Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey guys,

long time no talk! how you guys doing? Well im getting ready to start this thing up, I wanted to wait till the weather warmed up a bit and its starting to now.

So i bought a laguna Max-flo 600 pond pump just to make things easier. so now my questions with this are, am i going to need a timer as well? and do i drill the hole in my drain pipe?

I want to fill up my tank with water to let it sit for a few days, do i fill up my tank, filter, and bed? or just my bed?

my plan is to get 10-13 1in blue tilapia fingerlings, I also got purina Aquamax fry starter 200 to feed them, will this be ok? how much do i feed them?

Once I have the fish in my tank, do I turn my system on without plants in it? until the system has cycled for a bit? how long usually? is there a way to know when to plant?

Should i cover my bed with a black plastic sheeting? and cut holes in it to plant? someone around here suggested it, just wanted your opinions on it.

Thanks again and hope to get growing soon!

If you're going to be using the pond pump and not the geyser pump then you need to choose how you're going to run the system - these are the basic choices -

Constant Flood - pump runs 24/7 grow bed overflows to tank through standpipe that sets the grow bed flood level. No weep hole so if the power goes out the bed retains it's water.

Flood and Drain with siphons - Pump runs 24/7. There is a siphon that kicks in when the grow bed reaches a certain level and the bed rapidly drains. In the event of a power failure there is a weep hole near the bottom of the standpipe to drain the grow bed.

Flood and Drain on a timer - There is a timer that turns the pump on to fill the grow bed. Excess water flows over the standpipe until the pump shuts off and then any excess is drained through a weep hole near the bottom of the stand pipe.



No. Your grow beds provide biological filtration along with solids filtration. Bacteria growing on the rocks break down the ammonia generated by the fish and from other sources. These bacteria are aerobic - they require oxygen so you don't want to be covering the bed with a piece of black plastic - it might not be that critical with the aerated water coming into the bed but I don't think it's a good idea.

I think the black plastic thing is usually suggested for dirt gardens; it both warms the earth up at the beginning of your growing season and keeps weeds down. Weeds are a lot less of a problem in aquaponics, and although it might lift your water temperature a bit I think it could also cause problems by keeping the top 'dry' layer of your media damp - that would be a perfect environment for fungal issues.

If you're filling up your system with rainwater or from another source that doesn't have chlorine, I'd say fill the whole thing up and start the pump right away. If you're filling up with tapwater, I'd say fill up the fish tank only and leave it for a couple of days for any chlorine to dissipate (if you have an air pump, run that), then start your pump to send that water through the growbed and top up the tank. That way you won't lose any of the bacteria that are already on your media; it might not speed up your cycling much, but who knows. Don't put fish in until you're running the water through the whole system; most of the bacteria will live in your growbed, so it can't cycle until the water's going through there.

Feed your fish as much as they'll eat in a couple of minutes; if there's uneaten food left after five minutes or so, scoop it out with a net and feed less next time. If you're cycling with fish in, keep a very careful eye on your ammonia levels, start with a tiny pinch of food and increase the amount you feed slowly; also salt the water right from the start so your fish don't die when you start getting nitrites. If you're cycling first by adding ammonia or pee or whatever, make sure your cycle is finished before you get your fish, and then check your levels a lot as you go so you can cut back on food if you get an ammonia/nitrite spike. Once everything is fully cycled you can work your way up to feeding the fish as much as they'll eat in a couple of minutes, two or three times a day; they'll eat less when it's cold and more when it's warm.

You can plant leafy greens etc as soon as you have the water circulating, or wait until you get a nitrate reading if you want. Fruiting plants are 'hungrier' and need more trace elements, so generally don't do as well in a young system, but you can still plant them if you want to try - I put tomatoes and a few other things in my system right away, and they sulked until I got enough fish to produce decent amounts of nitrates, then took off.

HAVE FUN!

I filled it up with water, let it sit for a couple days, started the air pump for a day then started the system. I chose constant flood because I read that its best to have this pump running 24/7. Im going to let the system run for a couple days before I put the fish in(still have to order them actually). I have a few questions, you can see the water return flowing good, I just have a question of the water level in the bed and in the tank, and im hoping you can see the level. In my photos, is there to much water sitting on top in the bed, should i lower the water level or put more hydroton or is it ok? and same with the fish tank.

