Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello from Seattle! Just wanted to say hi before posting my noob questions all over your nice forum. I currently run DWC using inorganic nutrients, and I have kept fish in aquariums for years, so I am really excited about the prospect of combining the two.

I've been lurking around backyardaquaponics for a while, and I want to thank everyone who works to make this informative forum available to the public! What a valuable resource!

Sincerely,
Dave

Welcome Dave

What do you have in mind? Using your existing aquarium tanks?

Sounds great to me too. What city do you live in???? Show us some pictures of your setup

Right now my system is basically manual (non-recirculating) drain-to-waste DWC. I mix my nutrients in a 40 gallon reservoir, and I then fill buckets with approximately 3.5 gallons (about 1" below my net pot lids) as necessary. Once used, the remaining nutrient solution in each bucket is poured down the drain since there is no way to return it to its original nutrient balance. That's 1.5-2 gallons per bucket every time I swap them out.

That's where AP comes in. I'm thinking of essentially trying to set up a second reservoir stocked with fish to generate the same level of nutrition for my plants as my inorganic nutrient reservoir. In theory, I would be able to fill fresh buckets off of the AP fish tank/reservoir, but then pour the used water back into the tank, thereby reducing the amount of water that is wasted.

I haven't found any examples of non-recirculating AP systems yet, so it's quite possible that my idea is unworkable. I figure that if I have one inorganic reservoir, and one AP reservoir, I might be able to get away with only using the AP nutrient source when it is working, and I can switch to my inorganics when it isn't. I don't want to give up my manual DWC system since it's so nicely compartmentalized, efficient, and productive, with so few parts to that can fail. On the other hand, I would love to be able to claim the obvious benefits that AP has to offer...

I'm in North Seattle, and I just posted pics of my setup here.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=13651

Funny looking cherry tomato plants you have there ;^)

I am not an expert but I think you might have trouble keeping your fish alive by feeding your plants with both types of systems. By draining back to the fish tank you will contaminate the water.

what plants? jk I'm a legal RCW 69.51a patient. Washington State is great, isn't it?

Anyways, good point about the FT contamination. I would have to get a new set of buckets for AP so that the hydro nutes wouldn't transfer over...

I've pretty much concluded that non-recirculating DWC AP won't work for plants with high nutrient demands. Which leaves me with recirculating DWC.

And now I'm trying to convince my gf that my living room aquarium should be AP. This is how it starts, isn't it?