Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

INTRO
Greeetings all! Haven't been on this site in a long while! Last time I was here I had a 55g NFT system with a large pleco. The pleco get too huge and had waaaay too much poop that it kept clogging my canister filter (upgraded to pro 3xl eheim and it clogged that weekly too). So I rehomed the pleco and took down the aquaponics system. Kept using the light for another 2-3 years on a riaprium setup on the same 55g before a ballast broke and I couldn't find a replacement that fit (or didn't cost more than a whole new fixture).

Originally this tank as going to be a dart fog vivarium, but I lost interest before getting microfauna or frogs. I decided to make a DIY in tank sump, I was going to downsize my 55g to a 40g breeder, but plans changed.. again!
So by this point I've been keeping fish and live aquatic plants (and terrestrial plants with roots in tank) for several years. I decided I wanted to try fancy goldfish (bit of an impulse buy as my husband was with me and took an interest in a blue oranda at a store, I grabbed a calcio ryukin x fantail mix (i think?) to go with it) and new I needed fast growing plants to deal with the their ammonia. Started out with the plan that I was going to have more of a riparium system setup (non edibles) but well things changed...
Below are posts from a goldfish journal I've kept on another forum. I'll toss up an update post each day until I catch up ^^



THE BEGINING
[4/19-20/16]
Sooo on Sunday this happened...(ignore the container on top)


Yup, goldfish..specifically a tricolor oranda (I think is the color term? s/he's a silver with bronze and black) and a calico fantail.




Tank Info:
Tank: 40 gallon breeder
Heater: Ehiem Jagar 150 watt
Filter: Aquatop submersible pump- 315 gph
Lights: will be Finnex Ray 2 LED 30", currently 1x 14 wtt 6500k cfl in reflector lamp
Substrate: Black Diamond
Stand: re-claimed 40" table
Fauna:1 Oranda and 1 Fantail goldfish
Submerged Flora:
Anubias barteri 'broad leaf'
Anubias barteri 'wrinkle leave'
Water Sprite
Riparium Flora: soon to come
Ferts:Seacehm Flourish

After speaking with sevearl people on a few forums I'd seriously considered getting some fancy goldfish. Did a lot of research but didn't buy for several months as the original plan changes a bit... I was going to condense my 55g and 20g long into 1 tank then re-purpose the 55g for goldfish (at my husband's suggestion), but I ended up keeping the two existing tanks as is. For my birthday I splurged on about $100 of anubias from an e-bay seller that would refund for rhizome rot ridden plants for the first 14 days after delivery Tank has a side and back section (essentially an in tank sump) with pop-display black Lexan (great prices), got a pump, heater, heater controller (as I read to many reviews of cooked fish these days). Husband drilled holes in the Lexan faux walls that I stuffed black foam in, and on the left side I packed in foam and ceramic media around the pump.
Anubias is still going through the quarantine time but when we went to a non chain pet store on Sunday to buy some black worms.. we got drawn in at the goldfish display. WE left but ended up turning around after 2 minutes and going back to grab 2 we really liked, then made a quick top at Home depot for Lexan to make a lid.

After a massive water change on the 40g breeder (which swim room dimensions are just a bit larger than a 20g long with the black lexan walls in) to removed ammonia I dosed to start a cycle + feed anubias I acclimated the goldies and got them in... If they do well and grow (aka I don't [censor] things up) I'll plan to get a 75.. maybe 125g (or a custom 6' long) for them down the road.

They're doing well so far, doing 15 gallon or more water changes a day as the tank gets cycled, knowing goldies are big poop machines. I bought another finnex ray 2 from amazon, waiting for it tom come in then going to go raid the local garden centers for riparium plant possibilities! Once I get the goldfish eating veggies and their various other foods and am sure they're done nibbling plants (so far I've busted the oranda 'testing' the anubias several times) I'll add some more large aquatic plants, possibly an amazon sword or slightly smaller sword, maybe a Aponogeton... I really wish the store I got the goldies from did a better job with their live plants.. all the tanks have hair algae+ green spot algae >.> do.not.want! May also buy some more anubias. I have several small anubias I moved out of the tank before the goldfish were added, may put them back in once the goldies know anubias doesn't mean salad bar(leaves) or spaghetti(roots).

