Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ranpmiller, nice setup, I will have to look at that closer.

Here is my latest thought, taking everything that has been said so far.
What if I replace my aquarium hood with a custom AP design. Keep the light in the center and have the GB ( no gravel, continuous flow to reduce weight ) across the back and around the sides. I could easily make this out of oak plywood ( to match the tank trim ) and waterproof with either fiber/resin or just plastic. With the use of a UGF and deep substrate my bacteria should be ok in the tank. A pump would deliver the water from under the gravel to the hood above and gravity would do the rest. There would be an opening in the center front for tank access.

You must be a lot handier in thw woodworking department than I am.

Another thought would be to use the pond pots for plants to protect the roots. I was thinking of making floating cages for fry using a mesh pond pot and a slice of flexible foam. The same thing could be used to protect roots of a small raft setup.

Good point!

i just built my self a setup with pvc piping see my "second system" its looks alright and dosn't leak, naturally i have some tweeking but my girlfriend seems to think it looks pretty good, i was gonna paint mine soon and see what i can do about hiding some of the parts, i have been toying with the idea of getting a nice stand and putting my filter under it and having a sump ill try and make a pic and post it

here it is

RB, just checked out your "Second System", Nice work!
Might I ask what you are using for cups in the PVC?

they are 3 or 3 1/2 net cups, i picked them up at my local hydroponic store, they were like 15 cents, they came in alot of different sizes

Thanks, We do not have any HP stores around here and the local water garden places have not rolled their Spring/Summer supplies you yet. Looks like I need to start flipping thru the catalogs! I heard that sometimes pet stores have leftovers from their potted plants but haven't found any of those either.

if u wanna go cheep punching some holes in those plastic party cups works well too, i used them for a while with no problems, i just saw the cups one day and decided to upgrade, at any rate i been thinking about using rubber stoppers in stead of cups and completely elimnate media cause it really dose nothing, in my old system once the plant got big enough u could dump out the media and the plant would stay in place from the roots

One thing for the fishtank AP setup. I have a 34-gal tank and did a quick prototype for our living room. I did it with 2-18" window boxes from Walmart. I split a 1.5" PVC pipe and screwed it to the corners to gang them together. I set this in place of a light fixture (I had dual lights with no hood), diverted the water from a power head, and set up an autosiphon. I'll try to get a couple pictures on my thread. This will be a salad bar. The window boxes look fine, and my wife didn't run screaming from the room with a "What have you done?!?" So now all I have to do is get it to produce lettuce.