I have been keeping aquariums for a while and at one point had over 30 aquariums in my garage. I am recently setting up a new fishroom in my new home and I recently discovered how much I enjoy aquaponics and growing vegtables out of my fish tanks and mini-ponds.
When I moved my mint plant from one of my mini ponds, the roots were over 2 feet long! It was crazy…
So, which house plants/vegtables can you grow out of your fish tank? Lets dive into it:
Mint! Yes, you can grow mint out of your fish tank and it will grow like crazy and smell good, too! I use sweet minit and pepper mint and they have been doing very well. This plant is essentially a weed making it very difficult to kill. It grows fast meaning it is continuously pulling nitrates out of the water, keeping your fish healthy!
Tomato! Yes, you can grow tomatoes from your fish tank. Now, I would recommend growing cherry tomatoes or other small tomoato variety because they get big! Now, these need to be in an area where they get direct sunlight or you need an indoor light that is deisgned for growing plants.
Basil - basil has been growing great out of my tank and it smells good! These don’t need a terribly strong light to grow but will grow faster with a stronger light. Basil also grows really long roots! (not as long as mint, but still!) Feel free to use some on your next dinner! Delicous and helps keep your water healthy.
Kale! Kale is a great plant to grow out of your fish tank. You will need a strong light to ensure it grows properly but other than that, once it is set up, it will grow on its own.
Cucumber can be grown out of your fish tank but I wouldn’t recommend doing so unless its outside as the vines will grow everywhere! I had my cucumber plant growing out of my mini-pond and it loved the direct sunlight and nutrients from the fish water! It’s especially important to grow these outside unless you plan on manually pollenating these guys (otherwise leave it to the bees!).
Cilantro! Yes, you can grow most herbs but when I last grew cliantro out of my aquarium I noticed that it must be picked and cut regulary otherwise it starts to get bitter and devlop a more woodsy stalk which is common with maturing cliantro. Make sure to pick and eat early on otherwise its not as appetizing as it gets older.
And here’s 2 veggies that didn’t grow that well…The first is, spinach…I am not sure why but I had 4 bunches of spinach and all of them slowly died off or grew really small leaves. These were outside so they should have gotten enough light but for whatever reason they did not do well in an aquaponics system. The 2nd veggie that didn’t grow well was jalapenos! These grow but never produced a flower to grow the pepper. So, I would stay away from spinanch and peppers if you plan on growing veggies from your fish tank or mini pond!
That’s all for today folks!
Happy fishkeeping!