Aquaponics

[Sill]

For anyone that just wants to give it a try or doesn't have much room there are ways to make a simple, almost free, miniature setup. Yeah it won't grow a ton, but it will give you an idea. All you need is a 10 gallon fish tank, goldfish, light, and your living room.
Example:
I have 2 - 3 inch long fish in a regular glass tank. I keep a cheap, hang on the side of the tank filter running to keep the water moving. I use a standard fluorescent shop light above the tank but a fish tank light would work too. I had the pink foam insulation stuff laying around, so I cut that to fit inside the tank on the surface of the water, then cut holes in it big enough for plant roots to hang through but not big enough that the whole plant falls through. I took some strawberries and some sage, removed the soil from the roots and shoved them in the holes. The roots hang down in the fish tank water and the foam floats on top keeping leaves, stem, fruit, etc from getting wet. The plants grow great, produce fruit, and need no care. I can keep it anywhere in the house that I would want a fish tank, can decorate with gravel, fun fish stuff, and use any type fish that I like, and it looks great, plus gives food. I had all materials already here, and threw it together in no time. It's obviously not my main aquaponics garden, but its a great, nice looking mini that I love.

Nice! An aquaponics system does not have to be big and elaborate. I saw one at someone's house and it was just a 55 gallon glass tank with three levels of pvc pipes above it and they were using just an aquarium pump for circulation. There was strawberries, basil and lettuce varieties and they were growing great in a sunny window between their kitchen and living room.

 

[scarecrw]

Pictures or it didn't happen. I have a ten gallon tank with goldfish and want to give it a try. Thanks

 

[rescueacres]

Pictures or it didn't happen. I have a ten gallon tank with goldfish and want to give it a try. Thanks

Search google for indoor mini aquaponics you'll see some great examples.
In this photo you'll see my pink foam insulation complete with algae growing on it ( cuz I am too busy to clean it off there) two strawberry plants, see the green strawberries growing? The water filter in the back circulating the water. Mine is not pretty right now but that's because other than throwing a worm to the fish every other day I'm not doing anything for it right now.

 

[lazy gardener]

rescueacres: I thought that the roots had to have periods where they weren't immersed in water. How long have you had your 10 gallon set up? Does the foam cover the entire surface area of the tank? I'm assuming that you have an open spot at least for feeding? How much of a fish load in the tank? Supplemental heat? Has it been operational long enough for you to get any harvest? Interesting. And, thankyou. I could certainly spare room for a 10 - 20 gallon tank in the livingroom. Perhaps that will be a good project for next winter.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
Well, I sure should have thought of fertilization failure as being a problem too, after all, it's exactly why I had to hand pollinate mine!

 

[rescueacres]

This one is a 20 gallon, has been running over a year, and yes we have harvested different items off it in the year +. Strawberries, sage, rosemary, peppers, and tomatoes (pear tomatoes). It is basically my spot that i throw whatever until i am ready to move it to a real grow bed. It is entirely thrown together, not scientific. There are 2 fish about 3 inches long in it, the roots are always submerged but the water is always moving. My full grow beds are gravel and the water is not constant in those. In this one the foam covers 3/4 of tge surface. No heat but if i had tropical fish in it i would heat it for them. Room temp is all it has now. You should have fun with it, if its just a mini one, dont stress about it, have fun, be creative and it will work.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
Excellent!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

rescueacres: I thought that the roots had to have periods where they weren't immersed in water. How long have you had your 10 gallon set up? Does the foam cover the entire surface area of the tank? I'm assuming that you have an open spot at least for feeding? How much of a fish load in the tank? Supplemental heat? Has it been operational long enough for you to get any harvest? Interesting. And, thankyou. I could certainly spare room for a 10 - 20 gallon tank in the livingroom. Perhaps that will be a good project for next winter.

I run a constant flow through my system. Here in the hot desert we found that the low water at the ebb of an ebb and flow system was stressful on the plants. They'd droop right over on hot days and then spring back with the new flow. It also caused the water to heat up much more during the day. Lots of things will grow with roots fully immersed, it really depends on the oxygen content of the water. We have tons of composting red worms (among other worm species) that live in the gravel beds as fully aquatic creatures. The oxygen content is high enough to keep them alive and they help with the fish waste and dead plant decomposition.

 

[Sill]

Pictures or it didn't happen. I have a ten gallon tank with goldfish and want to give it a try. Thanks

Sorry, the system belonged to a guy we got some of our tilapia from. He wasn't too friendly a fellow so I won't be going there for a pic.

rescueacres: I thought that the roots had to have periods where they weren't immersed in water. How long have you had your 10 gallon set up? Does the foam cover the entire surface area of the tank? I'm assuming that you have an open spot at least for feeding? How much of a fish load in the tank? Supplemental heat? Has it been operational long enough for you to get any harvest? Interesting. And, thankyou. I could certainly spare room for a 10 - 20 gallon tank in the livingroom. Perhaps that will be a good project for next winter.

Gallo is right, as long as the roots have well-oxygenated water they will grow well. If the water isn't oxygenated enough the roots will start to rot. That being said some plants do better than others with their roots immersed in water. Generally root crops like onions, beets and carrots are not well suited but things like herbs, tomatoes, lettuce and strawberries thrive. Sometimes just a pump might create enough oxygen in the water, but air stones are a big help if it seems the roots are not abundant enough.

LG you will have to play around with your system to see how much of a load of plants will work with your fish, and it will change as your fish grow, or with how much you feed them as well as how many plants you are growing and the size of your vegetation areas. It really would be a great project for winter in snowy areas. A little bit of spring indoors!

Supplemental heat will depend on the type of fish (tilapia need warmer temps than trout, perch or goldfish) and how fast you want your plants to grow. The warmer it is the faster the plants will grow, AND the more oxygen you will need in the water as the plants' metabolism will be using it up quicker.

 

[Sill]

Finally got to work on the "small" trial sized aquaponics system. Got the 375 gallon IBC cut.



Still not sure about the layout. Was going to go for the smaller footprint but the IBC is so big it will be hard for me to reach the growbed. Will probably not get to have it stacked.