Officially the goldfish are not named yet (I wait at least 1-4 weeks before naming new fish in case of death), but my husband has already unofficially named the oranda Vasco da Gama.. I got 'Calyspo' by John Denver stuck in my head after buying the fish (specifically "Aayyee Calipso") and have been thinking of calling the calico fantail that but would rather look into a more meaningful name.. waiting to see personalities once they're settled in before they have official names.


Anyways they're getting use to different feeding-store did floating I use sinking (soaked) pellets, they LOVED repashy soilent green for lunch today, and thawed blood worms yesterday.. all get soaked in my DIY garlic extract for 2-6+ minutes before feeding. The oranda is a bit more shy and tends to go int the anubias when I take the lid off, calico is fearless except not use to my hand getting really close yet. No problem having me hold a pipet with food by 'em though. I've been feeding the soaked pellets via pipet to make sure the oranda is getting some and trying tog et them use to me, once they stay in the open area for feeding time I can just sink pellets.
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They're getting use to the routine fairly quickly, the oranda which has been more shy before doesn't head into the anubias when I take off the lid now and they're getting better at grabbing sinking pellets (store use to feed them floating) then foraging through the sand to get what they missed.

Still have a few details to figure out for them like how many times a week they can get meaty meal. A member on another forum told me the young ones need protein for growth but I'm unsure for long long they're considered 'young' (to what size) and how often to feed still... Also read that they release growth stunting hormones into the water (a good reason to do water changes.. besides the high nitrogen levels they produce), but don't know for how long? Until sexual maturity? Also curious about how often/many peas to feed for periodic digestive help (clear out)..

[5/2-5/16]
I need to find the usb adapter for the good camera, my phone doesn't do well with these constantly wiggly fish!The oranda lets me pet it, fantail isn't too keen on petting yet though. I'm actually not 100% if my fantail is a fantail or a ryukin that hasn't gotten eh accentuated back arch yet.. hope its not ryukin (nothing against ryukin, its just not what I wanted for a first goldfish).










Adjusted the lights, tossed a scallion on test tank 9far left) it grew a new blade of 'grass' in 2 days! Also put on the sweetflag from my 20g long since it wasn't getting enough light.






Oh I also stuffed aquacelar 70 foam media behind the cut outs in the lexan so the goldies can't get in the back section any more. And got an air pump set up for them. I think the outflow arrangement puts a lot of oxygen in the tank (i see bubbles at the opposite end) but sometimes I knock the spraybar under water which defeats it so air stone doesn't hurt ^^

I still need to add more black diamond and plant the sword plants I got from a RAOK.... right now they're just floating.




I don't think many of you are on the other forums I frequent (planted tank and bettafish specific themed forums), but on them I've talked about an angelfish I have (separate tank) called CarmelYumYum. My husband named her when he first saw her as the tan/brown marking on her dorsal fin was the hue of carmel, and he was hungry haha. Well my hubby finally decided on a name for the blue oranda, he wanted to use another yummy edible treat name and now calls him/her Chocolate for the bronze hue in its body (though I explained that will likely go away as they grow). If I'd known he'd do a food name I might have bought an orange fantail instead to name Orange Sherbet (my favorite ice cream flavor... which I annoying have a heck of a time getting the good brands of around here >.< ), but as I have a spotted calico I named her Sprinkles to go along with the food theme.
I planted the swords I'd gotten as a raok last week finally. SO far the goldies are leaving them be (not dug up or completely destroyed).. I expect to loose all the original leaves but knowing how resilient swords are from my very old Argentinian sword (only plant still alive from my first aquatic plant purchase many years ago) I'm not too worried.
Lettuce seedlings are about ready to go on the tank, and I think I'm going to try to take photos of the terrestrial plant growth from the angle shown below from now on to see growth easily-resting phone on tank trim so its always same angle/distance. I managed to get a decent shot of Chocolate .. wish the dorsal and top of the caudal was in focus too but the rest is. Sprinkles doesn't want to hold still for a decent shot =.=








