Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi, I am Memes, I live in Hong Kong and I am an aquarium enthusiast, however, since I moved in HK 4 years ago, my tank is empty on the balcony (not enough space for it in the first appartment, and in this new one, we have space, but I was waiting that the flooring is re-done to prepare the tank). We have a rooftop (around 100 sqm) that is now quite well used by our garden as you can see in the video.


Now that I discovered Aquaponics, I found the perfect mix between gardening and aquarium and I am now preparing to build my first system that will be :

- build with reclaimed pallet wood
- waterproofed with glass fiber
- front side with 2 windows to see the fishes
- fish tank of about 100x80x70 cm (500+ Liters)
- grow bed above it, made of same wood and same waterproofing, 100x80 cm, maybe 20-30cm deep
- eventually a second bed above (will see if light is enough)
- located on the balcony (east/north-east exposition)

planning to grow mostly herbs and salads, eventually start out tomatoes, chillies,... for the rooftop soil garden. For the fishes, planning Tilapia as we can do it temperature-wise, I can do it in terms of knowledge (10 years with a flourishing aquarium before ) and those are the one we are attracted to the most.


I hope to find help here and share experiences.

Welcome to the forum.. and in saying that welcome to the OBSESSION we call aquaponics.. feel free to ask any questions you like.

Welcome Memes!

I'll post here the progress until I get a full system up and running (then I'll create in the member's system section)

Step 1 : reclaim the wood out of pallets (with my little helper)


Should be already enough to start building

Welcome and happy growing! (Or building until then ahaha)


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Welcome mate, sounds great!


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thank you guys

Welcome, and congrats on starting your new system!

I'm new to aquaponics myself and also live in Hong Kong. You mention that you are planning to stock your fish tank with Tilapia. Do you have any idea where to get Tilapia fry in HK? I didn't notice any down in Mong Kok fish street.

Actually I did not yet check where to find fry... you make me progress on that front , no need to check in Mong Kok then . thanks for that.

I was as well thinking to get some from China directly, I know about the customs issue, but,... well... anyway, the target is to make them reproduce once I get the first batch, so my problem should be only once (hopefully).

I'll check next week-end in HuaHui ShiJie in Shenzhen, I'll let you know.

Other source I was thinking of are the ponds in New Territories, quite a few are apparently fresh water, I would like to see which fish they have, and see with them to get some fries.

Lately, I've been rather busy trying to build my system, ended up having an aquarium to build the system (I was planning to restart it in the house but my wife wanted a smaller one), but we broke the bottom glass while putting it on the rooftop, what a pity, a tank that was moved 3 times from appartment to appartment, stored 4 years on the balcony, and broke when putting it in place to finally use it again... anyway, I think it is now fixed (I coated the bottom with waterproof coating re-inforced with fiberglass). I'll fill it in soon to see.

When you have a source for tilapias, I'll appreciate the info .

Thanks

just a quick update, After shattering the bottom of the aquarium, I did try to waterproof it. 8 layers of Sika Raintite seems to be good, after filling 30cm high in the tank, everything was fine, at 40cm high, one piece of glass in the bottom sunk about a millimeter and crack the coating, 400L of water down the floor (hopefully, on the rooftop ).

I added one layer of glass fiber (basically, one coat of Raintite, put the fiber, then another coat of Raintite), then another coat of Raintite.

yesterday, I filled it in, went to the top without issue, the fiber held it in place, issue is that the very same piece of glass sunk again, basically peeling the new layer from teh old one in a small 5cm diameter location, the new layer was not entirely waterproof so water start to go through 3 pin holes just above the crack from the first attempt. (there go another 400L...)

Tonight, I'll do another coat and another one tomorrow morning, hopefully will get it to hold the water.

third attempt was a failure, the new layer had been applied a bit too in a hurry, after filling half, the new layer started blistering, then cracked and go through the pinholes.


Tried again, this time, it held a bit until the pressure made it give in at these very same pinholes...

Will try with yet another fiberglass patch.

OK, finally, the fifth attempt was the good one. Since then, I have put the cover together, filled in the tank, cycled it and put one grow bed on top (to start), I have goldfishes in it for now (10 small ones) and as soon as I put together the rest of the grow beds, I'll be hunting for Tilapias.

I did a small video to show my system (pardon my accent and my hesitation, I was not well awake apparently).




I was initially planning a second growbed as you can see in the video, but because it seems not to be that durable (that waterproof coating is not that good afterall), I changed my plan: I'll be actually extending the wood structure on the side and put some plastic containers (90cm long, 35cm wide, 25cm high, 4 of them) instead on the wooden ones. the one I have already, well, let's see how long it holds together, then it will be replaced by the same plastic containers (2 of them).

I finally get it running with fishes.




for islander_hk, I got tilapias from market in Yuen Long, those are fully grown but there is a guy selling sometimes small ones too. I am as well planning to visit the ponds in new territories (between Yuen Long and Shenzhen and ask them whether I can buy some from them or better, join them when they buy fry from mainland. Any chance you speak cantonese, we could go together.