Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Long time fish keeper who's getting into gardening and decided to combine my two hobbies into one! I had a small constant flow system a year ago or so, but it was pretty awful. Leaked everywhere, used tiny gravel, flow rate issues, etc. But it grew basil like a champ.

Just set up my new and hopefully improved small system over the last few days. 55 gallon fish tank feeding a 3 foot X 2 foot X 8 inch grow bed. Small, a little shallow, but hoping I have some success. My grow bed is filled with roughly 20mm gravel. Man did my tank get cloudy when I first ran water through the GB, but it's pretty clear now. Since my grow bed is so small, I have two small sponge filters in the fish tank to add aeration and mainly to increase the number of bacteria working on my fish waste.

I am starting with some feeder goldfish from the local chain store. I'm thinking I'll probably stick with goldies, since there's not room for much bigger fish in my tank and goldfish are pretty dirty fish. I've lost about 25% of what I put in there from 4 days ago, but the rest are looking good and none keeled over yesterday or today. I'm thinking the dead guys were just diseased from the store.

As of today Ammonia is at 0, Nitrite at 0.5, Nitrate at 0, pH at 7.2, hardness off the charts. My pH was about 8.5, so I added vinegar and dropped it to 7. Next day it was back at 8.5, so I dropped it again. Anyone have thoughts on whether I should keep chasing it or let it settle?

My wife and I are going shopping for plants to put in it tomorrow, even though it's not quite done cycling. Forgot to mention I squeezed some filter media from my dad's tank into my current one to sped the process along. Anyway, we'll probably pick up some lettuce, basil, and chives to start... I'm going to try to sneak a jalapeno in the basket when she's not looking!

Last note, I promise! Using 4 t5 and 4 t8 bulbs, as it's an indoor operation. Also using a simple bell siphon to flood and drain my tank every 5 minutes or so.

One more side shot of the main operation:

Nice FT!

A good sized tank for sure.

You will need to either lower your water level or raise your grow media level. You will want to have the water about 25mm or 1 inch below the level of you grow media. The main reasons being that it will help to reduce algae growth and also your plants will want dry ankles and wet feet

Another note, if the wood you are using to hold up your drain pipe is treated you need to be very careful about any water dripping on it and draining back into your tank.

Welcome to the addiction. I hope you have room outside for a bigger system

Added 60 pounds of gravel to raise the growbed level another 2 inches, thanks for the heads up. Added my first plants today. Added Maxicrop since I'm not done cycling yet and was worried about available nutrients. Sulu lettuce, Italian basil, chives, and broccoli. I have spinach and on jalapeno growing from seed that I'll transfer into the growbed when they're big enough.

Also replaced the wood supporting the drain pipe with some inert composite wood I had lying around, as I didn't want any chemicals leeching out of the wood into the tank.

Update. It's been 8 days since I set up my system and everything is going great. pH has stabilized at 7.3, so I'm going to leave it and see if it drops over time. Temperature stays pretty steady out in the garage; it gets hot during the day but there's a ventilation system that does a pretty good job. I read that with fluorescent lights, you lose a lot of light the farther away from the plants you are, so I moved my lights down about a foot and plants seem to be thriving. My chives are growing an inch a day! Here are some pics:

Plants:


Lettuce up close:


Basil up close:


My fish swimming around


And I got a marmorkreb crayfish today! I gave it to my dad a while back but for various reasons he returned it today. Beautiful blue little gal, I hope she berries up soon!

Wow I just read up on those crayfish, what a strange species. All individuals are female and dont require a partner to reproduce... and all off spring are female and genetically identical.

The document went on to say that no one actually knows where they actually originated from and mainly distributed within the aquarium trade.

Interesting stuff.

I don't know what the status of the marbled cray is currently...

But previously they were banned throughout Europe, and I believe even the US.... as an high danger invasive species...

The poster, and no disrespect meant.... has been pushing them for years... and AFAIK... is the only person to have ever suggested, or attempted to try them in aquaponics...

You're referring to me by "poster," I assume? I'm curious as to how I have been "pushing" them in aquaponics for years? Since I've been doing aquaponics for less than a year? I'm aware they are banned in Europe but as far as I know not in the US and certainly not my part of the US. Could they be invasive if released into the wild? Most probably. But that won't possibly happen with mine as I'm a responsible aquarium keeper, and also not an idiot. I threw him in with my goldfish because crays are produce a lot of waste and that's what I'm looking for in my setup.

Machinist.... if you're not the "marbled crayfish" guy... then apologies... (I see you say that you recently got one)...

The owner of the marbled crayfish site... has been pushing them for years... and in relation to aquaponics...

And frankly... judging by his posts... he certainly doesn't appear to be a "responsible aquarium keeper"....

As to whether or not they'd be invasive if released to the wild.... not "probably".... but almost certainly.... "definitely"....

My understanding is that some were released to the wild... in Germany from memory... with disasterous results to local species..

i've got marmokrebs, and papershell crayfish..there's a pic of a berried kreb in my system thread..
she just had her second batch of babies.. i've been feeding the 1" and up crayfish to my bluegill and yellow perch..
i did put an ad to sell them on craigslist, but not much interest, i don't want to mess with shipping them, so i'll be using them as supplemental feed for my fish