Hydroponics?

Fed up with having to deal with algae / fungus / insects / etc as can be seen below in 2 of my tanks, I decided to attempt to end the miseries of some weak specimens of cryptocorynes which I currently have by trying to cultivate them in soil-less environment i.e. hydroponics.

I wanted to design a system which is easy to move around, easy to clean / change plant (since many will probably die :-p) without getting messy, can be used in the existing 2 feet fish tanks which I am maintaining. Therefore, I decided to utilise an expanded plastic board as the base, cut holes in them, insert plastic pots into the holes and use filter sponges to hold the plants in place.

I selected many weak specimens of cryptocorynes of various species to participate in this trial.

After adding distilled water into a translucent container, I added some drops of AZOO brand plant gibberellin and a capsule of Ferka Rosetta before placing the board of 16 pots of plants in too.

I will be going for a week of holiday starting from tomorrow and then followed by another week of overseas training, hopefully the casualty rate will not be too high by the time I come back in Dec 2010.