# I Hijacked my Hydroponic DIY to Grow Emmersed Aquairum Plants



## Apaa (Jul 21, 2006)

I made a DIY hydroponic ebb and flow kit a couple years ago. I took out my tomatoes and bell peppers and potted them upside down to see how that works outside hanging on the porch.

I made the hydro unit out of a rather large heavy duty storage bin. I put a cat litter pan under the lid and used plastic screws to hold it so I can remove it rather easily if I needed to. Inever have needed to.

I used a sump pump on a timer to fill the cat litter box. The CLB has a riser tube to control the height via threaded pvc pipe. It also has an overflow hole near the top to avoid filling the outside lid.

There are 12 holes for 3 inch pots inthe top that allow pots to be placed above the CLB. The timer comes on and fills the CLB and sugmerges the rockwool in the plant pots. It comes on about every hour or so roughly. It stays wet. Plants grow in it. I use dry ferts to dose the vegetables.

I have compact flourescents above it. 400 watts worth. It has to stay close to the veggies. It works, and uses less power than monster lights like metal halides etc. I tried to go as low electric as I could building it originally.

I am going to try to put some aquarium plants in the pots to see how they grow emmersed. The rockwool stays wet constantly. 

What is the likely outcome of this? I just put java fern, tenellus, hygro, and a couple other stem plants in there to try it out.


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## Apaa (Jul 21, 2006)

It appears that I will need to spray some of the plants every so often to help it adapt. Perhaps some sort of sprayer will help. Ill see what I can come up with.


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## Apaa (Jul 21, 2006)

Ok. I decided to try several things at once and see how it worked out. Ihad some stem plants, java fern, java moss, and some c wendtii. Tennelus.

One is a hydro with 400 watts ebb and flow. 

One is a tub with potting soil with a little sand on top to hold down floating sediemnt inteh water. water is one inch deep.

One is a 1 quart jar with water and some peat moss. (java fern only).

One is a plastic tray with a cover with potting soil and water 1/4 inch deep. (java moss only)

The hydro unit is the only one indoors and with artificial light.

Stem plants growing MUCH faster in the tub with potting soil. Tenellus growing much faster int eh hydro. Java moss growing much faster inthe covered plastic bin. Java fern isnt noticeably growing after 4 days. However it looks better inteh 1 quart jar with a lid and holes along the edge (mayo jhar washed many times, then 1/4 holes staggered around the neck for ventilation).

So far there seems to be different plants in different methods growing at different rates. I expected one to go faster over the other, not diff plants in diff containers.

I am using tapwater with the same ferts in all the experiments. Dry ferts in solution of tapwater. The stem plants have grown a half an inch up out of the water. the tenellus about 1/4 inch but several shoots coming out. The java moss has grown many new threads upward out of the water.


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## marrow (Mar 4, 2007)

This sounds interesting, can you manage any pics? I remember seeing a thread recently about someone who did an ebb and flow for crypts.


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## Apaa (Jul 21, 2006)

Ill try to get some pics up. Im in the process of moving but this isnt goingto be packed, Ill just move it complete.

The rockwool keeps the lower part wet so this is where the new growth is coming in at. The other setups Ill take pics of as well.


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