Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi All!

This is my first post. I found this forum very interesting and lot to learn from. I been reading posts since late last year and I finally registered as newbie a few weeks ago.

I like the idea of growing our own food from home. I would like to share a salad bowl with my wife, from vegetables that I produce. My 2 daughters likes to eat fish. Any fish, as long as they are fried.

I decided to start my journey on aquaponics by starting this post.

I plan to head to the shops this weekend and start a small DIY aquaponics project. Here's how I intend to start. Please, please guide me through this undertaking. I humbly welcome comments, suggestions as well as criticism.

Fish Tank:
As I want to start this project small, I intend to construct my tank from 3/4" plywood, 2'x4'x2' (HxLxW). I will support it with 2x4 and cover with plastic / pond liner. Max capacity is about 120 gals (US) or about 450L.
Q: After cycling, I'll have 20 tilapias in it, can this much number of fish reach a good size for the plate?
Q: I like to see colors in the tank, can I put gold fish or koi with the tilapias?
Q: The fish tank will be placed under the shade, is this ok? Do tilapias need to be under the sun?

Sump Tank:
The FT will have a SLO made from 2" PVC pipe going to a sump tank which is an old Coleman ice chest, maybe 30-40 gals. I'll use 1500L/hr aquarium pump to take water to the grow beds.

Grow Beds:
I plan to have 2 2'x3' grow beds, both 10-12 inches deep. I will fill them with rounded gravel up to the top. Nutrient rich water will be supplied from the sump tank and will leave via an Affnan style automatic siphon. I will try to time it so that it takes 15 mins to fill both GB when filled with gravel.
Q: Are the grow bed dimensions appropriate to the number of fish that I will have?
Q: At what stage in the process can I start putting seeds to the beds?


Cycling:
I'll start with 2-5 goldfish in a half-filled tank to kickstart the cycling process. I have 50gal aquarium with one flowerhorn fish in the living room and I do 10gals weekly water change. I plan to add this old water to fish tank whenever I do water changes, until the fish tank if filled. I hope this will help speedup the process. I'll have water testing kit also, so I'll know what's happening in the system.

That's what I imagined my small system to be. No pictures to share right now, just my eagerness to get started. But I don't want to be too hasty. I'd like to know your thought on these please.

Thanks,

Loy

Hey Loy.....

Seeing that your fish tank is pretty low, have you thought about just putting the growbed above it and doing away with the sump tank? It's pointless to have one in a system this size really. And the style of pumping your talking about is a poor way of doing it...

Hi Loy..
Welcome.
I'm a newbie also.. Congrats on starting your system. There are so many great people on this site. Willing to share their time and knowledge..

Hi earthbound,

Thanks for taking time to share your insights for my future system.

I tought the SLO and sump would help in minimizing debris from the fish tank. When I start building my system I would pump directly from the tank to the grow bed.

I would put the fish tank inside the shaded area and the growbed outside to have more time under the sun. My concern though is when it rains. Would the rain water mess the water chemistry of an established system?
Do you think this size of system can produce good enough size tilapia?

Sent from my Lenovo S880 using Tapatalk 2

Hello tambra,

Thanks! I agree that this forum is a melting pot of ideas. How's your system doing?

Sent from my Lenovo S880 using Tapatalk 2

Still in planning stages.. I'll research the hell outta a subject before I get started... Can't wait to see pics of your system.. I LOVE seeing new systems go up..

Hi tambra,

I am now thinking of building 8'lx3'wx2'd tank instead if the previous plan of 4x2x2. I really want to keep the project small but capable to raise edible fish. I will continue to read from this forum.

Loy

Sent from my Lenovo S880 using Tapatalk 2