Growing weed in a fish tank sounds exciting. Marijuana users who love fish will surely agree. But behind this wonderful thought, you need to put all the important pieces together for your weed to live well in a fish tank. Since there’s water, a hydroponic system is integrated into this project.
Who Can Grow Weed in a Fish Tank
Unfortunately, growing weed in a fish tank should only be able to be handled by experience with hydroponics. It’s a prerequisite to fulfilling the necessary steps for the operation. It may sometimes give difficulty to some advanced cultivators. Knowledge of aquaculture and pisciculture is a big help.
Installing several fish tanks is required as well as a biofilter system and extra supplements. A water filtration system should be added too for you to avoid obstruction. You have to know how to make the entire system of the tank to be sustainable.
Necessary Things You Have to Attend to When Growing Weed in a Fish Tank
1. Aquatic Medium
It means the fish tank and it should be large enough to keep your plants and the fish.
2. Grow Lights
LED lights can provide the necessary light and you can hang them over the tank
3. Farming with Aquaponic
You have an edge in growing weed in a fish tank if you have prior experience in hydroponics. If you have an existing one, you only need to improvise it into the exact system of aquaponics. You can avail of a customized building kit.
An aquarium can also be transformed into aquaponics. Many Youtube videos can guide you. Clay pebbles found in hydroponics can be used in aquaponics too. Finding the fishes that you need is easy at the pet store.
4. The Fishes
You don’t have to dig deeper for the fishes that can swim around your aquaponics. Pick any from tilapia, guppy, pacus, catfish, goldfish, carp, tetra, mollies, and silver dollar. As you can see, it’s like hitting two birds with one stone. You’ll get your supply of marijuana while you get relaxed when watching the fishes swim around.
Spending for both of them lets you save some money. Breeders who venture into commercial cultivation gain a lot of profit. They sell weed and fish at the same time. If you do it only for your own sake, it’s also effective for self-sustenance.
When you do it yourself, you can make use of little water and even unproductive soil. However, you have to see to it that you provide the right nutrients for the marijuana plants. You should know that they need heavy feeding during vegetation and flowering. Your fishes should be able to produce an adequate amount of water for the creation of bacteria. So there will be a copious amount of nutrients.
5. Aquaponic Environment
Persistence is necessary when you grow weed through aquaponic. A sustaining symbiotic should be constructed through the contribution of time, fishes, bacteria, and plants.
Sad to say, you can hardly do something in letting the bacteria progress. It can only happen if you’ve already started running the system. It would allow you to nurture bacteria as there’s enough breathing space. Meanwhile, you also have to work on adding or removing fishes.
Other things that you need to attend to are changing water, clay pot bed, the right level of pH in the water, roots, and so on. The essential things that are done in the early stage should be given enough attention. They are the building blocks and they will make things easier once they’re properly set up.
6. Dual Root Zoning
A sustainable ecosystem that you need for your aquaponics doesn’t just come to life overnight. You need more time to make the set-up self-sustaining. Furthermore, you need to add a biofilter to change ammonia into nitrates. You need patience for the complete development of the microbial community. It is a process of nitrifying bacteria and other minute organisms.
When the waste of the fishes is completely developed, the bacteria culture is stabilized. Dual root zones can help you with it. You have to put the plant pots over the clay pebble surface that is situated at the bottom of the fish tank.
To induce the development of dual root zones, segregate the top and bottom roots by designating the strips of canvass in between them. The partition that you made nurture the growth and development of the upper roots. You don’t have to worry as it doesn’t alter the fishes’ way of living.
But you have to focus on providing support for the top root while the aquaponic system turns sustainable. There may be a lot of things to do as you keep on reading. Once you gain enough experience, it will just be a piece of cake.
The need of adding supplemental nutrients will decrease bit by bit as the aquaponic system becomes dependent. You can add an automatic control system so not much supervision is needed from you. It functions on its own and makes minimum upkeep possible.
Some Challenges on Growing Weed on a Fish Tank
Compartments for Vegetative and Flowering Stage
Keep an eye on your marijuana plants during the vegetation and flowering stage. The needs of the plants like water, nutrients, and humidity should vary in every growth stage. Therefore, you must have different fish tanks for optimal use of the aquaponic system.
You need to transfer plants to another tank when vegetation is over. So you’ll be able to add supplementary nutrients essential in a certain stage. But make sure that the plants can absorb them so they won’t harm the fishes. Also, check the pH level in the tank
Disarray of Nutrients
It can happen as the bacteria culture provides nutrients and during the vegetation and flowering stage, the plants’ appetite heightens. They become gluttonous as the buds begin to pop up. You have to make sure that the waste products are processed for the plants to absorb.
Conclusion
Growing weed in a fish tank is an exciting project. It gives you the chance to take care of two things, marijuana and fishes. You can start with hydroponic cultivation for you to have a better understanding of aquaponics. Things will go smoothly if you have some knowledge.