Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well, I've been lurking around here and answering some posts, but haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Dominic, but I go by Dom. I build sports fields for a living, which is not quite as exciting as it sounds. Lol. I have had fish in tanks for the last 30 years, and have grown plants in dirt even longer. Now I'm ready to take it to the next level. I'm currently planning a small test system with my already established 55 gallon tank. I have 11 assorted African cichlids from 2 to 5 inches in size. I'll be starting a thread for it as soon as I find time to draw up some ideas. I definitely want to seek advice before I get myself into trouble. My wife and I are hoping to buy a new house on some acreage next year, and I'm hoping that the small setup will do well enough to convince her that a greenhouse or hothouse setup will be worthwhile. I'm building it wether she's on board or not, but it would definitely be easier with her support. Anyway, this forum has already taught me a lot. I've been studying up on autosiphons and overflows, and they don't seem like magic quite as much anymore, so that's good. I'm also enjoying reading the members system threads. They are a treasure trove of useful do's and don'ts.

Hi Dominic, welcome to the forum!

One quick question about your planned cichlid-powered system - what sort of cichlids have you got? I used to keep African cichlids and if I remember right, cichlids from different lakes have different pH requirements, and some of them need it pretty high. If your cichlids need a high pH you'll need to keep buffering it up as nitrification drives the pH down (since with aquaponics it's best not to do water changes the way you normally would for a fish tank) and also deliver some nutrients to your plants via foliar feeding as they won't be able to take them up from the water.

The local pet shop just had these labeled as assorted, so I have a bunch of different ones. I got them all from one tank at the shop figuring that at least I know they can handle being roommates. Lol. I did research and identify several of the species at one point, but none of the names stuck with me. I did start them out with water at a ph of around 8, but they are doing fine on water from my well now, which is usually around 7.5. Still a little high for plants I suppose, but it is the same water that goes into the garden. I suppose that the soil could be affecting that as well, so I will definitely have to stick with plants that have low nutrient requirements that can handle warm water. Then I'll just have to do foliar feeding as necessary. The main purpose for this one is practical knowledge of the plumbing and demonstrating the usefulness of AP to my wife. My life will be much easier if I can get her interested.

On a side note, I read your thread last week Mel. I feel like a rock star just noticed me. You built a beautiful system.

Aw, thank you! I'm blushing now!

7.5 shouldn't give you many problems, my system ran at 7.5 for months without the plants having problems; I had a few deficiencies, but they were due to the nutrients not being there at all rather than the plants not being able to access them and were easily corrected. Leafy greens should definitely be okay. Looking forward to what you come up with!