Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My wife and I cannot stop thinking about aquaponics and want to get a small setup going. We are still trying to read a lot before we really move on anything but we have had a lot of ideas teeming in our heads. For now being in an apartment we are wanting a smaller indoor setup that we plan to place on a fortified TV stand basically. I see generally speaking the rule of thumb is to have growbed size to be equal to or exceed the size of the fish tank. With our setup space we want to use a 143 liter fish tank we already have, and our perspective grow bed given the space we're trying to place it is about 89 liters. Right now we would likely build the grow bed using wood and pond liner. It would be about 88long x 12wide x 6 deep in inches filled with lava rocks. Plan to use a bell siphon to flood and drain it. Currently we have 2 small Koi at a bit over 3 inches in length getting the fish tank cycled that we acquired.
Questions:
With our smaller grow bed to tank size ratio, what things will we need to be careful to do/not do, or are we setting ourselves up for failure?(Keep our fish load much less than other setups I would presume be one of the largest things we have to do)
Is the depth of the growbed at 6 inches too shallow and need to be deeper?
What is the best way to make a grow bed with a wooden frame water tight? Or is the pond liner pretty much the way to go?
Is there any other glaring issues I may have over looked or not thought about that would help us to be successful in our adventures?

Thank you in advance for any advice or help. We'll be reading more as we wait for replies. We're very eager to expand our knowledge about this before building something for our first setup. Beyond that, we want to learn even more first hand before we move to a location where we will be able to support a larger setup. Just want to make sure we don't set ourselves up for failure from the get go on our first setup. Thanks!

Welcome. I'm new at this as well so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. It seems in aquaponics there are no hard and fast rules. Or very few anyway. There are a lot of variables and they all make a difference. Most people recommend a deeper grow bed but others make it happen with 6". The only capacity issue just has to do with how much ammonia and nitrite your biofilter can process. Stock lighter and then ramp up as you see how your system responds.

Good luck!

Welcome Zonnashi!

Plan for leaks, anticipate overflows. With a setup this small there is not a lot of food production, so just use it as a learning experiment. You might consider a couple of flower boxes rather than building from scratch, or storage tubs or small mortar tubs for example. Lighting may be your biggest issue unless this will be located in a sunny area. 6 inches is shallow but you won't be growing banana trees in this sized setup. Maybe one tomato and some other plants.

We kind of expected what you had said, it won't be a powerhouse food producer, but it is a nice conversation piece. For us this is located in our living room (we have no TV, and like to keep it this way.) and like you has said, large part is for the learning. Do you feel a bell pepper plant would fare decently in this setup? And what is an economical choice for lighting on a smaller indoor setup? The bed is expected to be 3-5ft long and 1-2ft wide depending on how we make it.