Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

so I have project in mind, and this will be my first aquapontic system. i want to take a 25 gallon acrylic tank and put lots of (non living) foilage inside it with some neon/cardinal tetras. i plan on growing a miricle fruit tree using a 1 ft deep container above the tank. the tank will gravity feed into a filter and sump with a pump connected to it that leads to the grow bed. then the grow bed uses a bell siphon to drain back into the tank. the Ph will have to be pretty low (5 - 5. because the miricle fruit tree likes acidic envorements. this is also why i have selected neon/cardinal tetras to go inside the tank (they can handle the low Ph levels).




since this is my first system i have some questions:
-how many tetras do i need for the tree (for now and the future)
-how much feed do i need to put in per fish
-what kind of sub straight should i use in the tank
-what kind of pump do i need

and any other general tips for the construction and usage of this system

Can't give you an absolute answer on most of these because there are too many variables. You may wind up getting more tetras if they spawn - http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=4152. I would think you'd need a fair amount for a tree. A good quality feed is important and I'm not sure what to recommend for tetras that will also grow plants. Most of us are using commercial chow designed to grow the fish and not so much for color or maintenance like the flake foods (which aren't very good for plant growth).

The amount fish eat in relation to their body size varies with age. Try feeding what they will eat in 5 minutes and maybe feed several times a day. Watch your ammonia and nitrite levels and stop feeding if they get too high.

I wouldn't use any substrate in the tank since you want the solids going out of the tank and not getting trapped in the substrate.

The pump should be able to deliver the fish tank volume to the grow bed once per hour. This is a guideline that has worked on many systems but is not etched in stone.

An alterative would be to just use a water air lift for such a small container and set a constant depth with the drain. If it is not enough to keep the tank clean then add a drop in filter or sponge. When the filter gets dirty, save the poo gu to a bottle for fertilizing the above tank once in a while. On one test, I take the filter floss out of my Ft and squeeze it dry to bottle. All the solids seem to stay in the floss and the juice drains out. Maybe every 3 to 5 days there is enough juice to work with. GOLDFISH TANK. Once in the bottle I shake it up and pour some on. We do this with all the house plants also. The water air pump will give the plant enough liquids from the tank.

I am also finding that the bottom water of the tank needs to gets replaced every other week because it gets drained dry of nutrients. This is the place where all the roots are and I keep this area wet all the time now on Test 2. Outside of light on the leaves I think that most of the work is done at this level So I am trying to keep the root area 50/50 air to water.

I too will be doing small trees once I get the teats for them started and finished.