Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It is normal for the surfaces of a fish tank to get a nice layer of bacteria/algae perhaps half a mm thick. Nothing to worry about, but my DW does complain about the appearance in an aquarium, so I occasionally take a spare blade from a utility knife and shave it off the glass. If there is a lot released, you might set a strainer to catch the chunks as they get sucked into the growbed over the next couple hours.

yea there is a no holes overflow thread as well, but firstly I want the SOL to put the nutrient rich solids into the growbed, the no holes auto siphon is a touch complicated and may require maintanence or it may fail, thirdly I put a hole in the aquarium so I'm set The hole the dude made was a touch small but about fifteen minutes of going at it with a round file it was fine. I have the SOL built and tomm I'm gonna do the rest of the piping, test it and start fishless cycling

Good to hear yours is doing well, how about a look at the plants? and how many goldies you got in there now, you mentioned putting a couple in an outdoor pond...?

Down to 2 goldfish (a 1" & a 5") and the nitrates are still off the charts. Plants are green, green, green. I only have half as much media as I should (GB to FT) but it's working. Wont be too focused on this system till I have to shut down the outside one (where I put the other goldies) - I'm guessing late October. That systems barely has any nitrates.

Busy weekend coming up, pics later.

Do you put silicon around the hole so it doesn't leak?

not yet, am going to silicone the hole and glue up the pvc fittings once I'm done building it all together so that I can do all of it at once.

Down to 3 goldfish, one was hiding. Still using this for seedlings (mainly basil, parsely, celery, leeks waiting for me to place them in the outside system). For my next go round of lettuce I'll give direct seeding a chance.

thash pur-ty

Hi Abdul,
Just be sure you use a fish safe silicon or polyurethane sealant for the SOL

Thanks for the heads up C1 the silicon am using is the same one they use for aquariums, and it says that on the bottle as well so I figure am good on that front

Just hoping the pvc cement is as harmless as it

Well there is a green one.. but since you are only gluing the contact points
trying not to 'spill' unwanted glue is a good idea,

Some new additions from lake fishing for the inside system:

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I think I'll need to add more gravel to the GB & move the goldfish into the hoop house system. This morning, 12 hours after adding the new fish my stats weren't great.
Ammonia .5
Nitrites 2
Nitrates 160

I increased the flood time to 15 minutes (from 10) so maybe that will help. I also salted. One of those Bluegills has a hook in it so I wouldn't be too shocked by 1 floater.

Well, that didn't last. All additions dead, at the bottom of the tank this morning. I noted the voltage was on the low side before going to bed last night. At 2am the power had cut out. I was too pooped to go out and start the generator.

We've lost power many times over the last 3 weeks, I think due to the heat lamp which is intermittently running for our baby chicks & turkeys.

Gold fish were unfazed. They are hardy!

Bummer We've been through almost the exact same thing with chicks and heat lamp. One drawback of solar is limited storage. What is the wattage of the heat lamp? Can you get by with something much smaller....like ten watts? I'm sure it depends on the number of chicks you are raising and night temps. On the other hand, perhaps there is something clever one could do with stored heat rather than using electricity....

A friend told me about a goldfish they released into a stock pond. Later that summer they checked the pond and saw it had nearly dried up, but there in the last tiny puddle, one side wet and the other side's scales curled and dried, was the goldfish. They moved it to a better place and it survived.

Hydro, are you off the grid?

I think I've done most of what I could do to limit the energy consumption of the heat lamp. It's 60 watts connected to a thermostat so it'll turn off and the bottom of the "turkey aquarium" is lined with brick to help retain heat. The poults do seem cold if the temp gets below 85. The chicks are just about ready to move outside.

The one thing that would help that I haven't done is move the chicks upstairs to my bathroom or the 3rd floor where I might not need the heat lamp at all. I'm a bit worried they'd be out of sight, out of mind, then, out of luck.

If I get a batch of broilers (I'm contemplating this soon) I might try the 3rd floor.

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Whenever possible.
We mounted PV panels on our camper and take it off to the ocean, desert, mountains, etc. Nice to be able to live without running the generator to recharge batts. I'd do that more if situation permitted...

But years back when my son hatched eggs just before our ocean trip with extended family, we decided to bring the chicks and a small heat lamp. Around 1am the low battery alarm sounded and we spent the rest of the night using flashlights (we had to disconnect the batteries to stop the alarm) and keeping the chicks warm with a hot water bottle. The following nights we used a big pot of warm water and a tent of towels and blankets and a 15watt light bulb.



I bet you could design (or find a design for) a really energy efficient chick brooder. They put out a lot of heat themselves and if you used the warm-air-rises principal (as in a snow cave entrance: floor of living space is above top of entrance to trap heat) you might be able to do well. Brick hold heat well, so it is good for smoothing highs and lows, but something like styrofoam might be better since it takes no heat from the chicks. You could also use something to reflect heat from sides and top, or at least insulate it well. You would need to check often at first and might have some HSMs, of course, but you have those now...


Yes, a definite problem...


I like to have them close. We bought a hundred and, over a few nights, a skunk killed almost all and ate some. On the fourth night it had a fatal meeting with a flying piece of firewood.

I'm willing to share with others on this planet, but I get angry when they don't eat what they kill.

I'm hoping it was the skunk that met the firewood.

We have 2 livestock guard dogs to protect against that type of thing.