Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I would like to construct an aquaponics system that is small enough to fit against my garage wall, but big enough to grow lettuce throughout the winter.
The Fish Tank


I found this on the web. It looks perfect for my system. I believe it to be very similar to the tank in Janet’s system, just a little bit smaller. She has 55 White Talapia in hers, I plan to have 20-30.

Frame


I will be constructing a wooden frame similar to this potting bench that will house my fish tank on the bottom and my planters on top. I will have to design it to be very sturdy, as it will need to be able to support a lot of weight.

Grow Beds
I will be using the most inexpensive thing that I can find. Probably it will end up being a Rubbermaid tub that is somewhat shallow (12-18 inches). I have to keep in mind the issue of space on top of my growing table as well. I am pretty sure I can grow a lot with a little space when it comes to lettuce, cabbage, etc.


Grow Lights
I could make this as simple or as complicated as I want. I will be using fluorescent lights, just not sure yet if it will be compact or regular. Regardless, I will have to figure out how to mount the fixture, although I have experience there so it shouldn't be to difficult.

Well that is pretty much the basic plan so far. Please let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions. Thank you.

Almost anything will work, the question usually turns out to be, "how well will it work? or how much maintenance will it require? or will it be big enough?"

How big is the fish tank trough you are planning on? What kind of fish?

Those rubbermade bins will probably work for grow beds but they are also likely to buldge with water/gravel in them so you might wind up having to reinforce them or use some wood around them to keep them from busting out over time.

Is there a reason to do this indoors rather than out in the sun? Lighting is always costly. for lettuce, you can probably get away with using a few T8 type florescent tube shop lights. These would probably give you the best light for your electricity and bulb buying bucks and be appropriate for hanging over your bench of grow bins. Be sure to look for lights with good shiny reflectors. You will want to hang the lights on chains so you can easily adjust the height since you want the tubes to be only a couple inches from the lettuce plants and will have to move the lights up as the plants grow. Try to get the highest color temp tubes that you can for green leafy growth (more blue to the spectrum.)

I would probably recommend building your shelf or bench such that the fish tank will sit directly on the floor and the grow beds are either over or next to the fish tank on the bench. You probably don't really want the extra shelves over the grow beds since you want lights there and the bench top height probably wants to be a little lower since the bins sitting on top will effectively make the working surface a good 12-18 inches higher. Here is a picture of some shelves that you can get the bracket kits for under $20 and then the only other cost is the 2 x 4 lumber to build whatever shelving you like.

That shelf unit is using 1 and a half of the bracket kits. The shelves are really strong being 2 x 4 and the design is pretty darn flexible. I got the bracket kits at lowes

I have a similar setup, but it is outside to utilize the sun. You are going to need ALOT of light if you want to produce. Also you are going to need light in the 6500K to 10000K color range.

How do you plan to flood the beds? and how do you plan to drain them?

Don't forget to give yourself room to acess the top of the tank to manage your fish and for maintenance. Also, think about insulating the outside of the tank. I have found temperature instability to be a big problem in my outdoor setup. But the more stable and efficient you can keep it, the better it will be for your fish.

A rule of thumb I have heard is 1 lb of fish for 2 gallons of water per four gallons of grow media.

To figure out the voulme of your tank you can use
Volume in cubic inches / 231 = US gallons
for a square tank this would be (lenght x width x height) in inches / 231 = US gallons
for a round tank this would be ((Pi x radius)squared x height) in inches / 231 = US gallons

Remember to use inside dimensions if you need to be precise.

Wow TCLynx, cool setup. I like the use of buckets.

The buckets are not a very efficient use of space but we pick these food grade buckets for free so I used them for this system.

It is possible to get 25 gallons of gravel to support 5 lb of fish but it requires good pump flow and aeration as I'm finding out. I re-did my quarantine system and loaded it to the max with tilapia. They were not eating until I added an extra water pump and a couple extra air pumps and I still think it needs more aeration for the fish load I still have in it.

