Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well, I have gotten my starter system up and running after many moons of tinkering and the taming of a ravenous water pump.

For the first iteration, my itty-bitty system consists of a 10-gal fish tank and a 14.5-gal plastic storage bin half full of hydroton as a grow bed. I'm using a bell-siphon with a standpipe overflow in the growbed and a small fountain pump to move water. Since I have rather limited daylight at the moment, I'm supplementing my light with a set of LED christmas lights strung up on a wire rack with their covers removed.

So far I've lost 5 minnows to the pump before I got a cover made out of an old CD-spindle that I had lying around. I've replaced the dearly departed minnows with three goldies until the system has fully cycled. After that, the boss has insisted we get some prettier fish since its in the office where she gets to look at it while grading.

I put the system in the window and added plants and fish on the second of February, and I've just begun to get the ammonia processing bacteria in place. My pH is a little high at the moment (~8-8.2) but fairly steady. I've got a water heater to keep the aquarium temp up at night and have salted the system up to 1 ppt until its cycled.

I've been reading the forums here long enough to realize how many pic requests I'd get if I didn't have any off the bat, so here you go:







The plants are basil and peas (15-yr old seeds, who'dathunkit?) and I've added about a teaspoon of powdered Maxigrow to help the plants establish themselves.

Thanks for all the (indirect) guidance on how to build something that even an apartment dweller can use.

Cheers!
Chris

And he even got the toe!

Welcome.

No more fertilizer additives for the time being! Tell us what is in Maxigrow? I know the original maxi crop is ok as it is mainly potassium and some trace elements but avoid any additives that will boost nitrogen or phosphorus.

Now patients and if you can warm that aquarium water up a bit more, the cycling will go faster.

Bugger ya beat me
Way to go there Ballistic Gourd,just remember one thing though

As the song states:
'From Little Things, BigThings Grow.......'

That's what I like about AP... it's so simple to get started... even with a small system...

Welcome BG...

As far as the toe goes,I told ya that I've been reading the forums for a bit.

@ TCL: the supplement was actually Maxicrop, my brain just had a wee bit of a short circuit from too much coffee on my day off.

And yes, expansion plans are in the works...the next system will have a gb covering that shelf with a fishtank at a slightly higher level and a sump below, since the boss is now on board.

<evil laugh>
First the shelf...then, the world!
</evil laugh>

I was out of town and my wife had parent-teacher conferences last week, so water tests didn't happen as often or as thoroughly as they should have. I left the nitrite test drops hiding behind the fish food, so they didn't get done. Of course, this week I hit the nitrite peak, and there were three floaters when she went to feed them at night.

Note to self: put everything back where it belongs!!

New fish will take there place in the next week or two.

In the mean time, I'd planned on letting the bacteria work on the nitrite in the system until its dropped below lethal levels for fishies. Do I need to dose the system with ammonia to keep the NH3/NO2 bacteria happy since they've lost their food sources, or will they weather the famine (through wednesday, maybe) okay?

By the way, if you ever have a choice, don't visit Wisconsin between October and May, its too bloody cold.

Salt(sea) to 1ppt to counter the nitrite. And you should be right as long as there is a little ammonia for the bactera to work on. In my saltwater tank we would feed the tank like it had fish and this breaking down cycles the tank. In AP they seem to like the direct method. Search on humonia.

BG, where are you located in Colorado. I'm in Loveland.

The system's already salted to 1 ppt, and by the time humonia will have broken down from urea, the nitrite level should have dropped enough to reintroduce fish (Its already dropping, so it may be a non-issue).

Any thoughts on whether I get the great fun of re-cycling the tank or if they'll hold 'til Tuesday (at the rate the nitrite's dropping now)?

@pamelarose, I'm in downtown Glenwood Springs, roughly. My wife and I have a lot of family in the Denver(ish) area and some family up in the Fort Collins area as well.

I expect that you need do nothing, just let it be. If you want to add a pinch of food then you can. That system is so small that peeing in it would be way overkill unless you can add only a few drops at a time.

The bacteria might like a steady supply but you don't want to be adding much of anything while a spike is still really high. I only feed if ammonia and Nitrite are both well below 1.

Thanks, TCL...that's what I was looking for.

I'll report when the system is ready to support new fishies.

Huzzah! I officially have a fully-cycled system!

We got some new shelving for the storage unit, and I managed to snag a shelf to upgrade the AP stand. During the move, the aquarium was about half full of water with only an air support for two days. After the system was refilled with semi-fresh water, I had a bit of a spike for ammonia and nitrate. Today when I tested, the water registered a cool 0/0/0 for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.

Other good news: freecycled aquarium w/ fish!

Since there's room on the shelf, I'd planned on adding a second system next to the current system. Again, I'll have a 10 gal aquarium with 4 koi, two goldfish and a small algae eater. Can anyone think of any interesting experiments (preferably not too life threatening) that can be run with a system on this scale?

Cheers!