Hey Everybody,
So I did get my aquaponic system set up and I wanted to share some pictures and the basic design for you. It’s a simple design. KISS, keep it simple stupid. Eventually I will probably add to it. This is just my experimental system. This fall I hope to have a 10×12 greenhouse with a larger aquaponic system running inside of it.
Basics of this design
It is really simple, water is pumped up into 2 grow beds. As these fill up, the water drains out 2 flood drains back into the water tank. As the water falls, it mixes air back into the water tank, giving the fish something to breath. As an extra precaution, I did add a small air line. Pretty short description, but it is just that simple. Water goes up, fills bed, overflow runs back down to tank and the cycle goes on and on 24/7.
The grow beds are never full of water. I must say that. The majority of the water is actually in the lower half, but it does wick moisture up into the upper levels of the tank.
After these pictures I added 10 goldfish. I am guessing I can add more, a total of at least 30. For fish like tilapia they grow 1 per gallon of water, so I”m using this same idea. I think I have close to 30 gallons of water in the tank, so that means 30 goldfish.
What I will grow?
Well I’m thinking of a few heads of lettuce, green onions, cucumbers, and pepper plants. Its a small system, but all those that I’ve seen grow so much in small amount of space. I could probably get 4 lettuce heads, 1 cucumber, 2 peppers, and 8-12 onion plants based off of this design. Now I’ll grow the cucumbers vertically, and keep the lettuce picked so it doesn’t overgrow the space. Onions can be harvested every few weeks, leaving the peppers taking up the most space and yet thats still not much.
The pictures.
Here is the set up.
A better shot.
Inside the tank.
In total I used these parts.
I used rubbermaid containers that I already owned. My wife wasn’t too happy about me stealing the ones for the grow beds. :) I’m not sure of the total size of the fish tank, but looking around at lowes I figured it was about a 35 gallon tub. A similar one there was priced at $10. I’ve seen long skinny boxes just like the ones I used as the grow beds, only these boxes are about the same size as both of mine at walmart for around $10.
I bought 2 bags of river rock at just over $3 a bag, and 2 bags of pebbles for just under $3.50 a bag
10 ft section of pipe was 1.30, fittings where about $0.30 a piece.
The pump is a 100-155 gph fountain pump which I bought at lowes for $25.
I got the air pump and light from an aquarium that my parents had in their garage. Speaking of that, if you have an old aquarium, you can use that if you want to try this at home.
So there you have it,
Josh
