Poisonious & allelopathic plants in Aquaponics?

[Mike Creuzer]

I am setting up an small aquarium based ornamental aquaponics system in my daughters room to act as a humidifier and to grow some of the 'house plants that clean the air' to address allergy concerns.

It occurred to me, that a great many house plants are poisonous.

I've read several accounts on blogs where people have had large fish-kills due to leaves or berries falling into their tanks/ponds this last year.

Has anybody had any issues with poisoning their fish?

I have found lists of plants that are poisonous to fish on-line, but they are a bit vague. They don't mention what parts of the plants are poisonous to the fish. Also, we are in uncharted territory as we may be perfectly capable of growing some fish poisonous plants in AP with no ill effect until a leaf falls into the system.

This then brings into question plant to plant interactions with allelopathic plants. Do plants like fennel grow fine in aquaponics without retarding the other plants growth like they do in dirt?

Are there any resources online regarding this that is relevant to us?

[Mike Creuzer]

Does anyone know if allelopathic and companion plants need the fungal mycelium (sp?) present in soil in order for the 'magic' to happen? Do the plants do their thing in aquaponics?

[TCLynx]

I've grown Fennel in Aquaponics with no ill effects to surrounding plants that I could see.  Most of the really really strongly allelopathic plants I know are gonna be so big that I don't imagine anyone growing them in an AP system (like wallnut and magnolia) and definitely not indoors.  I've got grow beds with fungal mycelium growing so I don't think that aquaponics would necessarily keep such things from working.

I've grown lots of golden pothos in an aquarium system though I didn't necessarily have fish in with the plants.  My cherry shrimp is still surviving in with the roots of that plant.  So I think as long as you avoid putting the leaves of that one where fish will eat it, you should be ok.