A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

location for setup

I have a 3500 gal pond already setup and running for a couple of years, and i was thinking about using it to set up an AP system, but it is in a very shady location, and i don't want to cut anything. Would i be better off to just maybe start with a new (and smaller) tank in a sunnier spot?

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Permalink Reply by Averan on January 24, 2012 at 11:09am

NO! leave the pond in the shade, just run pipes from it to the sunny area where you'll have your media/raft beds. fish in the shade, plants in the sun.

Permalink Reply by psunami on January 24, 2012 at 4:11pm

well, its kind of a long way....like 100 ft. to a sunny spot. otherwise, I can only get about 4 hrs of direct sun a day at most. Don't think vegetables will grow well like that, but i am only used to traditional gardening...is there any difference with AP gardening?

Permalink Reply by psunami on January 24, 2012 at 4:31pm

also, I was wondering with having such a large pond, if i only wanted to start with just a few gb's this will throw off the ratio's in the rules of thumb area, I have fewer fish than what would normally be stocked in such a large pond, and it would take only a fraction of the pond water to fill the beds...so is this going to throw off the whole formula, and make it too difficult to adjust? If so, i could just set up another tank with appropriate ratios to get started, then if i feel more capable i could utilize the larger pond later on...if i want to expand. Also, it is possible that i could build a greenhouse near the larger pond, but still only about 4 hours of direct sun max. Can you add supplemental light to the greenhouse in this case and make it work...or would that be too inefficient?

Permalink Reply by Averan on January 24, 2012 at 4:32pm

no, plants are plants and need sun to grow. 100ft. is a little far, but your options are to either use a pump strong enough to move the water that far and back or to ignore the pond altogether and setup an AP garden independently.

the challenges with the first approach are: bigger pump = more electricity (maybe not important) and the return line (gravity flow) might be hard to lay out.

the latter suggestion doesn't help with your pond, but would be cheaper/easier/more-effective to setup.

it's all a matter of priorities. ;)

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on January 24, 2012 at 5:16pm

If you can manage at least 300 gallons of fish tank in the other location, I would suggest going ahead and starting out that way with your aquaponics.

Once you gain a bit more experience you might think about how to use the pond. (See if your pond is not heavily enough stocked to warrant water changes then you might not have enough left over nutrients to really grow much veggies without feeding the fish much more.) 4 hours of full sun would be enough to grow leafy greens like lettuce and watercress at least during the cooler months. And some partial (especially mid day) shade can be helpful during the hot months in hot climates, you do need a good amount of sun more like 6 hours to grow lots of the desirable veggies.