My First aquaponics system!

[Anthony Acchione]

I recently started a desktop aquaponics system in my bedroom. It is a simple flood and drain system that uses a 15 qt plastic tote and a 10 gallon aquarium ( that I only use 5 gallons of water with). I have put three guppies and a chinese algae eater into the system as my fertilizer (sadly so far two fish have died due to the hurricane and had to replace them). My growing media is hydroton and rockwool grow cubes for structure. Two of my plants have sprouted ( only one kale plant and a basil plant) but the others that I sprouted before hand have not grown since. I have a very limited source of sun light and no "grow lights". I have to say that all has been well except for the plants maturing! If anyone has any pointers I would love to hear them especially on how to get inexpensive light. Thank you for reading and hope to hear form you soon!

 

[TCLynx]

You can go to lowes or home depot and look at fixtures for T5 or T8 florescent lights of the right length.  You will want as many tubes as you can get over the footprint of your plant space and you want it as close to the plants as you can without touching them.  You will want to make the height adjustable so you can raise it as things grow.

 

Otherwise, there is a lighting group here and they can probably give you even better recommendations.

[Anthony Acchione]

Thanks for the info TCLynx, Luckily, I have a home depot down the street from me so when I mess up, it doesn't take long to fix lol. I have been trying to keep this system as inexpensive as possible, that is why I have been shying away from buying lights, but it seems as though I will need them.

TCLynx said:

You can go to lowes or home depot and look at fixtures for T5 or T8 florescent lights of the right length.  You will want as many tubes as you can get over the footprint of your plant space and you want it as close to the plants as you can without touching them.  You will want to make the height adjustable so you can raise it as things grow.

 

Otherwise, there is a lighting group here and they can probably give you even better recommendations.

[TCLynx]

There are very few plants you can grow WELL without much light and most of then that grow in minimal light won't use up enough nutrients.

 

Look at the Artificial Lighting group, they may have some ideas for you.