still spills back to the tank. The pump is on a 15-minute on/off timer. You don't need an airstone, as the piston action in the growbed and the waterfall effect back to the tank are more than enough air for fish and plants alike. The growbed acts as a biofilter, two types of bacteria develop: one that breaks down ammonia to nitrites and another that breaks the nitrites to nitrates, which are then consumed by the plants.
It takes a week or two to develop the bacteria and "cycle" the system; but after that you're good to grow whatever you want. The only input is fishfood and dechlorinated water every now and then to top off. I've had mine running for around 11 months and the water is clearer than the clearest stream and the food is huge and tasty.
Fish are happy and so is my belly.
If done with some patience (make sure to cycle and allow the bacteria to form before planting), your fish will be happy and so will your mind.
Happy Growing!

welcome to the forums Slov. you should get some girlies going you sound like you know your stuff about this technique. rep for you!