Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all. Finally have a system set up; it's been over a year in the making (although only in my mind up to this point).

About the system:

My system is just a ~10 gallon fish tank with two small grow beds. The growbeds are maybe 7-10 gallons each. It's running on one submersible pump and I'm using hydroton as the growing media. Each growbed has grow lights above them. Everything is connected via rubber tubing I obtained at a local hydroponic store.

The lights are on a timer; on 16 hours a day and off 8 hours a day. The pump is controlled by macros via x10 technology to turn on for 17 seconds approximately every 15 minutes.

Had a few problems early on (leaking tubes, bad macros, etc.) but now the system is running more or less the way I intended. I've had the system running for maybe 2 weeks now. At the moment, it's fishless (due to me jumping the gun, which I will explain further down) but I have veggies sprouted and growing.

About the fish:

Right now I have no fish in my tank because they all decided to move on to the stage after life. What I did have were 10 feeder guppies, which promptly expired the next day since I didn't realize my water temp was too low for them to survive in. So I got some comets, which were better suited to the water temp, but they expired the next day as well. I still haven't figured out due to what though (although I suspect either not enough oxygen or temp swings). So for now I am just adding pure ammonia to the system and collecting data. I will maybe add some comets again once I have an air stone to oxygenate the water better.

About the greens:

I've directly sown seeds for korean radish and red lettuce just to see if I could get away with it. Surprisingly a lot of them took hold and are now growing well, although I'm not the best judge since this is the first time I've tried to grow anything. I've already plucked out some of the radish in order not to crowd them too much (or rather, my mom did that while I wasn't home without my knowledge). So I've already had my first harvest of the greens from the radish

I will post some pictures and data when I get home, since I'm at work and am sneakily posting.

Welcome Aop... sorry to hear your first batch of fish... passed over...

Look forward to seeing greater success in the future... and some pics...

Welcome Aop!

Don't get fired, we'll wait for the pictures. (=

Woo picturessss

More pics

My excellent piping work...

And more...

Last one for now, I promise...

Good to see you have the test kit and are taking notes.

What is your source water? And what do the tests say when you run them on your source water? (tip, on the pH test, do a test straight from the tap and then do another test after letting the water sit for a day, the test of the water allowed to sit is probably far more accurate.) It is rare that all the comets died so quickly, they are usually pretty hardy, unless you got an ill batch from the store.

good luck on the cycling and welcome to the maddness

My water source is just tap water. I let it sit for a few days before I pour it in my system. PH is 7.0 straight from tap and one day after letting it sit. It only goes up to 7.2 after a few days.

Strangely my nitrites and nitrates are at 0 even though I have been adding ammonia for 2 weeks now. I had nitrites and nitrates slighly up at 1.0 and 5 respectively but now they're at 0 and have been for a few days straight. Waiting for my nitrite spike before I add fish but does it take this long usually?

More picturessss

And 2 more

Just added maxicrop, 1 oz per 1 gallon, but now my water is black . Thankfully I have no fish in it yet, though I do want to put some in soon

I haven't been taking measurements for a few days now as my water is black so the colors probably won't show up. Should I just continue to leave it alone and just add the ammonia? Just adding more water as it evaporates and don't really want to do a water change to make the water brown

Also, I've been adding ammonia but even when I am adding a good amount, it was going showing up as ~.5 ppm by the next evening. Should I add more at a time or just continue to add the same amount? I'm also getting no nitrites or nitrates, though perhaps that's due to the plants taking them up.

Fish like dark hiding places for when they get stressed. I never thought of just turning the whole tank black. Heh. But seriously, I hope it clears up for you soon!