Can Aquaponics be merged with a Grow Box?

Lots of people are wondering about aquaponics. In many parts of the growing community, this neat trend is having an impact. People are attracted to the idea that in addition to growing green plants, you can also cultivate fish and seafood in complementary systems that pack a lot of power into a small space.

So how can aquaponics be merged with a grow box? Most grow boxes aren’t built specifically for this kind of project, so doing this may require some creativity and DIY solutions.

Using the Existing Reservoir

Sometimes, the grow box reservoir is big enough to house a few small fish. In this case, you might not have to do too much aftermarket engineering to get an aquaponics setup into a grow box system. The reservoir is already serving the plant roots, so irrigation and everything else work basically the same.

Attaching a Secondary Reservoir

In other cases, the grow box is simply too small for the scale of aquaponics that the grower wants to do. The solution, however, might not be that involved. If you can engineer a line from the existing grow box reservoir to a larger one, and route water back-and-forth, you'll be able to keep the fish in that larger tank without compromising the grow box. The secondary tank can be as simple as a large plastic bin, the kind you can find at any department store. The trick is getting both of these sealed off and connected together.

Top-Tray Systems

Another way to “hack” a grow box for aquaponics is to replace existing reservoir systems with a tray table set up where plant roots sit right down in a body of water.

Some growers choose to put all of this inside the grow box, if it’s big enough, but others place the grow box on top of a fish tank and cut parts of the bottom off. This results in a pretty clever looking visual setup where visitors see a traditional style fish tank, with a plastic tray set on top of it, and plants growing out of the top.

The design of an aquaponics grow box is not inherently sophisticated -- with these types of projects, the devil is in the details. Micromanaging means making sure that all of the aspects of a closed grow box will remain uncompromised when aquaponics is added. For more, check out all of the modern gear that retailers and manufacturers can offer to help you build hydroponics projects that are right for you.