Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am contemplating (planning) the conversion of our relatively new aquarium to a small AP system. The aquarium is in our living room which is small so I need to keep growbed space to a minimum. Soooo... the goal would be to plant items in the growbed that love nitrates. Ideas?

I figure this topic is important long term for helping to lower nitrate levels in more "mature" systems.

Plenty of light!

Strawberries, Tomatoes, anything that sets large/a lot of fruit

How big is the aquarium? Unless your going to stock it full of fish I think the nitrate sucking plants are not really a deceiding factor. A small grow bed is easy enough to do that will keep a fish tank clean of nitrates. The sun location for the plants was the biggest issue I had in a mini 10 gallon and a small 30 gallon system. I have no sunny windows.
Small pond pump up to a auto or loop syphon grow bed and sun sun sun.

The aquarium was sold used as 55 gallons (208 l), however, with some quick measuring today, I determined it is actually 35 gallons (132 l). Which is a challenge since we have 4 ~10" tilapia in it under quarantine. I got suspicious on size when I did some testing for salinity and it came up much higher than what I expected based on what I'd put in. For the moment we're doing water changes, etc. However, the goal of this aquarium was to use it as a breed tank long term. Therefore, I want to make sure we have excellent quality water and this mechanical filtration sucks.

The tank sits in a SE corner so lots of sun. We have one of those opaque blue plastic items on the back of the tank to keep light out & algae growth down. But, we could create a grow bed on top of the aquarium that could be our filtration and keep our breeding stock (that will come someday) happy.

Easy peasy then. Want to have balance? Put a grow bed on either side of the aquarium, or just a long one in the back and above. What are your design plans?
I was going to have a friend make me a stand/set up for my 30 gallon with some grow beds but the better half did a line item veto. I had other issues in the fire so no need for debate at the time, but now wish I had it.

In the world of Hydroponics, here is a list of plants thought of as Heavy feeders! As in they like strong nutrient mix.
Bean
Beetroot
Broccoli
Brussels Sprout
Cabbage
Eggplant
Okra
Pepino
Potato
Sweet Potato
Taro
Tomato
Chicory
Mint

If there really is plenty of sun, grow whatever fits in the space. If the sun is less or the space tight, you might just try lettuce and salad stuff to see if that brings your nitrates down enough. Otherwise, stick some mint in and everything will forever more be minty around the place!

nice list... now decisions.

Gotfish, in terms of design, I'm thinking of getting ahold of a set of shelves like these:
http://www.superiorshelving.com/mfg/nex ... elWire.php

Worst of it is that we had a set we got rid of. I'll have to think if I can reconfigure some things... have multiple sets around just most in use and those available are too large. But... between Craigslist and ingenuity, I'm sure we can create something. The put some kind of container on the shelf as the grow bed. Otherwise, we may be able to reconfigure the wooden top on the aquarium and just set a bed on top of it.