Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello everyone,
I am an Italian boy who has just passionate about aquaponics.
My intention is to start a farm in the near future.

Now I do experiments indoors this is my setup:
- Aquarium 80 lt
- Air pump 2 air stones
- Nft system with PVC pipes 90mm
- Neon Light
- Fish, Carassius auratus
- Plants, salad and strawberries

In Italy there aren't forums of aquaponics I dont know English very well then I began to read in Italian net.
I found a few information and the greatest discoveries I'm doing now in the field .

I had big problems with the fish department, and I had to transfer the fish in the bathtub .
I suppose problems were due to the failure to maturation of the biological filter and overcrowding of fish.


Here is my story:

October 21, Filled the aquarium by adding bacterial cultur every day (70% tap water 30% osmosis)

November 3rd, I had 1.5 kg of fish (too much)

November 5, put plants in nft (NO2 values ​​NO3 correct but water yellowing)

November 7, I covered the walls of the aquarium because I thought the presence of algae because the values ​​were correct

November 10, water values out of scale and colour very dark (death of some fish) then I make a change of 60% water.

November 11, values ​​water again out of scale water dark (death of some fish) then I removed fish from the aquarium and make a change of 60% water.

I added bacterial cultur every day the water initially transparent and values ​​remained high, the plants grew well. In the weeks following values ​​returned to normal but the water came back yellow

December 1, values return ​​perfect but yellow water

December 3, added 2 fish in the aquarium

December 5, the fish are fine the values ​​are correct the water stays yellow

someone can help me?

Hi djscolla, welcome to the forum

The answer is simple but the solution might not be. You need two things -
1. Solids filtration before the NFT
2. Biological Filtration (preferably after the solids and before the NFT but somewhere in you system).

Attenzione ---- You also need to be very careful - The NFT pipes can fill with roots and overflow so check them often. Having the setup near your computer is perhaps not the best location. Make sure the circuit is protected with a Ground Fault Circuit Interupter - to protect yourself.

This might help - http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/profiles/blogs/before-you-send-water-to-your


non capisco

Thanks for your precious help

What do you mean by a solid filtration? If possible I would like to build it

The aquarium is equipped with a biological filter the volume of the central compartment is about 2.2 liters, it's enough?




The computer is disconnected while waiting to find another accommodation

I read the article willingly.

Sorry I made a mistake:
I filled the aquarium with 70% of tap water and 30% of osmosis, every day I added Prodac Nitridac.

Good to know, I did not see anything in the pictures so it appeared that you had no filtration.

What you have might be enough. Continue to check for ammonia and nitrite. Pull some of the plants and check for buildup and odor in the NFT pipes. If everything looks good your filtration is probably going to be enough at least until the fish grow larger (you'll have to check every once in a while)(you may be able to add fish - I'm just not sure how many this media will support). The filter wool and the sponge filter will filter most of the solids but will need regular cleaning - with these you have a solids filter of sorts and it may be enough as well.

Don't add any more of the prodac nitridac and just let the biofilter try to carry the load on it's own. I don't know anything about the prodac nitridac or which type of bacteria it uses but some of these types of bacterial treatments can cause problems by competing with organisms that you want to establish. By now any beneficials from the treatment will have had a chance to establish themselves so no more should be needed anyway.

The yellow color could be from tannic acid This would come from adding driftwood into the tank or some type of plant material that contains tannic acid. It will continue to be present for a long time but won't harm the fish. If you remove the wood the color will eventually go away.

I listened to your precious advice and I clean the sponge (using water aquarium) and I replace the wool, it was really very dirty.


I thought the color of the water was due to the soil contained in the pot

even if the soil does not get wet because the roots come out from under the pot.




Intrigued by your post about nft filtration, I came across a good read: Small scale aquaponic food production FAO
I read how it should be made a good filtration system and would love to build one in miniature for my small system.

The only problem I have is that they take water to fall by piercing the fish tank at the top but I having a glass wall would not know how. I thought of a pump that push water in the mechanical filter but I fear they will choke constantly.
How can I do?

I haven't done my aquarium because I am afraid it may break. I bought the diamond hole saws off Amazon

You may be right. Your soil mix might use coco coir or some other ingredient with tannins that can leach down into the water.

thanks for the good advice but I will need to drain the aquarium and at the moment I find it difficult however, in the spring I want to move outside with a larger syestem. Like this:

You may want to check out some of the systems in the IBC of Aquaponics for your outdoor system - http://ibcofaquaponics.com/. Most of the systems have media beds so they don't need a different filter. You'll need filtration before the plant pipes. I don't know how bad your winters are but since you're going to need filtration, you may want to look at running the fish tank as a Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) during the winter. Basically you could put some insulation around the tanks and filters then use a stock tank heater to keep the fish outside during the winter. The filtration for this kind of a setup is often a Radial Flow Filter followed by a Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR). You could also use a Static Upflow Filter followed by an MBBR. The filters require more maintenance but let you disconnect the plant pipes which lose heat easily.