Gold Fish Gardener's Introduction

[GoldFishGardener]

I am so grateful that I found this site. Finally a group of people that understand my passion as much as I do. I just started aquaponics about a month ago. I had no idea, and still don't really, what I am doing. In an attempt to figure out what works I started collecting data as I grow plants. I measure water quality and plant growth and graph them here: Water Quality Spreadsheet and Plant Growth Spread Sheet. 

This hobby is really fun and challenging at the same time. I think that it is a little challenging because I am trying to aquaponically grow plants in my living room. So while the set up needs to work it also needs to look good as well. 

Here is my current set up. Its not a huge aquaponic set up. But it looks great. Eventually I am going to cut the carpet down that is under the big tank. It's just a pain to get at it. If you'd like to take a look at the entire project I post on a regular basis on my blog Gold Fish Gardening. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

Welcome! First thing to tell you is your Nitrites are a little too high... Stop Feeding Fish! Your bio filter is not yet established in fact it is non existent in the set up pictured. Wait for the nitrites to get back closer to 0 before you start feeding. Fish can go weeks without feeding so don't worry. You might get some bacteria growing on the rocks below but there is not a lot of O2 down there. Ideally you would want some kind of bio filter attached to the tank. There are ones you can buy for aquariums which will keep your fish healthy while you are learning and figuring stuff out. Keep up the water changes until your nitrite settles.

[GoldFishGardener]

Thanks Jonathan. I had no idea that fish could go so long with out food. We constantly feed our fish. I think that this might be the main problem. 

What is a bio filter? Below is the contents of our set up. Is this not a good set up? 

• A 75 Gallon Tank
• A 10 Gallon Tank
• 8 Gold Fish
• 1 Loach
• 2 Snails
• 30 Pounds of Rock
• 85 Gallons of Water
• 1 Heater
• 1 Thermometer
• 1 Power Head
• 1 Over Tank Suspended Light with Compact Florescent
• 1 48'' Tank Hook with Light
• 1 Penguin 200 Series Pump
• 1 Air Pump
• 6' of Air Line Tubing
• 6' of Equalizer Tube
• 1 1/4'' Custom Acrylic Tank Lid for Ten Gallon Tank
• 3 Hydroponic Baskets 
• 1 Light Timer
• 1 Bunch of Egeria Densa
• 2 Basil Plants
• 3 Modified Tank Holders for Equalizer Tube
• 5 Zip Ties
• 1 Power Head Clip
• 2 Custom Made Tank Stands
• Various Fish Food
• 1 Bag Hydroton Grow Rocks 

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

A biofilter is a place for bacteria to grow. These bacteria will help to process your fish waste and make nutrients for the plants.  It can be just a tote with some hydroton in it with aquarium water that you flood and drain a few times an hour. You grow plants in there too.