# Hydroponic vivarium?



## booboo (Jan 22, 2005)

Has anyone tryed a tank with hydroponics instead of soil?
It was just a thought that i thought would be cool.
Mybe i will try


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## geckguy (Mar 8, 2004)

I am not sure if you know what hydroponics is, but it is basically growing plants in a soiless medium, and feeding through a nutrient solution. I think an ebb and flow type of system would be best, but I would be worried about the fertilizers in the nutrient solution, even if using a fish emulsion, which can smell pretty bad, I wouldn't do it. There are also NFT systems, but that would be more of a hassle than Ebb and Flow. IMO it is a waste of time to try in a tank, and a danger to any animals in the tank.


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

I haven't personally, but people have used straight gravel and or leca as substrate before with decent results...most vivs could probably fit the definition in that the substrates contain little or no fertilizer.


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## booboo (Jan 22, 2005)

Yes i know what hydroponics is i have done it before(very small simple setups) my friend is setting up a system right now so i know what i am doing. But the frog droppings would go down with mistings and what not you would need minimal added nutrients. Duna grow from black jungle would work i should think. I just thought it was a kind of cool idea. In a large palaudarium(spelling) you could ALMOST accomplish a aquaponic system that would be cool.
I realize this is thinking pretty big and hard to do and no one will probably do it but i thought it would be ccol mybe i will try small scale.


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## Guest (May 9, 2005)

well technically, if you just have gravel or leca and no soil substrate, it is hydroponics. I think if you wanted to do something more advanced like ebb and flow it wouldn't be worth it. First off, it would require much more verticle space in the tank, then I would like to sacrifice. And secondly, the plants would probably grow way too fast. I have to prune my tank enough as it is. You definately wouldn't want to add any nutrient solution or fertilizer, too much of a risk to the frogs. 

I do use the leca approach, with no soil, and it seems to work great. Its simple and clean. The frog droppings seem to provide plenty of nutrients for the plants.

Just my thoughts


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## Guest (May 9, 2005)

If you use leca and its "floating" (or almost floating) it's rather dangerous for the frogs. I lost two that drowned that way. I think its almost like "quicksand". 


-Tads


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## geckguy (Mar 8, 2004)

In the simplest terms just plain gravel is hydroponics. However I thougth you wanted to do something more advanced like Ebb and Flow. I have just gravel and plants in my imitator, vent, intermedias, lamasi, and my new fantasticus tank.


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## Guest (Jan 22, 2006)

*"dirty hydro"*

saw this is an old thread but it is of extreme interest to me!
we run lately what we call "dirty hydro" here at the shop i work for... basically, our medium is coconut fiber straight. it is wetted a week before planting, with a tea we make using a mixture of raw coir, worm castings, bat guano, a fungal innoculant blend, and mollasses...all bubbled for about 24 hours... after about a week of being undisturbed we plant it, about the same time the trichoderma is really begining to colonize the surface, and who knows what else goes on below... then we begin feeding a microbially chelated organic nutrient in weak doses, along with a dilution of the tea. because these aren't salts, we don't monitor any EC, just pH, but they are negligable amounts of available food...it is very similar to aquaponics nutrient loads, from what i've read about aquaponics. the coolest part about it, is that when we initially mix the nutrients into the tank, they are black. within a week they clarify entirely... the next time you do a water change though, it'll change from black to clear in a matter of hours of dripping through the colonized media... this could easily be adapted for terrarium use, i imagine, i've done something similar to my first tank, but it's only been planted about 2 weeks now, so it's really too early to say... and i certainly won't be feeding it, as i said the water is pretty thick initially when we mix our tanks, although this is partially due to the fact that we are generally working with very fast growing annuals which require a good ammount of nutrition to keep up with their growth habit... 
Robert.


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