Since seeing the bare produce section this winter, my wife and I have decided to be a little more self-sustained. When deciding on where we should put a few different AP systems, she asked me to set up a little system so she could grow some herbs and spices. I breed aquarium fish, so I have quite a few of the parts just kicking around - it's a little bush-league, but it should do the trick.

Here's what I started with - a 10gal tank with Hamburg Mat Filter powered by a MaxiJet 300 (I believe) powerhead. I'm not sure if you notice out the window, but those snow mounds are about 8' high... and that's after an unseasonal week of melting!


I've only drilled the back pipe, so far - I have more pots on the way. The flow is pretty high for the system, so I didn't want the water just spilling out of the holes for the pots on the front pipe. I'll probably go pick up a throttle valve for the powerhead to slow down the flow a bit. Before the grow tubes were installed, the heater was behind the filter and kept the tank at 78F (what the fish like); however, it cools off significantly in the pipes and the tank is at 70F, so I moved the heater into the tank. This heater is only 50W, so I'll pick up a 100W and place it on the right side of the tank


The fish are Lamprologus brevis. They live in empty snail shells. There are 9 in there - they're pretty small, but I'm hoping that they produce enough waste for some simple herbs. Seeds were planted a couple days ago - hoping to see sprouts by week's end.