Aquaponics for Vegans/Anubias Farm

[DogFish]

1st Tomato !!!

[Exceliber]

This is pretty awesome! I'm looking forward to keeping an eye on this for future projects for myself!

[ChadRamsey]

thats a pretty slick set up you got there. id love to do this someday.

congrats on the tomato

[DogFish]

Originally Posted by Exceliber

This is pretty awesome! I'm looking forward to keeping an eye on this for future projects for myself!

Originally Posted by ChadRamsey

thats a pretty slick set up you got there. id love to do this someday.

congrats on the tomato

Thanks guys, If I can help down the road, let me know. Chad I was kinda surprised by the tomato. I wasn't sure if it would pollinate indoors (no bees). I did dab around with a artist paint brush. Not sure if the plant self pollinated or I did it? But, it worked.

[hydrophyte]

Hey that's fun!

[Sake]

I wasn't sure if it would pollinate indoors (no bees). I did dab around with a artist paint brush. Not sure if the plant self pollinated or I did it? But, it worked.

Is that kind of like a HJ for plants? O.o sorry couldn't help myself, but on a more serious note, I see you have reflectors going up the sides, do they help much? I'm thinking of starting something like this, and was debating on painting the sides with chrome paint.

[DogFish]

Originally Posted by Sake

... I see you have reflectors going up the sides, do they help much? I'm thinking of starting something like this, and was debating on painting the sides with chrome paint.

I used mylar space blankets I got from the $1 store to wrap the 1" styrofoam board walls. There's a post on in earlier in the thread. Yes, I do think there was a slight improvement.

[nalu86]

Nice tomato

I harvested all my green tomatoes, about 100 of them, they wouldn't get red... wrong K temperature? I pickled them all.

Also pulled out all the tomato plants and replanted with lettuces, spinach, kale, cucumbers and a whole bunch of herbs.

I will stay away from tomatoes indoors, I will try again early spring when my aquaponics is set up outside.

[DogFish]

I've read on Hydroponics sites that Light Temp range does influence grow/fruit stages. So that might be why yours didn't ripen. I had my Habenero growing in a 5gl bucket outdoors all summer. Only one fruit got ripe. Brought in in and it's under some shop lights with 5000K tubes all my green peppers did ripen.

My grow light are 6500K. I'll continue to post my results with the tomatos.

[DogFish]

[le0p]

Love this thread! And even more so as a fellow vegan. I am going to bookmark this so I can possibly talk my wife into something similar.

We're just excited to be moving to an new place where we can have a vegetable garden, but this is a whole other level.

[tiggity]

Wow Dogfish, this is amazing! I didn't know you can do this with fish tanks.

With you harvest your lettuce, do you pull all of it out or leave the base to regrow? What else can you grow? or can you grow almost anything?

I'm sorry for the multiple questions, but this is such a fantastic idea and I have a n empty 10 gallon that I'd like to experiment with.

[DogFish]

Originally Posted by le0p

Love this thread! And even more so as a fellow vegan. I am going to bookmark this so I can possibly talk my wife into something similar.

We're just excited to be moving to an new place where we can have a vegetable garden, but this is a whole other level.

If I can help PM me. There's a lot of info on youtube that helped me. Most of the Aquaponics systems are much larger but the concepts are the same.

[DogFish]

Originally Posted by tiggity

Wow Dogfish, this is amazing! I didn't know you can do this with fish tanks.

With you harvest your lettuce, do you pull all of it out or leave the base to regrow? What else can you grow? or can you grow almost anything?

....

In still learning and refining my system. I've done both haves methods. That large head of butter crisp was from the thanksgiving harvest as was cut flush to the base allowing the roots to continue to develop.

Pretty much anything but, just like aquarium plants some combinations work better and some may have unique requirements. I'm not having great success with the Kale to Parsley, the lettuce does well for me. The tomatoes are doing well.

The idea of the Anubias & fancy Goldfish isn't going as well as I hoped. The gold fish are doing well the Anubias are weak. Probably too much nutrients for the Anubias, just right for the Goldfish and not enough for the veggies???

Maybe the 1st changes might be to go from Ebb & Flow to constant flow. That would massively increase the bio-filtration.

[bluestems]

Wow! How have I missed this thread? I love the setup, the potted anubias with goldfish are a nice combo too. subbed... looking forward to seeing how your plants produce over the long haul.

Do you know what the life expectancy is for the tomatoes and peppers? I assume you can harvest the salad a few times before replanting.

I'm really interested in hydroponics too although my first attempt will be rather small. I've ordered a 5g fish tank w/ a 5 pot planter top that I hope to use for a kitchen herb garden. Would love to grow what you're growing though. Especially the peppers as they are getting so outrageously expensive.