Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The turtle in the pond is a type of tropical tortoise and not really aquatic. I rarely see them in the water, and they spend most of their time hiding in their burrows or hunting for worms. I know that dosent mean samonella isnt being transfered, but there is little waste from them in the pond, and the food being grown in the grow beds is for the tortoises, lizards and other reptiles I raise.

In the begging the green house was created just for reptiles in mind ( even the pond) but since the pond took up much of the room I decided to make it multi-purpouse so it dosent seem like a waste. I have to buy veggies weekly for them, and I stumbled across AP and thought it was a great idea.


I was wondering since I am still kinda in the cyceling stage if there are ways to speed this up? I have heard of people adding water from already established systems, but what about from a lake or pond? I live in the country on a lake. We also have a pond on our land filled with aquatic plants. I am not sure how safe it would be to add water from a source like these.

I think its time for a quick update. I know this may seem kinda slow, but I have big ideas in the future. My ammonia is finally starting to drop from being at over 4 for weeks. Last time i checked it was at 3.5 and now 3. My nitrites are rising so its time for part 2 of cycleing. My nitrates have also risin, very slightly tho. I have noticed so first signs of growth on the tomaotes since I planted them weeks ago.

Updates? With pics?