Miniature Aquaponic System

[Ronnie]

Hi all,

I'm curious to hear if anyone has ever tried to work with a microponic raft system (around a 5 gallon fish tank)? I've been trying to get one started in my apartment and I can't even get past the pre-cycling phase. We added a single diluted drop of pure ammonia over a month ago and the levels still haven't dropped at all since the addition. I'll upload a picture later in the day, but I'd love to hear any general things that anyone else has done to make their microponic system work?

Thanks!!

Ronnie 

[Sam Burton]

I have done several things like this. Are you using goldfish?  With a 5 gallon tank all you really need to do is use an aquarium filter and float your raft right in the tank.  Feeder goldfish don't do any damage to the roots like Tilapia would.  I have grown some amazing herbs in it.  With a system that small, it's easier to just get some aquarium bacterial from the the pet store and you're up and running in a few minutes. Frankly that's how I cycle all aquarium based systems.  I have 5, 10, 20, 55, and 75 gallon aquariums.  I used different kinds of beds, because I use aquariums as proof of concept when I'm creating.  I can play with different filter ideas, too.  One thing that's fun with a small aquarium is to use a shoebox size container and a timer for a very basic flood and drain.  But I've gotten best results just floating the raft in the aquarium.  We recently moved and I only have one floating raft system in operation a the moment.  Once I get all my experiments up and running I'll post photos.  I have a lot of failures and some interesting successes.