If stocking is going to be really low, it is not such an issue and lettuce is not a heavy user of the nutrients so lower stocking density might be in order for a salad system.

So, what kind of fish ya gonna raise in the garage there in OK?

TCLynx- *I was thinking about doing 100 gallons.

*Not too sure about the species of fish although I am leaning towards Tilapia.

*I think it will be cheaper to just reinforce two rubbermaid tubs with a simple wood frame than anything else.

*There is more than one reason I want to do this indoors, the main reason is that I want to have good production all year round. In order for me to justify this... I need to keep the startup cost to a minimum. I figure that I could start this thing from ground up for less that 200 dollars. My lot also isnt that big(7200 sf), and I have other plans for the backyard. Another reason is most of my experience is growing indoors and I like to be able to control the climate... although this is more of a challenge now because my garage door isnt insulated. I will probably grow cold loving veggies in the winter and some heat tolerant varieties in the summer. It is summer now and the temp can really climb quite high in there.... that was another reason I was thinking about choosing talapia. Let me know if you have anymore questions. Oh I wonder if I can even get Tilapia here in Oklahoma? That will be interesting... hahaha. Ok yall thanks for the advice.

Well... change of plans. In the interest of saving space(I kinda got an idea of how huge 100 gallons is) I purchased a 35 gallon fish tank for 25 bucks off craigslist to get me started.

I hope this will satisfy me for a while. I plan on concealing the system in a large metal storage cabinet with the tank on the bottom and growbeds on the top and middle sections. In the end I will probably step it up and get a bigger one. How much fish can I put in this 35 gallon tank... lets say tilapia or a combo of catfish and bluegill? How many growbeds can I have? Has anyone even known this to work with such a small tank? Thanks for your input.

anything will work try looking in this thread viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1617, a couple of bath tub systems that are about 40 gallons that will give you an idea on how many fish and grow bed area
Them Rubbermaid things crack me up, Rubbermaid gives me a hilarious vision maybe it's just me, well it probably is just me

been doing a lot of reading about Koi. They are said to be very "dirty" and also can fetch a high resale price when they are big. Is this something any of you have considered or tried?

Guy down south here has very big Koi and gets paid up to $2k for them each but seem like a lot of stuffing around for ap, and you wouldn't want to buy 50 of them I will stick to the trout at $1 each

with a 35 gallon aquarium, you will probably want to add a sump tank (or bin) to the system since if you have a couple 25 gallon grow beds filling from a 35 gallon aquarium, you might have only 10 or so gallons left in the aquarium when the beds are flooded. If you set up a CHIFT PIST system with the aquarium next to the grow beds and a bin or barrel down below as the sump tank, you can have the water level in the aquarium stay constant and the sump tank level is what will fluctuate. You can probably find a 55 gallon blue barrel somewhere for $10-$15 (just make sure whatever was in it was food grade or safe for fish once cleaned out well) They make fine sump tanks or you can plumb bins together to use as a sump tank. If you figure 50% of your grow bed volume is needed to flood them plus a little so the pump doesn't run dry. So if you only use two bins as grow beds, then perhaps get one bin the next size larger than the grow bed bins to use as your sump tank.

You do not need a huge amount of fish to grow veggies. The Nitrate levels in my aquarium system is quite high and currently there is only a 10 gallon aquarium with fry driving it (a 55 gallon barrel as sump tank to flood the buckets.) You could simply get a bag of cheap goldfish to get your system going cheap. Goldfish are tough and cheap so you don't worry too much if they die. Once you get your system going for a while you can worry about other types of fish. I personally would not keep tilapia or other food fish in a 35 gallon aquarium up to eating size, it just seems cruel. I had a few tilapia in my 40 gallon aquarium and it was just too small for them to breed in so now I just put fry in the aquariums. I don't think I would try growing the food fish out in anything smaller than 18 inches by 18 inches by 36 inches. When I have put them in smaller containers more than temporarily, I've had problems.