Best Aquaponics Kits for Home and Beginners

An aquaponics kit is a fish tank and a grow bed sold as one system, and an aquaponics starter kit is the smallest, simplest version of that. Water moves from the fish to the plant roots, the plants take up the nutrients in the fish waste, and cleaner water goes back to the tank. The best aquaponics kits for a first system are small and indoor, and that is also what most aquaponics systems for sale on Amazon are: desktop tanks of one to three gallons, grow beds that sit on a 10 or 29 gallon aquarium, and the odd patio pond kit.

Choose by Purpose

• A desktop demonstration of the loop: the Self-Cleaning Aquaponic Fish Tank with seed sprouter tray, a small tank with a siphon-fed planting tray on top.
• A grow bed for an aquarium you already own: the AquaSprouts Garden, which needs a 10 gallon tank.
• A decorative desk planter: the Penn-Plax Aqua-Ponic, a houseplant on a small round tank, not a home for fish.
• A complete patio water garden: the Aquascape AquaGarden, a 5 to 7 gallon pond with pump, filter and light.
• Real vegetables: none of these. Start with the DIY build guide.

Three questions come up again and again. For the best aquaponic aquarium on a desk or in a living room, pick the AquaSprouts Garden if you want a real herb bed on a 10 gallon tank, or the Penn-Plax Aqua-Ponic if you want one plant with its roots in water and nothing to plug in. For a low-maintenance aquaponic aquarium, the self-cleaning tank is the one built for it, because a siphon does the water cycling for you (what that does and does not clean is covered on the self-cleaning fish tank page). And for the best turnkey aquaponics for home use, the Aquascape AquaGarden is the nearest thing to a boxed system you can buy, but be honest with yourself about the size: ready-to-run backyard aquaponics systems are rare on Amazon, as the section on systems beyond desktop size explains.

This guide compares four aquaponics kits you can buy now, from the desktop Aquaponic Fish Tank with seed sprouter tray to the AquaSprouts Garden, and says plainly what each one can grow. Contents and sizes come from each maker's listing. Where Frank Wood, who started this site, has set a kit up himself, his notes are included. If you would rather build a bigger home aquaponics system than buy one, our guide on how to build an aquaponics system covers the parts.

Best Desktop Start

Self-Cleaning Aquaponic Fish Tank with Seed Sprouter Tray

The simplest one-piece desktop kit: a small fish tank with a planting tray on top, about 12 by 8 by 11 inches overall, where a siphon cycles the water past the roots. It grows herbs and microgreens, not salads for a family.

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• 

  Best grow bed for a 10 gallon aquarium

  AquaSprouts Garden

  A full-width grow bed with pump and timer that fits any standard 10 gallon tank, so you keep the aquarium and gain a real herb bed.

• 

  Best decorative desk planter

  Penn-Plax Aqua-Ponic Planter (1.4 Gallon)

  A houseplant or herb on a small round tank with no pump. We treat it as a decorative planter, not a fish habitat.

• 

  Best for a patio

  Aquascape AquaGarden Mini Pond Kit

  A 5 to 7 gallon patio pond with a planted filter, a pump and a light.

Best Aquaponics Kits Compared by Purpose

The columns run from desktop demonstration kits to the aquarium grow bed and the patio garden. Each row says what is in the box and, in the row Still needed, what you must add. Fish, filter, heater, light and a water test kit are the parts most often left out, and each one matters before any fish goes in.

Aquaponics Kits by Type

Shoppers search for aquaponics kits under several names, and the names describe three different products. Sort yourself into one of the groups below, then jump to the matching review.

Aquaponics Starter Kits

A starter kit is meant to get you through your first cycle with as few decisions as possible. The Self-Cleaning Aquaponic Fish Tank fits that description best: the tank and the planting tray come as one piece, with the water cycled by a siphon, so there is little to assemble. If you plan to keep fish seriously, a starter kit is still a stepping stone. Read the aquaponics pros and cons before you commit to a bigger system, and consider an aquaponics course if you want to understand the cycle rather than follow instructions.

Aquaponics Fish Tank Kits

A fish tank kit puts the plants on top of an aquarium. The AquaSprouts Garden is the one that works as a true grow bed, with a pump and timer, on a standard 10 gallon tank. The Penn-Plax Aqua-Ponic Planter is the cheap, passive version: a planter pot over a small round tank, best treated as decoration. Both lean on the tank for the fish half of the loop, so the tank, the fish and their care are yours to sort out. Our aquaponics fish tank guide covers that side in depth, and the self-cleaning fish tank page explains what a plant-topped aquarium can and cannot do for water quality. If you already keep goldfish, the aquaponics goldfish guide looks at whether they suit this setup.

Home Aquaponics System Kits

The Aquascape AquaGarden Mini Pond Kit is the home kit on this page that lives outdoors: pump, planted filter, light and basin in one package for a patio or balcony. It is ornamental first. If what you really want is a backyard system that grows food, the backyard aquaponics and home aquaponics guides lay out what that takes, which is larger than anything sold as a boxed kit on Amazon.

