Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My wife got me started thinking about aquaponics. She has a small operation, 2-10 gallon totes, one with fish, one with a gravel bed. One tomato plant is doing very well, no fruit yet, but growing well. I know this small of a system is nearly impossible to keep stable. We're just messing more than anything.
We have plans for a larger system in the near future.
I'll be reading all I can and hope to learn a bunch.

Patrick

g'day POC it may be a small system but we still like pic's

Welcome, plenty to learn from the people here.

Here's a picture.
Fish in the bottom tote, plants in the top.
We've been married about 2 months and she had this system put together already. So I don't know all the details.
Pump is in the fish tank, it is on a timer. It pumps for 10 minutes every hour. There is an overflow tube to return the fish tank. It does not completely drain the top tote. It is set by two windows, so the grow light might not be necessary, but does extend the growing time.
The other plants in the tote are peas, but they haven't done very well. They grow, but then whither and die. ?? Oh, there is also some ivy in a pot in the corner of the tote. Just waiting till we can get it planted.

Fish will not provide all your nutients for the plants. With a small system such as you have spray the leaves of the plants with some seaweed extract/fertiliser. Use according to the directions

Small water volumes are a little harder, but not impossible to keep stable. Consider continuous flow as it will improve the aeration and give the well oxygenated water more time in contact with the roots and the good bacteria in the media.

Lose a few things from the photo:
The scrubber. The green-brown slimy stuff on the side of the FT is good bio-slime, leave it there as it's one of the good guys in the system. It may not be attractive to look at, but if aesthetics are important, only clean the smallest area necessary and leave the rest.

The fish food. Aquarium fish flakes/granules don't provide sufficient plant nutrition. See if you can find some better quality aquaculture feeds. With a good quality feed, you might only need to add very small amounts of seaweed extract (maxicrop/seasol) and maybe some iron to supplement the nutrition for the plants.

Ditch everything else. The less you and she add/fiddle, the more stable the system will be.

I don't see a water test kit in the photo? It's not absolutely necessary to have one, but it's a great tool to help understanding what is going on in the system.


Scott

Thanks.
We have an aquarium on top of that stand, just above the photo. The scrubber is for it.

I'll look into other fish food, like I said, we're just getting started, so that is something we knew we'd need in the future.
I haven't bought a water test kit yet either.
All in due time, and money....

Patrick

Can you drill a hole in the FT to plumb this into the system as well? The extra water may be helpful? You could make a nice CHIFT PIST (CHOP) system with most of the stuff you have there already, maybe something like:


If you cannot make a hole in the side of the FT for the SLO, there are methods for no-holes overflows, they aren't the most reliable devices but probably still worth a look.

You could do away with the pots in the lid of the ST and simply rest the GB directly over the sump tote containing the pump (K.I.S.S.). You could pull the GB a bit more out from under the shelving and fill with some more gravel media to maximise the filtration? Judicious use of some flexible piping will make positioning the system a little easier.


Scott