Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have another thread here but the title is no longer applicable as its about goldfish, and I'm setting up for betta and tilapia aquaponic tanks. Don't worry I won't be house the species together.

If you're curious what MTS stands for its multi tank syndrome aka having a lot of tanks.. seeing as I am at 19 aquariums and possible getting another its safe to say I have mts... at this moment only 1 of the 19 is an aquaponic system but I'll soon have 2 75gs (for tilapia) and 4 betta tanks also set up for growing edible plants (total will be 7 of 20 tanks used for aquaponics).

I come into the hobby with an aquarium hobby background. I've kept fish and aquatic plants for several years. I've also do a lot of riparium work-its pretty much the same as aquaponics only different being I use non edible plants and roots are right in the tank (instead of separate grow bed). I had an NFT system setup for a while a few years back which successfully grew lettuce and I think cilantro. The pleco (south American catfish) I had int eh tank below grew too lager and his poop kept clogging the canister filter I used so I re-homed him and took the aquaponics down. in April 2016 I got back into aquaponics again as I got some fancy goldfish and wanted to extra help with water quality. I ended up with some monster lettuce and a decent sized cucumber before taking those plants out and doing peppers:jalapeno and Pasilla Bajo.

Next post will be quotes from old thread. All new posts/updates will be in this thread.

Ok all caught up now!


Onto a bit of babbling. I had thought about/planed twice to setup a greenhouse for aquaponics buuut the backyard isn't really conducive as there are a lot of trees so the only area that gets a lot of sun is a really bad spot for a structure (pretty much run into ti right off the patio),. So I'm keeping mine indoors, plus side: year round growing, I dot' have to freeze going out to the green house in winter to feed/do maintenance.. downside: more $ for lights, sticking to smaller tanks/grow beds.

Right now I have a t5 over the 40g breeder with the peppers-it has 2 54watt ho bulbs-one is 6500k the other 3500k. Once I harvest peppers I'll be doing a bit of 'musical chairs'. That light will go to one of my 2 75g tanks I'll be setting up for aquaponics, the other tank will also have a t5-same stats. I'll be putting a finnex LED on the 40g long (shorter light for shorter tank). I also have a spare LED and some clfs I'll use where I think they're needed as plants grow.

The 2 75gs are in a spare bedroom, 1 against a window, the other on the wall next to it. They have wood stands my husband built, sunsun canister filters (with uv light, 500+gph), and heaters which i need to add a faux wall to 1 tank to protect fro the tilapia once they start growing. The canister will have intake in the tank and output into a grow bed above the tank, 2" pvc/bulkhead will connect 2 tubs together and there will be a simply drain bulkhead/pvc to let water back into the tank at the other end. Plant to grow tomato in one tank's grow bed (probably by window), with cucumbers and peppers over the other 75g.
Once peppers are harvested the goldfish will be going into 1 75g for a while as I need to drain and gut the 40g breeder. Right now it has an in tank sump-faux wall that's much larger than I'll need when I switch to the tuffstuff bin (currently takes up 3' the length of the tank and 5" on one side). Also the original tank silicone has me worried as I've seen air bubbles form ans some edges peels way so my husband and I will be scraping and re-sealing the whole tank. I'll make a small corner sump with heater, pump, and some foam/bio media. Plumbing for the pump will have output in the 26g tuffstuff bin and again I'll have a bulkhead/pvc drain back into the tank. The grow bed my husband is helping figure out best (most stable) platform to setup above the tank. We may scavenge some parts from the shelving ordered to make a rack for the tub. I don't trust putting the bins right on top of the tank-1 too hard to get into the tank to feed/do maintenance, also the tanks are built to hand the water pressure pushing outward.. not have an extra 20-40+ lbs on top of them. The 40g will grow some various lettuce, maybe spinach or other leafy greens but mostly lettuce, and the goldfish will go back in once its all set up to be my 'farmers', as well as the large msytery snail.

Ok so I mentioned I'll have some betta aquponics going. I want to state now that I will NOT be using those rip off junky pre-made setups for betta qauponcis as they're 1 over priced, 2 95% of the time way too small a tank, 3 majority of reviews for their product complain of [censor]y pump that craps out or is way too loud.. It may to look as 'fancy' but I can setup for some bettaponics for much cheaper and will post more on that later. Side note: if you want to keep/are keeping a betta please please please get an adjustable aquarium heater. They are tropical fish that need warm water.. pre-set and [betta heaters' have a nasty habit of frying and cooking fish. I mostly use Hydro Theo adjustable heaters as they're small, reliable, and cheap.



