Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

A few months ago I came across the idea of aquaponics while browsing reddit. I was immediately inspired to try it, and eventually convinced my boyfriend that we could set up a small system with enough fail safes to make sure we never flood the apartments below us. Our entire set up is in our living room and sits in a 70 gallon stock tank. Just in case of flooding. It's also bolted to the wall, in case the cats try to get into the tank.

The system itself consists of a 40 gallon aquarium and two storage boxes, one as a grow bed, the other as a sump. It's a constant flow system, with the pump in the sump tank. It is set up to take a bell siphon easily if we decide we need it (we have one, and it works great but makes way more noise).

We've been fishless cycling (thank god, I hate to think how many fish we would have killed with crazy ammonia levels and viciously swinging ph readings!) and this morning, finally, the ammonia levels hit zero. This from a high of around.. ooh... 40ppm? I may have added two tablespoons of ammonia before realizing that I had extra strength industrial ammonia. Oops. Anyhow, we've had readings with nitrites and nitrates at various levels. A week ago I sprinkled some seeds on the grow bed and they've all come up beautifully. This morning ammonia, nitrites and nitrates were all at zero. Which means it's time to get fish, right?

We have really struggled to keep the ph under control. Every day I hit it with two cap fulls of ph UP and get it to 7. Every morning I wake up to test and it's back at 6 again. We had about a dozen crushed eggshells in a sock in the sump tank, and that seemed to slow the ph changes somewhat, but at the time I couldn't really tell and thought the sock was maybe decomposing and dragging down the ph, so I chucked it. Now the ph swings back and forth even faster.

I'm making an enormous quiche today. Not because I want to eat it, but because I desperately need more egg shells.

So, is it time? Can I get fish now? The aquarium is directly opposite the couch and while the sound of the water is soothing, it would be lovely to have something to look at! I'm a little worried about the ph swings, but a couple dozen eggshells and smaller quantities of ammonia should help, right? We're looking for a handful of pretty tropical, easy care fish, not a huge population of tilapia.

Welcome I Would Grab Some Hydrated Lime (Pickling Lime) To Help Bring THe Ph Up. Rember Smaller Amount of Lime. Throw Some Fish In There They Will Be Ok.

Awesome. That sounds easier than egg shells...

I'd recommend cichlids if your after easy care, pretty tropical fish. They come in so many different colours and varieties

Shell grit is the standard for buffering ph. You find it in feed stores for chickens to have stronger shells. Perhaps an old, but clean, nylon stocking would hold it well. If you haven't already, give the system a small dose of ammonia to make sure that your biofilter handles it quickly. If it does, you are ready for fish, if not it needs more time. Remember SMALL doses, too much kills the bacteria that converts nitrites to nitrates.

So, we got the PH under control and picked up six tetras (Asshole (he really is), Jarvis, Dummy, Butterfingers, You and Lumpy) and a pleco named Fry. We were a little worried about the pleco getting too big in a few months and then we found out they're really good eating. I might actually get some protein out of this tank Too bad we named him before finding out, but then again... it seems apt.

Fish are all doing well and the plants nearest the lights are doing fine, but the cats smushed a bunch of my lettuce while trying to get at the fish, and the parts of the grow bed farthest from the light are failing to produce. New grow light arrives today and I built a stand for it yesterday so that should help. Excited to have everything up and running after so many months of faffing about with an empty tank!