Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Greetings, I am new here and new to aquaponics. I tend to ramble and very often make typos so apologies in advance!


TLDR:
Have pre-set-up aquarium, future aquaponic system is to help remove nitrates for existing fish. Grow bed, constant flow, media undetermined, lights T5s 6500k, plants leaf-y and herb-y. Still looking for organic fish flakes, organic red wigglers and organic seeds (in small quantities). pH is only concern with water parameters as its high and cannot be brought down. If successful will set up large system. Fish photos at the bottom

Detailed version:
I have not set up a system yet as I am still researching, but hope to having something tangible started in the beginning of spring. I come from an aquarium hobbyist background and already have tank, fish, and canister filter (sort of equivalent to sump and pump with filter media), and a well established beneficial bacteria (BB) colony (nitrogen cycle.. check!). I plan to use this more for cleaning water (remove nitrates) for the fish than for making food, that's just a bonus if its successful.

I found my way down this path after a tomato seed spouted in a slit between my kitchen sink and counter top (don't know how it got there... someone got messy with a tomato...). I tended it for a few weeks and its still growing (in a planters pot not the sink haha). I read somewhere in an aquarium forum that a member had grown a tomato plant in an HOB (hang on back) filter of a fish tank that did very well and from there searches lead into aquaponics.

I currently have a 55 gallon tank with a Leopard Sailfin Pleco that measures 9.5 inches last I checked (he's only half way done growing!). For anyone that does not know what a pleco is, its a member of the catfish family that lives in the South Americas, its evolved to have its mouth on the underside of its head, they are commonly sold as "algae eaters" in the aquarium trade. I won't get too deep into pleco details but safe to say its a monster pooper which leads to a lot of nitrates. My particular pleco likes to eat any plant I put in the aquarium which means using aquatic plants to absorb nitrates is a no-go. SO I'm going to try plants ABOVE the aquarium in an attempt to help with nitrates.

I am hoping to set up a grow bed with constant flow (pleco needs constant water movement so constant fill with bell siphon or ebb and flow set ups are not acceptable) with the inner rim of the grow bed lined with plumbing to evenly spread water around. Will be trying out a few of the easier plants in aquaponics (no flowers or "fruit" producers yet), I plan to try come leafy greens like lettuces and some herbs, see how things go. I'm not set on a media yet but since it will have to be raised above the tank (not getting another pump) I want to try some of the more light weight options (no pea gravel/river rock/aquarium gravel). I'm considering GrowStones or simple lava rock... Hydroton seems to be used by a lot of people but I've heard it being a mess, breaking down quickly, and no longer sold by its manufacturer so not sure if I'd try it. I'm hoping to try something small and enlarge the set up as I get a feel for it... if it works. Lights will most likely be T5s with 6500k bulbs.

My husband is very hand, great with DIY and a strong background in carpentry, plumbing, and electrical, so he'll be a major part in helping get this all set up! He is considering building a grow bed from scratch with a water tight liner and a nice wood finish on the outside, I'm excited to see what he makes ^^

I currently do 3x 8-10 gallon water changes a week (24-30 gallons total) to siphon out all the poop (omg so much!) and keep nitrates at a safe level. I'm hopefully once plants are established in the aquaponic system to only have to siphon the poop (and not take out so much water) but nitrate tests will help me determine if/how much I can reduce water changes. "You need the poop to break down to make nitrate via the nitrogen cycle" If i leave the tank un-siphoned for a week the bottom is completely covered in poop and any time the pleco (a bottom dweller fish) moves it kicks up like a nasty muck storm.. I'm sure he's still give enough ammonia off even with cleaning.

Since the pleco will reach an average of 18 inches length the 55 gallon is not his permanent home, a large custom built aquarium is being planned (can't find per-built 200(+) gallon aquarium for a decent price and I want to view my fish via display tank not have him in a giant plastic bin (no offense meant by this comment)) but in the mean time I'd like to tamper with aquaponics. If successful, and if my husband and family will humor me, I may line the walls with grow beds for the final tank!

I've not finished researching yet but my main points still to cover is finding a safe (organic) tropical fish flake food (for another fish that's in the 55 gallon tank.. not as big of a pooper) that won't build up any nasties in the plants. I also want to find some red wigglers, and organic seeds (so far only found once you buy in bulk (150 min per type x.x too many for my small start up idea)).

