Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,

Years ago I purchased a tetra water's edge viquarium (which I still have BTW). Basically, it partitioned my 29 gallon aquarium into half land/water, sucking water through the gravel bed (in a continous flood situation), and had a water fall in the rear corner that returned the now clean water back into the pool via a plastic surface "stream". I have never in my life seen plants, frogs, bugs, lizards and fish grow as vigorously and healthy as they did in this tiny space. I eventually dismantled the thing because the plant growth was SO profuse I could't keep up with it. I would cut everything back to the gravel once a week and by the end of the week there was so much new growth it was literally pushing the screen top off of the tank allowing all manner of small lizards, crickets and frogs to escape. Plus the lizards and frogs kept laying eggs. The water was always crystal clear without having to be cleaned, just topped off when it was running low.

So, here I am 15 years later. All grown up and with enough info and motivation to make me very dangerous! I was reading the earlier discussion about continuously flooded beds. This technique is VERY successful at growing exotic philos, syngoniums, and several types of herbs. However, there are some things that just won't grow ficus, succulents, etc. (Works great for rooting woody cuttings though) This time around I am thinking bigger and better. I want to grow tomatoes, salad mix, and anything else I can get to grow. My instincts tell me a flood/drain system is what will work best for me. My concern is about the loss of water in the fish holding tanks while the grow bed is flooded. Due to financial constraints I will be using alot of things that I already have on hand.

About my planned system...Due to DH's stubbornness regarding a greenhouse, I will be using my sunroom with floor to ceiling windows on the N, E and S sides supplemented with 3 Flourex floodlamps and surrounded by mylar (on the top, North and West side). I am going to use a 125 gallon glass aquarium (sitting on the floor) as the fish holding tank, stocked with 30 hybrid bluegill and 5 common carp (I will cull as necessary as they grow). I have an old round table that is the same circumference as the smallest walmart hard plastic kiddie pools. I also have a watergarden pump and a 24 hr timer. So, 1 kiddie pool, pea gravel, some fittings, fish, plants, a makeshift mylar tent and I am ready to go. I hope I don't flood my house! My plan is to be so obnoxious that he is BEGGING me to get a greenhouse by next spring!

With the flood drain system, how long do you leave the bed flooded and how often do you flood? Does this affect the number of fish you need in your tanks? What types of fruiting veggies would be possible to grow in a continous flood situation?

Welcome ranpmiller!

Your plans sound very neat; the bluegill and carp will be very interesting to watch!

How often you can flood can sometimes depend on what inexpensive timers you can get your hands on. I haven't been able to find any that had a period less than 15 minutes, even though I didn't need my pump to stay on that long. They have the 15 minute interval ones at Lowe's and Home Depot. When I used a timer I had it set to 15 minutes on 30 minutes off, depending on how hot it was outside. If you have aeration from some other source like a bubbler you could probably flood less often, assuming the ammonia is being filtered fast enough.

Janet has her setup in a sunroom just like what you are proposing.

The viviquarium sounds awesome, do they still make these? Sounds great for kids.

Again, Welcome to the forum!

hi Ranpmiller
have fun building and being obnoxious

Ranpmiller, Welcome and I know you will have fun here. I sure have. If you go to the forum index, there is a lot of info about sizes and rates and types. There is a basic heading called Basic information, I would start there. Then I wood snoop around Member systems to see what others are doing and the things that work and those that don't so well.

I spent many hours looking through the forum and then started playing around and asking lots of questions. I still do.

Have loads of fun.

Hi Ran!
Welcome. Have a look at what happened in my sunroom... http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... 35&start=0

In my system, I currently have each pump on for 15 minutes and off for 30 minutes. The flood peaks in about 10-12 minutes and drains in another 8-10. I stagger flooding 3 beds so that my tank level doesn't drop too low.

I just started building without telling husband. Regrettably, I don't think I could build a greenhouse here, but there are other ways. Think lots of skylights!

Dave - Unfortunately, they discontinued the water's edge thing several years ago. I did hang on to mine though, because like you I think it will be great one day for the kiddos.

Jaymie - Thanks! I will!

dthawk - thanks for the tip. I will definitely take a look around for hints.

