Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi everyone and greetings from Germany!

Since I saw a documentation about Aquaponics, I am all hot for them. I have been planning and informing myself, thanks to the forum in advance, and now I am very close about starting my first AP.

I live in an apartment and our backyard is already occupied by cars. I have a balcony, but winter is close and not the best starting condition for plants and nitros. Therefor I start with a small fishless aquaponic in my apartment.

Plan A: For starters I want a small AP with about 6 to 8 pots, filled with gravel, in a box which is constantly flooded by water. I guess there is no easy way around pumps. The water flows down to a cloaked tank. I suppose the nitros prefer dark places, so I give it to them. I will feed my bacterias with Charlie Carp and Seasol - or equivalent German products. Some advices other than pee are welcome! : D Dunno yet how well equipped the shops are. A water pump will bring the water up to my plants.

Profit! I hope at least. : )

Plan B: If plan A is successful, I will add duckweed and duckweed-eating fish to my system on my balcony.


So much for the start. First I have to look for all the parts (and shops easy to reach), then I will constantly post my process. I welcome any advice, tips and simple "Hellos" and hope to be able to harvest soon. : D

gday Jachymor, have a look at these, ive grown some chilli plants in one of these and it worked pretty well
www.autopot.com.au

Hi, thanks for that.

As far as I can tell they simply mix up water and nutritions and let them flow directly to the pots? It misses the water cycle and I wonder if this is more or less productive / effective than relying on nitros.

im no expert, but i think without fish you will struggle to generate sufficient nutrient and may need to supplement with other plant nutrients anyway. You are right though, the autopots are not a cycling aquaponic system, just a self watering pot plant

Welcome Jachymor!

I have a 20 gallon aquarium with four goldfish, with a little aquarium pump going up to a rectangular planter on top of the aquarium. In the planter are little plant pots with charcoal and plants in them. Any other lightweight medium like clay balls would do. The rectangular planter can hold three of the little round plant pots at a time. The pots have little dishes in the bottom, to keep a layer of water in them so the plants don't dry out too quickly. This lets me remove and rotate more than three planters through the system. I do this when I feed the fish in the morning and evening. Since the pots are removable the aquarium does not have to be in a sunny area. The pots outside the system are usually on the South side of the house getting sun, whereas the aquarium is in the bedroom in the North side of the house. You might consider something like this to get started with your plants operation during the Winter!

Here's a diagram, but I've changed it a couple of times, the main thing is that water and solids go into the pots in sequence over days rather than making one big heavy bed over the aquarium.
viewtopic.php?p=250690#p250690

Hi!

Looks very interesting to me. You just change every pot once in a while? It does not sound like that much of work. And seems like keeping the water nitrate-free, yet I guess with the help of water plants to get some extra air into the water.

Those Autopots work without fish as well, but need other sources of nutritions. The main question here is: is it cheaper/greener to take fertilizer or get fishes and feed them? On a second thought, I'd really like to have fish in my system. Some small ones, I do not intend to eat them, but to power my system. I shall rethink the fishless idea again.

Attached is a rough idea of my system, inspired by autopots and the fish tank with floating platforms. By the way: Isn't it quite enough to put a floating pot in your fish tank?

After some reading and inspiring I thought: Well, lets do it the real deal! Get some fishies!

Here is my idea, and I will start building it next week. I want a regular fish tank with some sea plants for aeration and gravel for the the plants and bacteria. A small pump shall pump water to the top tube, which is cut open at certain parts where I can settle my plants. At the end of the tube the water goes down the hole back into my tank. Viola!

Pic attached, but one of my favorite questions is: How many fish can support how many plants and vice versa? I got the advice to use 3-5 kg plants for 1 kg fish.