Urban farming, living off the grid, surviving a zombie apocalypse, spaceflight, and Formula 1 racing. Those seemingly unrelated activities do, in fact, have something in common: the people who are successful at them understand that 1 object can serve many purposes.
Sometimes it’s a wood-chopping axe that you use to bust open zombie skulls, other times it’s a rear-view mirror that’s shaped like an inverted wing to eke out that extra thousandth of a second on a race car. This time, though, I’m talking about a 10-gallon fish tank that’s been re-imagined as a hydroponic indoor garden for urban/apartment farming.
Going with my theme, this 10-gallon fish tank is more than a 10-gallon fish tank – it’s an ecosystem. More to the point, it’s an ecosystem that is largely under-utilized … that’s where the Blue Green Box comes in. The Blue Green Box is a fully-contained hydroponic/aquaponic system that mounts to the top of a standard 10-gallon aquarium. The ‘Box holds 4 hydroponic “grow beds” (the cups) 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 that happens, the plants extract the nutrients from the fish waste and the cups get flooded so the roots will not dry out.
Ignoring the fact that the ‘Box itself is white, the name makes sense in a “water is blue”, “plants is green” sort of way. Here’s the original video from the ‘Box’s Kickstarter page, which goes into a bit more detail …
… which really makes you want to kick yourself in a “Why didn’t I think of that!?” sort of way for not seeing the hydroponic potential of your own fish tank, doesn’t it?
Maybe it’s just me.
In any event, the Blue Green Box’ makers – which include industrial design professionals with decades of production experience – have just about one week left to meet their funding goals, and state that the funds are needed to ramp up production. If they meet their goals, they’ll be manufacturing parts-in house on a CNC machine, then assembling the components by hand in the USA. The first shipments of ‘Boxes should be reaady to ship by late August.
Sponsored | Photos By: the Blue Green Box, viaKickstarter.
Ted Kellersays
Interested, how much?
Jo Borrássays
You should click the Kickstarter video, but I think the kit is $75? Not bad.
John Deeresays
一个优雅的解决方案。可以很容易地种植日常使用的新鲜香草,如牛至,百里香,甚至香菜。
Sissy Hutchingsays
对这个产品非常感兴趣。它们要多少钱?你会让它们适合任何水族馆吗?我有几个水族馆,我想把它们都变成花园。我也对建造一个大型水族馆来饲养鲈鱼或罗2022世界杯四强亚盘赔率非鱼感兴趣,想要一个蓝色绿色的盒子来装它(如果我知道这是可能的,我会有动力更快地完成它。请回到我身边。谢谢。
Sarah Cherry Jumelsays
Does this work via aeroponics? I was hoping to use it for rooting.
CHRISTINA REEDsays
This is what I’m looking for, I think. By when are these available? I don’t really see a price point either. Maybe I’m navigating wrong.