Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So here I go with the new project. After much interest in self sustainable living and a few years of owning/running a small fish store, I'm working up to making my fish display set up into an aquaponic display. Maybe some of my neighbors (customers) will be inspired to raise better quality veggies in their homes as I hope to in my store?

My current fish system employs approximately 300 gallons of fish total (very small store) has not been piped into one system as of yet. Floor space is minimal, however I have 13 foot ceilings which may work to give me a very high growing area which I'd use a ladder to access. Have to love old buildings.

I'm a complete newbie to hydroponics but good keeping fish in very natural set ups with aquatic plants. Hopefully that will help in this project and shorten the learning curve on the fish end at least!

Any questions just fire away!


Looking forward to learning much here,
Clay

Learning how to care for the fish most of the difficult part of Aquaponics so you are off to a good start! The hardest part for you is going to be abandoning any of the chemicals you probably use in aquaculture.

Welcome to the forum! Start a build thread with lots of pictures.

Happily, I use no chemicals in my fish tanks and haven't now for several years. Teaching my customers to deal with clarity and health issues without poisons (chems) has been one of my personal campaigns since opening my little store.

Keeping the tanks healthy in the first place is much better than treating with poisons after the fact. Adjusting Ph with the use of substrates or other means makes for much calmer, healthier fish. *jumping off the soap box* LOL

I will try to figure out how to post pics soon and start a thread. I'm hoping to grow some loose leaf lettuce for feeding some of my lizards and maybe some pleco foods... cukes, broccoli, etc. (maybe even a plant or two of bell peppers for me?)

Welcome to the forum. Looking forward in watching your new system develop.

Thanks JRL and Charlie!

Do you plan on re selling and restocking fish in the aquaponic system regularly? One of the issue we had when I ran a tropical fish store was ensuring new fish coming in from suppliers were healthy. Introducing new fish in from wholesellers/importers constantly could be an issue.

We used to farm thousands of corals in our store and I've found that Aquaponics is almost identical coral farming.

That is the plan Raskal and you're right there can be issues that come in from suppliers fish. My way of dealing with any of those issues at this time would be safe for aquaponic system I believe. Also quarantine system helps cut down on those issues a lot. It will be experimental for sure!

The other thought of how to feed the GB is using 'store fish' tank that is fairly static. Just a 75 gallon show tank that never gets new fish that haven't been on site for extended time? Just a thought on my part.

Hi Clay,

In your case, a high quality inline UV sterilizer placed just before your aquarium returns would be a wise investment to help mitigate disease outbreak risks from your constantly changing fish stock. It's a costly and and largely unnecessary addon for the typical backyard aquaponics system, but in your case would make a lot of sense, considering the substantial investment in aquatic livestock.

Kellen, thanks for the feedback!

I think I should clarify what I mean when I said small fish store. The store is actually not just fish but rather a VERY small, full line pet store. I have everything except puppies and kittens.

The fish department is a grand total of 17 tanks at this time.

Eight of those tanks are drilled for drains and are the ones I'm thinking of hooking to a sump and AP system.

I live in a small town (about 2,000 population) where a big weekly flux of fish load would be in the area of 25 fish being sold in the range of 1.5 inch to 2.5 inch in size, out of a total of around 250 fish in the system total.

On that 'big' week only around 15 of the fish would likely come from the 8 tanks that will be hooked to the AP system.

So, after thinking about the fish load changing as a percent of fish being kept from week to week I'm thinking it's probably not any more than harvesting a load of tilapia out of a larger tank system as babies are being born and raised up?

My plan is growing as I read the feedback however as I may need to cut one of the tanks out of the system in case of a need for medication that would not be plant safe. I'm thinking of simply capping off the flow to that one tank as well as the return water pipe and running a 'hang on the tank' filter for the duration of the medication. Finishing that with a large amount of carbon in the filter to clear any left over meds before reintroducing that tank to the system. Sound workable?

Just realized this is turning into a build thread fast if a moderator wants to kick it to the proper section that would be great since I have no idea how to do it myself? LOL

Clay

Hi Clay,

Any idea what your total flow rate would be?

I could make it pretty much whatever I want. One thing I'm not lacking is extra pumps laying around. The largest I have on hand for the job would be an 1800gph mag drive at the moment.

Just adding up the small tanks that would make up the fish portion of this set up and it's only 135 gallons. I can add a sump (if I go with ebb and flow) or make a more vertical nutrient film type set up. My understanding is the NF type like having about 1liter of water per minute of flow rate? and max of about 10 meters per nutrient run?

If the NF system would work well for loose leaf lettuce and (maybe) strawberries? I would go that way because of plants per sq ft of space in my little store. I have tall (13') ceilings but a very small floor space to work with at this time.

Am I close?

Clay