Aquaponic Gardening

A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Aquaponics For Beginners

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Aquaponics For Beginners

This is a place where Beginners can post questions and find answers.

Advanced Users are welcome to help the Beginners out.

Please KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) .

Members: 672
Latest Activity: Feb 2, 2019

Discussion Forum

A few fish for sale or good home

Started by Linda Logan. Last reply by Linda Logan Feb 2, 2019. 1 Reply

I need to shut down my indoor system for a few months. I have 2 mature Shubunkin, 1 albino Hypostomus to clean the aquarium. There is another small fish living in the sump.I live in SE Portland and…Continue

Aquaponics system as filter for swimming pool

Started by John Wilson. Last reply by Wade J Rochelle Jan 25, 2019. 3 Replies

Hi all, we've just purchased a property with a large indoor swimming pool. Around 80,000L with a greenhouse roof and plenty of room around it for grow beds. However, this is far too big for us to…Continue

Not for human consumption!?

Started by Nichelle Hubley. Last reply by Nichelle Hubley Jun 30, 2015. 7 Replies

Well, I think I messed up big time. I've been feeding my precious tilapia koi food (I like in a small place and it was all I could get... :( ) for about 2 months and last night I read on the back of…Continue

Help!! Help !!! with new filtration and set-up.

Started by Henrique Miguel. Last reply by Wayne Mcbryde May 14, 2015. 2 Replies

Hi,I have a set up of 2 55 gal  blue barrel with Tilapia and  guppies separate.   I have young ones and they are growing well. Issue of overcrowding and feeding. 1. I would like to use a water…Continue

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Comment by Brigitte Gigi Klotzek-Obringer on November 18, 2013 at 11:43am
Thanks for the heads up Robert! We just went to look at them yesterday. Did you use them with media or as a raft system? We are in the brainstorming and pricing phase right now. We were given an ibc tote but might not be able to get it through the door:-( we are in Ohio so we are planning for this to be indoors on the sun porch. we are thinking about vertical towers like zip grows over the mixing tray to collect the water and maybe be a raft bed before going back to the fish tank...still working the ideas out.
Comment by Jim Fisk on November 18, 2013 at 10:48am

Don't forget my personal favorite, the IBC. If you have the space and a few tools it is hard to beat and done right it is easy and in my opinion can be quite attractive. Availability at good prices does seem to vary quite a bit based upon location. I just PU another 330 gal beauty for 40.00. (Easy to find if you are not in a hurry like when I was starting out) Great for FTs or GBs. My 5 FTs are the highest and the ibc GBs are about the height of the aforementioned TS feeders and my ibc sump is below grade. That way you are pumping clear water and all fish waste flows down hill by gravity thru the gbs and back to the sump. The gbs are at a very comfortable height for working on the veggies as well.

Comment by Robert Rowe on November 18, 2013 at 10:47am

@Brigitte - Save your money the cement mixing trays will tear with little stress. I have about 6 of them in the trash heap.

Comment by Brigitte Gigi Klotzek-Obringer on November 18, 2013 at 9:28am
Hi Jim! We were looking into those as well. They also sell just the liner without the stand for half the price. They also have the 5' length. The only down side may be the depth. We are also looking into the large cement mixing trays which are sturdy and only $13 each. We figured that we would be building a frame either way so these were the cheaper options thus far:-)
Comment by Jim Fisk on November 18, 2013 at 8:52am

This might be of interest to people starting out and coming up with growbeds. Tractor Supply has these on sale right now for 10.00 off (109.00) and they are extremely well built and 10' long. Considering one myself for putting together a portable system.

Comment by William Kohut on November 18, 2013 at 5:56am

What do you use for grow beds? I would like to go the Diy route(cheaper)

Comment by TCLynx on October 20, 2013 at 3:52pm

One step at a time Leo, Do what you can.

I can appreciate lack of funds and only doing what you can with what you have at the time.

Good Luck with it.

Comment by Leo White Bear on October 20, 2013 at 3:30pm

TC-

  I do believe that is what I stated, I only omitted the depth of the water in the constant flow.  I am utilizing half barrels for the medium base "filter" with the drainage exit 4" above the bottom.  I am aware that the consensis is to have 12" of medium but I have had great success with a lot less depth.

  The water flow will reach 1/2 the depth of the height of the medium being sure that there will be no flooding or over flow.  and will enter the medium through two manifolds making sure the full length of the medium is saturated for good bacteria moisture.  Capillary action will keep the medium moist within a few inches of the surface, as long as there is no wind to dry the medium it should work.  I haven't built this system yet as I don't yet have a greenhouse to do it in.  Wisconsin has very cold winter weather for 6 - 7 months so I will do the build in the spring.  I will keep you posted on the results.

 

  If you remember, I an building a 14-unit IBC set up in what was to be a heated barn but due to lack of funds it will continue next spring.  At the moment we are working on the electrical system and next year the heating system, but fo now, it has to be shut down for the winter.

Comment by TCLynx on October 20, 2013 at 1:44pm

Leo, if you are going to run constant flow, but not flood and drain, I would recommend doing constant flood (at least have the bed partially flooded even if not all the way up to 2" from the surface) since only having a thin trickle of water in the bottom of a media bed doesn't really provide much filtration either.  There is plenty of evidence that Constant flow/flood does work (as long as you keep the surface of the media basically dry and don't have so much flow through it that you are sliming up the media causing the water to flow over the surface.

Appropriate stocking for the amount of filtration is still important.

Comment by Leo White Bear on October 20, 2013 at 11:25am

The only other system design combine two or more various designs such as NFT with media base units.  I utilized both system designs for the past years (in seperate units) only to find that I didn't have enough filtration for my NFT.  I will be adding a media base design constant flow (not flood) before the water reaches the grow troughs.  I know the media design will filter the solids and give larger plants like tomatoes, okra and corn a better root base holding them upright and the NFT will be best for my herbacious plants like lettuce, basil, and sage.

 

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