aquaculture start up

[bluekrissyspike]

i have a bunch of fishtanks and lights, ect. and I just started getting into gardening but now it is too cold for outdoor plants so I decided to grow one indoors with the help of my fish tanks. so far i have a 50g that i made a floating 'island' with screen and styrophome balls. i threw a few seeds in there and we will see if any grow. the tank has a light on it and there is sufficient light to grow some stuff, i'm positive. the tank is 'sort' of in front of a window, it has a raised ledge behind it though and that spot gets a lot of sunlight. i put a ten g there, attached the output from the 50g filter to the ten g with some hose i took off a spare syphon. i cut the hose in three and have two going from the ten g back into the 50 so the water is draining with gravity power. i am still monitoring to see if it drains quickly enough to not flood. i have a spare smaller filter i will use to move the water if i can't get this one going properly. so far my plan is to grow floating plants on a styrophome island in the other tank as well but i am open to suggestions. i should have posted here before i started but i just kind of threw it together when the idea came to me. is anyone here growing in a set up like this? in the main tank i have a small pleco and 2 5" parrot cichlids and i think that should make enough waste to grow some nice plants. (: i will post a pic of what i have so far when the kiddo's go to bed and i have more time.

[ManEatingShrimp]

some people have put plants into their HOB filters with success. another thing you could try is buy those hang on back breeder boxes. on amazon they are 10 bucks for an air powered one.

[bluekrissyspike]

Well, I figured it out and got it up and running. now i just need to wait on plants to grow. i ended up switching out the 10g for a 30 long. i put a filter in each tank and then routed the output from each to the other tank. the filter in the 30g is just a smidge stronger so the level is staying at the same height as the 30g filter, the 50g is full as usual. i took the mesh lid from the 30g and put it diagonally in the the tank and added some quilt batting and waxpaper to keep the water where it should be and provide a surface for the plants to grow on. everything is working as i had hoped it would which is a surprise really since i just kind of threw it together from stuff i already had. a couple of the seeds i threw in there last night are already starting to sprout. (: i'm so happy. sorry no pics yet. they are on my camera so hopefully soon

[bluekrissyspike]