Aquaponics Kit Reviews

The reviews follow the same order as the table, by purpose. The aquaponics fish tank guide covers the other route: picking a tank and adding the grow bed yourself.

Self-Cleaning Aquaponic Fish Tank with Seed Sprouter Tray (Best Desktop Start)

This is the kit most people picture when they hear about aquaponics at home: a small clear tank with a planting tray across the top, about 12.2 by 7.7 by 11 inches overall and around 5.5 pounds. The listing says fish waste feeds the plants and the plants clean the water, and that a siphon raises and lowers the water level in the tank so the roots can breathe, which is why it is often sold as a self-cleaning fish tank. The maker also pitches it for classrooms, to teach germination and animal care.

It is a small system, and we have not set this one up ourselves. Expect a few herbs or microgreens, not salads. The listing does not give the water volume, and a tank this size is small for any fish. A betta, the usual choice, does best in a heated, filtered tank of about 5 gallons, so check a species' needs before you stock it, and treat this kit first as a plant and learning kit. It is sold by a third-party seller, so read the listing for what is in the box.

Best for: a first kit, a classroom or a gift. Missing: the fish, a heater and a filter if you keep a tropical fish, a grow light and a water test kit.

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Penn-Plax Aqua-Ponic Planter (Best Decorative Desk Planter)

Penn-Plax's Aqua-Ponic is the simplest planter you can buy that touches water: a clear round tank with an enclosed pot on top, filled with the ceramic planting media that comes in the box. There is no pump. You water the plant as you would any pot plant, the runoff drains into the tank, and the roots grow down toward the water. The 1.4 gallon model measures 7.75 inches across and 10.25 inches tall, and you reach the water through openings in the side.

We list it as a decorative planter, not a fish habitat. Penn-Plax suggests a betta for it, but a betta needs a heated, filtered tank of about 5 gallons, and 1.4 gallons with no filter and no heater is not that. Use it for what it does well: an established houseplant or herb with its roots in water. Penn-Plax recommends plants rather than seeds, such as peace lily, Chinese evergreen, lucky bamboo, English ivy, mint, watercress, chives or leaf lettuce. If you want fish, use a 5 gallon heated, filtered aquarium with an aquaponics grow bed on top.

Best for: a desk or windowsill plant, and anyone who wants nothing to plug in. Missing: the plant. It is not a fish tank.

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AquaSprouts Garden (Best for a 10 Gallon Aquarium)

The AquaSprouts Garden is a grow bed that turns a standard 10 gallon aquarium, about 20 by 10 by 12 inches, into an aquaponics system. On Amazon it is now sold by Carolina Biological Supply, the science education supplier, whose listing names the plant growth medium, the pump and the timer and says it fits a standard 10 gallon tank from any maker. The tank is not included. AquaSprouts also sells a 29 gallon version in birch hardwood, made in the USA, for a standard 29 gallon aquarium.

The design is its strength. Instead of resting on the rim like a tray, the bed wraps down over the sides of the tank, which makes it look like furniture and leaves more depth for roots. Frank's unit measured about 10 by 28 by 17 inches without its light bar, went together without tools, and had a bed big enough for several herbs plus a couple of small vegetables, which he pointed out is unusual for a 10 gallon kit. He also singled out the build: everything fitted, with no visual or mechanical flaws.

One caveat: the plain Garden lists no light, which you need indoors unless the tank sits by a bright window; Carolina also sells it as a Complete Set with a plant light and an aquarium light.

Best for: anyone who has, or wants, a 10 gallon aquarium and a real herb bed. Missing: the aquarium, a grow light and the fish.

See the 29 gallon AquaSprouts Garden

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Aquascape AquaGarden Mini Pond Kit (Best for a Patio)

The AquaGarden Mini Pond is a self-contained water garden for a patio or balcony, and with a few fish it works as a small aquaponic loop. A pump lifts water into a plant and waterfall filter filled with expanded clay grow media, the plants root in that media, and the water spills back into a 23.5 inch square basin that holds 5 to 7 gallons. The kit includes the pump with a low-suction attachment, an LED waterfall light and transformer, the clay media and two kinds of polished gravel. Aquascape leaves the rest to you: plants, stones, driftwood or fish.

Treat it as an ornamental pond first. It is built for water plants and looks, not harvests, and a basin this small outdoors warms and cools with the weather, so fish belong in it only in mild months unless you can bring them inside. Where winters freeze, run it with plants alone. For an outdoor system that grows food, see IBC aquaponics and aquaponics greenhouses.

Best for: a patio feature where plants help look after the water. Missing: the plants and any fish.

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How to Choose an Aquaponics Kit

Every kit on this page runs the same cycle. What separates them is how much water they hold, whether a pump moves it, and how much room the plants get. Decide those three and the choice makes itself.

