Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I live right by the Gulf Coast in Texas, so the weather here is warm and humid most of the time. It's cloudy a lot too because of the rain, so you don't see too much sun.

I know the fundamentals of aquaponics, and I've looked at your small, medium and large examples, but I've never tried my hand at any sort of carpentry or mechanics. Could someone please show me a super simple plan using a small fish tank (like one you can buy from the pet store)? I'm on a tight budget right now, so I have little to invest, but I really want to start growing my own plants in one of these systems as soon as I can.

BTW, nice to meet ya'll!

Howdy from 100 miles east of Dallas!

I know there is one in the members systems section.

I dont have a pic but all you need is say a 10 gallon aquarium ($10 at walmart), a shallow tubaware container of 10 to 20 gallons, a fountain pump, a timer(or autosyphon), some tubing and fittings, some expanded clay pellets, fish and not a whole lot more than that. Set the tubaware on top of the fish tank and setup a standpipe type drain. Pipe the pump into it and flood it every so often.

OR the most simple system would be a floating raft (foam sitting in the fish tank). Use an under gravel filter setup. Kinda like this on page 68.

OR

OR Using 2 liter pop bottles and inset solo plastic cups:

Welcome Alita!

I grew some grass on a foam raft, very easy to set up:

http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... 7260#27260

Howdy Alita, welcome to the forum and the world of aquaponics.

Just by chance a brand new member (Nicholas C) here in Australia has set up exactly the sort of system that DanD described....

Have a look here at a simple aquarium system....
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... highlight=

YAY! lol i have already been linked. If you need any specific help on it don't hesitate to ask me or TimC.

Nic

Ok, probably a 10 gallon tank is something I could start with, but I reckon you can't really grow anything more procreative than grass or herbs, right?

Is that wheat grass you're growing, Dave? What kind of medium are you using in your grow bed, NicholasC?

your not shy are you dave. didn't know that was legal in texas.

The media is known as hydroton... expanded clay... or LECA (acronym of light expanded clay aggregate)....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LECA

Believe lettuce would grow OK as well... depending whether or not the system received enough light.

It's grass, like from seeds to patch up the yard.

I think the limitation here would be support for larger roots, this is just Scotch Brite pads, which have pretty small holes. The raft could also get tippy with anything larger or heavier.