Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

This is my first system. I have a 55 gallon drum for the fish tank. The water is taken off the bottom and goes through a hole near the top. My filters are a 5 gallon swirl settler and then several filter pads in a 2.5 gallon water container. My grow beds are two half barrels in sequence: the first with duckweed and the second with pots of vermiculite wicking water up to the plants (notice no gravel). A small pump gets the water back up. I have 3 minnows and am trying to find a source for tilapia. Photos to follow. Any feedback would be appreciated.

David

You can always go to the pet store and throw in a dozen goldfish to get your nitrates up. Not sure how well of a job minnows (3) would do for a half drum full of plants. The gravel helps set up a colony of beneficial bacteria that will consume the nitrites and convert it to nitrates for the plants. Since you don't have gravel, maybe you could build a bio-filter. Lots of good examples of the 5-gallon bucket biofilters on youtube. That duckweed will filter the water a bit too so you may want to think about getting some goldies for now. Have you done any test of your water for ammonia,ph,nitrites,nitrates, and temp.(Api master test kit)see link below
You can find alot of sellers of tilapia on ebay. Welcome to the forum and keep us updated! http://www.petco.com/product/103685/API ... t-Kit.aspx

Welcome to the forum Kidgardener, can't wait to see your photos

Thanks for the welcome.

My pH is 6.0 or lower according to the test kit, so I tested it with a pH meter and it really is 6.0. This is really low, right? My ammonia is 0.5 ppm, nitrite is 0, nitrate is also 0. I believe I cycled once and somehow killed off the bacteria and just used up that nitrate. The temp is 68.

Thank you for the tip about ebay; I'll check that. The local pet store has 1 Nile tilapia and about 8 Buttikoferi tilapia. Would you suggest that I buy these?

Thanks,

David

You can safely add shell grit to raise pH slowly and safely.

Hi everyone, here's an update:
The three minnows are still alive.
The plants are doing fine.
I fixed the pH with food grade potassium bicarbonate and it's now 7.2.
And (drum roll, please) I am getting 5 nile tiapia from the pet store tomorrow.

Bad news: my tilapia didn't arrive. Hopefully, next week.

I was wondering if gardening Perlite is a good bio-filter media? We have a lot of it. It would go under the wicking plant pots with a constant flow of water.

Thanks, David

hi everyone

I am making major changes; I could not get tilapia so I will be using Rainbow Trout and I will CHIFT PIST not constant flow

The heated garage is 60-65 f for about 9 months a year, this is good for trout right.

thanks, David

Should be fine...

I got 9 rainbow trout last week, It's really awesome. The readings are ammonia 0 nitrite 0 PH 6.4. one jumped but I have put a screen on ; the rest are eating the small amounts i am giving them. I just thought I would do a little update.

-David