Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey everyone, I'm a very new newbie to the AP scene. I have a tropical 4ft and a cold water 4ft tank (so there's my love of keeping fish) and a few veggie gardens (my love of fresh home produce). When I learnt about AP I must say I got very excited. I dragged hubby into it, both sat down and watched the YouTube clip on turning an IBC into an AP tank and away we went!

We have built 2 IBCs into growbeds, put in our media and planted our veggies. Now's the scary part. We haven't introduced any fish yet as for some reason I feel it needs to cycle a while without them. Is this a good thing or not?

We don't have a flash pump, just turned an old pool filter into what we need. We have a pipe in each tank that sucks the water through the filter then two pipes up top (one to each GB) pumping the water back out to the plants.

My concerns are: 1. Can I keep it as CF and not kill my plants and if not how often should it be flooded? 2. How long should I wait before adding fish?

Here's hoping!

Welcome to the forum.

You can either fishless cycle or cycle with fish depending on your preference. Obviously fishless is the easy road. You can find plenty of info here on either method.

CF wont kill your plants, Im not sure where everyone gets that from? BYAP did some trials a while back on 3 different system arrangements and it was hard to tell the difference. There are a lot of CF fans here but it does come down to personal preference.

Good luck and by the way we love pics!!

Hi I'm in warragul if you want to share ideas and seeds

Constant flood is just like the same as a floating raft, yes?

The idea is the water is moving so its oxygenated?

Root rot is what I was initially concerned about.

I'm 3 weeks into cycling.

We can get some trout together from noojee when your ready