# Aquatic Vegetables Anyone? Bettas & Chives?



## copperfish

Have you ever grown vegetables in your tank?

I had never heard of such a thing, until today. I was at a nonaquatic plant store and they had some hardcover books for sale. One in particular was for having an aquarium that included aquatic vegetables growing in addition to fish. Picture this though ... some even grow both the fish and veggies to eat.

I can't find the book online. But did find this one site with a list of vegetables that can grow in an aquarium.

I'm not saying anyone should do this, but just something that I found curious.



> Some good plants to grow hydroponically in a hydroponic growing aquarium include:
> *
> Vegetables*
> Romaine lettuce
> Arugula lettuce
> Green leaf lettuce
> Red leaf lettuce
> Buttercrunch lettuce
> Spinach
> Swiss chard
> Bell peppers
> Jalapeno peppers
> Cherry tomatoes (this will grow large, so keep it pruned!)
> 
> *Herbs*
> Basil
> Chives
> Dill
> Thyme
> Oregano
> Catnip
> Mint
> Lavender
> Parsley
> 
> *Flowers*
> Petunia
> Zinnia
> Snapdragon
> Daisies
> Gazania
> Marigolds
> Baby’s breath
> Coreopsis species
> Brachycome species
> 
> *Other Plants*
> Coleus
> Golden pothos
> Philodendron
> English ivy
> Peace lily
> Dracaena plants
> 
> http://www.balconycontainergardening.com/index.php/plants/385-hydroponic-plants


Any others doing this? If so I would like to hear with what along with experiences.


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## kittenfish

You can't submerge the plants, but they can grow in an Aquafarm-type setup. You can find tutorials online for making your own little baskets to attach to the back of your tank. You need a special substrate for the baskets (clay ball I think?) and you'll have to either raise the tank light or have a second one for the emersed plants.


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## Greenapp1es

LOL - I really want to have some betta swimming among chives now. HAHA.

I agree that this is probably for an aquaponics setup though, where the roots are submerged but the leaves and whatnot are above the water surface.

I did end up picking up some long, thin baskets....there is a chance I might try to grow some chives, basil, etc in those baskets. *Might*. Otherwise I'll probably use them for Pothos - I have a huge plant that needs pruning anyway and lighting would be less of a worry.


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## copperfish

Took a bit of digging but I finally did find the book which I saw.

*Aquaponic Gardening: A Step-By-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together*
http://www.amazon.com/Aquaponic-Gardening-Step---Step-Vegetables/dp/086571701X/



> Aquaponics systems are completely organic. They are four to six times more productive and use ninety percent less water than conventional gardens. Other advantages include no weeds, fewer pests, and no watering, fertilizing, bending, digging, or heavy lifting


Thanks guys, new to me!


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## LolaQuigs

If you want a similar result without the hassle of an aquaponics setup, you could grow plants (in pots or in a garden) and use your old fish water to water them.


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## TerriGtoo

LolaQuigs said:


> If you want a similar result without the hassle of an aquaponics setup, you could grow plants (in pots or in a garden) and use your old fish water to water them.


 
Yep, that's what I do-- I grow and hybridize African Violets. They are spoiled plants!


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## Aqua Aurora

You're talking about aquaponics (combination of growing edible fish/crawfish and plants for human consumption.. basically the fish feed the plants, the plants clean the water for the fish) which is a fun aspect to aquarium keeping especially for those who already understand the nitrogen cycle and fish care (those getting into aquaponics from the gardening side ted to have a lot of issues with cycling and killing fish from messing with pH).

I did an aquaponic system on my 55g for a while as I had a real poop machine of a pleco and was sick of such frequent water changes.. the fish ate any plant below water so had to grow them above. I did an nft system.. basically a 4" pvc pipe with holes cut for planters what had clay balls instead of soil and grew lettuce most successfully along with a few other things. The pipe was hooked up to the outflow of the tanks canister filter so the water just pumped up into it then gravity fed back down to the tank.

Aquaponic systems are most commonly used in the aquarium hobby for large cichlid community tanks, gold fish, and plecos as they are all major bio load (generate a lot of nitrate) which the plants need to grow.

The trouble with using aquaponics for bettas is that, in comparison they don't make that much of a bioload. You might be able to grow some small herb or flowers but not lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, they just won't get enough nutrients to properly grow. On a community tank with a large amount of poop makers you might be able to do the veggies but not a solo betta tank.

The reason the betta aquafarm product fails so often (besides a cheap pump and sometimes dud seeds) is cycling the tank so beneficial bacteria convert ammonia to nitrite to nitrate which the plant can most optimally absorb, and not kill the betta while waiting for that.. but if .. if the fish manages to survive the initial cycle it won't produce enough ammonia to feed the plant properly so as 'best' the seeds will sprout but then wither and die.

