The Blue-Green Box: The Aquaponics Aquarium
Have you ever looked at your aquarium and thought, “I wish this was growing plants too?” Well, the solution is here with The Blue Green Box.
The Blue Green Box uses a regular home aquarium system to grow plants with nutrients from fish waste, creating a mini-aquaponics system in your own house. This system allows plants to grow much faster than normal. Aside from being beautiful, the plants clean your air and clean the water for your fishes. The Blue Green Box currently has a Kickstarter campaign running to bring the project to fruition. Prototypes have been developed, and the campaign is to get this revolutionary farming technique project off the ground!
The Blue Green Box, in action!
The Blue Green Box brings aquaponics from experimental farms into your home while providing the rewarding experience of aquarium keeping and gardening. Founder and creator Andrew de Melo says, “I want to share my creation with the world. As someone who truly believes that aquaponics is a more efficient system of food production (on a larger scale tilapia can be used alongside crops). I want to bring as much attention as I can to the process of growing plants with fish. I wanted to develop a way to bring aquaponics into the home as a fool-proof and enjoyable product that would leave a lasting impression on everyone who saw it.”
aquaponics in action!
The Blue Green Box holds 4 grow beds which are plastic planters filled with gravel. Water floods the four grow-beds on timed intervals via a programmable timer and small pump (if the roots were constantly flooded they would drown). As this happens, the plants extract the nutrients from the fish waste and the gravel or other inert substrate that the roots are in, get flooded so the roots will not dry out. The flooding of the roots is controlled by my overflow system and submersible pump. While in the on position, the excess water flows out of the overflow gate in the front. The gate guides the water into the aquarium silently, and is oversized to ensure no risk of clogging or flooding. The downside is that it is not recommended to eat the plants produced in your Blue Green Box, as the aquarium chemicals might not be so healthy for humans. However, it does make a beautiful planter at home or the office! And as a caveat, if you’re not using chemicals in your fish tank, you *should* be able to eat the plants you grow…de Melo is just urging caution probably because his lawyer said so. 🙂 But certainly you can grow some houseplants that remove toxins!
Green Living Ideas would like to thank The Blue Green Box for sponsoring this post. Check them out on Kickstarter and give them some love!
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