Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello my name is Santiago and i have plans on building a greenhouse aquaponic system in my back yard. i have zero gardening experience but i am very determined to grow my own food in my own back yard. ive already started laying out the green house but i decided to join a good forum for outside suggestions and help. i am exited to learn this stuff and i hope you guys can help. for starters i have a question regarding the fish tank. i have access to a giant plastic water tank but i dont know if the black plastic is bad or god or if it matters at all. my plan is to bury the tank half ways at least and cut the top off so its a wide opening on top. or i might just use pond liner but i want to have at least 6 grow beds so im thinking i will need a big fish tank and lots of fish. also i plan on using hydro clay pebbles for media. will i be able to use the media for the life of the system or is that something that needs to be replaced? just want to know that for the budget plan. i have some pics of my garden area and the start of my green house. Cheers!

Welcome to the forum Santiago

Plastic water tank is okay to use as a fish tank burried in the ground. A lot of people are doing exactly that here.

Hydro clay pebbles are good to go. You don't need to replace them but you need to clean your grow beds about once every year or two depending on the choice of fish. Don't forget that every 20-25 litres of wet media in the grow beds equal to one edible size fish around 600-800 grams size.

Hi Santiago and welcome.


If it is a domestic water tank / rainwater tank then it will be fine for AP.
domestic water tanks are UV resistant and approved for human use.
This applies to *most* garden products as well.

If it is something else then may need to confirm its origins and the type of plastic.

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as for Greenhouse there are some excellent examples on the forum to get ideas from.

searching for 'greenhouse' using the search box above will keep you occupied for quite a while and provide a lifetime of ideas to distract you from doing any actual work . The good thing is the search display lets you read a few lines to quickly pick the ones that sound relevant and you can get through the pages quite quickly by simply right clicking and 'open link in new tab' a heap at a time.

Welcome. I'm in Santee, CA. Good luck with your project. Curious - why a greenhouse? Ontario is relatively mild weather, correct? I get heavy frost about a dozen times a year and temps over 100 several weeks a summer, and I opted not to use a greenhouse. It's been okay for catfish but I do have a backup heater for the tilapia system.

how is this project going? would love to see pics!

Howdy from Palm Desert!