If you are interested in auqaponics go check out youtube, there are a ton of videos on there! I know at least 1 person had a betta tank diy aquaponic system but I can't recall what they were growing.

Alternatively Ripariums are basically the same thing except non edible plants with leaves above water and roots in the tank (or in HOB filter). I have 2 ripariums now and a decent list of successful plants:
Pothos
Fittonia albivenis
Tradescantia zebrine
Cyperus Umbrella Sedge
Aluminum plant
Ruellia brittoniana 'Katie'
Spathiphyllum (aka peace lily)
Spathiphyllum "domino" (miss labeled as marbled sword-not a sword plan)
Dwarf Palm Neanthe Bella
Syngonium
Anthurium
Alocosia polly
Riccia
Purple Waffle
Dragons Tongue
Ruellia brittoniana 'Katie'
Spathiphyllum
Dwarf Taro
Sweetflag
Star Grass
Lizard Tail
Prayer Plant
Rain lily

Spider plant and mondo grass are two other common ones but I've not tried them yet. 
Not all plants can be put in ripariums, many do not like having constantly saturated roots and will die in such conditions. Its bests to research frish to find what works.
Btw: pothos is a real beast, the roots grow long and get everywhere and if the vine is never cut the leaves will get larger than an adult male's hand!

If you want to take time to read I have 2 journals for my 55 aquaponic to riparium(first post and then starting on page 3), and 20g riparium progress you can check out. Feel free to note me if you had any other questions.

Note:the 20g and 55g have always had several fish that generate a large/decent bio load to feed all these plants. Terrestrial plants (leaves above water) grow faster as they have plentiful access to CO2 compared to underwater plants, they also need more nitrates and other minerals to keep up with the rapid growth so they don't develop deficiencies or die.

some shots from the 20g riparium over the months:




55g aquaponic at its largest



55g riparium turning into a jungle


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## kittenfish

That looks amazing!

My lfs has a "living wall" aquarium:


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## Tress

Omg I am extremely jealous of you Kitten! I've LOVE to have a store like that near me D:


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## copperfish

Wowzers! Thanks all.

I understand regarding the bioload and bettas. I'm not thinking in that direction for the 2 5gallons I have for bettas. But I am upgrading another 5 gallons with tetras to a larger 16 gallon and interested in the extra space for more fish/plants. This opened the door to more than I imagined. Thank you again.


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## Aqua Aurora

kittenfish said:


> That looks amazing!
> 
> My lfs has a "living wall" aquarium:


I loath you! All I have around here are plant (and fish) incompitant petco and petsmart :/
Would love to have a store like that and get all nerdy talking with the owner that set the plant wall up! 
Curious how much weight that thing can hold and how they prevent mold issues from the constantly saturated.. I'm guessing coconut fiber? 
Love that there is just a simple seat in front of it to sit and enjoy the view!




copperfish said:


> Wowzers! Thanks all.
> 
> I understand regarding the bioload and bettas. I'm not thinking in that direction for the 2 5gallons I have for bettas. But I am upgrading another 5 gallons with tetras to a larger 16 gallon and interested in the extra space for more fish/plants. This opened the door to more than I imagined. Thank you again.


If you want to add more fish with a betta you really need at bare minimum of 10g, 20g give you more room for options (20g long is better than 20ghigh for schoolers so they get a few extra inches of side to side swimming). Also once you get into 20g and larger you can look at getting a bristlenose pleco to help make nitrates for the plants, but you can't expect them to like just on tank algae of they'll starve, veggies and algae wafers will be needed. Also an air stone would be good as plecos like highly oxygenated water. DO not buy the generic pleco from a petstore, 95% you'll either get a sailfin or common pelco which get to 18-24 inches and need 200g+ tanks when full grown. Bristlnose plecos are easy to id (especially males) by their bristles on the front of the face/snout.


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## kittenfish

Aqua Aurora said:


> I loath you! All I have around here are plant (and fish) incompitant petco and petsmart :/
> Would love to have a store like that and get all nerdy talking with the owner that set the plant wall up!
> Curious how much weight that thing can hold and how they prevent mold issues from the constantly saturated.. I'm guessing coconut fiber?
> Love that there is just a simple seat in front of it to sit and enjoy the view!


I don't know, but if you go on their facebook page there are some pictures from the process of setting it up. Pretty sure the giant rocks are fake. It's Aquarium Zen in Seattle. I've only been there once because I can't afford anything there, but it's a really cool store.


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