Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So here is my Aquaponics system. Dont be shy to tell me if you see something amiss or that you have had a issue with maybe i can help you and you me.

System
This is a 40 Gallon Tank on the bottom with 1 pump. This pump has a diversion pipe to control the flow to the plant beds and to later be used with a fresh water skimmer i have not added yet.

The grow beds have Gravity siphons that fully drain to the next plant bed then again back to the tank (Flush system). This flushes about ever minute or so.

As you noticed this is indoors and the tank does have a light. There is a very large Plecostomus in the tank. Before you start on this the Tank will always have light. (Algae) The Plecostomus will control most of this in the tank as it is very large. I also have 10 Gold fish in this tank. These are small at the moment and as they get larger some will move to my pond with my large gold fish.

The water in this tank was taken from my pond and already has good bacteria and so it is very stable.

The light at the top is a multi-spectrum LED grow light that uses 13 watts of power. The pump uses just about as much. The lights on the bottom are getting replaced with LED's as well this week as this has only been up for 3 weeks.

This was made totally out of wood and Plastic storage containers. ( Containers will have Black cloth skirts on them next week as well) So far i started lettuce and am growing some transplanted tomatoes and strawberries. All of the transplanted items are doing Exceptional But the amazing thing is the lettuce. These sprouted in about 2 days and are growing crazy. Some of the seeds i was worried about them germinating so i added a few more, This led to way to many sprouts.

I also feed my fish Duckweed that i grow as they love it. I am also feeding them fish food but the duck weed can be used if it needs to be sustainable. Any feedback on the things you use to feed your fish would be good to know as well.

One thing i would like to let people know on making this is that i built this around the fishtank. By that i mean everything started with the tank i wanted to use and worked from there. I then made it so that the shelves are adjustable for different plants. This stands 7 Feet tall.


Please let me know if you have questions or any feedback on this. I will post more pictures as it things progress.

Welcome Kendallb

Nice compact system.

Welcome kendallb, neat system you have there.

What are you using for bio-filtration?

The bottom tray outlet now goes to a wisper filter tray on the back of the tank but i am working on making a plexy glass insert that can be placed into the top side of the tank like the 2 trays at the sides but will go deeper into the tank.
then adding duckweed at the top and some other bio. The sock you see was there for filtering for the first weks. Any ideas of what plant/ medium to use in the biofilter that would work well in colder tanks? (65-70 Degrees) want to avoid a heater as i have enough power consumption with my servers in the house and would like to add solar to run this in the spring.