Aquaponics Idea

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Biosfear

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Aug 30, 2011
Messages
89
Location
Indiana
I've been keeping fish in my 75gal freshwater for years. Fishkeeping evolved recently into keeping aquatic plants. After doing pretty well with aquatic plants i bought a house plant and would use the nutrient rich aquarium water to water it. That led me to aquaponics systems. cool stuff. So after a bit of research i figured "why not?".

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I surely can't be the only fishkeeper that has thought about this. And after a lot of searching i really couldn't find anything that focused on the standard indoor fish aquarium conversion into an aquaponics system. I did pull all of my ideas from other peoples examples. I'd like to show you guys what i compiled and how it works... should anybody else ever want to do something similar.

LittleAquaponicsDiagram.jpg

I'm still expiramenting a bit. Need to work out some kinks. You might need to get a good zoom on the diagram to read what i've written. I think this is going to work out pretty well.

please lemme know what you think. Any suggestions? experience? ideas?

i'm really wondering how this will affect my fish. i'm using expanded clay balls imported from Germany as my medium. so ph shouldn't be a problem.:confused:
 
You might want to good Aquaculture. Little different idea, but basically the same concept.
 
I've been reading heaps about this and plan to do a aeroponic setup once my new tank is fully stocked. Let us know how your setup turns out.

For now I'm doing part water change every day and watering the garden with the water. Does anybody else do this? I have an interest in gardening but always get bored of it and miss watering. So far the new fishtank is holding my interest and as a by product the gardens not dead.
 
I've finished with most of the construction.
wood frame is up
plastic grow bed cut/sized/filled
inflow hose ran to bottom left corner (had to install a small filter to keep expanded clay pellets from getting lodged in my motor/propeller)

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bell siphon finished and opchecked (had to install a rock guard to keep pellets from interfering with drainage)
had to send the outflow pipe... or drainage from bell siphon.. in a corckscrew to allow time/space to accumulate the suction require to induce the bell siphon.
sanded and stained. Brought it inside. Hung grow lights above grow bed. planted some lettuce, broccoli, and tomatos.

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main concern now is adding a safety/overflow drain just in case something goes wrong. Has the potential to create a huge mess! At the same time.. considering how easy this was to create.. i think that everybody who owns an aquarium should use it to grow their own herbs
 
Very nice, definetly following. Maybe further ahead I will atempt it, keep us posted on how the growth goes.
 
What a great idea! I'm really interested to see how it all works out. Do you think the system will balance itself out, I.e. will the fish produce the same amount of waste as the plants consume? I take it you'll still keep your regular filter running? Will you still do water changes or rely on the plants when they are large enough to consume all the nitrates?
 
@ lohoyan

Good question... I'm thinking that I might be able to stop doing water changes altogether. Yes the normal filtration will stay in place. Since I use reverse osmosis water and grow aquatic plants (in abundance) I barely do water changes already. I might actually need to get more fish to produce more waste to help my plants thrive. I'll let ya know in a month or so.

http://youtu.be/JElVPmdMj9o
 
your setup looks neat!

Thanks, so does yours! When I get ready to do my horticulture project for the semester towards the end of the school year, I'm going to be calling on you for ideas. Keep us posted on your growth.
 
4 or 5 days in and all of my seeds have not only germinated, but have also shown extraordinary growth.

Water loss or evaporation has increased. Went from about 1gal per day to about 3 gal per day.

Grow bed holds approx 10 gal and is "on" 15min then off for 45 cycling all day

Aquarium water looks more clear.

I quit testing my water a long time ago... Kinda play it by ear

Pics coming Monday.
 
Could you post an update with some pics of your plants?
 
Could you post an update with some pics of your plants?

I guess it is about time for an update huh?

This thing has been running flawlessly for over a month now. At first i would get a little nervous when i heard the drain start to gurgle a bit before it began siphoning. Now it's just a daily reminder of my genius!! (y)

Some of the plants are doing better than others. I'm not sure what's what yet because i just tossed a bunch of seeds into the grow bed. It looks like one of the 5 different veggies is kinda taking over. My guess is the broccoli...

I haven't done a water change since setting this system up at the beginning of February. I actually bought a cheap testing kit the other day because my curiosity got the best of me. Nitrates were approx 15-20ppm. Not too shabby considering all i do is top it off with about 2-3 gallons of RO water every day.

Here are a couple pics.

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i picked off a big leaf and ate it the other day lol. It tasted like grass.
 
Well it finally happened. I made a big mess! I took the hoses out/off to do a little cleaning and forgot to reattach them..... I heard a waterfall pouring down in my house and ran to find my tank water being pumped up into the air like a geyser!! Luckily I was able to stop it before losing too much water or making too big a mess. Thankfully I was at home!!!
 
That's insane, I just had my entire 55g drum pop the flow valve and empty into my basement. I feel for you, love the set up
 
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