Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have unused ex-koi concrete tank with 4 x 1.2 x 1.4 m volume. The fishes had been sold due to rising price of koi pellet (500-600 gram a day) . It has 3 filter chamber, RFF chamber, Bio chamber, and pump chamber. After reading in various magazine and watching video on youtube so I built a constant flood gutter bed system. I think it reduced the amount of media needed for grow bed rather than the common grow bed method.




The plastic jar height is 12 cm at first filled with lava sand/rock (1-3 mm diameter) the media dry area is 8 cm from the surface and the flooded area is 4 cm, the water wicked up making the top portion of the media constantly wet not moist making 60% of the plant caught by damping off disease. The plastic jar is transparent so the moss is blooming on the inside wall of the plastic jar and on the water surface inside the gutter.
Few weeks passed by garlic, shallot, tomato, pepper and spring onion moved to wicking pot because the plastic jar is too small. The vegetables had been harvested. I'm thinking of remodeling the gutter bed into a NFT system using 2.5 inch pipe and plastic glass netpot. Mainly leaf vegetable will be planted in the aquaponic system (picture updated soon).

Last night I had changed my system using 2.5 inch pipe NFT as mentioned yesterday and transplanted lettuce, choy sum, kangkung, and amaranth seedling. Took me 6 hours to complete the project but satisfied with the result .



Also planted lemon grass seedling (root cuttings/stem cuttings?!?) in former tomato grow pot bed. Last post I mentioned sweet basil I'm sorry it's actually lemon basil variety when I asked my friend who gave me the seeds.



I made hydroponic kratky system using 2.5 inch pipe and plastic mineral water bottle last Thursday. Using tank water and compost tea as the nutrient so far the vegetables look happy except amaranth some of them are wilting due to the root not long enough to reach the nutrient water. I planted choy sum, amaranth, lettuce, and kangkung. Love those vegetable a lot



Here is how I germinate seed using plastic bottle cut in half and plastic glass.




After the seed sprout and have 1-2 true leaves I moved it to the system.



The media I used is rice hull charcoal it is light weight, hold water better than hydroton, easier to dry than cocopeat. Whats more important is the rice hull charcoal really cheap only 15.000 rupiah/ 50 liter or around 1 USD / 50 liter

There is currently 350 juvenile tilapia in my tank, haven't weighed yet, it is averaging between 8-11 cm long from head to tail.

only cost me 150.000 rupiah (around 15 USD) to build these aquaponic system since mostly the material is what I find lying around my house

will be updated weekly the progress on this project.

Nice little system you have there! :-)

interesting approach being used - like your setup.

Thanks Sean


Thanks for your comment dlf_perth

here is the update

The static aquaponic wasn't doing really well, last saturday suddenly most of the amaranth and some of the kangkung withered, lettuce and choy sum doing really well. Wasn't sure what the cause of it the water is clear the root is not rotten.



The NFT system is doing well except some of the choy sum and amaranth leaves are turn yellow but I'm not to concerned since it usually turn up that way every time I dispose some of the sludge from the filter chamber, usually get better in a few days.



The fish is still happy and healthy



and transplanted "timun suri" last thursday hope it will have big fruit