Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi, I've just found this forum and registered to become a member.

A little about myself (not that you really wanted to know ), I live in Central Montana, (USA) and I'm hoping to learn about Aquaponics so I can raise Rainbow Trout and Lettuce, Tomatoes, and herbs. The biggest problem we have here is the very short growing season, so I hope to see ideas from others that live in the "frozen North" and garden indoors for the winter. Since I live in a remote town, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of hydroponics suppliers in the whole state of Montana, I'll probably be buying most of my equipment online or making my own, getting parts and stuff for it when I make my monthly trip to Billings (our "big" city, 110 miles away). (I jumped the gun a little and bought 20 Goldfish this week, now they are living in a 5 gallon bucket with two airstones providing fresh oxy ...... I've already lost 5 of them to who-knows-what? ). Our water here is really bad, a lot of minerals, etc. We have some PH test strips which say that the PH coming out of the faucet is 6.4/6.5. I believe that's pretty good, but there was so much scum on the top of the water when I boiled it to remove the chlorine, that I gave the fish our drinking water instead ....... I suppose I will need some kind of testing equipment to determine whether the water is fit for fish and groceries.

My wife and I have been married since 1966 and we have 2 sons (had 3 but 1 is deceased), and I just got a call last nite from my middle son who lives in Oregon, and he and his wife just delivered our first grandchild, a boy

I don't know what else to say in an introduction, other than thanks for this forum, and I have been lurking around and seeing some of the systems that many of you folks have, and I want you to know that I'm filled with jealousy and green with envy , because you have all that wonderful weather down there in Aussieland, and we have high winds and freezing temps for about 9 months out of the year

The one thing I couldn't find, as a lurker, was a search function, I guess it's only available to members ...... now I can find out more about a "bell siphon" ...... that's been bugging me . Thanks again for this forum, and all the nice people who have shared their ideas ..... Jackalope

hi there and welcome!!!!!

If the search function doesn't work for you, you can always try using google to search this site which for some people is far more useful.

Yea, you have kind jumped the gun on the goldfish. If you have any way to pump their water through another container with some sort of material (netting, shade cloth, gravel what have you) and let it trickle back into their bucket, you might have a chance to start building a population of bio-filter bacteria but those poor goldfish are in a kinda bad situation right now with no filtration so need water changes but that can be stressful too if the pH or temperature fluctuates.

test strips tend to be a bit inaccurate. Here is a link to a site with the test kit that most of us use.
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/199591/product.web
This kit can test pH and high range pH as well as Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. These are generally the important tests while getting an AP system up and running. Ammonia and Nitrite are both pretty toxic to fish. Nitrate is what your plants need and keeping an eye on the pH can help you keep a system from crashing or stalling. Look up info about the Nitrogen cycle for more on this topic, it is an important topic in AP, actually it is the key to it all.

A note about pH of tap water. Right when it comes out the faucet, the pH may read lower than it really is, for a more accurate reading, test after the water has set out for a while or put a bubbler in it for a few hours and test again. CO2 disolved in the water is a weak acid. My water right from the tap reads a pH of 7 but after airing out a bit the pH is really 8.

You mention boiling water to get rid of chlorine. Does this mean you are on city water? Boiling is not needed to get rid of chlorine, just letting the water sit in a bucket for a couple days with a bubbler in it should take care of chlorine. However if your city uses chloramine, bubbling won't help. If you are on well water, chlorine shouldn't be a problem unless you chlorinate your well water for some reason. Hard water, minerals and calcium that is safe for drinking generally won't bother fish, actually they do better with some amount of minerals in the water.

So where will you be building your system? Biggest challenge where you are is the lack of sunlight and warmth in winter. Plan accordingly for any system placed indoors to avoid humidity and condensation problems that could cause mold or rot where the water condenses on cool surfaces (like around the windows.)

Welcome and good Luck!

WELCOME MONTANA!
We're newbies too--oldies at hydroponics--and now we are getting the "aqua" part of it! Oh yeah, CONGRATULATIONS GRANDPA! Isn't it grand?!?!
There is soooo much info on this website--especially from all the members! I just downloaded some tool that will help me with my pics? Lord help me! I can work online no problem, but using applications stumps me every time!
Again, welcome! Remember, keep it simple, and use what ya got...innovation is golden!

Look up adding salt to the water (especially if they look like they're getting finrot). 3ppt is typical.
Also, I've been topping up my tanks exclusively with bore water (hardness 800, heaps of iron & magnesium) with no problems so far.
There's plenty of people here who use greenhouses, and a good discussion somewhere on burying fish tanks (which I can attest works well).

Anyways, welcome, go exploring, and don't be afraid to ask if you can't find a thread.

