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For a good aquaponics system you need to have a tank that flows into a small tank for solids, and then to your plants? I have an 800 Gallon tank, that goes to a 55 gallon drum, now how big should I make my grow out beds?

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Permalink Reply by Chi Ma on July 5, 2011 at 6:34pm

Some say 2:1, others say 1:1 growbed to fish tank. It all depends on your fish load.

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on July 5, 2011 at 6:54pm

No you do not HAVE to HAVE a tank for solids. It depends on the type of system you are going to make.

If you are going to do a raft system, then yes you might want to have a settling tank and then a bio-filter or net tank before you send the water to the raft beds (but if you do a really low fish stock type system it might not be necessary.)

But if you go with a Media bed type system, you don't need solids collection or separate bio filters as long as you follow the rules of thumb Or here is a blog post I've done on the subject.

For media beds, I would recommend having at least as much media bed volume as you have fish tank and if you figure out some way to manage water level fluctuations, I actually like twice as much media bed volume as you have fish tank. Like Chi said Grow bed to fish tank 1:1 to 2:1.

If growing fish out to eat, I would say start with about 1 fish per cubic foot of media filled grow bed (a cubic foot is equal to about 7.5 gallons.)

If you are doing raft aquaponics, you might be better off joining the DWC or Raft group and asking for the help of people experienced in that method. I'm good with media beds but have never really successfully grown anything "in a raft".

Permalink Reply by DJ Bisson Jr on July 6, 2011 at 5:34pm

Thank You very much for the information. I think that i would like to try the raft method but I don't know if it will be right for me. Is it expensive to purchase the gravel for the grow beds?

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on July 7, 2011 at 7:21am

Depends on how much gravel you need for your system, where you get it, what kind you get, and where you are. Where I live, 1/2" brown river rock costs between $50-60 a ton and is mostly quartz type river pebbles and appropriate to Aquaponics. It takes about a ton to fill 100 gallons worth of grow bed with gravel left over to spare. I can get six tons delivered in a truck load for under $100. If you buy the gravel by the bag, it will cost more but would be ok for a very small system. Remember to do some research to make sure whatever gravel you get will be appropriate for aquaponics before buying a whole lot of it. (Make sure it won't affect pH.)

Keep in mind that for raft method you have to buy the foam rafts, net pots, some sort of media for in the net pots, and you need more aeration in the raft beds as well as the fact that the rafts are better for growing small plants while the gravel beds could allow you to grow a very wide range of things without needing as much extra support.

Permalink Reply by DJ Bisson Jr on July 7, 2011 at 3:48pm

Do you think that both are a good idea since I would like to do large and small plants? But then can you tell me if all plants for the most part work well together or should I stick to one kind?

TCLynx said:

Depends on how much gravel you need for your system, where you get it, what kind you get, and where you are. Where I live, 1/2" brown river rock costs between $50-60 a ton and is mostly quartz type river pebbles and appropriate to Aquaponics. It takes about a ton to fill 100 gallons worth of grow bed with gravel left over to spare. I can get six tons delivered in a truck load for under $100. If you buy the gravel by the bag, it will cost more but would be ok for a very small system. Remember to do some research to make sure whatever gravel you get will be appropriate for aquaponics before buying a whole lot of it. (Make sure it won't affect pH.)

Keep in mind that for raft method you have to buy the foam rafts, net pots, some sort of media for in the net pots, and you need more aeration in the raft beds as well as the fact that the rafts are better for growing small plants while the gravel beds could allow you to grow a very wide range of things without needing as much extra support.

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on July 7, 2011 at 4:12pm

I like to plant a mixture of plants. Now you might want to look up some things on companion planting since some plants work even better when planted together while others might not be good to grow together (not supposed to plant peas or beans with onions?)

for out door aquaponics I expecially like a variety but if you are growing indoors under lights, you might need to plant things that will all be about the same size if growing under fluorescent lights since you need to have the light really close to the plant leaves to be effective and that gets difficult if you have plants growing at different rates or different sizes.