Well, it's been almost a week since I posted the picture of the 'finished' towers - at least there were little seedlings in them and it looked like this:
This was the size of the seedlings last Sunday:
This is what the same seedlings look like today - 6 days later:
They are growing really well, I think. Here are some more pictures of the grow towers:
In these shots you can see the two of the towers empty into the mint gravel bowl. The gravel was hopefully going to act as a settling tank for solid waste that gets through the towers. Eventually I plan to introduce red wigglers. In the next picture you can see I'm using the gravel bowl to root cuttings besides mint - see if you can spot the Stevia:
I've also got a floating raft in the top tank with some lettuce and duckweed:
I'm not sure how well the roots will do just hanging in the tank, but It's an experiment right? Here is a picture with the roots in the background of the guppies:
And this is what the top tank looks like now. I had a chance to arrange and plant it more than you saw in the last photos, so it's coming together nicely. So much fun to watch!
Then a shot of the two tanks together:
And finally of the two baby goldfish in the bottom tank:
So that's it for now. I will keep you all posted on the growth of the tower plants. I'm pretty encouraged by the results so far. These tanks were fishless cycled, until mossies took up residence and the fish are so small I'm thinking about adding a tiny bit if hydroponic solution to give the plants a boost. Before fish were added I put in a pretty good dose of seaweed extract fertilizer, so there are more nutrient in the water than just what a handful of guppies, pleco and baby goldfish would produce. Also I got a few cherry shrimp for the top tank, they are hard to find! I was surprised my camera phone could zoom in so well:
I know, the photo quality is terrible, but this was zoomed in a lot!
Cheers all. TTFN.
Replies
awesome! This is VERY similar to the method I'm planning to try. I've only got one fish tank tho so will probably need to grow less plants.
Pretty darn cool! I've kept planted fish tanks for years and this experiment has totally changed the way I look at them. My tanks have always been an expensive hobby that were fun to stare into for hours on end now I'm really thinking how I can use them in aquaponics. Your tanks and plants look great the cherry red shrimp will be a good indicater of the tanks water quality if the water is clean they will breed. Keep posting updates good or bad this is really cool. Here's a pic of one of my cherry red shrimp.
I would love to breed some shrimp and am hoping that the Java Moss and Fern will grow to provide cover and food for little baby shrimp. The only problem right now is that I have 4 females in the tank! So I need some males to get the party started...
Your shrimp looks healthy and the photo is very clear! your glass must be clean. :)
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next