Aquaponics Mini

I decided to take advantage of our fish tank that has already been through it's nitrogen cycle, and make a very basic AP system.  The tank is 55 gallons, and has a well establish biological filter in the form of an undergravel filter.  We'll need to add more fish to the tank because even though we're pulling the nutrients from the filter bed, one fish will never produce enough poop to sustain the system.

The plant that I picked for the experiment is a sweet mint plant, it's one of my favorites and I bought it to try in an AP system.

The growbed I'm using is a simple plant basket that is used for water gardens...

And the growing media is pea gravel...

The gravel has to be thoroughly rinsed, so I just used the growbasket as a strainer...

The plant's roots must also be rinsed thoroughly.  Any peat in the potting soil will lower the PH of the water, and any fertilizers may kill fish or the helpful bacteria.

Next I planted the mint in the growbed and placed it on a scrap piece of wire to hold it over the fishtank.  I used the airline from the tank's undergravel filter inside a larger flexible piece of tubing to create the flow of water over the growbed.

I can adjust the flow rate by raising and lowering the airline in the fish tank.

And the water simply drips through the growbed and back into the fish tank (please excuse the dust).

We still have to install a grow light above the tank, but I'm anxious to see how this little experi-mint grows. 

I've got in mind another growbed...but have to get the light and some more goldfish before I can stress the system.