Interesting, I'd not thought of that as a source for supplies. Will have to look into it.

I hadn't seen any typos. I try to always proof read my writing before hitting the reply button. I hope it makes my poor writing skills easier to read. The way I figure it is if I can reread my work, others may be able to read it once. Of course it doesn't always work. Like you I often reuse my story on other forums so that makes me feel better having had to reread my work.

Pepper progress on the 40g goldfish tank, lost count of how many peppers are growing on the jalapeno plant


I got most of the stink out of the tuffstuff with a baking soda soak. Now just waiting to harvest peppers before moving fish and redoing the setup with the bin.

Got 2 sets of shelves ordered to put the aquaponics grow beds on over the 75gs.. whoooole lot of problems (missing most of the parts when arrived UGH) also mangled metal some of which couldn't be hammed back into place... fun times =,= anyways photo below of 1 of the shelves set up. Going to use 3 tubs instead of 2 over the 75gs so have to buy some more 2" pvc to connect them. Also still need to hang the lights.



Not too thrilling to look at up beginnings of bettaponics..

New boy i just rescued yesterday.. he's been at my local store for over 2 moths. In rough shape now but hoping he'll bounce back. He's in a 2.5g vase from Michel's arts and craft store, has a 50 watt aqueon heater and an air pump run sponge filter. Silk plants and some driftwood for hiding/exploring (if you get fake plants for a betta make sure they're silk, plastic rips the fins). Have 3 small shower caddies on the top of the tank with clay media and scallions + 1 unknown onion.. It just randomly sprouted in a plant that has chives (this is not a chive). Light from a south facing window. Made a light shield for the betta with some old fabric scrap, glue and cardboard. Need to re-roller pin roll it to make a tighter curve.







Next is Cacao, 3.5g ~ bubble bowl also from same store, has a constant on style betta heater but I plug it into a temp controller so I don't end up with boiled fish, also air pump driven sponge filter. Has driftwood and live aquatic plant-salvinia minima easy to grow floating plant. 1 large shower caddie with clay media, starting to get lemon mint sprouts. Light is a 13 watt 6500k cfl in lamp mounted to the wall.




My husband's giant betta Pailion in a ~6g plastic planter pot from Lowes (was less than $10), Homasy 80 GPH (300L/H) Submersible Water Pump from amazon + scavenged tubing from another pump, light is a 13 watt 6500k cfl in clamp on work lamp. Has live house plant marble pothos-great plant for aquapincs once it gets going it grows like a beast! This one started out as just 4 leaves on a tiny vine. Also salvinia minima again. 2 large shower candies with cilantro seedlings.. they didn't get a lot of light at first so may need to re-sow the clay media (i just toss seeds right ontop).




Ciel's set up-same as Papilion's but different plants-has some fake silk plants + salvinia minima , pothos njoy, and a dwarf peace lily. 2 large shower caddies have parsely.

Aqua, I'm loving what I'm seeing so far with this set up! Following this with interest!


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Nothing too exciting. Got both shelves set up and drained the 75g against the inner wall to move it over closer to the window's wall giving back some space to the room. I can still fit between the tanks/racks and get hind for the outlet. Husband did some test drilling on the plastic tubs, first one didn't shatter (that's a plus). I'm debating about going over them with krylon fusion spray paint on the outside to deter algae growth (may also spray paint the outflow pipe). Anyways photos of the racks, the air pump moved up above the tank instead of below, and showing where outflow will start into 1 tank (not fully plumed yet so it still feeds into the tank directly). I'll probably zip tie the outflow tube tot eh vertical bar to keep it in place when its all ready... I'll also have to figure out something to keep the outflow from blasting all the media (may dig out the spray bar and use that). Husband drilled the hole a bit lower than I'd like but I'll make it work. Will likely put a shower scrunchie over the hole once plumed to keep media from moving from tub to tub. Originally I wanted my husband to frame out the bin holding shelf with wood (to hide bins and reduce light getting where I don't' want it) but now I'm not sure if I'll want that.





