Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

All of the fittings have been secured, and cycling begins today!!!

The stipulations for this project were as follows:

- Tiny 1-Bedroom apartment that had only 2 south-facing windows with decent lighting.
- Second Story apartment in an old building that probably can't support a ton of weight.
- Construct as much of the system as possible from random junk found in our storage unit.

Therefore the system had to be very small! So I found two appropriately sized plastic windowbox planters, and did the math to find that they could only support a 9.5-10.0 gallon fish tank. I happened to have 2x 5 Gallon Water totes from our camping gear. They were cannibalized to become a fish tank.

I then built a custom shelf for it all to sit on, out of 0.75" MDF, which was primed and painted white. This was a bit of a challenge as it had to fit around the Radiator under the window. Pipe fittings and such were installed, checked & double checked for leaks, and after a few test runs of the bell siphons, it is happily chugging away and letting the chlorine in the water off-gas for a few days. Then on Saturday will begin the ammonia cycling. Then will come the plants, and the future goldfish, Mr. Stinky.

Here's some more pics

and more...

I'm sure Mr Stinky will be happy.....

Thats a great looking little system there Carson. I have a buddy who also lives in a 1 bedroom unit, I will have to show him your pic's.

Mr Stinky might like it better if there was also a little miss stinky in there too.

That looks like the perfect spot, a big sunny window and over the radiator to keep it all toasty.

That is quite a set up. Very nicely arranged.
Congrats!!

Thanks everyone! Just planted seeds in my seed starter today. Anyone have any thoughts on the Murray Hallam cycling technique of "Add plants & liquid seaweed. Wait 2 weeks. Add fish." I was going to do the full ammonia cycling, but am feeling kind of lazy after all the hard work this has taken.

Now is not the time to skimp out and be lazy Carson!

Seaweed extract does not have any ammonia in it, so will not do anything to help the cycling. I would add seaweed extract and plants, but also a source of ammonia, urine, charlie carp etc.

Too many people get impatient here and get disheartened by problems relating to not cycling properly.

Murray Hallam would probably tell you that 12 trout would be fine in there too...

Lol, point taken. And so I put some sacrificial plants in now, as well?

... thoughts.... yeah ignore the nonsense....

You're going to have to do a "full" ammonia cycle anyway... with, or without fish...

Plant your plants immediately... and some liquid seaweed will help the plants along... but seaweed extract wont provide any worthwhile ammonia.. to help your cycling... and certainly not within two weeks...

So if you're going to add fish after two weeks... you might as well add them immediately...

Or fishless cycle... fully....

Yes add plants. But there will be nothing sacrificial about them

PLANTS! And nailed the pH of 6.9 on my first try! Portland City water is 8.2, which seems a bit too alkaline for city water...but whatever. Started the proper ammonia cycle today as well. Thank you all for the wonderful advice!

Also...someone should warn the newbies that they'll want to sit and watch their bell siphons operate for hours and hours on end...I just stare at them like some idiot-moth to a flame, occasionally muttering the words, "Damn I love physics!!!"

Looks great Carson.

The top of your media looks wet though, how far below the surface of the media is the water level?