Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey all, My name is Lemonparty and I've been wanting to get in to aquaponics for a long time.

I'm located in Ontario, currently a student so pretty much on a shoestring budget.

My budget breaks down like this in case anyone is curious:

$35 plants
$10 beneficial bacteria
$11 Water treatment
$6 fish
$10 gravel
$15 lava rocks
$40 water test kit
$15 bell siphon parts

My grow bed is approx 30" x 18" x 7" which works out to be around 11 Gallons I think. The fish tank is a rubbermade roughneck bin that has about 24 Gallons in it.

In the fish tank are 5 fish about 4 inches long, and 16 minnows. They seem to be doing well so far, some minnows have died, which I believe was due to high ammonia levels. But since I bought a bottle of beneficial bacteria the ammonia levels have gone down considerably.

It's day 8 of the system being active so I have high hopes for the future.

I'll try to keep this updated as things progress.

Hi Lemonparty.

Have you got any pictures you can post?

What is the water treatment you have purchased?

Hmmm for some reason I can't upload pictures. Here is a link to the Imgur album http://imgur.com/a/74SAs

As for the water treatment, I used aquascape pond detoxifier.

Scrap the siphon (constant flood) and bacteria and save 20$ get some seeds instead of plants


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Smaller systems are more challenging. I recommend running constant flood in it too. Arbe, be careful about asking for lemon party pictures... Not that there is anything wrong with older men loving each other.

So I've done a test and apparently my nitrite levels are off the charts. Either that or I'm colour blind.

My Nitrate levels are also skyhigh, so at least I know the cycle is working.

Here's a pic of the testhttp://imgur.com/FojglWd, either the nitrates are over 9000ppm or, it's somewhere low, I honestly don't know.



About the constant flow vs bell siphon, is there a reason behind it? Won't that cause rot on the roots?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Are those vials in the opposite order?


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@Jayendra

Yes they are actually, the light was on the wrong side so I just walked to the other side of the table for a better shot.

I tried constant flood, but it didn't look like there was enough circulation. Luckily I greatly oversized my pump, and I have it now on a 2 minute flood and drain cycle, with about 1/3 of the bottom left flooded.

I was pre culturing some other aquarium stones for a smaller system I was planning on making, but instead I just placed the majority of them in the bottom of the fish tank to help nitrifying bacteria accumulate.