HOW TO： CHEAP and EASY aquarium NITRATE removal - Aquaponics TUTORIAL

Hi everybody, Joey here again and welcome back. So today I want to talk to you guys about aquaponics and a very simple method of accomplishing the benefits of it. First and foremost, aquaponics is basically growing plants off the nutrients from the waste that the fish create. More specifically, plants that are being grown hydroponically. The obvious benefit that an aquarium hobbyist would get from such a system is the fact that the plants would use up things we don't want in the aquarium, like nitrate. Now when it comes to the aquarium hobby, we have plenty of fish, but how can the average aquarist take advantage of such a system? Well we need to keep it simple and easy enough to do that anybody can use it. So we need to start with an easy to grow plant that grows fast with minimal care. So let's look at a plant in an aquaponics system that has been used in the aquarium hobby for a very long time now. One of the easiest to keep plants that is commonly found, relatively cheap, as well as being one that does well with its roots submerged in water is the pothos. This plant will do fine in just a brightly lit room or even with a small light over it. What makes this such an easy project to do is you don't need the whole plant, just a stem or two. It will quickly grow in no time anyways. The way this system works is simple. We want to place the stem in the aquarium water. It will eventually grow roots and begin to use up nutrients in the water like nitrate. You only need about one to two inches of the stem in the water or if you have access to a full plant, you can remove the stem with the roots and have it almost working right away. The bigger the plant grows, the more waste it will strip of the tank. So how do we get it to do this? Easy. There is a multitude of ways. The easiest way is to simply set it in the back of your tank and lightly hold it in place with a lid, maybe a clamp or even the filter. Within a few days of adjusting to the tank, the plant will start working. While you can trim the plant back as it grows, it certainly does look good growing up in your wall or across the back of your tank. Some more options are to drop it into the top of a sump or maybe take the lid off the back of a hang on the back filter and drop some in there. Or build an entire filter for it. Remember the overhead sump we built? Well, drop plants into that as well. Place it on the back of your tank or how you normally would and you now have a dedicated aquaponic system that is easy to care for, cheap and very effective. How effective? Well, that's going to depend on how big the plant grows as well as the amount of waste available in the aquarium. The results are definitely noticeable though. So that's it really. I commonly buy and see a full Pothos plant for around $10. Enough for all of your tanks and maybe a little left over to grow around the house. This is easily one of the simplest projects with a lot of benefits that anybody can do for their aquarium. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed the video. I also wanted to thank you for watching and we'll see you guys next week for another project.