Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello all,

Spent the last month or so putting together a small AP system. I plan to expand off this basic idea for this first season.

I have experience with both aquariums and gardening. This system is mostly being used for me to understand the basics workings of AP. Also for any pitfalls to be small and not affect my pocket book.

Currently running 350 liters of water in the system. I have 7 gold fish that I'm using to bring up the bioload in the system. In a few days I will add 7 more gold fish. I will keep adding gold fish over the next month or two. I have a 950 gallon pump for the system. I went with over kill with plans to expand out the system. I'm using a recycled IBC 330 gallon container. The pipe standing from the grow bed is my air siphon. As water falls back into the tank it pulls air directly into the water stream. I'm using an auto siphon to quickly drain (under 45 seconds) the main grow bed. It takes any place from 25 to 28 mins to fill the grow bed with 100 liters of water.

I have a breed stock in the grow out stages themselves. I will see if the Florida weather will help speed their growth.

I have planted most of the first grow bed. I have plans to add addition legs of ntf for growing greens.

This first season I will be using goldfish. This is for a couple of reasons, don't want to risk large fish stock and run into a snag in 8 months into the project.

I have already started looking for tanks for my next system. Working on taking in as much information about creating fiberglass tanks.

I will post more pics as the system continues to grow.

Welcome!!!!!! Good to have you on board. Does the water have to flood over the top of the gravel to start that siphon? Most people generally find the flood level is best kept below the top of the gravel.

So is the fish tank hidden under the grow bed? How big are your goldfish?

Welcome, good to see you getting into AP!

Thank you for your welcomes.

I have the top of my stand pipe about 1" below the gravel. My water level never goes above the gravel in the GB. This is to stop algae blooms.

My Goldfish are about 2" long and growing fast.

I've attached a couple of photo's with the sun screen off. I cut off the top of the tank and flipped the 'lid' 180degs. This setup was my first design but after filling the GB with water I noticed that the extra weight was causing the cage to bow out. I took the time and flipped it only 90 degs to allow the top to rest a little better. I also added 1 x 3 for extra support about the sides of the grow bed.

Now for natural pesticides, I'm looking at a few options. In the Florida we have a pest called life miners. In the past I would use a Spinosad based poison. I'm reading online this is 'non toxic' to most fish, but I'm not willing to risk it.

I was also looking into cedar oil based spray, any one use that before with AP?

Leaf miners are usually not a really big problem for most plants in my experience. I often see their trails in some leaves of young plants but I have never seen them cause enough damage to be worth spraying anything on the plants (that is at least the case here in central Florida.) I probably wouldn't use either of those products around my AP system. (generally avoid any soaps or detergents or oils or things that might be bad for aquatic life of any kind.) About the only "pesticide" products I have used in/around the AP system are BT products like dipel dust or Thuricide against leaf eating caterpillars (which might slow down a leaf miner if it eats some before getting inside the leaf.) I have also used the BT type Mosquito dunks in a system pre fish and even added fish while the dunk was still active and my tilapia and catfish don't seem to mind them.

Anyway, looking good and welcome again.

Thanks for the info TCLynx, I spent most of my teenage years in Crystal River, just outside of Ocala. Nice hear of someone else from the area.

Welcome aboard mjh... hope you have lots of fun... and lots of fish & plants..

Did a water test today, everything is looking good. PH is still dropping down to 7.8 now. Amm and Nitrites are very low still. Nitrates are on the rise 5.0 ppm!
Going to buy some more goldfish today and put them in my isolation tank and plan to introduce half of them into the AP system. I will snap a few photo's of the system i'm amazed how much things have already started growing.
I think one of the reasons this system cycled so fast was the left over sediment on the rocks. I feel it was almost like live dirt full of goodies that gave a jump start in the gravel.

Here are a couple quick pics of the plants and system. I'm going to make a quick video one of these days. Notice the goldfish are getting pretty fat, and I'm not feeding them a lot. I'm sure nature as dropped a few critters in the water already.

Did a video this week, been light on the updates been having issues with the septic tank. Added more gold fish all are looking good. Next week I will start the build out for the ntf additions to the system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1veatcWEf7I

I noticed the PH in the water started holding strong between 7.8 - 8.0. I have added peat now to see if that helps lower the levels. I'm also collecting rain water now, I hope to start small water changes to slowly get more and the city water out of the system. I have been reading a lot of information on the net today. No one seems to have the 'perfect mix' of how much peat to how much water. I'm starting off slow and going to start taking PH readings three times a day. I have also been reading online and a good amount of people feel the electronic meter with build in temp is the best way to get accurate PH readings. So reading up on them to find the best one.

Just be wary of the peat MJH... make sure it doesn't contain any addititves that migh be harmful to the fish...

And be aware that it is a very slow way to adjust pH.... and depending what form it was in when you added it... could form anaerobic zones within your system...

If you system has not completely cycled yet and your media is not full of buffering material like shells or limestone, the pH will drop over time especially as it gets cycled up. I've actually seen my system drop a bit in pH after adding the chleated iron.

RupertofOZ - thank you for that information. It was dried peat, and the package said 100% peat no additives. It was dried form,

TCLynx - thank you as well, i sure the system is not fully cycled. I'm not aware of any limestone or shell in my mix. When I did my testing of the media a few months back. The PH was stable.

I will keep a eye on everything, and in a week pull this nylon stocking out, and hope I can find some chleated iron by then. Did you apply it on the foliage TCLynx?

Chelated iron can be mixed and poured over the growbeds... or added straight to the tank ...