Still no luck getting spinach seeds to sprout >.<

I have other anubias in various quarantine tanks that by mid/end of may I should be able to add to the tank.. except the pinto/marble that ones is too fancy to put around rough goldfish.

lot has happened since I posted here. Including a change in plants
grew some mounter lettuce and cucumber plant for a while









then took those out and am now growing spinach and peppers






fish have changed. I lost the dark one to a river rock falling and crushing it. Got 2 more goldies to keep my calico company, but lost the calico to dropsy (not fun) near the end of last year. The 2 remaining fish are both healthy orandas that show no sign of the disease.

The snail has moved to another tank but there are some well hidden nerite snails in the goldfish tank now.
Going to be planing some major aquaponic upgrades soon, but more on that alter.

Your plants look good and I like the setup with the black diamond aquarium gravel, sets the fish and plants off nicely

Thought I'd mention that the lettuce seedlings need a bit more light based on how long the stems are but you probably already noticed this since you're moving them.

Cheers

Time for an update!

SO originally i was waiting on a storage container that would fit over the 75gs perfectly. Even though I bought it through amazon prime it was not actually in stock and woudl take up to to months to ship.. on top of that it was a bit expensive. So I canceled the order and my husband and I picked up some much cheaper clear storage bins at home depot-2 per a tank along with some 2" bulkheads to connect them and drain back into the tank. I also got 4x 40 liter bags of Grow!t expanded clay media for the bins. Now we're waiting on some metal shelving units to come in the mail because heaven forbid our local stores carry anything we actually want "You want 60" long shelving unit? to bad! we only carry 48"!".. once everything is set up over the 75g my husband will 'pretty it up' for me with some wood paneling to hide the bins.



These plants won't be staying here but I am sprouting some seeds on the 75g by the window that I'll be moving soon. I plant to take the riparium plants off my betta tanks/ponds and grow edibles instead. Papillon will have cilantro, Ciel takes care of parsley, one of my newer betas in a 3.5g bubble bowl will have lemon mint, and I may be ;saving' a betta soon that's been sitting in a petstore for MONTHS, I dunno how he's not dead. If he's still there once plants are grown enough I always have some cups with scallions/green onions that he'll help grow. Green onions haven't sprouted yet as i sowed them just a few days ago.





Onto the 40g breeder. The jalapeno plant is going gang busters and has 16 or more peppers growing on it!! The largest is shown in front of my hand-its about 3/4ths the length of an average store bought jalapeno so almost ready to harvest! Also the pasilla bajo pepper finally started making peppers (I thought the jalapeno was hogging all the nutrients). Its just a small one. I did a 98% water change this past Monday.. my back is still killing me from it-but I took out the sand and put Very Berry back in the tank. With the dark substrate gone i can see the yellow of Ginger and Tangerine's bellies more clearly. They don't want to hold still for in focus shots though >.<. And finally last photos is the 26g tuffstuff bin I bought at tractor supply co to use as a grow bed when I redo the 40g tank.. right now it smells really bad so soaking it in a water+baking soda mixture to hopefully get rid of the







The photos in my previous spot were spinach. They weren't getting sufficient light since I had to raise the lights because of the pepper plants growing so tall. I ended up pulling them out after another baby leaf harvest. ^^
The fish actually seem brighter without the substrate, at least in person. I may add substrate back in after I redo the tank.

AquaAurora

Next time you need something like these check with a "Restaurant Equipment" suppliers.

They have them in 18", 21" and 24" deep by 36" thru 72" long.

Another place to go are Surplus Restaurant Equipment" sellers.

Last year I, needed a container for my Sous Vide cooker, found the right one 16 qt, Acrylic industrial strength with the cover for less than $24.00.