Kitchen-ponics
Posted on Aug 09, 2009 under Aquaponics, Cooking, Fish, Fish farming, Gardening, Self Sufficiency | 8 Comments
I have been doing quite a bit of testing with aquaponics over the last year. One of my aquaponics systems is growing herbs and lettuce right in my kitchen. The distance to the stovetop is about 80 cm, how’s that for reducing food miles!
This system is a small aquarium with some NFT channels on top. I made the channels from rectangular plastic air duct, the ones that you can buy at any home improvement shop, they are normally used for kitchen and bathroom ventilation. Water gets pulled through the black filter box on the right and pumped into the channels where the plant roots can take up the nutrient rich water. One channel has 7 planting sites for herbs and the other one has 3, which are spaced further apart to grow lettuce. Since the plants don’t receive any direct sunlight, I had to provide them with some artificial light. Things are growing quite nicely and I often use fresh herbs from this indoor garden.
The fish are growing pretty fast as well, but they will take some while until they are big enough to eat.
August 9th, 2009 at 8:38 am
That’s awesome! Lots of people talk about aquaponics, but you actually did it.
How long did it take to get the bacteria to stabilize for the fish? Are you using any sort of filters?
August 9th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Cycling the fish tank (letting the beneficial bacteria settle) takes up to 8 weeks. Using gravel and water from an already established fish tank or pond can reduce the time to 2 to 3 weeks.
My filter box contains some filter cotton and aquarium contains a layer of gravel where the bacteria can settle.
August 9th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
I have a tank, a creek nearby and a tub of Subculture-B from General Hydroponics, but I am kind of scared to get started for the investment.
Did you lose any fish in the process? The plants look great!
August 10th, 2009 at 12:14 am
I’m not sure how fish-safe Subculture-B would be. I have lost a few Tilapias to unknown causes, they probably just got too territorial. Goldfish are pretty hardy fish and a good choice if you want to get started with aquaponics.
August 12th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Hi. I’m curious. As an experiment can i just remove some water from my cichlid aquarium (literally just scoop some out) and put it in my hydroponics setup? i have a little DWC action going in my office. just wondering if i could do this once every week or so to give my system some extra ‘food’. Thanks for the post.
August 12th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Hi! Yes, that would definitely work. You can also use your aquarium water to water potted plants. I have some strawberries growing in a pot of soil and I only water them with aquarium water, they are growing like crazy.
September 28th, 2009 at 5:53 am
This is fantastic. Do you have any instructions on how you set up this system? It looks fun to experiment with.
May 6th, 2011 at 6:06 am
You definitely need to put the whole system outdoor, as lighting cost can be unnecessary. I wonder why you need lighting, you are not growing something intensive.
There is a very good website on intensive aquaculture system at your backyard. http://www.wikihow.com/Run-a-Self-Sufficient-Intensive-Aquarium-(Aquaculture)