Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey all,

Been lurking, reading, researching for about a year now, finally decided to register and join the community now that we've got our first place

Have only been growing veggies outdoors (soil based) for two years back at my parents place but have been keeping and breeding various fish for about 17 years.

Was fascinated with the idea of aquaponics and it being a much more sustainable method of food production, not to mention all the other benefits associated with being able to grow your own food!

During my undergrad in environmental science I was always looking at different ways to mix science / biology with technology and it appears aquaponics is definitely up that ally!

Hope you all are cool with lots of questions I'm sure I'll be sending a ton your way!

Cheers!

Hey there. Nice to meet you.

I live in australia in a cooler area during winter.

You can see my systems if you like in my signature.

What are you planning?

Welcome to the forum,
good to see new people discovering AP, look forward to your build.

Welcome to the forums!

There are a lot of knowledgeable people people on here. Ask away with the questions!

I checked out your systems , if things go well and I scale things up, I'd like to setup an IBC system in the garage as well but I've got lots to learn up until that point.

For now though, I'm looking at building a system in the kitchen to support some herbs / lettuce and anything else I can grow in there.

I have been looking at the aquaponicals as a means to 'get my feet wet' though I enjoy building and tinkering with things so I may just start a 20 gal long to 55 gallon aquarium build - using a DIY vertical growing setup.

For fish stocking, I'm looking at decorative fish, however, I'm undecided which route I'd like to go, likely a tropical tank. Just trying to determine which species and their associated biome features (pH and temperature) would best match growing veggies.

I've started a thread in the hardware section: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=21714

But maybe I'll start with some questions here as well!

- Are aquariums safe to use for AP? Should I be concerned about the silicon leeching anything into the water that could be absorbed by the plants which would eventually be used for consumption? I would be purchasing new - unused tanks rather than used ones that may or may not have had aquaria based chemicals in them.

- PVC - I've seen the question posed a few times regarding the use of PVC that it should be the rigid PVC (food safe?) Is this the typical white PVC you can find at most hardware stores?

Silicone - use sikaflex or something similar (marine grade) - can't remember what the general word for the safe stuff is, but thats what I use.

PVC - I think most people use either pressure pipe or DWV pipe which stands for 'Drain, Waste, Vent'.

I would start a thread in the 'members system threads' call it something like 'PBF's kitchen system'.

Maybe you could do a T-Barrel design.

Thanks Jayendra!

Will definitely look into that type of silicon.

Should we assume the silicon to make aquariums is "food safe"? ie: buying a brand new aquarium?

I'll start up a thread once I've sort out the components thanks!