Utilizing fish pond for indoor grow

I have an extremely large, indoor fish pond, and wanted to find a way to utilize it for growing. The plants would have a good source of fertilizer from the water, as i use it to water normal plants with amazing results, plus it feeds off the garbage i want to remove from the pond.

Having fish in there, its loaded with nitrites and nitrates, and ive seen many ponds before with regular plants growing on some sort of combined system, but i just cant figure out how to apply it to THIS particular plant. I want to do sort of a hydroponic system i guess, with the plants constantly feeding off of the pond.

I know this is most likely a different question than usual, but does anyone have any ideas how i could possibly set something up?
 

CaptainPointless

Well-Known Member
Properly used, the water could be very nutritional for plants, being that it has high levels of mineral salts, specifically nitrates and nitrites as you said. Can we see some pics of this indoor pond though? It sounds intriguing, and I've never seen one in someone's house before. :P
 
can we get pics
its basically a big kiddie pool, that was boxed in, insulated, and heated, containing fish that are around 2 feet long. holds around 1100 gallons max, but i keep it below the top, so figure 900g or so.

its enclosed in now, so the area inside of it is like a green house, but with 100% humidity, so im pretty sure i would have to grow outside of the pond enclosure itself.
 

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Pipe Dream

Well-Known Member
Ive seen this done before I think I saw an article in high times a long time ago. Maybe you can find it on their website or on another grow forum, point is it can definately be done it works great and there should be some info on it if you look hard enough. Maybe just run a search of gardening with aquariums instead of specifically MJ.
 

gvega187

Well-Known Member
my friend did this for a while. He had some tomatoe plants above his aquarium in $10 plastic container with aeroponic sprayers on at all times. After a while it became a problem keeping the ph stable enough for the fish and the plants. Those were some very healthy tomatoes thou...thanks 2 the fish poo.
 

gvega187

Well-Known Member
aeroponics would make this particular system easier because it would require no media in the containers. The DIY setup would be very easy and lightweight.
 

Rjstoner

Active Member
if i was u i would use it like a resivour and run ebb and flow tables above your box and get some venting going on or you could always keep it simple and by hand take some water and water your plants by hand if growing a small amout its not hard to just hand water them once in a while
 

GreatwhiteNorth

Global Moderator
Staff member
I've done 4 grows now using only water out of my 90g Cichlid tank & it works great. I'm growing organic in soil so a bit diffrent than what you're planning.
Nice looking Pacu btw.
 
I've done 4 grows now using only water out of my 90g Cichlid tank & it works great. I'm growing organic in soil so a bit diffrent than what you're planning.
Nice looking Pacu btw.
im not opposed to trying a soil grow either. I prefer not to use a ton of ferts anyway, which is why i like the idea of running off my pond.

do you just basically germinate, plant in soil and use nothing but the waste water as plant food?
 

That 5hit

Well-Known Member
aquaponics
is what it is called youtube it thats all you need bro
fish live in the rez
[youtube]wS3sej53gx0[/youtube][youtube]bCV7DABEz20[/youtube]
[youtube]nUHnU2zGYrg[/youtube][youtube]NRZ0RJn9Xq0[/youtube]
 
amazing! dident know there was an actual name for what i wanted to do, utilizing fish.

if it can grow some of the demanding veggies ive seen in my research tonight, i bet i can get it to work for this extremely well also, and for a relatively decent price hopefully, since i already have one hell of a resovoir.
 

That 5hit

Well-Known Member
amazing! dident know there was an actual name for what i wanted to do, utilizing fish.

if it can grow some of the demanding veggies ive seen in my research tonight, i bet i can get it to work for this extremely well also, and for a relatively decent price hopefully, since i already have one hell of a resovoir.
your research - WOW- your welcome you can rep me when ever you like
 

MacGuyver4.2.0

Well-Known Member
Thing about fish water to keep in mind is def PH levels and ammonia build up. Not saying it cannot be done but I would watch those 2 items very closely. With a small flood table above or Aeroponics tubes along the side (better yet) you could have the runoff water from the plants drip back down waterfall style. This agitates and stirs your fish pond and aerates the water at the same time. Those are some big fishies! Good luck! :)
 
your research - WOW- your welcome you can rep me when ever you like
OK, MY research that YOU pointed me to. stoners wording fuck up.....

I hopefully wont have to worry about PH or ammonia build up. My ph is generally 6.5-7 in the pond, and i have an extremely large biological filter which takes care of any and al ammonia almost right away. atleast thats what its SUPPOSED to do.
 

smppro

Well-Known Member
Yes aquaponics works very well, ive used it for veggies inside, there are people that have tried it will cannabis, most of them run into the problem of lack of phosphorus when flowering, but with a well stocked tank like yours i bet you will have pretty good luck. Ive grown tomatoes, jalapeno, and herbs. There is a large commercial greenhouse near me that uses this to produce all their veggies and the tastiest tilapia you will ever eat.
 
ok, so let me make sure i have this right....

container with pea gravel
water being pumped into container 24/7
returning to pond waterfall style for aeration

to start, floro lighting on 24/7? or 18/6? i seem to find conflicting info on lighting times
 
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