Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

First, a bit about the system.

1x-250gal pond

6x-6"GoldFish

1x-30'ish gallon Kiddie Pool(Serves as the Grow Bed)

10x-Grow Cups made from plastic cups

1x-Support board with hooks to hang plant cups


How the system works:

The Fish Pond is a 250 gallon in-ground pond housing 6 goldfish. The pond is one that I put in 3 years ago and dug out myself. I used a rolled liner, partly because I was able to find a used one for super cheap and partly because it will be super easy to move the pond and take it with me if I ever have to move. The Grow Bed is a 30'ish Gallon plastic kiddie pool that I was given by a friend. Each plant is housed in a grow cup/basket made from a plastic cup filled with gravel. The baskets are suspended in the water, which makes it basically the deep water method, though the water is constantly circulating through the pool. The water is pumped from the pond and into the pool, where it simply overflows back into the pond.


Here is a shot of the AP and the Raspberries beside it.


A shot of just the AP System.


The hose and water overflow.


My plants hanging in their cups. They are lettuce, I eilieve it is Butter Lettuce or Romain, the lady who gave me the plants is kind of a goober when it comes to plant names and gardening.


A full shot of the Cup.


These are some of the starts I am rooting. I set a wire mesh square over the pool and stuck the cutting through the wire to suspend in the water. these are raspberries, begonia's, hydrangeas, and rhododendron. The begonias are already rooted, but I put in the system to see how they would grow.

That's a novel way to grow the plants KOF. If the wire is galvanized you might need to figure a different support method. The zinc can leach out and kill the fish. You might be able to use a light diffuser grating instead (also called egg crate lighting grid) but there are probably cheaper options as well. The plants look pretty health at this point, keep at it

Thanks!

I don't think it is galvanized wire. It is a piece from a wire shelving unit, the ones that come in squares and are assembled using turkey ties. It is painted with white paint, not sure if it is lead based, but it doesn't come into contact with the water, since it is suspended above it about 3-4". I will be making a few more cups and a second or third support to accommodate more plants later on, so the rack is temporary until they root, probably in around 7-10 days assuming all goes well.

Yesterday I had my first Lettuce harvest from the AP system and I am very pleased with it! I harvested from my Dirt garden and from my AP and the AP lettuce definitely produced more and the leaves were less bitter than the Dirt lettuce also with a better crunch. I harvested about 50% of the leaves since I've found that loose leaved lettuce produces better if I periodically thin out the outer leaves to allow the inner leaves to expand and grow larger.



Here is a shot of the lettuce before it was harvested, and this is even after I harvested some a few days ago.



Here is a shot after I harvested. I took all of the leaves that were looking wilty as well as a few of the larger, edible leaves.



The Dirt lettuce after harvest.



Here is a comparison of the harvests. The Dirt lettuce is on the left and the AP is on the right. It is a comparison between 4 Dirt and 5 AP plants.



The chickens and ducks enjoyed the wilted leaves and leaves with slug bites.

Thats an interesting idea - do the fish nibble the roots?

The fish are in a separate part of the system from the plants. The pool is basically my grow bed and the pond is my fish tank.

Very nice. Always good to see a comparison. The lettuces obviously handle the solids OK. Or is there extra filtration that I missed somewhere?

No additional filtration, though I may add some later on depending upon what plants I add to the system. I have found that most of the solids tend to settle at the bottom of the pool or in the gravel in the bottom of the fish pond. The gravel houses the beneficial bacterial for the biological filtration of the pond and I do a 10% water change once per week during the summer months and use the water water my soil garden.

There are a few solids on the roots of the lettuce plants and in the gravel in the cups, but so far they seem to be flourishing, so hopefully it stays that way

It seems my Lettuce is done, even the lettuce in my dirt garden. It has gone to bolt and is getting ready to seed,so I'll be moving on to a different crop, though i'll be leaving a couple of plants to collect the seed from for next year.

I have a few tomato starts, but have heard that they are a very greedy plant, so will probably only put two in my GB. I have also got lots of seed for the fall crops, so will probably plant a few starts from those. Perhaps broccoli. We never really get a frost here, so most cold crops grow right on through the winter, such as Kale.

I harvested lettuce and spinach seeds today. I also started my fall crop of lettuce and spinach using some of the seeds.