Wick watering "smart" flower pot

I've been down the rabbit hole of these "smart flower pots", which have automated watering system and a lamp, and adjust to specific plant needs. A shop I had good experience with is offering one of those, and it  looks cute, so I was thinking... but then I was put off by the fact that it needs WiFi connection for the app that controls it, all the time, and the app itself looks wonky.

I already have my aquarium with its lamps controlled by a timer (no wifi needed!), and it lights up my room which is otherwise rather dark. Recently it helped me with the jet lag after I returned from Mexico.
Sometimes I start seeds under the aquarium lamps, and now there is another lamp on my desk next to it, so I thought... why not connect the desk lamp to the same power strip that my aqarium lamps are using, and put a small flower pot under it?
Then the watering part - instead of sprinkles, I can maybe put cotton strings into the aquarium, and run them into the pot, to make a wick watering system (and I can also attach some watercress to the submerged end).
Attached a drawing of how it would look like - when the plants (chili peppers and maybe some tiny herbs) outgrow the system I can transplant them to the garden.
Sorry that the drawing looks a bit messy! The blue lines represent cotton cords. I read about capillary action, which is the science behind wick watering, and it seems that the thicker the cord, the better it will transport water, so I'm thinking to braid it around the watercress, and the twigs that will support plants in the pot.

The flower pot is still empty but I put a piece of the cotton cord into aquarium to see if the water will make it over the edge (it's not filled to the top, to let some plants grow above water).

Another picture: shrimp is enjoying a ride on a bioceramic ring which weighs down the string. Shrimps are always so supportive of my ideas! And it seems to work - the string is already wet on the other side too. I've seen nylon cords being used for that, but when I tied willows in my garden pond with them, they decomposed quite quickly so I'm worried about the microplastic. I think the cotton cord lasts longer, linen is even more durable, maybe I'll try woolen yarn too... opportunity for another experiment, perhaps.

Last year I made some cheap wicking pots with cotton t-shirt strips and some single use plastic containers so that I could grow some lettuce out of season. I think it was Abraham Palma who had noticed that his plants did better if they were able to dry out between filling the reservoirs he used, and I did find that sometimes the soil in my pot seemed to get too wet - something to watch for with your experiment.

Also, water is weird stuff... I would make sure that you don't accidentally get a siphon effect and drain your fish tank! Your cute little shrimp wouldn't like that! However, your proposed system is similar to "aquaponics" which can help both the tank and the plants. I'm wondering if the string would *only* allow the water to move, or if some of the nitrogen would move also?

I too, would be put off by a WiFi app - I'd go low tech if possible. I have a timer in my living room that turns plant lights on above the a window ledge. It comes on for several hours early morning, and again late afternoon/evening, but allows the plants to experience daylight in the middle. It's easy to add a second lamp if the plants expand beyond a single lamp in the spring when I'm often starting extra seeds.

I actually have a plan to tie the willows in my garden pond with linen ropes, because these are very strong and linen is supposed to get stronger when wet!

Meanwhile, water on the cotton rope has made it over the edge and it seems to go down slower than it went up... and I found this topic, where Jeffrey suggested a polyethylene rope but Anne also mentioned wool.

Jay Angler wrote: I would make sure that you don't accidentally get a siphon effect and drain your fish tank! Your cute little shrimp wouldn't like that!

Sure not, the shrimps can be very dramatic!
The rope is not too deep so it can only "drink" so much... the tank is quite tall.

I think, if the nutrients travel up the rope too, they will probably just "help" rope to decompose...

Jay Angler wrote:I too, would be put off by a WiFi app - I'd go low tech if possible.

"The internet of things"! I already have a cleaning robot (like the roombas but another brand) which uses that, but after a year its tiny "brain" slows down and it forgets to connect to the app... which is maybe a good thing; it still works without it. Apparently, the "smart" devices can have dementia too ;)

The experiment has started! I have three (maybe four...) pepper seedlings and two beetroot seedlings (because I always have to add something weird) and they've been waiting in the paper towel nursery for too long. Their leaves are yellowing a bit (on pepper plants) which is weird because they were under LED lamps for plants (white light). Maybe too much?
I made three sticks with linen cords each tied differently. All three are moist but the thickest seems to suck more water than others. We'll see if that's enough/too much. I will need to replace the light bulb in this lamp because it's probably too dim.

So I thought it will be a good idea to remove the pot from this spot when I can take the peppers to see some real sunshine... and I made a horizontal stick to hang the linen threads on it. Hours later, I didn't put them back into the aquarium and the soil is still very wet! I think they may need just one of those. So I used the middle stick for a yellow flypaper because two fungus gnats already emerged from the soil... eh.
Anyway, the plants look alive but their seed leafs are a bit miserable... hopefully they'll get better.

I plant garlic in my potted plants to supress fungus gnats, I have a friend that adds mosquito dunks to his fertigation.

Very interesting....   an Idea I have is to put a pipe over the cord to stop algae growth on the cord by blocking sunlight and also limit evaporation.

It would be interesting to put one into an empty glass and see what the rate of flow is from the tank into the glass.

I might give this a go with my aquaponic setups as I have them automagically fill up with water each day with pumps on timer.

William Bronson wrote:I plant garlic in my potted plants to stress fungus gnats

I put sprouting kitchen garlic in my pots infested with fungus gnats and it's dying... I'm guessing they're eating its roots :/

Mart Hale wrote:Very interesting....   an Idea I have is to put a pipe over the cord to stop algae growth on the cord by blocking sunlight and also limit evaporation.

It would have to be opaque pipe as algae have no problem growing inside my filter's transparent pipe. But I worry there might be other yuck... so I'll just see how it goes as is.

Mart Hale wrote:It would be interesting to put one into an empty glass and see what the rate of flow is from the tank into the glass.

Might be different than in the soil where the water penetrates it and the wooden stick cause everything is touching (I'm guessing the stick and cord will have to be replaced after a while).

I also have linen cord in the garden pond, it keeps willow tied to the edge.