Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey everybody,

I've been reading about aquaculture, and man, "utterly cool" are the only two words I can think for it. Anyway, I'll cut to the chase: I'm a college student living in an apartment, and I've been keeping aquaria for a while. Right now, I've just got a 20 gallon and a whole slew of ten-gallons (my 40-gallon was too much of a pain, so I sadly had to decommission it). I was thinking, it would be really cool if I could grow some lettuce, or some basil, or something using my dirty fishwater. Sadly, I don't have a yard for backyard aquaculture, so it would have to be living-room aquaculture.

Here's the question: do you think a 20-gallon tank, stocked with 1 south american Cichlid and seven black-skirt tetras would be able to produce enough produce to be worth setting up a miniature aquaculture system? I would like to grow a few square feet of vegetables, I suppose. And would 13-watt fluorescent lights work as a light source, or should I relocate my tank to a south-facing window?

I hope to hear you guys' input! Thanks,
Sam from Greensboro

Bluegill Sam, welcome to a fascinating place.
I know a little about aquaculture. Less about aquaponics but we are all here to learn and share.
Go to forum index and click on members systems. That's a good place to get a visual on something that may interest you.

I certainly don't see why a 20 gal. tank with fish mentioned wouldn't make for a good start in your aquaponics addiction. I would always choose natural light over electric, saves electricity and works better. Natural light is of course harder to regulate. An exposed tank with lots of natural light will be prone to grow algae (and don't ask me where it comes from, but it will be there). There are at least two ways to handle that;
1) use algae eating fish or add them (maybe cichlid eats algae) 2) block the light from entering fish tank with some simple opaque cover. To me, that takes away from some enjoyment of having a fish tank so I would go with (1).

Simplest setup maybe putting a small growbed or several small pots across the top of the tank.

I am sure others can give some better ideas.

Okay, now you gotta tell me how you came up with "bluegill sam?"

Good luck

If your are generating enough nitrates to have to do water changes, you can benefit from some addition of aquaponics. Might not grow much depending on the available light but might reduce the amount of water changes you need to do.

I advise reading the Basic Info section and the Useful Info section then from there pick a few of the big long member systems threads to read through.