A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Orangevale newby

Hello all, I am just starting out with my aquaponics set up. I have studied the ins and outs for a few months, collected a bunch a materials and think I found the setup i want.

I picked up a petco plant hydroponics dispay for plants and am going to convert it to a aquaponics setup. It has a large tank on the bottom which is where i will put my fish, and 5 lexan tanks that will house the raft system. each tank drains into the next then back to the fish holing tank.

My question is does anyone see any reason this wont work? or maybe have any pointers for me.

here is a pic of the setup.

look forward to hearing from you all.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Fishy McFisherson on July 21, 2012 at 12:30am

I, for one, think this was a great find. Since you have all the room underneath next to the fish tank, seems like a great place for some kind of solid waste separator prior to the rafts. My second thought, in conjunction with that, would be an up-flow fluidized bed filter for your bio conversion. With some forethought on packaging the components under the tanks this could be a pretty awesome (and efficient) little setup.

Again, great find, I look forward to seeing how this progresses!

What is the volume on the lower tank?

Permalink Reply by Paul Trudeau on July 21, 2012 at 4:46am

Hi Kevin,

I like Fishy's comments. Another thought: Although your plant tanks will be shaded from above by the rafts, to the extent they get light through the sides, I would expect algae to grow, which will use nutrients you would otherwise want to go to your crop plants.

Best wishes on the system. Looking forward to hearing more as you progress.

Permalink Reply by Bob Campbell on July 21, 2012 at 8:20am

You may wish to consider using the bottom tank as a sump to make maintenance easier.

This would also allow you to see your fish, which for many is more entertaining than TV.

Permalink Reply by Fishy McFisherson on July 21, 2012 at 10:03am

Good thinking Paul. We go through quite a bit of automotive vinyl at work (used for doing vehicle wraps, et cetera). Kevin, If you're not concerned about them being pretty I can get you some scraps to wrap the exposed surfaces of your tanks for free. If you'd prefer it to be more presentable I'll see how much it'll cost for enough new vinyl to do the job, and if you want it REALLY over the top, I can get you a quote for some custom printed wraps for your tanks.

Permalink Reply by Jon Parr on July 21, 2012 at 11:53am

Great find, indeed, but I think more suited to fish breeding than raft growing. I hate to be the pessimist, but I can't figure a way utilize the overflows without causing trouble with the rafts. First off floating rafts are not suitable, because the top cutout is smaller than the tank, and each overflow will flood the TOP of the raft, which is no good. A surface raft place on top of the tanks would work, but still would have to be elevated above the overflow, making a good 3-4" (or so?) of air space between the raft and the water. This would work if you had heavy aeration to humidify the air-space. The highest tank could be filled with media and used as a solids trap.

Permalink Reply by Paul Trudeau on July 21, 2012 at 1:38pm

I'e used contact paper from Home D or Target that way, works great. But Fishy's price is better!

Fishy McFisherson said:

Good thinking Paul. We go through quite a bit of automotive vinyl at work (used for doing vehicle wraps, et cetera). Kevin, If you're not concerned about them being pretty I can get you some scraps to wrap the exposed surfaces of your tanks for free. If you'd prefer it to be more presentable I'll see how much it'll cost for enough new vinyl to do the job, and if you want it REALLY over the top, I can get you a quote for some custom printed wraps for your tanks.

Permalink Reply by Kevin R. on July 21, 2012 at 3:29pm

Thanks everyone for the coments and suggestions. I will let you all know down the road what i come up with. busy weekend with birthday parties and the such so I wont have time to work on the tanks until early in the week.

Permalink Reply by Kevin R. on July 21, 2012 at 11:32pm

Volume on the tank below is approx 110-120 gallons

Fishy McFisherson said:

I, for one, think this was a great find. Since you have all the room underneath next to the fish tank, seems like a great place for some kind of solid waste separator prior to the rafts. My second thought, in conjunction with that, would be an up-flow fluidized bed filter for your bio conversion. With some forethought on packaging the components under the tanks this could be a pretty awesome (and efficient) little setup.

Again, great find, I look forward to seeing how this progresses!

What is the volume on the lower tank?