Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Typically you get it from scrap construction projects.


Also, Great looking system. What fish you thinking of doing? I'm running bluegill right now and really like them so far.

welcome to the forum.

I work for the water department in our local community so I can get all the pipe I need as well as untreated water.

I wanted tilapia, but according to the DFG that is not an option. I looked into bluegill, or some other sunfish, crappie and channel cats. But so far I have got the fish added yet.

So yesterday my wife and I finally got some plants planted. We planted some tomatoes, green beans, lettuce, cucumbers, strawberries and cilantro to start out. This is our trial run, I am sure there will be some failures as well as some successes along the way.

Yay, plants in media! Hopefully I will be there soon.

@ waterguy71 - You might want to think of putting in a lid for your FT, Sunlight hitting No3 rich water might promote algae growth (although some members here manage to use up all their No3 to mitigate the effect), as well as keeping your fish safe from other potential predators except for yourselves.

Regards

Thanks for the advice. I do have a plywood cover that I usually have on now that it is full of water. I took picture after I removed it because I was adjusting my SLO. Minimizing the amount of algae growing in the ft is a concern. I will be setting up a greenhouse next weekend to cover everything also.

Plants are going strong, no die off yet, and we did add one channel cat last week also and he is still alive and swimming. I did add the Maxigrow+iron as I dont have enough fish waste being produced to feed the plants. So far so good.

Plants still looking pretty good, my channel cat is still alive also. I finally got my greenhouse put up today. Its been a pretty smooth project thus far.

Another update:
Things are really starting to come around. My ph is starting to drop, which was my biggest concern, and the new growth on my plants looks great. I actually already have 3 tomato's on 1 plant already. Daytime temp in the greenhouse is 82°. At night it drops to 68. Another week or two I will begin to add more fish and some new plants.

That's good to hear! Have you been testing ammonia etc?

Yep, amonia is at 0.03. Benfit of working for the water department, I get to test often and accurately. Plus I get really good untreated water for topping off.

Nice! Do y'all have any of Dr. Kerri's/Office of Water Programs books at work?

Yes I do, and copies of them all at home. Good books, but the illustrations could use some help. Lol
Here is a link to a short video I made and posted to youtube.
Home Aquaponics 4 12 14 Edited: https://youtu.be/0Y4G-5HOowQ

So heres a recent update,
Plants are growibg like crazy, my ph stabilized and hangs out around 7.4, it flucuates a little between day and night, I made a cover for my ft so as to help reduced the algae I had growing. I added 35 2.5" mozambique tilapia on Saturday, so far all have survived along with my 3 channel cats and the 3 huge red claw crawdads I put in the sump. If anyone wants to see a vid, I posted a short vid on youtube.
https://youtu.be/0Y4G-5HOowQ