Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I figured I would show off my first system. It's a simple CHOP system that I will add a few NFT tubes to later. I constructed it mostly from scavenged parts; a free 55 gallon plastic barrel, three free cattle protein tubs, lots of free lumber, and some free gravel. The only items I had to purchase where the 550GPH pump and plumbing pieces. I spent roughly eight hours altogether building the system. I probably could have built it faster had I had a plan going into the build but I pretty much just made it up as I went along. Somehow, I got lucky and everything functioned flawlessly right from the start. The system has been cycling since around 2 pm yesterday (roughly 24 hours now) and will be getting its first residents soon which will just be some seedlings I've propagated and a few small fish that I will go catch at a nearby pond.

Here are a few pictures of the system. They pretty much speak for themselves.

yay, cool. How's it doing?

Going good. It's been cycling for about 54 hours now and the water is crystal clear. I'll slowly start adding a few residents later this week and work my way up to capacity over the next few weeks.

Nice. Does it get much sun were it is now or do you plan to move it?

It doesn't get full sun all day but it gets enough believe. I don't really have any plans of moving it as I plan to just replace it with a larger system down the road.

Thats neat little set up. What fish do you plan on putting in there?

Thanks jmcdaniel0. I've put a total of 7 bluegill that I caught at a small pond down the road. I snapped a pic of a couple of them before I put them in.







Here are some pics of the grow beds planted with chives, parsley, cucumber. melons, tomatoes, swiss chard, and lettuce. I added a trellis made from a cattle panel to train the cucumbers and melons on.

Awesome man. Those are some pretty little blue gill.

How big do they get. I've never caught any to eat before.

I have seen some in large ponds get up to 8-10 inches. They are pretty great to eat. They just dont get quite big enough for my taste. They are fun as all heck to catch though!

Yeah, they're some nice ones. I caught a bunch of bigger keepers but threw them back as I wanted these smaller ones for the fish tank. I would also say 8-10" is about as big as they get though 7-8" is about average for a keeper at most ponds I've fished. They are good eatin' regardless.

Well, some decent growth after just a few days I suppose. I did lose one out of seven blue gills but I wasn't expecting a 100% survival rate. I plan on adding a solids filter of some type pretty soon.





A couple of pics of my other growing method. Things are finally starting to take off after a few spells of heavy rains and cooler temps.

The weather here has been crazy as well. 50F as a high one day, then up to 85f the next. Crazy!

How is your system coming along SouthOfPegasus?