Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi there. I am a new aquaponics enthusiast in FL. My kids have gotten me into this with an experiment they are running. They would like for you to check out their system and give them some feedback on it. They are ages 11-15 so they won't be on the forum per se, but they are looking forward to feedback and I had them write the following part to tell you about it:

We are on a robotics team for FIRST robotics. We have to do a research project and we chose to try to make fish healthier by feeding them a natural diet. This is our aquaponics system that we have designed based on videos and pictures people have posted on aquaponics. We have a feeding system that goes along with it that we designed ourselves.

Our partial system with drain pipe and lava rock being added:


Hydroton added. Bluegill added to tank. Plants added to grow bed. Set up pump, which runs from the fish tank to the grow bed on a timer. Added screen to tank to prevent fish from flipping out:


17 days' growth:



Our feeding system built specially so that you can access each bin easily. In the top are daphnia, next are blackworms, then cherry and malawa shrimp and last are earthworms.


We are hoping to use this to help raise the fish's omega-3 level and make it easy to afford so that the fish are safer than wild or farmed fish. To test their growth, one tank is being fed the natural diet and the other is being fed pellets.

Looks great. I love that you are doing side by side feeding comparison.

How will you test which fish are healthier/safer/higher in omega-3?

Howdy G8r.....

Love the vertical stacking, very interesting....

this is cool

It is looking great. I love to see young people interested in aquaponics. Where do you live in Florida.

We're still looking into ways to prove that the fish fed from our feeding system will be higher in omega-3s. We have seen information that says live food will raise the omega-3 levels in the fish better than regular fish food, though. Our project doesn't need to be proved that it will work, we just have to have the information and research behind it and prove that it is possible for the feeding system to sustain itself and make the fish healthier.

We are in central Florida. Thanks for looking!

ahh okay. I live in north florida and was thinking you could stop by if you were close. anyway good luck with the system.

Nothing better than the taste test anyway!

looks great, and a fantastic study of earth sciences for the kids..

are you feeding the daphnia with green water?
compost waste from trimmings can go into a red wiggler worm bin, and red wigglers in the growbeds will help with solids breakdown..
scuds, or gammarus (fresh water shrimp) can be cultured in a bin with leaves and tank water..
make sure water test patterns are followed - test at the same time of day etc..

Not sure about the omega 3s but i reckon the smorgasbord fish will be enjoying the varied diet.

We are feeding the daphnia green water and yeast. We also read that you can blend carrots, peas and paprika but we haven't tried it yet.

We are using leftover food for worms (except dairy, meat and oil). We haven't tried the worms in the grow bed yet. How many should we start with? Do we put them on top and let them go down into it?

We haven't been testing at the same time of day. That is a good idea and we will start doing that.

We actually had our daphnia population grow overnight. We can see tons of babies!

Your post has me researching daphnia, blackworms, and shrimp.

Daphnia - Seems simple enough to make green water. Almost everyone on the forum has had an algae bloom at one time or another. I do my own baking, so I am familiar enough with yeast. So there are two foods that the daphnia feed on, according to your post and Wikipedia...

In what type of environment are you keeping your feeding station? Outside under shelter, in the house where it is temperature regulated, or where?

What are your (their) plans on feeding the fish? Just scooping out some occupants of the bins and tossing them into the tanks?

Good luck to you and yours. Looking forward to more posts on the progress.

a small handful of red wigglers in the growbed is a good start.. they'll pretty much self regulate their population

For the daphnia, we have found that soaking the yeast in water first works well.

We are keeping the system on the porch, in the shade and we live in Florida so there's not as much temperature change. We can bring the bins inside in the rare case of a freeze.

As for feeding, yes, we just started today by scooping some out and tossing it in the bin. The fish loved it.

We tossed some worms in the beds too! Thanks for that advice.

(The kids are dictating these answers to me and they are thrilled that someone is inspired by their ideas!!)

Wow - your little feeder stock there is fascinating! Where can I learn more about raising blackworms, daphnia and so on?