Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hell everyone!

I have been lurking for a while, I may have posted once or twice on account I cant remember, but for the most part just researching. 

Before I discovered tye world of aquaponics I was researching hydroponics.  I reallt liked the look and idea of N.F.T. The plants roots can grow as long as they want to flow down the pipe. 

When I found aquaponics it was like I had already learned a half of the picture, now I just needed to learn how the fish fit into the equation.  One thing that slipped my mind completely was the bio filter. In most flood and drain systems the bio filter is also the growbed but in my N.F.T. system there is hardly any grow media and water contact, but I will talk about that later. 

I bought a 4 foot length of ABS pipe from home depot, a pump from home depot, and got to work on a small expiramental system.



When I stopped by the local hydroponics store to buy some Hydroton, the guys there were nice enough to give me 5 tomato plant clones for free, as well as a free urban gardening magazine!!

I bought 20 feeder fish from PetSmart (the feeder fish are a little cheaper at walmart but I often see a tank with 40 or 50 dead fish, at least the one near me they dont take care of them) and put them in a large Rubbermaid container.  The plant 'gutter' sat above the fish tank and the water drained straight into the fish tank. 

I dont have a good picture of it because this system was in the corner of my garage but in this video you can get the idea. 
http://homebrewaquaponics.com/wp-conten ... G_1045.mov



I used this system for a few months, after a month or so I added a bio filter made up of a 2 liter bottle filled with Hydroton but i eventually decided to change to flood and drain, my homebrew aquaponics 1.5 version!

good luck with the new system

Thanks "The Red Stealth," my 1.5 version is already long gone but im working on V2.0 now
Just thought it was finally time to stop lurking.

Here is version 1.5, still an ugly, small experimental system but next system will be prettier I promise!
I decided to switch to this system for a number of reasons; I felt my N.F.T. system did not have sufficient bio filter, the tomato plants could not continue to grow in N.F.T. without support, a co-worker gave me a small 20 gallon fish tank, and finally my N.F.T. tube was leaking everywhere!

Being the cheap ass, compulsive guy that I can be sometimes.. I didn't really think this conversion over, instead started building it with junk in the garage. I believe the grow bed was an empty cat litter bottle, and i already had the tubing and pump from my last setup.

I know a lot of people have trouble getting the bell siphon to work just right, well mine did not work at all! Of course... it was built from soda bottles and other junk in the garage I was getting anxious and decided to try something else, a loop siphon. The loop siphon worked perfectly every time, now I haven't used a bell siphon to compare it with but I am kinda thinking the loop siphon might be a better choice, it doesn't take up grow bed space, and it is easy to fine tune if you build it externally. What are the reasons everyone normally chooses a bell siphon?

I did not have enough hydroton to fill up my grow bed so the bottom half was filled with red scoria. I thoroughly washed it all but apparently not thoroughly enough because my fish tank was so brown you could not see the back! I have linked to two videos, one immediately after setting up the fish tank, and one a day later after the dust had settled/ been filtered into the grow bed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Pak202tbk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IcDN5d294U

For the rest of this systems short life the water stayed very clear.


The tomato started growing again and my spinach really took off!


Right now I do not have any running aquaponics but am returning to the hobby. My father and I are purchasing a house that I will be moving to next month with a decent back yard so I will have some room to build a decent system!

Also I am running some ideas through my head for a small system to build at my girlfriends house, her 1 year old daughter loves all animals and I think she would enjoy looking at the fish, and... were theres fish, might as well grow plants :p

Awesome thread, and I like the tomato plant coca cola pots! Nice.

later,

jeff c

Glad you like those coca-cola pots!! I was hoping I wasnt the only one who thought they are cool!

They are actually (well if the man who sold me the plants wasnt lying) Ghost Chili, Bhut Jolokia, you want one? Im trying to raise them and sell if there is interest, as long as shipping isnt rediculous I can send you one free of charge, just let me know how it does!

A while back I read about air lifts, a mysterious way to pump water without a pump using only air!
I decided I would try and make one as a proof of concept.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J98AFHhG ... r_embedded

Here is a design I had for my next indoor aquaponic system. I made a few adjustments for now but I still plan to add the rafts and fountain bio filter.


there is an air stone in the bio filter/ grow bed and overflow holes on the side of it.
Fish love the waterfall and seem to like the duckweed and azolla aswell.

Small update. The water has cleared quiet a bit. Fish are eating up the azolla.
Tank Day 2


Plants Day 2


Fish Day 2

Nice looking setup!

I think the airstone should be in the water tank. With this small setup, I would've opted for the common aqua pump that has two outlets; one to the filter and the other pumps in air into the fish tank...I see future blockage problem with the overflow holes in the GB, you might wanna cut half a pipe and make it a media/stand guard and have a proper overflow piping there. If the water is still not clearing up you can introduce a filter sponge either at the inlet or outlet of the GB...Cheers!

Nice System, looking forward to future updates!

I live not too far (by comparison to everyone else on this forum) in Ocean Shores, WA USA (Pacific Northwest Coast).

Well take care,

jeff c

Thanks Mahfudz_nm,
You are definately right about the clogging of the drain, infact the waterfall has slowed to a trickle. I admit, I saw this coming as well but since the tank cost me $4 and some change I really did not want to spend $5 on a bulkhead fitting and a another $5 on pvc buuut looks like im going to have to do this the right way instead of the free way Do you have any tips on making the standpipe ?
The water has cleared up quiet a bit so far.

Thanks Jeff,
Its always nice to see some US systems, if i get the opportunity someday I would love to travel the country/world and help communities setup systems to provide food. That is after I succede in making a system that can actually feed me of coarse

You could use a conventional standpipe, just a pipe that stands to the height of desired water level or...you could easily construct a similar external loop siphon like mine with pvc pipes. This design requires no glue and thus you can swivel it around to adjust the water height, leaving some room for fiddling around with. You may also use a pvc hose for this purpose but you must coil some hard wire onto the hose so it doesn't pinch. IMHO, I'd stick with pipes not hose. On the inside wall at the siphon drainage, I'd cut half a pipe and place it against the wall. Of course this pipe should be drilled with many small holes to act as a media guard.

Thanks for the tips mahfudz_mn.
Ive been running some ideas through my head for what to do to the growbed, im going to have to find something sooner than later because I WAY over planted! I have over 60 lettuce, 4 ghost chili, 12 basil, and ciliantro on the way!! I bought the API ammonia 'test tube style' water test kit, ammonia has been right around 0.5 ppm, today nitrites are up to 3 ppm nitrates still at 0.

Fish are eating the duck weed fern like crazy, I swear the largest of the fish is growing like crazy. Anyways, on to the pictures.












Thanks for reading!

Bad news everybody, my fish got sick and died



Apparently it is called Ich, or White Spot Disease. The white dots are eggs from a parasite, when they hatch they rip their way out of the fish, terrible terrible to watch my fish with this.

I tried to treat it with some tablets that dissolve in the water, the back of the box said not to use on food fish. I'm pretty sure that will mean my plants are no longer edible as well and I think the pills killed the bio filter also What are you guys thoughts on the plants, I have some rare chili plants in the grow bed i would hate to throw away, the plants are all to small to be producing fruit now if that matters and i have drained and re-filled the fish tank.