.

[piatotsini]

.

 

[unspoken930]

If im not mistaken, leaving the roots of a normally emerged plant submurged or constantly in water will cause it to rot, this is why you dont leave the little plastic trays under plant pots full of water because the roots will start to rot, even though theyre in soil, meaning that if they were just in plain water, the outcome isnt very good.

 

[unspoken930]

Hm, well I didnt really think about that way, though I have heard of it. Maybe you can turn this into an experiment, maybe putting one plant over your tank, one in just a nutrient rich bucket, and one potten in soil and see which tomato tastes better, and which plant looks healthiest... and you get three tomato plants out of it haha.

 

[Themuleous]

Sound intriguing! A cool fish tank and you'll get something to eat at the end of it, bonus! Certainly worth a try. Only problem I can see is that you'd either need dwarf height tomato plants or a very tall room, as toms get talllll!

Sam

 

[Liam]

I had a tomato grow on the edge of the pond, just a seed dropped by a bird I guess, it did grow not as well as garden ones, it started too late in the season to produce flowers or fruit. Its roots were fully in the water, though some of them started above the water. They were anchored among the stones on the shore. I guess some of those dwarf, tumbler varieties could work, they are hungry plants though, it could look cool, sounds worth a try. I guess if you had the tumbler types they would need some support to stop it falling out.

 

[BiffMalawi]

Sound intriguing! A cool fish tank and you'll get something to eat at the end of it, bonus!

Huh, I eat fish all the time.

First the golf course, now the tomatoes. Man you crazy man, crazy.

 

[JamesC]

Yes it can be done and I even know someone who has done it with great success. They pumped the water out of the tank to the hydroponics system and then the water returned under gravity. Somebody else I know of had a hydroponics system above his tank and grew amazon swords in it.

James

 

[MoreCoffee]

I did look at something similar a while ago (cant find my old post) and found somebody who'd done it using a container inside the tank with
a small Hang On Back filter to draw tank water into the hydrophonics container and an outflow at the other end to return the water.
He had a small section near the outflow with filter sponge/wool in to strain the water before it returned to the tank.
The whole think hooked onto the side of his tank.

If I remember correctly it looked a little like this .......... (excuse the poor diagram)


I cant remember how he held the plants in place .... wouldnt be too difficult though !

Al

 

[JamesC]

From another forum but this tank is something else - http/www.tropicalfish.site5.com/tfc/showthread.php?t=79757

James

 

[netcode]

this could be a cool project...you could potentially set up a hydroponic system on top of your tank. Similar to the diagram that someone posted above. There is also a huge benefit to doing this.. your going to have nutrients in your water already. Mr G has a good diagram but he didn't know how the plants were held in place.. well to give you a solution to that issue all you have to do is put a piece of plastic on top of your tank/"hang on container" and cut holes out where you want the plants. Go to your local hydroponics store and buy some pots with a lip (you can't just use regular pots as they don't have places for roots to grow out of and into the water) that will sit on the piece of plastic, yet hang on the inside into the water. From here you will want to use rockwoll to hold the plants in place. Other then that your done. But I do have one issue with your idea... if your planning to grow your plants into your tank you may run into issues with fish eating at your roots. You also may run into the problem of your roots taking over your entire tank. And one last thing, roots don't like light. So there are a few things you may have to do, I like the idea of a hanging container off the tank like Mr G has shown.


Anyways goodluck. if you have anymore questions just ask. I have some experience with growing plants hydroponically, but I won't get into what kinds of plants

 

[MoreCoffee]

The container used in the example I was refering to was not transparent, basically the HoB filter poured water into a sealed, black trough.
The trough had a lid on it with the plants in holes .... Your method with the pots sounds familiar - I couldnt remember at the time I posted ..... so the
roots were in darkness, contained in the trough so won't get out into your tank and with nutrient rich water flowing past them.

I think it was used to grow some sort of 'trailing' fruit' (strawberries or something similar) rather than tomatoes.
They have smaller root systems and wont grow as high, so dont interfere with overtank lighting.


...... Why do I get the feeling that curiosity will end up getting the better of me and I'll have to give it a try at some point .
Must Resist: Must Resist !

Al