Thanks guys


the pictures arent uploading, idk whats going on with it.

Way too much water. Expanded clay tends to float initially so if you planted in this your plants would mysteriously move around or lay over. The water level should be an inch or two below the surface. The surface should look dry - if moisture and nutrients were on the surface you'd get algae growth which you don't want. Occasionally it's helpful to have a higher water level - I sometimes flood slightly higher, then lower the water again just before sprinkling seeds on the bed, it makes them stick above the water line.

Once you've lowered the water level it will be easier to see if the bed has enough hydroton, right now I can't tell .

Ive lowered the water a bit but im going to get a little more of the hydroton just to put on top..ill take pics after I complete that. I just checked my water in the fish tank and my ammonia is between .25 and .50 ppms, my nitrites are around 2.0ppm and my nitrates are around 5ppm... My ph is kinda high at around 8.2-8.3 I would like to bring this down some between 6 and 7. what would be the best thing to do that with?

It will come down on it's own because of nitrification. You can lower it faster using Hydrochloric acid (aka muriatic acid). Best way to adjust it is to adjust the pH of the top up water or a portion of the system water to around pH 6.5 and add this back in. You don't want to change the pH more than 0.4 pH points at any one time.

I don't know what the current water temp is or if you currently have fish in your system but if you do I would stop feeding and let the ammonia levels come down. You can tell for certain if you're in the ammonia toxicity range by checking the chart in the IBCofAquaponics link up in the upper right hand corner of this page with your pH, water temp and ammonia levels - I would just post the link to the table but it's not working for me at the moment .

The link doesnt seem to be working, I can get to the site through google but nothing will work on it. with the muratic acid, do you just put a drop in? I dont have any so no bottle to look at. I dont have any fish in but they are on the way! the water temp is around 65 last time i checked. The fish should be arriving soon, will i be able to put the fish in there while the ph is that high?

Try this link, it goes to the IBCofAquaponics PDF file I pulled up off Google and seemed to work but it does take a while to load - http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/Travis/IBCofAquaponics1.pdf
The table for ammonia toxicity is right near the end of the pdf.

With your pH up around 8.2 or 8.3 you don't have a whole lot of leeway with the temperature before the ammonia becomes toxic.

It's best to remove some of the system water and adjust the water to about 6.0 or 6.5 for the pH, then add back to the system. This allows you to adjust the pH slowly and with more control. Muriatic acid (aka Hydrochloric acid) is a very strong acid so you need to follow the instructions carefully for use and storage and keep it away from kids. Probablly best to protect nice clothing and wear gloves and goggles. Basically you'd add acid to the top up water a bit at a time until the pH is where you want and then let it stand - sometimes the pH will drift back up and you'll need to add more to get to the target pH. When there are fish in the system you only want to change it about 0.4 pH units at a time over a period of several days unless you are already struggling with ammonia toxicity in which case it might make sense to speed up the change just a bit or cool the water if you can. Without the fish you can go for more than 0.4 but remember bacteria and plants will be affected, 1.0 to 1.5 pH units will probably work out OK.



That really depends on the ammonia toxicity so check the chart in the pdf and compare to what I found - At pH 8.2 or 8.3, water temp of 65 F (18.3 C) and ammonia of 0.25, you're just barely in the acceptable range. With the 0.5 reading you're in the toxic range. If your pH goes up to 8.4 either reading is likely in the toxic range.

I didn't need to add any top up water since I just filled up the system, so I removed some of my water in the tank and put it in a clean new trash can, added tiny bit of muratic acid, mixed it, put the water back in the tank. I did this once a day over the last few days. I have my ph around 6.4-6.5. I noticed I have a leak now in my pvc pipes. Can I use pvc primer and glue to keep it from leaking or will that hurt something?

If you do you should do it when the pipe is dry and let it cure. If it's at a joint just try snugging it up. A lot of small leaks will seal themselves after a few days.