Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I believe I used to be a user of this forum many, many years ago but probably used some ancient E-mail address I never use anymore and can't remember, and no luck on remembering the username, so I've set up a new account.
I'm wanting to setup a small aquaponics in my closet because it's the most convenient place and I live in a one room apartment (so to avoid fish poop smell also). I have a plastic box I use for the fish (have yet to buy the fish, waiting for mail order air pump). Will be trying to grow strawberries.
I bought the aPUMP because it's supposed to be the most silent and it's just a small plastic box.

I have a few questions. If nobody reads this section of the forum or cares to reply here then I'll make another thread on my questions later on.

My questions are:
Firstly, how fast can I expect smaller-than-goldfish fish to reproduce. Do their smaller sizes make them reproduce faster than big fish? I'm not sure about their names, I'll simply be buying the cheapest. Will try to get the fishes name written down so I can get some basic info about them.

I am planning on only doing an air pump and no "cleaning" system or anything else because I simply don't have the space or the desire to try to incorporate it. I would have to manually clean the fish container once in a while; is that ok from a plant-growth perspective?

What is the cheapest yet most efficient growth light in terms of increasing growth or at least causing the plant to grow, for a small closet size aquaponics system (obviously no sun in this closet)? I don't want my closet setting on fire or anything so overheating could be an issue.

Is it ok to not have two "parts" to the setup, one the fish area and another the plant area, and having water be pumped from place A (fish area) to place B? In other words, can I just let the roots be suspended in the fish water like in the floating raft design or whatever it's called?

Welcome back CP . Looks like you may need to start a thread about your system. Some of the questions you posted aren't that simple to answer.



This didn't make any sense to me . Do you mean a system without filtration that you have to clean manually on occasion?

As far as lighting the cheapest and most efficient aren't necessarily the same thing. LED's might be your best bet, they don't put out much heat and you can get ones that are specifically for growing plants so they don't have a lot of unnecessary parts of the spectrum (why pay for something the plants can't use). They are pretty efficient but not necessarily cheap

Yes, no filter, no pumping the water around, only the aPUMP for blowing air into the water to aerate it.

. I don't know if this is going to help or not since you said you didn't want to pump but I'd probably pump from the lower container to the upper and just let the water fall back into the lower. That would supply some aeration, maybe enough that you don't need anymore (depending on your fish load and how much air is getting into this closet). If you use media instead of a raft then the media acts as your filtration otherwise you'll have to add separate filtration or the plant roots will get coated with solids and die.

If you just use an air pump the ammonia and nitrites will build up until you transfer water to the plant side of things and you fish will likely die if you don't do this as often as you should.

Hmm.. Lakes and streams do not have filtration systems, correct? But they seem to manage just fine with fish poop sinking to the bottom and being digested by bacteria. So, do you mean that the water needs to be pumped around or "get moving"? I don't understand what difference that would make if I don't filter out the solids.

OH, but lakes and streams have more filtration systems, than you think.

Just think of all the plant life that grows in and near the water. Cattails, grasses under water, water lilies just to name a few.

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So is it possible to run a small aquaponics system? I find that every time I watch setups on Youtube it seems very simple and is made out to be such but when I look at forums it's made out to be an extremely complicated business that costs at least thrice the amount that you actually pay for commercial produce as you need constant testing and a ton of electricity consuming equipment.
Do I really need to double my space just for fish poop?
I know even small fish tanks have filtration systems but obviously I don't want the noise ruining my day in my small one room apartment. I want as little noise as possible.


I also need to avoid the risk of water spillage. The water spillage would cause serious damage to the apartment because the closet has a crack in the back side. And the electronics would be at the ground level unless I raise it as the closet itself is raised. Having two fish tanks that circulate water would increase the risk of spillage. I obviously have towels in my closet to absorb water that may spill. I even have my plastic "case" inside a much larger plastic case for this exact reason, but I can't keep my eyes on the system 24/7.

I think the closest mimicking of natural lakes and streams is done by planted aquariums with aquatic plants etc. It sounds like you want the fish and the plants in separate but connected bodies of water, but without a recirculating flow of the water. In this case your question would be whether such a system could enable dissolved nitrate to find its way to the plant roots (through osmosis?) and maintain suspended solids in the fish tank. I have no idea...

Would you use air pump to aerate plant roots or fish tank or both?

I think guppies and mollies are small cheap fast breeding fish, they require tropical temps.

I think the general consensus is that small scale young systems are more successful at growing leafy greens than fruiting plants. Also, more lighting is required for fruiting plants, whereas a few cheap white LED bulbs (6500k) can grow a few lettuces no probs. Also, i'm not sure people tend do strawberries in raft systems?.. Don't most people have them in NFT or media beds?

I reckon I would go for an all in one raft system with aquarium filter plus extra aeration to plant roots, with a few led bulbs. And I would stick to lettuces and leafy greens. At least this way, because all the water is always contained within the tank, you don't risk leakages and the possibility of returning to a flooded apartment and dead fish!

