Comments on: Nutrients from your fishtank?

By: Jurriaan Schreuder

Jurriaan Schreuder — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:28:21 +0000

I have got two goldfish, and I just started today constructing a window farm. It is going to have six columns, of which four will have about the same lighting. With these four I will try to make different experimental conditions. I can have 6 different plants on fish water, and 6 on nutrients. They will have the exact same lighting and construction. The only difference will be the fish water. I love the idea Hope it works!

By: andreask

andreask — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 08:39:04 +0000

Maybe above the chicken farm you could have a wormfarm so the chicken could eat worms. Haha, its getting really crazy. What fish do you all use?

By: hozzy

hozzy — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:13:12 +0000

Yes, this is the trick, except of gold fish, why not something edible, that way you can get meat as well as veggies, plus you know everything you put into it. But I have another idea to think about.

Above the fish tank have a chicken coop, the chickens sleep there at night, dropping nitrogen into the water, this increases the nutrients of the water, which the fish love of course, then filter the water through plant roots. You could also get some free feed for your chickens out of this two. Just an idea I got from an apartment dweller in Australia (he wanted to do it on his porch, but was worried about what his neighbors would think).

By: britta

britta — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:31:56 +0000

Point well taken, sylvia. Don’t mean to discourage anyone from doing aquaponics. It’s just that we have in this community a lot of folks who are new to hydroponics and are just getting started with windowfarms. Windowfarms have a learning curve themselves and so I don’t encourage beginners to take on both creating a windowfarm and using aquaponics to supply the nutrients all at once. That’s like going from your first rockclimbing experience straight to the matterhorn (did i just give myself away as not knowing ANYTHING about rick climbing?).

I would just say that if you are starting out choose which would be your favorite– a vertical windowfarm or an aquaponic growing system. If you choose the latter, definitely start with aquaponicscommunity.com and come back when you’re ready to tinker.

By the same token, we actually do think we are making hydroponics pretty simple with the three plant airlift systems.

By: Sylvia Bernstein

Sylvia Bernstein — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:38:01 +0000

Actually aquaponics is being used successfully by thousands of people around the world. Complex, yes, but nature kicks in and creates a symbiotic system where the fish waste is converted to plant food. Complex, but ultimately simple. You feed the fish, the fish feed the plants. Much simpler that hydroponics. If you want more information come join our community at aquaponicscommunity.com. Hope to see you there!