Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Turtles? I just attended an AP intro class this evening, run by a marine biologist. Though no one asked about them he brought up the subject of adding turtles to the mix. His advice? Don't do it. In a word: salmonella.

Wayne

Yep.... often repeated advice .. for exactly that reason...

I know of the above statement. I will not be eating anything coming out of this system. I plan on planting flowers, and I have a small bonsai tree seed growing as of right now. I plan on adding grass as well for the turtle to bask in. This setup is just for looks.

I tried to get the light question answered in another thread. I know that plants like the red spectrum. So I was wondering if I changed the bulb to 68k or 10k if it would be better than my 20k witch is blue spectrum. I have read that 400 watts is suggested, but mines only 150 watts. So should I just try for a new light?

And the system has been running for half a year. I just had a birth of baby fish that I'm raising in a little bowl aquarium.

Also have a couple of aquariums...but I won't be tearing any down for AP!! There is some serious money tied up in those.

Since researching AP though, it seems almost like the next logical step. I consider myself very well versed in fish keeping, water quality etc, so pretty confident going into this.

Not to say someone without an aquarium background won't be successful in AP, just that the experience (read: already made all the mistakes and killed far too many fish!) is certainly handy to have as back up.

i have a reasonable aquarium background but i still managed to kill too many fish
i think i am just a slow learner

The only difference between refugium systems and AP is saltwater.... the concepts are exactly the same, using marine plants to filter water for the fishies. My old 30g display tank had a 10g refugium filled with plants and critters to clean the water for "pretty" fishies. The refugium is where mean and ugly things get hidden.