Start With the Fish, Not the Plants

The tank sets the limit on fish, and the fish set the limit on plants. Rutgers Cooperative Extension's introduction to aquaponics (fact sheet FS1351) gives a simple sizing rule: about 10 gallons of water for every pound of fish at their adult size. By that rule a desktop kit of one to three gallons is a home for one small fish, a 10 gallon aquarium carries about a pound of adult fish in total, which is a handful of small tropicals, and fish you might eat need tanks of 50 gallons and up. Our guide to the best fish for aquaponics matches species to tank sizes.

Pump or No Pump

A pumped kit moves tank water through the root zone on a cycle, so the plants filter far more of it and the system can carry more fish. The cost is an outlet, a little hum and one more part to clean. A passive planter like the Penn-Plax relies on roots reaching down into still water, which is quiet and foolproof but means you keep changing water by hand, and it is why we do not recommend fish in it. If you build or upgrade, our guide to the aquaponics pump explains flow and lift.

Grow Bed Size Sets the Harvest

A tray over a 3 gallon tank grows microgreens, a few herbs or a houseplant. A full-width bed on a 10 gallon aquarium grows several herbs at once plus a lettuce or two. Fruiting crops such as tomatoes and peppers need deeper media, more fish and more light than any desktop kit offers. The best plants for aquaponics guide sorts crops by how hungry they are.

Which Kit Size Fits Your Space

Match the kit to the spot where it will sit. Water volumes below come from each maker's listing, and the price tier is relative: $ is the budget tier and $$$ the premium tier.

If your plan is one plant on a shelf, read about growing pothos in an aquarium and pick an aquarium plant holder before buying a kit at all. If you are choosing between the two desk kits, AquaSprouts vs Penn-Plax compares them directly. A 10 gallon tank limits you to a few small fish, and how many fish in a 10 gallon tank shows how to stock one without crowding it. For the tank itself, our aquaponics fish tank guide covers the options.

Light, Heat and Where It Will Sit

Indoors, plants on a kit almost always need a grow light, because a room is far dimmer than it looks. Tropical fish such as bettas need a heated, filtered tank of about 5 gallons. And water is heavy: a US gallon weighs about 8.3 pounds, so a filled 10 gallon setup puts more than 80 pounds of water alone on its stand. A desk that wobbles under books will not do.

Kit or DIY Starter Setup?

A kit buys you convenience: the parts are matched and the instructions are written for them. A DIY starter setup buys you size and flexibility. The simplest DIY route starts with an aquarium you already own or can buy used, a grow bed on top and a small pump, which is the same design as the AquaSprouts Garden built from parts you choose. The step by step is in our guide on how to build an aquaponics system. If you are unsure, buy the kit to learn the cycle, then build the bigger system once you know what you want from it.

What a Kit Will Not Do for You

No kit arrives with the bacteria that turn fish waste into plant food. They take weeks to establish, and adding fish to brand new water is the most common way first systems fail, so read our guide to fishless cycling before you buy fish. After that, the routine is feeding, topping up water lost to evaporation, and testing. The aquaponics fact sheet by Rakocy, Masser and Losordo (Southern Regional Aquaculture Center publication 454, hosted by Oklahoma State University Extension) explains why systems are kept close to pH 7: it is the compromise between what the bacteria want and what the plants can absorb.

Aquaponics Systems for Sale Beyond Desktop Size

Search for aquaponics systems for sale and most of what you find is the size on this page. Kits that produce real quantities of food exist, but they are sold differently.

Why Amazon Has So Few Backyard Systems

A backyard aquaponics system means a tank of 100 gallons or more, grow beds, plumbing and often a stand or frame. That is freight, not parcel post, and few makers sell it through Amazon. Specialist aquaponics retailers sell larger systems directly, usually with design help, and school science suppliers sell classroom units.

Building a Home Aquaponics System Instead

For most people who want vegetables rather than a desk ornament, building is the better buy. An IBC tote, a stock tank or a large food-grade container becomes the fish tank; a grow bed full of clay pebbles drains back through a bell siphon. SRAC publication 454 recommends roughly 1 cubic foot of fish tank for every 2 cubic feet of gravel grow bed in flood and drain systems, and, for raft systems, 60 to 100 grams of fish feed per square meter of growing area each day. If floor space is the limit, an aquaponics tower grows upward instead.

What You Will Still Need

The tank for an aquarium-top kit, and the two things every aquaponics system uses up.

1. 

   110 gallon tank

   Tetra LED 10 Gallon Complete Fish Tank Kit

   A standard 20 by 10 by 12 inch glass tank, the footprint the AquaSprouts Garden is made for. The hood stays in the box once the grow bed goes on.

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2. 

   2Water tests

   API Freshwater Master Test Kit

   Tests pH, high range pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, the five numbers that tell you whether the cycle is working.

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3. 

   3Grow media

   Halatool Leca Clay Pebbles (2 lb)

   Expanded clay to top up or replace the media in a grow bed. Rinse it before use.

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