Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi everyone,
I am a year 11 at Faith Lutheran College, Tanunda and are currently conducting the year 12 research project. For my research project I am building my own aquaponics system because I have been interested in aquaponics for a long time. The information that you give will be used in my research project and it won't be published. If you wish to remain anonymous, please notify me in your response, thanks!
I was just wondering if anyone could tell me,

What makes a successful aquaponics system? What are some things that could make the system fail?

Define successful? Good growth in both plants & fish? Financially profitable? Quality of veggies?

The absence of HSM*


The presence of HSM*

Seriously though, the "success" of a system is dependent on the system owner and is subjective: maybe they want a load of veggies, maybe they want fish, maybe they want a balance of both, maybe they want to produce "organic" foods where they have control over the entire process (or most of it anyway), maybe the owner just wants a tinker-hobby to play with, maybe they just want to use less water and/or power in their food production? Commercial owners are going to have different definitions of "success" which may involve $$$ and/or timeframes.

The optimist in me says a system can never "fail" as even if you end up with a load of dead fish and no veggies, if you've learned from your mistakes then this must still count as a success (no matter how partial). The only real failure is when the system fails to produce as expected and the system owner doesn't do anything to learn why and rectify the deficiency.


* HSM => that moment when you walk up to your system and (negatively) exclaim, "Holy shit!", hence "Holy shit moment".

Hi Nicole,
We are running an aquaponics system in our school this year for year 9's and also a VCAL class in year 11/12.

you can PM me if you like and ask away.

For me its the process of; research, observation, adaption that make it successful.
Get it right and its perfect, get it wrong and it disheartening.

Successful:
correct stocking, filtration, PH pretty much solve everything.
Design

Fails:
Tinkering with no research
Not observing changes and adapting to changes
Design

Haha, or perhaps 'Heart Stopping Moment' (for your teacher's benefit).

My system isn't yet complete, but I already consider it successful, as for me it was always about teaching my son about where his food comes from, and how much work goes into getting it onto his plate.
He now has a better appreciation for how long plants take to grow, and how long it takes fish to grow to eating size. This makes it much easier to explain to him (meaningfully) why it's so important not to waste food and resources.

As far as success in a 'growth' sense goes, I guess the following are some things that I have learnt on my journey so far:

- Fish stocking: It's important to have enough fish to provide nutrients for your plants, but not so many that the plants can't keep up with their waste and the water quality suffers. Do a search on 'stocking rates' in this forum to get some more info. Note: Different fish have different requirements i.e. Tilapia, Silver Perch, or Trout.

-Choosing the right plant varieties: It's fairly accepted that a new system will fare well by planting mostly leafy green vegetables, which need less nutrients than 'fruiting' heavy-feeding plants like tomatoes or capsicums etc.

In the same way that your lawn will grow quickly with a nitrogen-based fertilizer, the nitrates (Nitrogen compound) encourages leafy growth in veggies, which is why you see lettuces and Asian greens going so well.

If there are not enough other minerals and nutrients in the system (more often an issue for newer systems) you may find that some fruiting plants will get lots of beautiful leaf growth, without setting any fruit. In some cases it may be necessary to add nutrients or minerals to the system separately. Carefully... Anything that goes into the system will stay in there (mostly), so if you are eating what comes out of that system, you need to be aware of that.

Sudden Changes: Sometimes this is the result of lack of patience, and sometimes it it weather related, or something similarly out of your control.
The main point I guess is that sudden changes will often stress or kill fish, sometimes moreso than the issue itself. i.e. Large temperature swings affect fish more than gradual changes. Same goes for pH. So if you have high pH, adding acid in large doses to try and lower it can cause more harm than good. Better to make smaller changes, and wait and see for a little while. Patience is, or should be, a golden rule of Aquaponics.

Salt: Salt fixes (almost) everything, and is safe to put in your system. Not cooking salt, just pure, unadulterated salt with no additives. Pool salt fits the bill nicely.

Anyway Nicole, those are some of the main things I have found.

The best thing you can do though is research, and then research some more. Posting system designs on the forum will allow people to offer advice, and give you the opportunity to ask specific questions.

Best of luck with your project!

Haha, or perhaps 'Heart Stopping Moment' (for your teacher's benefit).

My system isn't yet complete, but I already consider it successful, as for me it was always about teaching my son about where his food comes from, and how much work goes into getting it onto his plate.
He now has a better appreciation for how long plants take to grow, and how long it takes fish to grow to eating size. This makes it much easier to explain to him (meaningfully) why it's so important not to waste food and resources.

As far as success in a 'growth' sense goes, I guess the following are some things that I have learnt on my journey so far:

- Fish stocking: It's important to have enough fish to provide nutrients for your plants, but not so many that the plants can't keep up with their waste and the water quality suffers. Do a search on 'stocking rates' in this forum to get some more info. Note: Different fish have different requirements i.e. Tilapia, Silver Perch, or Trout.

-Choosing the right plant varieties: It's fairly accepted that a new system will fare well by planting mostly leafy green vegetables, which need less nutrients than 'fruiting' heavy-feeding plants like tomatoes or capsicums etc.

In the same way that your lawn will grow quickly with a nitrogen-based fertilizer, the nitrates (Nitrogen compound) encourages leafy growth in veggies, which is why you see lettuces and Asian greens going so well.

If there are not enough other minerals and nutrients in the system (more often an issue for newer systems) you may find that some fruiting plants will get lots of beautiful leaf growth, without setting any fruit. In some cases it may be necessary to add nutrients or minerals to the system separately. Carefully... Anything that goes into the system will stay in there (mostly), so if you are eating what comes out of that system, you need to be aware of that.

Sudden Changes: Sometimes this is the result of lack of patience, and sometimes it it weather related, or something similarly out of your control.
The main point I guess is that sudden changes will often stress or kill fish, sometimes moreso than the issue itself. i.e. Large temperature swings affect fish more than gradual changes. Same goes for pH. So if you have high pH, adding acid in large doses to try and lower it can cause more harm than good. Better to make smaller changes, and wait and see for a little while. Patience is, or should be, a golden rule of Aquaponics.

Salt: Salt fixes (almost) everything, and is safe to put in your system. Not cooking salt, just pure, unadulterated salt with no additives. Pool salt fits the bill nicely.

Anyway Nicole, those are some of the main things I have found.

The best thing you can do though is research, and then research some more. Posting system designs on the forum will allow people to offer advice, and give you the opportunity to ask specific questions.

Best of luck with your project!

if you keep the fish happy the system is going to be successful. there's a lot of chicken vs egg in that statement but start with understanding the aquaculture and everything else will fall into place.