Welcome Jackalope and congrats on the new status:
Grand parents Its fun and you can give them back
once they are all hyped up

I grow rainbows but the weather conditions are a bit different.
Though I can't grow all year round as it get too warm,
so there is only one thing to do

Welcome aboard... look forward to seeing pictures of your system and sharing in your AP adventures...

Hi Jack,
welcome to our home

Congratulations on your grandchild

Morn'n Grampa
At 3500 ft. in N.W. Arizona I get pretty cold also but nothing like where you are. I took a garage that had good southern exposure and replaced the siding with recycled sliding glass doors. The back of the thing is walled and insulated to give a shop area but still ended up with 12x30 ft. greenhouse. The over hang keeps out extreme summer sun but makes for low light in the rear so added a strip of LED red & blue lights . I run two grow beds 4x13 ft each feed by recycled water tanks for fish. These tanks are old bulk containers that are plastic and caged in galvanised tubing. Lots of people use these here to haul water to their homes. I am only using gold fish now untill I finish my solar water heating system and determine how warm I can keep the water. Trout wouldnt be a problem in winter without heating but would require restocking each fall. Catfish would handle the temp extremes but wont reproduce, same with carp. If I can keep 75 deg. F in winter will raise tailpia, which breed readily. May be stuck with slow growing sunfish. Meanwhile the goldfish are giving lots of veggies.
Have fun

Welcome Jackalope!

You should be able to get everything you need from Lowe's or Home Depot, and an ag place such as Tractor Supply. I'm using stock tanks from Tractor Supply to hold fish and gravel and the pumps and plumbing are from Lowe's. Like TC says the lighting is the most important part since you want to grow trout and they'll be fine in the cold. Do you have a nice South-facing location to put a structure of some kind on?

If the water only has chlorine then just put it into some tub or small pond for the chlorine to out-gas over a few days.

Congratulations on the new baby!

BTW goldfish are a good way to start, the little feeder ones are like $0.12 apiece which makes it less painful when they go by accident. That said they can be a bit fragile and/or mutant-y or disease-ridden when you get them.

I think my biggest problem is that the windows face North-West, and only get sun in the afternoon, and very little at that .... I'll have to build a Greenhouse in the back to get some decent sun, but with the temps out there right now, it looks like I'll be waiting until Spring (which is about the end of May here), and then I'm going to build a 16'x16' square storage shed ..... maybe I can save enough of my SS to roof the south side with clear fiberglass by that time ........ then I would have a small, but possibly viable indoor setup. I'm kinda skeptical about doing something outside the way it blows around here, I've had my lumber pile uncovered about 3 times a week for the past 3 or 4 weeks, no matter how much I weigh the tarps down.
In a way, I miss AZ right now, not Phoenix, but AZ ..... Flagstaff was nice, but I lived in Phoenix, which was hot, dry, and too many people . I'm going to try a little indoors unit for the winter (we heat with wood), and see if I can keep it warm enough .... with the cold weather inside, the goldfish are loving it .... I read once that they can live in a pond with freezing temps if you just break the ice so they can have fresh air during the day ... I may have to buy some gro-lites becuz of the lack of sunshine .... but it would sure be nice to have fresh salad every few days

Speaking of Chlorine, when I was into raising and breeding tropical fish, I read in a major aquarium book that you could use a photographic developer to get rid of chlorine in the water ...... I used it all the time, and never had any problems ..... I've just got to get ahold of that book and be sure of what actual chemical name I need, I'll have to buy the chemical online, since not many people do their own developing anymore, so it's not that readily available ..... especially around here. Come to think of it, I'll have to test it to see if it will affect the lettuce growth or not .... it never did affect the aquarium plants, but then, they aren't lettuce I live in a small town of less than 100 population that isn't on most maps ... 110 miles from Billings, 135 miles from Great Falls, and a whole lot of miles from anywhere else

I also meant to ask "What the heck is bore water?" I keep seeing members from downunder use that term, and it's a term this Redneck has never heard ..... mind explaining that one to me? Thanks

Always remember what you put in the system stays in the system, I would be very wary of the putting developer chemicals into the system.
it only takes a few days for the chlorine to gas out.

Cheers
Ron

Bore water is artesian water Jack... often naturally pressurised, often warm to hot.... often laden with various minerals and or lots of Calcium from limestone aquafiers....

Well water



Indeed, as an experiment I had three neglected goldfish in a 90 gallon fish pond outside all Winter. It froze completely over about three times and they were all fine come Spring. I still have the one, but he's indoors this year.

Apparently buffered vitamin C powder (calcium ascorbate) can be used to dechlorinate, but I haven't tried it as I just age my water (we get chlorine not chloramine in our water).