Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well, now that I have a couple indoor Aquarium set up, I suppose that should be it's own thread. I don't expect to have much to report on the breeding side of things as the Indoor Temps are a little cool and I have no intention on running lots of heaters to bring it up right now. When we get back from vacation this summer, I will look into putting a sump for that system outside the window to provide free heating to that system at least for the summer.

Currently in the big aquarium are my two bigger breeders, the kinda pinkish Male and the darker Female. In the small aquarium are the two little fry that are still too small for the cage out in the big system (there are two catfish in the big tank outside the cage to clean up any food that escapes the cage which would include any fry or eggs that happen.)

The two aquarium are linked into the same system. Currently running under 30 watts of power to run pumps and air pump. I have some florescent lights that Will run as needed for plants. I kinda think I'll grow lettuce and salad greens during summer in there when it's too hot outside but other times of year, it might just be houseplants or other plants that can remove Nitrate without as much light.

Looking nice! Peace Lily loves AP and can get by with little light. It also serves as an indicator for needing to add chelated iron. It starts going pale earlier than other things.

Put some extra larger PVC lengths in each tank for the gal(s) to hide in when they're not in the mood.

The big gal is currently spending most of her time hiding in a plant basket held down with a rock. But since I don't really want to worry about her much, there is a divider in the tank keeping the boy away. The temp is too cool for much breeding anyway and I don't really want fry till we come back later this summer.

I do have some 3" PVC fittings that they might like as hides at least until they get really big.

When we go away for Vacation, I'll be putting the Big boy and Big girl in with the rest of the Tilapia in the big cage. I'll add extra hides and hope that with the larger population and large cage, there won't be any bad injuries.

The Aquarium system will be kept cycled using a drip dose system for the couple weeks we are away. (I don't want the neighbors to need to check on more than the two outside tanks.)

How are you removing air bubbles from the overflow pipe? Those things actually make me nervous, especially bringing them indoors.

So far I haven't done anything special. Though the system has only been in there a short time. The Big tank also has a hole in the bottom so I've set up a venturi drain over to the buckets in addition to the no holes overflow so that tank isn't so scary. The No holes overflow just acts as a surface skimmer. With the no holes overflow design, I don't really expect that they suck in lots of air bubbles the way a water bridge with an air stone near it would. I do expect that I should probably periodically submerge the whole overflow and work out any bubbles that do start to build up.

The overflow from the small tank to the grow buckets is a little more worrying as there is no other drain from that tank so if the overflow plugs up, It could dump some water over time. Luckily this house is built kinda industrial with the tile floors so some spillage in that room won't cause too much damage unless it happens while we are away on vacation. I might need to shut down the link to the little aquarium when we leave town.

When we leave town, I don't plan to leave any fish in the aquarium anyway. They will all get to move into the big tank with the other 104 Tilapia for their vacation.

The no holes overflows I'm working with now are 3/4" pressure pipes so pretty large capacity compared to the input into the tanks. When I originally started tinkering with them, the 1/2" sch 40 pipe no holes overflow couldn't keep up with the small pump well enough for comfort.

A few pics of the indoor system.

What are those mardel things? pH etc. indicators that live on the side of the tank?

That pic with the Y is great!

I've seen the birdie (badminton shuttlecock) in one of your other pictures, where did you get that idea? It's very neat!

What do they do?

I think they're just clutter (and fun for the fish). I wouldn't have thought of putting some of those in an aquarium, but they look like and probably act kind of like moving underwater plants.

Looks like something off the set of Gladiators

The Mardel things hanging inside the tank are like continuous test kits. One is for pH the other is for Ammonia. The pH one seems pretty accurate compared with the drops. The Ammonia has been at safe levels according to both methods since I got the things so It is hard to know for sure if that one if very accurate. The test strips need to be replaced every six weeks or less but they arn't very $$.

The shuttle cocks were just kinda a random thing that I had on hand and though, well the little tiny fish needs something to hide in so I dropped one in. I needed to pull the rubber end off a little and fill it with water so it would sink but I though they would be fine ornaments/hides for the little tank. When the little fish was still really small, I would find it resting in the shuttle *butterflies*. Was kinda funny. And yes, I think they were in another picture too.

Indoor system is currently empty of fish. Will have to start dosing it to keep the bacteria and plants alive until I'm ready for some actual breeding. (I don't have any aquarium feeders to set up and want to make checking on the fish as easy as possible for the neighbors while we are out of town later this month. All fish are out in the two big tanks.
I'll set up a drip dosing bottle tomorrow.

Well, these babies were no bread in the Breeding system but they are currently living in the small aquarium until I decide if they are gonna become catfish food or do something else with them when we leave town for vacation.

Here are some pics of the little tiny stomachs with eyes and tails. They have grown a bit in the couple days since released from the mom's mouth.

Its amazing how fast they grow and get color after being released. ...Just love tilapia...