Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm in England, and totally new to fish and pretty new to gardening.

The house we rent came with a medium pond in the backyard. The pump kept blowing the fuse in the house, so the landlord unplugged it, the fish died, and he never replaced the pump or the fish, and said if we wanted to, it was on our dime. That was three years ago. We've left the pond alone since then, and it's overgrown with what I believe is called horsetail? There are frogs in the pond too.

I would like to set up the pond with an aquaponics system...what I'm thinking is, I can just get a solar pump and grow beds, and set it up with mint (which we have growing crazy in the garden, so I can transplant it for free) to start filtering the water...I assume this will eventually make the water habitable for fish again, especially if I start the filtration now or in the next few weeks, and wait to stock the pond in April or May, when it's warmer.

Am I way off base, or is this a viable plan?

Also, would I be better off posting this elsewhere, because I realize this isn't much of an introduction!

The water would probably be safe for fish once you add the pump. The fish died because they ran out of dissolved oxygen. So once the water is flowing again it should be good to add fish. You should of course get a master freshwater test kit and test the water first.

So even though it's just been sitting stagnant for 3 years, it's okay now? Sorry, I guess I didn't include that there's no filter at the moment either, which is why I was thinking I needed to start filtering it through plants I didn't care about first.

The plants have been filtering the water. And with the absence of fish the probably isn't a large source of ammonia in the water.

Cool.

In my googling and looking at Amazon, it looks like solar pumps all need direct sunlight to work. Living in England, direct sunlight is sporadic at best but there are bright overcast days...would that be enough, maybe in combination with oxygenating plants in the pond itself? I really don't want to run the pond on our mains, our energy bill is disgusting as is.

Welcome to the forum, Faayth.

Your fish didn't necessarily die from lack of oxygen since fish can live quite happily in ponds without supplemental filtration and aeration, just as they do in nature. The desired stocking density of the pond is key to determine whether or not additional filtration is required, if it is to be left unconverted to aquaponics. Note that I have several ponds, one of which contains upwards of 600 Goldfish, and no artificial filtering or aeration is applied, ie nil electricity cost.

If you set up your pond as an aquaponic system then you will need a pump of some sort and a quantity of filtration medium.

The filtration isn't so much about mechanically removing solids and suspended particles from the the pond water but more about providing adequate surface area for the colonisation of nitrifying bacteria. To this end, various materials are used as filter media, including gravel or expanded clay, which can also be utilised as a stable base for the growing of plants. It is these media that allow the filtration of the pond water, ie the conversion of harmful ammonia and nitrite compounds to nitrate, rather than the plants themselves. The plants take up the much less harmful nitrates, and whilst mint will do this more than adequately, it is not required for the purpose of filtration. Besides, from all reports mint is not a suitable plant for an aquaponics grow bed (GB) due to its invasive tendencies.

It's an artificial pond, does that make a difference? (I'm sorry, I'm really really inexperienced with this, and while I've tried reading books from the library, they all seem to assume a certain level of knowledge I don't have yet.)

Nice post, PJ.

Okay, could I use something like this:

http://www.primrose.co.uk/-p-5246.html? ... tAod3GkApg

to send the water to the grow beds, and have them drain via a hose or tube or something back into the pond?

That makes no difference at all, Faayth. Nearly every back yard pond is artificial, even if made to look natural.

The 'natural' that I am referring to is the achievement of a balance between fish, plants and general pond biota such that all can survive in relative harmony with no requirement for artificial filtration/aeration. It is easy enough to achieve - simply don't put too many fish in it and you are more than half way there! Is this what you are looking for - a healthy pond with some colourful fish swimming around in it, or do you actually want to convert your pond to an AP system and incorporate GBs in order to produce some vegies?

I'm more after the veggies than anything else. I had a small garden last year, and had middling success with it...got a lot of courgettes and peas, not much of anything else. I just figured, we have this pond that is taking up nearly a third of the garden, it's got concrete patios all around it, why not set up something on the patios and make use of the pond, rather than take up the little bit of grassy area we have? So I'm very open to having 1 fish or 10, I have a friend who has a well-stocked pond and is willing to give me her little ones. I'd like to grow veg, but again, if I can only grow one bed of something, that's fine. We don't eat fish often enough for edible fish to be a priority.

I just don't even know where to start planning, really. Should I go for a healthy pond this year, and add the grow beds next year, or jump in with both feet this year?

There is no reason why you can't get going with your AP adventure this year - after all, it is only the 2nd day of the year in the UK (3rd here, already), but you need to work out a plan of your proposed system. Start a thread in the Members' Systems area of the forum, post a diagram or photos of your pond, supply dimensions and volume (if you know it, otherwise someone will work it out) and any other data that you think may be relevant, and wait for advice to flow in from around the world of aquaponics.

Just to kick things off, I reckon that you will need to decide early on if you want to maintain aquatic and/or semi-aquatic plants in your pond and sustain vegies in a GB as well, or have a more regular AP setup with all pond plants removed so that nutrients produced by the fish can be used exclusively by the plants in your GBs. At the very least I think you should eradicate the Horsetails (Equisetum spp). As attractive as they may be, they are considered to be amongst the world's worst weeds and all 30 or more species are thought to be toxic to livestock. (Perhaps they are responsible for your previous fish deaths?)

Thanks for all your help! I'll measure the pond tomorrow, and put up a post. I can hear my husband cringing about a new hobby already...

Hi Faayth, for me to understand and advice on the possibilities with your plan I need to know what are the dimension of the pond and the outlay construction.
How deep it is? what about the edge of the pond? raised or ground level ?
You can indeed start building your own system as soon as you understand a couple of things with system dynamics and the general do and don't of this hobby, which you can learn on a few books, forums or practical courses.
Before you add fish let us know the results from your water parameter test (NO2, NO3, PH) and take temperature too.
Then you can probably start adding your fish now if you decide to go for trout as they will tolerate cold water.
Does the pond get much direct sunlight? that would be an issue to solve in summer!
There is a good possibility that you need to cover the pond with a shelter (tarpaulin) even to avoid anything unwanted to fall in the water.
About your horsetail, don't worry about it until you start your system or unless you keep horses in your garden! (only a few of the many type of horse tail are a danger to herbivorous animal) we use to eat horsetail like asparagus over here!
Where are you based in England? so that I can give you some contact for local distributor (equipment, food, fish etc..)