Hello, I’m Rehana. I live in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in a flat with a balcony that used to hold exactly one sad, half-dead money plant. Now it holds tanks, grow beds, and a surprising amount of spinach for someone who could barely remember to water a normal plant.
I’m a content writer by profession. I spend weekdays finding the right words for other people’s businesses. On weekends, I swap my keyboard for rubber gloves and turn into someone my friends now call “the balcony farmer.” I didn’t ask for the nickname, but I’ve made peace with it, mostly because it’s accurate.
How Did I End Up Growing Vegetables With Fish?
Honestly? There wasn’t one big dramatic reason. It was more like a few small ones that quietly piled up until I couldn’t ignore them anymore.
Part of it was wanting to actually know what was going into my food, instead of just hoping for the best every time I bought vegetables from the market. Part of it was genuinely caring about doing something a little more sustainable, even in a small way, from a small balcony, in a big, busy city like Dhaka. And part of it, if I’m being honest, was that I saw a video of a tiny backyard aquaponics setup online and thought, “That looks oddly satisfying. I need that in my life.”
So about three years ago, armed with zero experience and an embarrassing amount of unearned confidence, I bought a plastic tank, a small water pump, and a handful of unsuspecting catfish. That’s how this whole thing started.
The Not-So-Glamorous Journey
If you’re picturing someone who got this right on the first try, please don’t. My aquaponics journey has been a lot less “inspiring success story” and a lot more “a series of mildly disastrous events that somehow taught me something anyway.”
My first batch of catfish didn’t survive the first month. I later found out I’d been so obsessed with keeping the tank “clean” that I’d basically starved the beneficial bacteria my whole system needed to function. Then came The Great Flood when a siphon that stopped siphoning in the middle of the night. I discovered this the next morning by stepping directly into an indoor puddle the size of a small lake. My flatmate has never let me forget it. Neither have my friends, who now ask “any floods this week?” every time they visit.
But there were wins too, and they felt disproportionately huge. The first time I harvested my own spinach, grown with nothing but fish waste and water, I took a photo and sent it to at least five different group chats like I’d won an award. One friend, unimpressed, asked if I could just buy spinach like a normal person. Technically, yes. But where’s the fun in that?
Three years, two rebuilt systems, and more dead plants than I’d like to admit later, I now run a couple of small setups that actually work, at least most of the time. I still lose a fish occasionally. I still get the odd algae bloom I can’t fully explain. But I’ve learned enough to keep things alive, and more importantly, enough to explain it to someone else without making it sound like rocket science.
What I Actually Know (and What I Don’t)
I want to be upfront about this: I’m not an aquaponics scientist, and I don’t have a background in aquaculture or agriculture. What I have is hands-on experience running small, backyard-scale systems, the kind that fit on a balcony, a rooftop, or a small courtyard, not a commercial farm.
I’m comfortable talking about beginner-to-intermediate setups: small tank systems; hardy fish, like catfish; growing leafy greens and herbs; basic troubleshooting; and keeping a system running on a modest budget.
What I don’t do is pretend to be an expert. I’m still learning, still researching, still occasionally messing things up. And I think that’s actually useful for you, because it means everything I share here has been tested by someone who started with the same confusion you might be feeling right now.
If a topic gets too technical or scientific, I’ll say so, and I’ll point you toward proper research rather than making something up to sound smart.
The Gap I Kept Running Into
When I started, I looked everywhere for guidance, and most of what I found fell into one of two camps.
There was content so scientific and jargon-heavy that I felt like I needed a biology degree just to set up a fish tank. And there was content that quietly assumed everyone had space, ownership, and unlimited resources to work with: a proper backyard, a rooftop you actually own, endless water, uninterrupted electricity.
Nobody seemed to be writing for someone renting a flat, sharing a water line with the neighbors, and trying to squeeze a whole tiny ecosystem onto one modest balcony without annoying the landlord.
What I couldn’t find anywhere was someone just being honest about the boring, messy, occasionally embarrassing parts: the flooded floors, the dead fish, the “wait, why is my water suddenly green” moments. Everything else sounded so polished, like nobody had ever gotten it wrong before me.
What I’m Trying to Do About It
So, this site is my attempt to be the resource I wish I’d had three years ago, one written by someone figuring it out in real time, not lecturing from a pedestal.
Everything I write here, I’ve actually tried on my own setup first. I’ll tell you what worked, what didn’t, and what I’d do differently. I’ll keep things practical and budget-aware, because not everyone wants (or needs) an elaborate system to get started. And when I get something wrong or a plant dies for reasons I can’t fully explain, I’ll tell you that too because pretending otherwise doesn’t help anyone.
What You’ll Find Here
This site is for the beginner and hobbyist, like someone curious about growing their own food at home, without needing a farm, a lab, or a degree in biology. If you’ve got a balcony, a small yard, or even just genuine curiosity, you’re exactly who I’m writing for.
- Aquaponics 101 — the basics of how this actually works
- Fish and Plants — choosing species that actually get along
- Setup and Builds — practical help without losing your mind or your budget
- Problems and Fixes — honest troubleshooting for when things inevitably go sideways (because they will, and that’s fine)
I’m aiming to publish new guides regularly, and every single one will include what actually happened when I tried it myself.
Let’s Figure This Out Together
If you’re standing where I was three years ago, curious, a little intimidated, and wondering if you’re going to kill every living thing you introduce to your balcony, welcome. You’re in good company.
Start with my beginner’s guide to setting up your very first small system, and if you have questions along the way, drop them in the comments. I read every single one, and chances are, I’ve made the exact mistake you’re worried about making.
Let’s grow something together: fish, vegetables, and maybe a little patience with ourselves along the way.