Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

We decided to take the plunge about 6 weeks ago for my daughter’s science fair. Still can’t believe she didn’t win... Regardless, our kids (and us) have learned a lot and we now have an indoor system next to a window that seems to be doing well!

It started as a 2 gallon tank (deceased hermit crab cage) pumping up to a single GB, and back to the tank via a bell siphon. The BG was filled with pond rock and some aquarium gravel. Back then we had two goldies doing the dirty work and roughing it through the cycling. Over the last two weeks we upgraded to a 20 gal aquarium and added another GB filled with expanded clay pellets. We planted basil, cilantro, flat leaf parsley, radishes, assorted lettuce, and chard from seed and all seem to be sprouting / growing well. As the NH3, NO2, and NO3 had all cycled back to essentially 0 we threw in an additional 2 goldies and a plecostomus yesterday. Everything seems to be happy!

Time will tell whether we grow enough stuff to actually eat! My concerns are that the light seems a bit on the low end- perhaps I should think about throwing in a grow light to cycle with the sun. Also the pH has remained high at ~8. I don’t know if this is just because the system is young, or whether the pond rocks are alkaline. The pond rock BG was my first effort and I made a few errors- I drilled the drainage hole too close to the edge of the tub, so I cant really get a good siphon, although it works. I like the hygroton GB much better and I figure that I will replace the old GB with a new one after I harvest everything.

Here are a few pics of the rig- what do you all think? Thanks!

More Pics of the GBs

The first change I had to make to my set up after everything was in place - remove the gravel from the fish tank. The solids you want to pump out and get into the grow beds remain trapped in the gravel. I was surprised at how clean the bottom of the FT stayed with the gravel gone.

Wow - that is one tiny little room...what did it used to be?

How much does the water level in the fish tank fluctuate?

Thanks!

I agree that it would run cleaner without the gravel, but my kids are convinced that the goldies need the gravel to be happy. I figure that I will just manually stir up the gravel every so often.

The space is in the guestroom bathroom and is far enough away that we dont hear the sloshing around. I only wish I had more space to make a larger system!

The water level is relatively constant- fluctuates ~ 1 inch with the cycles.

Cheers, Mike

Well, disaster struck...

Last night I noticed a bunch of little white dots all over the fish- I think it is Ich. After reading the forums I added kosher salt to around 6ppt. Winds up being alot of salt! Poor little goldies did not look so well after the salt and were pretty lethargic.

This morning, they look much happier and are back to their normal level of activity. Unfortunately the sucker, who was affectionately known as the Gimp by the kids, dident make it. Nor did any of the plants, but I did get a decent snack on all the wilted radish greens!

So my plan was to keep the salinity around 6 for a couple weeks, then drop down to 3 when I cant see any more spots for a few more weeks. I also need to add an aquarium heater to the system as the water is pretty cold in there now.

What do you all do to take care of the bacteria and use the NO3 when this happens? Should I buy a plant to transplant in there or will the fish be OK without it? Would beetroot be a good option? I could also throw a bunch of mint in temporarily as we have a truckload in the backyard already. I imagine that none of the seeds that I just put in will sprout with that much salt.

I guess I should have listened to the advise and put the new fish into a separate tank before adding them to the system!

Such is life!

Kosher salt should be OK (no additives).
For relatively inexpensive sea salt I went with this:
http://www.diamondcrystalsalt.com/Culin ... -Salt.aspx
& it cured a sick fish (small goldie). Made a little quarantine out of a ball jar.

After close to 2 weeks, the white spots have disappeared and the goldies are seemingly happy. The fish who was initially affected the worst lost a large portion of his tail, but what remains looks well. One of the goldies who initially was all gold with a whitish tail, now has some black spots and his tail is mostly black. Is that something that happens when goldies are in salt water or recovering? Or is that a bad sign? He looks well though.

Without plants, except for one little arugula seedling that survived the salting, I am starting to accumulate NO3. On the last check the pH8, NH3 0.1, NO2 5, and NO3 40.

I am thinking that I will make a quarantine take with a standard aquarium filter and put the fish who were initially the worst in there and keep them in salt ~6. Hopefully then I could drop the system down to around 2-3 and start some new seeds.

I have a similar setup, using goldfish, and ran into the same issue with ich. I keep my system at 3ppt salt and while the napa cabbage and romaine didn't like it, the broccoli and leaf lettuce are doing fine. Have had no issues since.

If that window is south facing I think you'll be fine with lower energy vegetables like lettuces. With fruiting vegetables you may need some supplemental light, or maybe not. Grow lights are expensive and even with grow lights you need different bulbs and higher wattage for fruiting anyway. Plus, your neighbors will think you have cancer (it'll look like you are running a grow house, especially during the winter.) I'd just plant what you want to try and grow and see how it goes. You can always add grow lights.

Thanks again for the suggestions. Here is a little update on the system-

So, the goldies made it through the bout of ich. All signs of the disease were gone within a month of adding the salt. A few months later I cut the salt back by half and all was well. Grew several large chard plants, and a few little beets.

Then, about a month ago, they got dropsy and all died... Except the plecostomus, which seems to be immune to the disease. Bummer watching them all get sick and not being able to really do anything.

So now we are ready to give it another go and I have a few questions:
-Do I need to clean the whole system out before adding new goldies? Even the GBs? Would hate to have to re-cycle the whole system...
-Are plecostomus resistant to dropsy? i.e. if I add him to the new clean system will he carry it with him?
-Do you have any recommendations for a new pump for a 20G tank? The one that I have does not efficiently pump dirty water and alot of the juck is kept in the main tank. I am interested in a new one that will pump up the debris and remain quiet.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Mike

Welcome back Mike!

I think you will have to sterilize everything, others here would know better than me though.

What pump are you using now? Lowe's sells little Tetra pumps these days, I am using a 75 GPH one that I like, but I have bits of charcoal that keep clogging up the narrow screen on it.

I am using a Sunterra 75 GPH- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E5T70K

Do you think the one you listed would be an improvement? It looks like it has a similiar design to the one that I am using.

Yep very similar. You might be able to tune the circulation in the aquarium to get solids to the pump more reliably.