Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi everyone,
Newbie here.

I am thinking of building a small aquaponics system (~20 gallon tank) where I use media filled mesh pots suspended below the top water level of the fish tank, limiting the need for a water pump...will use a water aerator instead. The submerged media should be able to convert the ammonia, but I am concerned about solid waste removal.

I'm curious your thoughts. Is this a supremely stupid idea?

Thanks.

Not completely stupid.. but extremely limiting... and requiring a large amount of maintenance to make it work...

Impractical is probably the right word.... and un-neccssary.. when there are so many simple way of making AP work...

If you are determined not to have a water pump, you could try using a under gravel filter. Then treat it as an aquarium where you would need to clean the gravel.

The indoor system in my signature uses only a small fountain pump for a 30 gallon tank. It's been working really well. My wife cleaned the gravel after a couple months out of habit and there was essentially no gunk to speak of. The plants do quite well, but I'm not harvesting anything from them.