Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have finally salvaged the last of the wood needed for my project, hopefully i will be filling up tank before the weekend! I have however been hit by a last minute doubt; do i put the tank were was thinking, under a few cheap LED bulbs, or under the sunniest windowsill in the flat? The tank is a 150 lt and a approx 30-40 lt F&D GB set above it. I plan to have just 2-4 goldfish in the tank. I have been weighing up the advantages and disadvantages that have occurred to me about both sites.

Under the window the tank should be mainly out of the sun, while the growbed will be just at sill level, the window is facing east and gets decent sun from 9am-3pm atm, so plant growth would be decent (but will be excessive light for fairly limited nutrients?). However, this window is in a spare bedroom, not the living room, so it's service as an entertaining feature (which was part of the appeal) would be limited. Also, I'm worried that the tank could get too warm in the summer for the fish, it can get pretty hot here in Spain, especially in the middle of the day under a sunny window.

In the living room the tank would be in probably the coolest spot in the house, and power sockets conveniently close. However, I'm wondering if the cheap chinese LED bulbs i'm planning to buy (3 or 4 bulbs at 4.50€ for 15w) will cut the mustard and be worthwhile bothering with. I would stick with leafy greens and herbs etc which i hear don't require too much light, but if its not enough, how much more might i have to spend on lighting..?

It kind of seems wrong to be considering electricity with good sun lit windows in a fairly sunny country, although I do still plan to make the most of it with pepper, tomato plants etc in pots.

Any suggestions or advice? :-)

i'm lookin forward to postin a pic for y'all to see!

It's been a long time since I grew plants under lights but the wavelength is as important as the amount of light they put out. I would probably put this near the window but give them some supplemental light or shade if needed. If you put the system in the living room and things aren't going well will you be OK with it when someone comes by? You can always show people the system by the window if you want them to see it .

Either way, pick what you like the best

Yes, make sure wavelegnth is correct. Should be a red/blue mixture (more red than blue).
The rule of thumb is 20watts of grow lights per sqft growing area for fruiting crops, leafy crops can survive as low as 10 but will be leggy.
The other thing to watch is many chinese lights will use hps eqivalent watts rather than actual watts... actual watts is needed for the correct calculation.