Janet - Your setup is awesome!! My 125 gallon has been up and running for about a year. There is crushed coral in the bottom, do you think this will be enough to jumpstart my system? I am curious about your siphon system. Three 50 gallon rubbermaid tubs were my first plan for growbeds for this system. But, I have a 1000 gph watergarden pump and 1 timer (5 min increments), so for now I think 1 large growbed will be better for the things I already have on hand, problem is that I worry about the water level in my fish tank during the flood cycle. Just have to try it and see what happens. I also have a 55 gallon aquarium if I need to use it somehow to allow for the water level. I am tempted to go back to the stock tanks though because it will likely be another couple of months before the pools are available, plus I worry about the durability of the plastic pool...but at $15 it would be a cheap way to experiment. I am going to follow the simple ebb and flow hydroponic system, with the fish tank directly underneath the growbed and it will drain back through the pump, the same way it comes up as shown here


Hmmm, what to do, what to do....

Hi again RPM:
Aquamad here used a setup like that for a classroom setup at the school where he works (fill and drain through the same pipe).

The jumpstart you will get from the bacteria already in your established aquarium will be awesome.

When you fill your bed, you will need between 25% and 33% of bed volume in water. For example, my growbeds are 50gal, and it takes about 13gal to flood them.

The Rubbermaid stock tanks are incredibly sturdy and I would recommend them over a kiddie pool any day. Especially since you are working in your home rather than your backyard, you need to be very aware of worst-case scenarios--like what happens if the kiddie pool cracks. The only challenge I had was that I could not find a way to thread a pipe into the inside of the pre-drilled outlet. However, it's possible I just didn't try hard enough. If you are interested in them, examine the outlet carefully. The plug that is the obvious part to unscrew is 1 1/4", but I think you could remove the whole fitting if you wished. Look at this picture. http://www.acehardwaresuperstore.com/ru ... tml?ref=42

...Although I'm not sure what I'd do after I removed the fitting. I stopped following that line of thought after I devised what I did.

ranpmiller welcome and we hope to hear/read a lot from you - as you can see we are always eager for more people to join and share their success and failurs...


Go ahead, have one or 2, you will have your greenhouse in no time flat that way

I just prices the rubbermaid stock tanks at Orchelns, they are calling them 60 gallon but I am pretty sure it is the same one....$57 each. 2 ought to do it! We are digging out, got 8 inches of snow last night, ugh!! I feel for the peeps in upstate NY 11 FEET OMG

Hi RPM:
No doubt, we are only getting like 10" at most.
AgWay and Tractor Supply also carry the Rubbermaid stock tanks if you want to compare prices.

85 degrees and sunny here... brb...I just knocked over my iced tea.

multiple GBs like Janet has would help keep your water level up in your tank. Another thought I had was to have a seperate GB half the size with the top at the same level as your water. When you pump water into the top tank, it will drain from the secondary GB, and when the main GB drains, it will flood your secondary GB.

I remember a thread a while back on this, I'm considering playing with that in my system (when I can finally get it built).

btw- where are you in MO? I grew up in St. Louis County, and several of my family still live in the area. (My parents and 6 of my siblings with their families).

dthawk - It's not all bad....we're going sledding!!

dave- Thanks for the tip, I will check them out next week when I am in town.

greenedo - That is an excellent idea. How would you keep the water in the top tank until it is full, some sort of float valve?

I live in West Central MO, about an hour and a half NE of KC. Nothing close but cows, hogs and corn. Kind of nice though for AP because there are plenty of local ag sources. We also have family in the St. Louis area, too much traffic there for me (I m prone to road rage when surrounded by ). I have had several offers from people to catch the fish I want, but I worry about inury and disease. Think I would be better off buying them from the feed store, or do you think netting them would be ok?

Some native fish will feed train better as fry, and may not convert to pellets well as adults. Yellow perch are a prime example. You always have some risk of disease when fish are stressed by handling, but I don't consider that a major concern. I would be careful what waters the fish are taken from--nothing near sewage or agricultural run-off. Also, check your local regulations for keeping the fish you intend. There my be limits, especially for game fish taken from local waters. Interestingly, I can keep all the purchased yellow perch I want, but if I take them from local waters, I am more restricted. Must have fishing license, and am subject to creel limits.