Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi everyone I'm a newbie to AP and hoping someone can tell me how much sunlight my growbed will need each day please.

Depends on the type of plant you are growing. I have ones in full sun, under shadcloth and under tin.

Thought of having Tomatoes and lettuce and silverbeet.

Keep it in the sun. You can always add some shadecloth later.

If a location gets 6 hours of full sun per day year round, most plants will call that good enough to be full sun.

Most of us in hot summer areas have found that we need shade cloth at least part of the year even for the plants that like sun.

Having the grow bed out in the sun makes it more flexible since you can always add some shade cloth. If you position a grow bed in shade, there is only so much you can do to make it support sun loving plants and cutting down a shade tree without smashing your grow bed can be tricky.

Any suggestions for providing sun to the grow bed and at the same time shading the fish tank below? Anyone have photos of a set-up? Thanks!

the grow bed shading the fish tank...just have the GB above the FT...that will protect from mid-day sun.


you can hang a shade cloth from the bottom of the GB, a round it, like a GB skirt.

and for heat in the day time, Snazzy give me probly one of the best tips: flood all day/mid-day, and have it drained all night.
that will keep temps down, along with a skirt.

I would be situating the GB in the area that receives the most sunlight as Duffight suggested you can the add shade during the hottest time of year. I have read that plants benefit more from the morning rather than the afternoon sun so this might help with the position of the GB.