Aquaponics

Hey all,

New to the forum, but I'm curious if anyone has grown using aquaponics? I tried with a friend of mine and failed miserably but I think it was because our system was just too small. It might not be the most practical for harvesting, but I just keep thinking of how awesome it would be to have my bud growing out of a fish tank!

Tanks!

Ronnie

Ok i'm not at all an expert in the field nor have I ever done it (so for your sake I hope someone else who knows stuff will give you more info)

But from being curious and looking into it a little in the past I'll say that my impression is that cannabis is too hungry for it. The problem is you've either got fish living in what they consider dirty water, or you have the plants lacking in nutrients. The technique definitely works for some people and some plants, but I think that they would be low feeding types.

Just for a little more info though, another thing I picked up is that it takes a rather large fish tank in proportion to number of plants to get any system to run right.

But keep looking into it and hopefully an aquaponic gardener (of what ever species plant) will chime in too.

Best Buds App said:

I just keep thinking of how awesome it would be to have my bud growing out of a fish tank!

Click to expand...

Oh I just re-read what you said and this line doesn't look right. As far as I know you can't have a plant like cannabis (which needs alot of oxygen at the root zone) in a fish tank. You can submerge cannabis roots (called Deep Water Culture) but you have to aerate the hell out of it. I couldn't imagine fish liking a turbulant bubbling water with no still-ish spot... but if it wasn't fully aerated it won't be good for the plant.
Then there is pathogens. In dwc you sterilize the water with chloramine or h202- but you can't do that for fish. It would not just hurt the fish but would stop the process which is creating the organic fertilizer in the water.

The ways I know it works (for oxygen hungry root plants) is you pump the water up, it runs through the plant medium and returns back to the fish tank- not growing straight out of it.

chloramine? in hydro? not a good idea.

Chloramines should be removed from water for dialysis, aquariums, hydroponic applications and homebrewing beer. Chloramines can interfere with dialysis, can hurt aquatic animals, and can give homebrewed beer a metallic taste. In hydroponic applications it will stunt the growth and fruit production of plants.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine
Op , I haven't been there but I'd like to visit. a place called the growhaus in denver. They don't grow any weed that I'm aware of but maybe a visit there would give you some ideas.

There are products that use it that don't harm plants and help fight pythium and such

One example is Flairforms Pythoff. You add it to a tank once a week to fight pathogens.

Here is the MSDS which states it contains "Chlorine compounds - - - Equivalent to 0.5% chlorine".

Chlorine and chloramine are two different things.one contains ammonia.

of course if its that or pythium you're probably better off with the chlorine or chloramine.

Hm I copied and pasted that in a hurry and didn't read it...
But, it says "chlorine compounds" and notice it says "equivalent". That could include chloramine, but not for sure. I'm so sure it is- it's what the local hydro shop owner says and what so many people online say... but yeah I can't find any hard info on that.

Anyway it's not especially important to this topic because fish don't like chlorine either, and nor will the good pathogens that are meant to make the fertilizer in the water.

right, it was just one of "just saying" things. I got back on topic after that.

• I just keep thinking of how awesome it would be to have my bud growing out of a fish tank!
  
  
  
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I guess that was a bit misleading. I was attempting to use a media bed system so the roots wouldn't actually be directly in the tank. From my research, I was under the impression that aquaponics works best with leafy greens like lettuce and spinach. I assumed that means that weed would work as well but I don't know?

Sounds like you might be looking for NFT/hydro/aero system. Here is a link to the thread started by StinkBud, where he describes a system that has evolved a lot and is used by quite a few people with great success. This to me is real hydro because there is no media other than the water/nute mix and the roots are suspended in the netpots inside the rails getting sprayed every few minutes. The original design has been improved, most notably by SuperStoner1, who has his own thread to describe the changes.

I've heard of a lot of complications that occur with combining the aero system and the aquaculture due to the fish waste solids clogging up any spray nozzles. I guess the reason I was shooting for using the media bed (hydroton as the media) was so it could act as a solids filter & grow bed at the same time. I'm sure the NFT/Hydro systems would work well but I think I might have to purchase some high quality filters to use alongside it.

Here's a general diagram of the type of system that I was going after. And again, to me its not so much about maximizing the yields but rather growing it in a way that I think is pretty cool.

Love it. Build it and you get to name it. There are some systems that do something like this, but keeping the roots healthy and the proper nutrients available are a problem when you have to balance the needs of the fish. The concept is flat out beautiful.

Oh I can't claim credit for that, I got the diagram from a company up in Boulder... I think I will go after that design though and report back in a few!

the day you do, look up swirl filter and bio filter designs it's a good way of getting the crap out of the lines.