Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey everyone. I posted a pic the other day of my system in the intro thread. I'm working on expanding and figured I'd post more and see what ya'll think.

The first system I started in July. Used tubs that where around the house, one of which I hijacked from the wife and used as a grow bed. She wasn't happy, but she got over it and bought me 10 goldfish. I didn't know anything about cycling and still need to learn more about it. I've never done any test to my system either, mostly just built the system and went with it.

I eventually put some crayfish in the tub to eat all the extra food my kids put in the tub. They cleaned it and then ate one of the goldfish. I since started to catch large grasshoppers and drop into the tub, but the goldfish eat them first. Oh the fish won't eat the fish food anymore, now they only want fresh veggies and bugs lol. They are piranha now .

Here is the first system.



Close up of the lettuce and a banana pepper.

Great work hijacking those tubs

Convert it to Chift/Pist when you expand, the added redundancy and good for the pump and clean water for the fish are great pro's for that design.

Also, when the fish stop dieing and the plants start growing like crazy, you know you're cycled ;D

Welcome to the club!

Yet another proof of concept system. Now, when are you going big time??

I got 4 55 gal drums last week. Today I got one cut in half and started to try to figure out how to do a bell siphon. Need to get a few more things to put it together.

Got a question, is lava rock ok to use for your medium?