Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi everyone,

I'm in the process of building a system that's a bit different from the traditional aquaponics system but borrows heavily from the concepts that I've learned here and on other AC/AP sites.

I breed tropical fish, specifically African Cichlids, and I was looking to build a system to grow them from fry to juvenile size as quickly as possible. I also wanted a system that was low maintenance and with a low ongoing cost.

I plan to grow aquarium plants instead of edible plants but that could change before I'm finished.

I've been documenting the process on my YouTube channel and I thought it might be good to post it here to get some feedback from folks who know way more about this stuff than I do. Most of my audience is aquarium hobbyists who are unfamiliar with aquaponics.

Anway, here are the first two videos:







Thanks!

Part 3:

Steve,

Some very nice videos you've put online!

It is always interesting seeing different ways folks are into Aquaponics.

How are you planning to do the aquarium plants? Seems like I've heard of
(some?) water plants processing the fish ammonia differently than your normal
vegetable plants.

--
Sam

..
my feeling - forget the plants, unless there is a seriously good reason to grow them and what you plan to spend on all that lighting.....

spend the money on designing flow to sweep the muck from corner to corner and SLO lift to an efficient swirl filter ...
have another bed of clay balls OR bio balls and try my idea of BioCenosis bags.., sitting amongst the flood and drain media..
..

@nosliwmas Thanks. I haven't made up my mind yet about the plants. I'm not sure what you mean by 'process differently'. Really I'm just looking to strike a balance between plants that will reduce nitrates the fastest and require as little light as possible.

@BuiDoi I can't really forget the plants. I'm trying to minimize water changes and lighting won't be all that expensive. I do have SLOs on each tank (part 4 will talk about it) going into my RFF.

Sorry... I knew that wasn't fair, but I couldn't find where I read about the specifics
to provide a reference. As I recall, (someone please chime in with details!) some
aquatic plants do well taking in Nitrogen directly in ammonia form? While other
more traditional AP garden plants best take in Nitrogen in Nitrate form... I've only
read about 20,000 posts trying to get caught up the past month, and I don't have
a handy link, nor evidently enough search-fu to find it.

--
Sam

Part 4:

Part 5:

Duckweed and water lettuce, If my (not so good anymore) memory is functioning today.

But I could be way off base.

Part 6:

Part 7:

Part 8 (tour of the system):