I had tossed my reaming 6 white cloud mountain minnows in this 75g tank a week+ back to help with the cycle and eventually be food for the tilapia. When I went to drain the tank to move it I netted them into a large clear container and found half had dropsy-bacterial disease that causes kidney failure causing fluid build up under the scales resulting in 'pine coning' of scales and death. I put them all down as likely those not showing sighs yet were already infected. I will keep the tank fish/plant-less for 1+ month to prevent the chance of the infection still living in there when I finally get fish. Plus side should be warmer out when I finally get the fish so less stress for them with travel.


Speaking of getting tilapia I'm having a heck of a time finding anyplace local I can buy the feeds I want (Aquamax fry starter 100,200,300) from that's not 50lb bags.. I'm not doing a commercial business I don't need that much! I'll probably have to buy 5lb buckets online..


Meanwhile Ciel has been happily building himself a (sloppy) bubble nest.



The unnamed resent rescued betta has settled in and is eating, fins are starting to heal. The onion plant over his tank has a very long grass leaf that falls over as its rather limp so I stuffed it through the threading that hold the blinds in place to keep it upright.


Having trouble with my lemon mint seeds to may pull out one of my DIY seed starter bins and get a few seedlings sprouted to transplant.


I ended up cutting off a few of the jalapeno plant branches as it was growing farther away from the light and getting heavy enough it wast leaning. I doubt they'll root but I put the clippings in the tank for the heck of it. Several of the house plant I've kept on tanks wilt horribly when trimmed but with roots in water bounce back in 1-2 weeks.
The 4 oldest peppers are large enough to harvest so we'll see how they turned out (spice level wise) and figure out how we want to use them.





thanks

So finally picked a pepper yesterday, the oldest one. Husband cut and took a taste. Said its very spicy-much more than the store bought kind, and had a linger after warmth going down his throat. He finely chopped a bit of it and put it in the clams and linguine meal he made for dinner.





Time to by a big chunk-o-beef to make a few pots of chilli with!

The passel bajo pepper is at 4", burpee package says to harvest at 7" long, so bit more growing to do.

That does look good

UUUUGH FML
Planned out using storage totes over the 75g tanks and connected with pvc.. took too long to get it done and between getting the totes and actually putting them together forgot the key point of how much space would be added by the pvc connectors.. without the connectors I could push 3 totes together over th4 8" long tank.. with the connectors in i can only fit 2.. my lights and pluming plants hinged on them staying in a 48" length range. I'm so frustrated I could scream!

For all the time and money wasted on this I'm just going to toss it and buy the [censor] 48" long storage bin that have a 1 month wait to get shipped =.= And of course the pvc is all pvc glued together so there's not popping it apart and using the pieces on the new container that will fit.. grrrr

Post up a pic of what you've got, maybe there's another way

Well didn't take a month thankfully. Bins came in, will be drilling this weekend.


On the goldfish front the other fully grown jalepano were turned into a big chili base and portioned out then bagged and frozen for easy use later. Still have a ton of peppers on the plant but the rest aren't quite long enough to harvest yet. We're looking into ways to dry them to preserve.. its too humid here to do the simple air dry and our oven gets too hot for oven drying, may try toaster oven. Pasil Bajo pepper are growing fast and starting to pop out peppers all over too.



I also grabbed a white onion at the store that had a tough of green poking out (never see this) and stuffed it on the goldfish tank for the heck of it. Worst case its a back up onion for when we forget to buy/run out.


In other news the newest betta (still need to name) is healing up nicely and put on some weight. have the mystery onion, a piece of garlic and some green onion seeds going on his tank





The otehr tanks I reseeded to try to grow some more plants. using paper towel to keep seeds form falling too deep into the cracks.





And on a random final note: one of my few remaining house plants.. still tiny but eventually leaves should be the size of dinner plats!

photos from first week of march, 75gs

photos from today

40g goldfish tank

Used some clamp lights when LED broke

Got new 4' 4 bulb t5 6500k bulbs-cost as much as replacing the led but gives a wider spread of light.


Tangerine and Ginger are doing well. Put an old light from a 10g above them-zip tied to the shelving

Lettuce(left and center) and spinach (far right)


Need to take an update shot-brought the chives and green onions down tog row in soil using the extra light

Will update with photos of 75g this week.