Growing Plants Hydrophonically in an Aquarium

[Snare]

I wandered outside into my backyard this morning. The intense heat had caused most of our grass to wither and die. To my surprise, I found two "baby" mango trees growing along our fence in good condition. I wondered whether I could grow them hydroponically in my aquarium. As I'm typing this, my hands are still dirty from digging them up.

 

I have a 50 gallon tank running on a dual filter. I put one plant in each portion of the filter and have it rigged up according to information I found on Wikipedia. I have a turtle and a school of goldfish I use for naturally skeletonizing remains of small animals, so a great amount of waste is generated. Will the plants be able to survive and thrive on this alone, or do they need additional nutrients?

[blazarwolf]

Hmm... Infusing Air into the water is the mainpoint of Hydroponics.... You have a "Air pump/air stone" get the roots close as posible to the bubbles/Airated water... Decaying organics will provide some nuetrients, but its a 50gal tank your probably going to run low on concintrations... Theres alot of nuetrients out there, but i would be concerned what they would do to your fish/turtle. It also depends highly on the amount of light they will get.... Low nuetrient concintrations are good for rooting... you could use this just to grow roots and then transplant to soil, just gotta keep finding more plants ... P.S. Im so jealous MANGO TREES!

[Moontanman]

I wandered outside into my backyard this morning. The intense heat had caused most of our grass to wither and die. To my surprise, I found two "baby" mango trees growing along our fence in good condition. I wondered whether I could grow them hydroponically in my aquarium. As I'm typing this, my hands are still dirty from digging them up.

 

I have a 50 gallon tank running on a dual filter. I put one plant in each portion of the filter and have it rigged up according to information I found on Wikipedia. I have a turtle and a school of goldfish I use for naturally skeletonizing remains of small animals, so a great amount of waste is generated. Will the plants be able to survive and thrive on this alone, or do they need additional nutrients?

 

I've grown several species of trees and several herbaceous plants with the bare roots dangling down in the aquarium water. Aeration is usually the key to this but some will grow with out extra aeration.

[blazarwolf]

I've grown several species of trees and several herbaceous plants with the bare roots dangling down in the aquarium water. Aeration is usually the key to this but some will grow with out extra aeration.

 

VERY TRUE! Anyone who has seriosly grown knows that simply trays+inserts+peat sponges (rapid rooters) and of course some cloning gel (powder works, not aswell) far exeeds soil in terms of growth and efficiancy.... Keeping the water level low is good too, only the tips of the roots really need to be wet.