Turn a fish tank into an Aquaponic Garden
Check out this interesting new aquaponics product I came across today:
Aquasprouts is a system setup that turns a 10-gallon aquarium into an aquaponic garden – what a neat idea! Now, if only they’d do this for 55-gallon (that’s what I have). Maybe I’ll build one out of wood. It looks like these may only be pre-order right now (perhaps they aren’t manufactered yet?), but if you have an old 10-gallon fish tank sitting around, why not try out this wonderful aquaponic aquarium system and grow fresh lettuce, greens, herbs and more with your fish tank!
How an Aquaponic Aquarium works:
Aquaponics refers to any systems that combine aquaculture (raising fish or other aquatic animals in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. For example, if you have an aquarium you’ll find that the fish waste will build up in the water causing cloudiness, which is why we periodically do water changes to reduce the wastes in the water to keep our fish healthy. But this “dirty aquarium” water is is actually liquid gold in the plant world! In a aquaponic system, the water from a fish tank is pumped through a hydroponic system where the by-products of the fish are broken down by bacteria into nitrates and nitrites, which then are absorbed by the plants as nutrients, and the “cleansed” water is then recirculated back to the fish tank. Essentially, if you turn your fish tank into an aquaponic system, you would be creating a “self-cleaning aquarium” because the water would be continually refreshed by your plants in the aquaponic system. (I might add, however, that even with a aquaponic system setup, a good manual cleaning of your fish tank every now and then is a good idea to get some of the grime and solids out from the bottom! Just use the dirty tank water for your garden!)