Won't the water plants steal the nitrate from the producing plants like weed (not cannabis) steals "nutrients" from plants in gardens?

Wouldn't the air pump, assuming it's strong enough, create at least a small water current to circulate the contents of the water like the nitrate?

I want fish that can stand cold water and don't need saline water to live. I'm assuming the shop I will be buying at has this.

I'll be disappointment if I can't grow strawberries using cheap aquaponics.

Yes, they will but he's not suggesting you add water plants he's just pointing out something about natural systems.



Sure, the air pump will create a current. The fish put out nitrogen as ammonia and it needs to be converted to nitrate for the plants, most of your filtration is in the media with the plants or in a separate filter that's not in the fish tank so what you're really doing is circulating ammonia until it builds up enough to kill the fish. At least that's what I think is going to happen unless I misunderstood how you're using the air pump.



They probably have something along these lines but most of the fish will likely be tropicals. Consider what your water temp will be when you chose the fish and pick something that will grow to an appropriate size for your system.

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You could always just use fish water to grow strawberries in some potting mix

Bear with me. So fish feces will increase ammonia and pose toxicity to the fish themselves like yeast that produce ethanol can kill themselves this way. Well, what about the bacteria that are supposed to convert ammonia to nitrate`/nitrite? Could I introduce them into the system for example by taking dirt from outside and doing a water extract of the dirt (no solid particles) and introducing that water into my fish tank? I don't understand why it would be a problem ..

Most of the ammonia produced is actually a bi-product of the fish breathing, and is secreted from gills. Yes, if ammonia levels build up fish can die, it happens a lot to people who stick a goldfish in a bowl and don't do water changes, goldfish dies from ammonia poisoning. A goldfish can live 15 odd years if kept properly.

The bacteria occupies surface area, grow beds and aquarium filters provide lots of surface area for bacteria to grow on. Large raft-systems need large separate filters (which can be cheap and diy) to provide surface area, because there is no grow-bed and no medium.

You can add some bacteria, but its best to use contents of a filter, or grow medium/gravel etc from another working system.

I'm sure strawberries can be, and are, grown by cheap aquaponics, but they will be more challenging than leafy greens and herbs etc, especially for a new, small, indoor raft system.

+1 to what Danny said, he pretty much nailed it.

There is no need to add the bacteria they show up on their own because they are everywhere in the environment. Soil contains millions of different organisms including some that you don't want - so even though this would work I'd probably just wait for it to happen on it's own.

Yeah, for aquaponics to work you need a few different things. The form they take can be different, but you absolutely have to have:

- an ammonia source, i.e. fish and their food.
- bacteria to turn the ammonia (which is poisonous) into nitrites (also poisonous) and then nitrates (nearly harmless) to feed your plants. The bacteria will turn up on their own.
- somewhere for the bacteria to live. This is the main thing your proposed setup is lacking.
- good circulation of water and oxygen past the bacteria so that they can do their job, and past the plants so they can live.

The bacteria mostly live stuck to surfaces. It's possible to give them enough surface area to live on using just tank walls and plant roots if you're running a really huge deep water culture system, but in smaller setups you've got to give them media. In most systems that means media growbeds, full of gravel or expanded clay; in some it means bioreactive filters, full of plastic media or netting or other stuff for the bacteria to stick to and grow on. In lakes and streams, the bacteria live on the rocks, in the mud, and all over the plants that are in the water; bear in mind that any tank or aquaponic setup that humans build is going to have a lot more fish in it than the same volume of water in a lake or stream would, producing a lot more ammonia than would be in the lake water, so we have to make living space for a lot more bacteria as well.

Probably the most efficient setup for a tiny quiet system like you want would be to use an ordinary fishtank filter; you can get some pretty quiet ones, and if you make sure to get one that's the correct size for your tank and the number of fish you have in it (so many people get one that's too small!) it'll house plenty of bacteria. The media inside it will probably be some combination of sponges, fluffy filter wool, ceramic noodles, or plastic mesh balls. Then if you have your strawberries or whatever in little net cups with a little media and their roots dangling in the water, and a little air bubbler moving the water around, it should work.

...I'm not guaranteeing that it will work, mind you. You'll still need to monitor everything, and keep your fish happy and healthy, and the plants will need some nutrient supplementation so that they get everything they need to grow and fruit. The smaller a system is, the harder it is to keep it in balance. You're going to need to pick your fish according to what type will be able to live well under the conditions you can give them, not just buy whatever's cheapest, and you're going to need to make decisions about your system based on what's going to actually work properly, not just whatever's convenient for you. Like Scotty said, it might be simpler to just have some strawberries in pots of dirt, or heck, run hydroponics.

I just got the two fish which appear to be young goldfish. I'm amazed at how expensive fish are.
I've installed the aPUMP and it's been running for a little over a week I believe.

It seems my fish prefer to get close to the air source. Is that normal? They will even tend to lie right next to the bubbler. The bubbler produces plenty of bubbles.

It also seems that they don't eat a lot of food. Plenty is lying on the aquarium floor. And they tend to hide under rocks in the aquarium.