Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

hi, I'm new in aquaponic and i have some question about starting one. at the beginning, water is fresh from he tap, should i use hydroponic fertilizer(like maxsea) until i have the nitrate cycle going or would my plant be fine? and does adding water from the fingerling pond to my system speeds up the cycle? if i want to use a NFT system can i grow plants and earthworms in the filtration box? and is there such a thing as too much DO in the water?

i live in a very wet tropical place, 213+ days of rain per year, is it alright if leave my system in the rain, aside from the electrical part, or should i place it inside? I'm worried that the rain might make the water temp fluctuate too much.

thanks you.

I wouldn't use hydroponic fertiliser. Your fish won't like the byproducts. You can use seasol or something similar if you want. You don't need plants when cycling.

maybe. It's the bacteria that help. If you have a filter on ther fingerling pond then transfer some media from that. The best way to speed it up is to feed the bacteria heaps. So look into fishless cycling.

make the nft filter a standard flood and drain bed, sure you can grow plants in it. Why do you want nft? Flood and drain beds are sufficient.

yes but it's rare and quite difficult to do by accident.



if the rain water is drinkable you won't have a problem. There are very few places with undrinkable rain water.
I doubt the temps will fluctuate unless you have artificial heating or cooling. Rain is usually pretty close to air temperature.

so no plants until the cycle is set.

ok, was thinking of buying the first batch of fingerling from a aquafarm supplier then divide my fish tank so i can cultivate my own. maybe 70/30. is the fishless cycling the one where you oee in the tank?

just more familiar with nft and i can use a much smaller water pump. i'm planing to run this using a solar/wind power generator. and also planning to add some grow light for the night. and i'm only using ordinary car battery for power storage.

You can put plants in whenever you like. Just start with low nitrate feeders like lettuce.

If you cycle with fish you should use no more than 25% the maximum stocking density. Even then you may lose some.
Fishless cycling is done by manually adding ammonia. The cheapest way is indeed to pee in the water.

I shouldn't expect nft will need a smaller pump than a slow drain grow bed. I would advise against nft from what I've read, except to use it as a supplementary system. I have not done this myself though.

Your backup systems sound good. Make sure you include additional aeration. This is of great importance.

guess i'll try grow beds first and familiarize myself with it. i'm putting a couple of airstones in the tank that why i'm worried about over oxygenating the water. i'm thinking that with an average temp of 35 deg Celsius i should use more air pump coz the water holds less o2 in it.

Hi Stepz... you're correct about the correlation of water temperature and DO...

Water at 30 degrees is only capable of holding 50% of the DO of water at 20 degrees...

But as far as aerating your tank goes... it's essentially impossible to super saturate your tank by pumping air into it...

Oxyganeation and water turnover are likely to be the keys for you in your climate....

Along with sufficient bio-filtration, fish species... and proper stocking density... of course...

oxygenation? like pumping pure o2 in the water?

Oxygenation... aeration via airpump(s).... and the flood & drain of your growbeds and water return to the tank...

Using pure oxygen, especially under pressure and with very fine bubbles ... is "THE" only way to super-saturate your system in terms of DO...

Another thing to consider if you intend doing NFT... especially if you do a lot of channels... and in your climate...

The surface area of the channels, despite usually being white... results in considerable ambient heat gain... which of course would be transposed to your fish tank...

And the plants in the NFT would also impose an oxygen demand of their own, on the system...

Even NFt systems often require aeration, especially in hot weather... because of the ambient heat gain... and for reasons in post above...

lol, i thought you mean pure o2, yeah i'll be putting air pumps and air stones. was wondering if a funnel shaped bottom tank would be good for gathering all the solid waste on the tank floor.

just noticed there's no edit button.

does the plant need to be flushed before harvest or do they taste good straight out?

Funnel shaped tanks are good bur expensive. Plants are good straight from the gb. Sometimes you need to rince detritus left by birds and insects.

Do read the Basic Info and Useful info sections of the forum
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=12
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=11
Those sections are not terribly long and they will help answer many of your initial questions.
Then it is often a good idea to pick out a few of the longer Member Systems threads to read though so you can get an impression of what other people have gone through building and cycling their systems. That way you can also probably avoid some of the mistakes others have made, instead of having to make them yourself.

There are 3 primary life forms involved in Aquaponics. The two most people think about right off, fish and plants since Aquaponics is usually described as the combination of Aquaculture (growing fish) and Hydroponics (growing plants). However, probably the most important element of an Aquaponics system is the one we can't see directly, it is the bio-filter bacteria. They support everything!!!!!!

The bio-filter bacteria need materials to grow on, water with wastes to be converted, Dissolved oxygen, darkness, carbon, and a stable pH in the appropriate range for plants and fish (normally between 6.5 and 7.5 though there is plenty of evidence that systems can be balanced at a pH outside this range, the important part is to keep it stable.)