My water is incredibly hard with high gh and kh (general hardness and carbonate hardness) being 70s and 120s, this means bringing the pH down is simply not going to happen (would not risk trying anyways as my fish will not tolerate a pH plummet). I use API test kits (not strips) and my pH is right around the boundary of normal and "high" pH so I can't get an exact pH level since it does not list 7.3. 7.5, or 7.7 ... I think its 7.6-7.8 range but have not gotten my hands on a fancy pH tester (electronic type) to verify. From reading this may mean iron will be a pain for me to deal with.. heard horror stories of the additive type of iron needed for systems over 7.5 pH (Fe EDDHA) often have die additives that stain water/systems real bad x.x

Ok so enough chatter let me introduce my poop monster, I mean pleco at 9.5 inches:

He does not like to let me take photos of him now...

He started out with us as this 2 inch baby (yes its the same fish above just 18 months older):

Cute right? ..Did I mention he poops a lot now?

And the lone Madagascar Rainbow fish at about 4 inches who needs some organic flake food:


No tank shots since its kinda messy right now sorry.

Click images to see larger version

The tomato that got me started down this road died. Apparently the [fat] cats managed to destroy the leaves but not eat them so its a leaf-less pathetic stem.... stupid cats don't know how they managed to get up in the windowsill... I had it packed full of stuff to keep them off (give no room to jump/stand on). Hopefully the one flopped tomato won't be a sign of how the rest of my gardening will go.. the aquaponic system [plant part] will be 7-8 feet off the ground once built so there's no way the cats can reach it and wreck anything else [they're too fat to jump that high].

So I've made some tweaks and done a bit more research. I'll be using NFT system via 4 inch pvc piping rather than a grow box/bed. Seems this method will cost less (media wise as well as container and shelving). I won't need worms unless I want to set up something at the start of the piping for them to live in and break down waste, but we'll see if that's needed or not later on. Plan to use "T"s to hold the pots and allow to easy additions/removal/adjustment of the system (if something is getting too thick [like cabbage] the pvc "T"s can be pulled out a bit more from the piping to give or take about 2 inches a side.

Me and my husband have had a dickens of a time finding plastic planter pots that will be long enough for the 4 inch pvc "T"s (roughly 6 inches high from bottom to top, and 4.25 inch opening) all the ones we found online were too shallow, some were also too wide, most ..too narrow). I found a wonderful gardening center nearby that let me grab a 4x4.5 inch pot to try and told me I could take any leftover ones for free if it worked out for me. Still debating if the water level should be raised up within the pip or if the top of the "T" should be sawed down to make the cups lower.

For fish-food I'm probably going to try Aqueon brand since they were the only one of 7 brands I contacted that assured full all natural ingredients and made sure I had access to a list to show them all. Some brands (won't list) couldn't seem to grasp what I was asking about or just tried to dodge the fairly direct question of "does your product contain hormones, steroids, chemical color enhancers...?"
I also plan to make a dalfina cutler, its a micron organism that many small predatory (and omnivorous) fish eat. Once I have the initial culture it will be easy to multiply via use of unwanted greens from the aquaponic system. Simply putting a lettuce leaf in a jar of water with lid and letting it sit in a window sill will over time result in "green water" a form of algae that the dalfina eat. It will be a nice supplement and a great way to continue the closed loop ecosystem. The culture will grow in its own (small) aquarium and simply be cupped out (small amount) and fed to the rainbow fish 2-3x a week

I grabbed a few seeds at my local hardware store when looking at pvc with my husband. All Burpee brand and organic: cilantro, oregano, chives(/garlic), lettuce (Valeria and Black Seeded Simpson), and spinach (Palco hybrid). Truthfully I've not really gardened and never tried raising veggies but my husband has so he'll be of great help getting these growing ^^

Once we determine how wide the pvc setup will be we'll get T5 lights and start out with 6500k since none of the seeds I want to dabble with first are meant to flower/fruit. Will get the warmer lights as needed.

I'm very excited to get this going and my husband is starting to get excited too (now that we have seeds he's eager to get them grown and harvested to use in the kitchen!

I started with Pothos growing out of HOB filter to remove nitrates. I had not seen many successful setups for aquariums other than a few herbs and small leafy veggies so it grew into and indoor/outdoor system with a small greenhouse so I could grow fruiting veggies.

I'd thought about trying pothos or riparium plants but the latter tend to want more humidity than my basement offers, also I would not trust my pleco not to destroy riparium planter baskets (hang into the tank) and eat any part of plants that so much as touched the water... I hope my system is successful, I don't plan on growing enough food to have excess worth selling/giving away, just want something to suck up nitrates and give my back a rest from water changes (hauling 5 gallons of water at a time x4 (10 gallons removed, 10 gallons added) 3x a week sucks.