Hi everyone. I just started my foray into aquaponics a few weeks ago. I am located in the southwest burbs of Chicago, so if there are any other fellow Chicagoans (or really anyone even somewhat close) here I love to hear from you!
My system is small ~50 gallons in a heavy duty rubbermaid tote. My goal is to use as much recycled materials as I can for the system. My wife thinks this means make it look ugly, but I beg to differ
. I pump the water from the tank up about 5 feet to a rain gutter that runs about 7' long. The water drops about 2 feet to a second gutter and flows back into the tank. The media in the gutters is a mix of lava rock, and clay pellets. I tried messing with a bell siphon, but was getting frustrated with it and gave up. The pump is on a timer 15 on, 30 off. I started cycling about a week ago with 5 goldfish. My Ammonia is between .25 and .50, no NOx yet, and pH is a pretty elevated 8.8+. Not sure where that is coming from - I measured the water I put into the system at about 7.4, and did an acid test on all my media (no fizzing).
The setup is in a 3 season room that stays about 10 degrees F higher than the outdoor air, so cold. I have a 300 watt tank heater that works very well - until I pump the water through cold aluminum gutters. I cant get the tank over about 62 degrees right now so I think I may get another heater and add a tank to preheat the water returning to the aquarium. Suggestions here would be helpful. I think I may add some pipe insulation to the gutters as well. At this point I am thinking of expanding the tank and stocking it with a few channel catfish because of the low temps.
Another issue - gutters are difficult to get a high enough flow rate through the media to keep my pump from overflowing the gutter, and cycle the tank once per hour. I am still experimenting with the best angle to keep them at.
I can't add pictures right now, but will soon.