Aquaponic Gardening

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I just join this site yesterday, I have been gardening for years and have kept tropical fish for about as long I currently have 4 fish tanks and a pond 1000 gallons. I drain 25% water from each fish tank every week and I use the nitrate filled water to water garden plants and trees.

I built a filter out of a 70 gallon rubbermaid tube, the filter design is called a "skippy" I was looking at photos on this site and I saw where people were using the same type tube and the pvc plumbing reminds me of when I was building the skippy.

Is anyone using a pond as their fish tank in their AP setup? Any ideas? I'll attempt to attach a couple of pictures so you can see what I'm working with.

Thanks in advance

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A couple more pics

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i have a very small koi pond to which I added two aquaponics grow bed. seems like you could add as many as the fish could support.. good luck

Pond systems are not only workable. In fact the more water you have the bigger the systems potential. It seems you are on the right track. The only thing I would caution as you are probably already aware of is, not to let it get too hot or too much sun which will leave you with one big, stinkin mess. 

Cheers & break a leg!

tip, you can post photos directly into your posts.  It's the second button from the left at the top (next to the link button)  see like this

that way people don't have to click away to see what you are trying to show.  (it's ok, lots of people miss that when they first start here.)

Anyway, if you have enough nitrates that you have to change water, you can support some veggie grow beds to and if you get enough grow beds going, you might not have to do the water  changes anymore (well indoor aquariums can be tough to hook enough veggies to unless you set up hydroponic lighting indoors) but I'm sure if you do water changes on that pond, then you could replace that chore with picking veggies.

Thanks for the tips, lets see if i can post a pic now

I read,the depth of the growth media should
be between 8–12 inches for optimal filtration and plant
growth.Does it matter if it's deeper like using the rubbermaid tank as a grow bed?

When I first set this pond up I used a store bought canister type filter with a backflush capibility, this filter was overwhelmed so I built the rubbermaid filter which is just a large bio filter filled with scrubbies  and it has worked great, I'm running both right now. I already have the drain set up on the rubbermaid I'd just need to change it over to the bell siphon. Any issues with this train of thought?

I use 100 gallon stock tanks as gravel beds all the time!!!!!!

here is a link to one of my 300 gallon system blog posts.  That system is all deep stock tanks.

I think most people recommend at least 12 inches for optimal filtration in flood and drain though it can be done shallower or deeper, you just have to keep in mind that aquaponics is all about balance between the amount of fish/and how much they are fed to the amount of filtration to the amount of plants using up the nutrients so you don't need to change water.

WOW that's some set up you have there. I was wondering what diameter stand pipe are you using? I was hoping to use the hole I already cut that has a 2"drain pipe. Is that over kill for a stand pipe or does it matter long as the bed fills slow enough? I read that as a rule of thumb you want your bell pipe twice the diameter of the stand pipe is that correct?

TCLynx said:

I use 100 gallon stock tanks as gravel beds all the time!!!!!!

here is a link to one of my 300 gallon system blog posts.  That system is all deep stock tanks.

I think most people recommend at least 12 inches for optimal filtration in flood and drain though it can be done shallower or deeper, you just have to keep in mind that aquaponics is all about balance between the amount of fish/and how much they are fed to the amount of filtration to the amount of plants using up the nutrients so you don't need to change water.

You can still use that hole, you may just need to get a coupling and use a bushing to adjust the siphon size down to a range that will work for you.  Look up Affnan siphons.

I actually do timed flood and drain (not siphons) so the size of the stand pipe doesn't matter that much as long as it is big enough to keep the bed from overflowing when the pump is filling it and it reaches full flood, the top of the stand pipe needs to keep the water from flooding over the gravel.  Most of my deep beds actually have 1 1/2" drains  For my shallower beds that are up on stands, I have been using 1 1/4" drains.  But for timed flood and drain you can always have a bigger drain no problem.

As I noted, for siphons, you will simply get some bushings or reducing couplings to arrange things to the flow rates that work.

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