Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello, my name is Ron. I'm an aquariust who maintains planted tanks, and I've gotten into gardening the last two years. I see an opportunity to merge two of my hobbies into one, cutting down my aquarium hobby for one that is more functional and could save money in the end. I've been watching videos and reading about aquaponics, and I feel I may be hooked on the idea the same way I was when I saw one of Takashi Amano's planted aquariums for the first time.

The problem is that I am not handy, and my small house has many things in need of repair/modification, so buying a preconstructed system for aquaponics is not practical. As I am in New York, my interest is putting an aquaponic system, using tilapia, to grow tomatoes, herbs, leeks, etc. year round or as close to that as possible.

I have a space issue, but one of my major upcoming house expenses will involve converting from oil to gas heating, and I had an idea, to use the existing space and oil tank. Basically, I want to halve it and clean it, but obviously I'd have to put some kind of liner in there and make sure petroleum does not contaminate my system. I think it would be easier to convert the oil tank to a grown bed as opposed to a fish tank, but the latter would be perfect if feasible, in terms of location and space. Is this a stupid idea? If not, how would you make this work, in terms of the contamination issue and a potential design????

Thanks for the knowledge/feedback.

Welcome to the forum Rlon

Hi Ron,

Can you post pictures?

Welcome,

I would not say it's a stupid idea, most of us don't have the space. Also a system that is fairly cheap to make is a IBC tank.

You can check out IBC system on the forum and see how you can make a grow bed and fish tank with about 2m x 2m space. That what I am currently building and must say the system is very compact. I paid AUD 35 for the IBC tank and spent about another $180 on the plumbing and pump for the system.

I picked up pea gravel online from a guy that had it in his garden to remove for $30.

So all and all the system cost me $245.

Need fish and fingerlings then I am good to go.