Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So my wife and I have recently become very excited about aquaponics. I am an avid fish keeper and know just about all there is to know about keeping fish, although I do learn more and more as the years tick by.

My wife on the other hand has a green thumb like nobody's business. She knows alot about growing plants and a good deal about vegetables, but we will be learning how the two interact as we go. We figure we can use both of our knowledge to be succesfull.

Now I have recently just built a 500 gallon aquarium for my South American Cichlids in my garage from the ground up, so we thought it would be a good idea to create a small experimental system off of this fish tank. While building this small system I have already learned alot, especially about the bell syphon. I wish I would have logged the entire build but I didn’t find this site until after I completed it, so the after pictures will have to do.

I built a simple frame out of 2x4s and 3/4" plywood and we bought a 12" deep storage bin from big lots. This will be a flood and drain system and is filled with 3/4" river rock bagged from Home Depot. We will buy the rock in bulk at a different place when we get ready for the larger system.

Everything is completed except the light, which I am ordering online and should be here early next week. Then the fun begins. It does get fairly hot in my garage but with the fish tank in there I keep it very well circulated and the water never gets above 82-83 F.


Here are some pictures (only allow 3 at a time? )

More pictures

More pictures and a quick overview video




I cant get the youtube style to work so here is the link
http://youtu.be/vYqFeE45pzc

Hi Welcome to the Forum. That will prove it OK. But you could put on a lot more grow bed too. Since you are new go to the home page and down load the FREE Ebook "IBC's of Aquaponics" It is a wonderful source of info. The size of the tank to the size of the grow beds and the number of fish you can have to make a great system. IT is a great guide line when you are beginning. This will be the end of water changes for you also. NEET HUH. The growbeds will clean the water for you. Now you will have to start reading all the things you put in the tank to make sure you would eat it. Nearly the only thing that goes in mine is salt for the fish and MaxiCrop for the minerals when the leaves get yellow.

Looks good! Only warning I'd give is that clear tubing is going to grow algae on the inside if is exposed to light and could cause flow problems

EDIT: You might also get algae growth on the sides of your grow bed since its exposed to light as well.

Yeah, very cool. I have played with plant filtration in the past but nothing edible. Mostly just POTHOS (which do wonders on nitrate by the way)

I want to point out that my tank has its own and completely over built filtration system. The grow bed will absolutely add additional bio filtration but it is not needed.

As far as extra grow bed goes, the tank would be able to handle it for sure, I just dont have much room left in the garage (lots of projects all the time). My garage is more like a workshop than an actual garage storing cars (in fact a car will not fit at the moment ). We thought this would be a great way to do some hands on learning before building the larger outdoor system that we want.

From building as many things as I do, I have learned that you can do all the research in the world (and it definitely helps) but until you put into real world practice you will never know what your up against.

Question? Where we live we have a higher PH around 7.8ish and chloramine in our tap water. I know the PH will come down over time but what would you recommend I do to get rid of the chloramines? I know I can use RO water but I'm not ready to purchase a nice filter right now. For my tanks I use Seachem Prime. I have done some research and found that some people say not to use it and others say it is just fine. What would be your take on Prime? And if its bad for us to consume then what other methods would you recommend temporarily until I can purchase a nice RO filter?

Anyways, my wife ordered some seeds so this is what we will be starting with. Wish us luck!

Chloramines is a horror story in it self. Chlorine dissipates in a day or so in an open container but Chloramines takes three (3) weeks to do the same. Lots of people make a tank to let stand with aeration to help get rid of the Chloramines, or build rain water catchments. As you know Chloramines will kill the fish and the bio bacteria that makes up your filtration. I don't think Ro removes Chloramines either. More research I guess. I do not have that problem. I am using my pond water. It has its own problems with high PH 8.0+ and too much iron in the soil.

You mentioned SeaChem prime for the tanks. Is that to remove the Chloramines? The big test on anything you want to use now in your system and on your plants is "Are you willing to eat that?" Take it to your local druggist and ask him to tell you what is in it and is it safe to eat"? If you want to eat any thing in your system take care with the things you put in it.

Also your plants will grow kinda slow because of the high PH. Do you already know that most of the time you need to let water set 24 hours and take another reading to make sure of the correct reading.

Thanks donone, but from my research I have found that Chloramine will not leave the water by aging it. I guess that’s why many water treatment plants use it because it is much more stable than chlorine alone. Also, from my understanding an RO filter will get rid of the chloramine but I will look into that further. Prime and other water conditioners are designed to break the bond between chlorine and ammonia and in this way can safely neutralize them both. I’m just not sure on how safe it is for human consumption.

I guess my main question is what is everyone's experience with using Seachem Prime or other water conditioners? Are they safe? The ingredients include Bisulfites and hydrosulfites, aqueous solution

there have been quite a few discussions on prime.. use the search function,,
my take is that i would not use any of those type of products..
i'd use ascorbic acid (vitamin c)

People blow the chloramine thing out of proportion. Three weeks is enough time to reduce it to safe enough for fish levels. It is fine to top up with it too. I don't recommend leaving the tap on overnight and flooding your fish stocked system with water strait from the tap. That much chloramine will kill your fish. I have been death free for over a year...

I have spent hours reading through the "discussions" on this site and others and I am still no closer to an solid answer. Its all just he said she said.....

I completely disagree

every thread on the cholramine topic ends the same way.

1) Vitamin C destroys chloramines and
2) experienced people dont worry about topping off tanks with tap water to replace water lost from transpiration and evaporation .

You are on a forum, "he said/she said" is the information you are going to get. You take into account the source based on their body of contributions and compare the information to your personal experience

Google "treat chloramine with Ascorbic acid for medical use" and you will find some articles from reputable medical sites about treating tap water to be used for dialysis.



brian

Hi TheBigB I am on the Seachem suport forum and asked them the same question and the response were that they are not FDA approved and Prime should not be used for or in anything that will be used for human consumption.

http://www.seachem.com/support/forums/showthread.php?t=4179

Thank Brian,

I apologize if I sounded frustrated. I have received tons of great information from this forum and continue to do so.

Thanks for your answers however I completely disagree with your point about top offs. I'm sure lots of people get away with doing that, but I know from experience it is not always good. I killed some very high dollar fish doing this and am not willing to chance it again.

I also have read contradicting information about vitamin c in my research. Sure most people say it works, but I have also seen convincing argument saying it does nothing. This is why I am frustrated with the whole chloramine discussion.

The only black and white answer I have found is RO filter that specifically targets chloramine, which is what I am going to have to do to feel comfortable.

Thanks everyone for their input and I'm sorry if I came off rude in any way. That was not my intention.

Thanks,

Yeah I actually read that and know it's the right answer. The only reason I questioned this was bc I read a very compelling argument about how they cant endorse for human consumption because they have not done and will not do in real trials on the subject.

I know I would rather be safe than sorry though.