Aquaponics Rocks

[Papa Legba]

I have an established tropical tank, I took some gravel and a cup of water from to seed the new tank. Currently, I am starting new mothers from rooted babies in 3 gallon pots filled with perilite. I am hand watering them with fish water from the established tank. All of my flowering ladies are in soil.
the way my system is set up is, 10 gallon coldwater tank on the floor with bio wheel filter. I intend to pump water 1 hour out of 3 to the plants (unless there's a better way to do it) with drip lines to 4 mothers that drain directly back to the tank via hose 14 inches below. I wanted to keep it fairly simple.
Will I get faster growth if the pump runs continuously? I believe that is what dwc implies. Also with those 1:2:4 ratios I've seen in this thread, does my added bio-filtration change the amount of medium used in the ratio? Thanks

 

[RM - aquagrower]

having other tanks sure helps. nothing like "bacteria on demand".

if you're looking to get fast growth, i'd do a scaled down "bio-bucket" type system and use your 10 gal tank as the rez. my system shares a lot of the same concepts, and growth is explosive.

if you're looking for simple, ya could go with a F&D over the tank. a guy back at OG had a set up like that for his cloning/veg system.

i've never messed with perlite, so i can't be of much help there, but i'm pretty sure Ship was doing a hand watered perlite grow a while back with great results.

with you using a bio wheel, ya could cut back on the bio-medium a bit, but ya don't have to. i've always been of the opinion that too much bio-filtration is just right.

 

[Papa Legba]

I have my system up and running with four clones in place. As soon as the babies take hold and start growing I am going to add more fish to boost my nitrogen. I looked into that bio-bucket system but it takes up more space than I have for this project. Also the one foot waterfall required for aeration seemed a little noisy to be running constantly. I would like to see it in action though.

If I have good results with my aquaponics mother/veg room. I think I may run an upgraded version in my flower room too. I love the concept of aquaponics, I just wish I could put something in my fish tank that would shit phosphorus so I can make sure my flowering plants are eating right.

RM looks like the buds your growing are pretty nice though. Do you supplement during flower?

 

[RM - aquagrower]

not really. i've got a jug of both PB grow and bloom on stand by in the off chance the girls are missing something. have not had to add anything for quite a while tho. keep in mind tho that it can take up to 6 months before your bacteria colony reach their full potential.

as for phosphorus, there is a little bit in the fish food i use (omega one) for the goldfish.

another idea i've been kicking around is to cultivate algie (in a sepperate tank) and feed this to algie eaters already in the system.

on a related note my red tailed cat, now well over a foot, ate my 8" pleco! the bastard.

 

[Trev]

hey guys, just finished up my flower cab and got a nice 10 gallon fish tank sittin up top, ready to load the fishies in, goin to pick up your standard goldfish, fan tails and black moors. how would i go about making this aquaponic, i do have glass drill bits and some plexi and apoxy to turn a corner into a flood drain. the corner turned into a cube if you will, that when water reaches a certain level it will spill over and flow down into my rez then a powerhead will pump it from my rez back up to the tank. continuously. my box is only 32 inches high, 20 inches wide, and a foot deep. ive done 2 crops in this box and countless others in random places. so i guess im established grower. looking to go all natural. i have a plant in there right now, with about a month left on the flower, and 8 more babies in there im gunna finish out before i plan to introduce the aqua, i think that will give time for the tank to mature.

anything im missing?

are my fish good? any suggestions on or personal favorites in the fish department? that have worked well for you. keep in mind, only a 10 gal tank, only lookin to support 1 -2 plant max.

fish food, what do yuo suggest? i have standard goldfish food right now. the flakes. anf pellets. anything else i might need?

im here to learn, SO teach away elders. haha. read the thread back at OG and ive been itchin to try it ever since.

wont be easy but im sure yall can help me out.

 

[RM - aquagrower]

taking the plunge, huh?

sounds like ya got a good plan. doing a top fed swc with some floros? 32" seems a little short, but sounds like ya got that handled.

cheap goldfish work pretty good. they could probably live in a mud puddle. i give them omega 1 flake food. i get it at a large chain pet store. stay away from the "goldfish crisps" as they will color the water and stain the roots with high feeding rates.i would recomend the largest sized feeders as they are usually a bit healthier. and did i mention that they're cheap?

PL,
how how the clones doing?

 

[Trev]

RM-a, thanks for the help bro, atleast i know im on track now. 32 inches does seem a little short, but when yuh look at it in person, its actually quite tall. and i could take another 10 inches off and it wouldnt affect my grow any. i scrog em nice keep em short.

i just checked the brand of my fish food and what do yuh know. OMEGA, odd but good.

 

[Papa Legba]

My little ones are doing good. They were starting to look a little ragged waiting for the tank to cycle and for me to set up the plumbing. I was a little worried about them but they responded to the fish water well. I've been feeding them 15 minutes an hour and they are starting to grow fast now. My Purple Kush I just got is looking lovely and so are my other young mommas.
I got some more large feeder goldfish and a few rosy red minnows for my tank. everything is looking healthy and happy. Now all I need is a little time for the bacteria to colonize my fresh perilite and everything should be beautiful.

I like the algae idea. I was reading a few recipes for home made fish food on the internet. They were mostly ground fish and shrimp with some vegetables and vitamins in a gelatin base. That made me wonder if there was a way I could make a customized food for my fish that was specific for aquaponics. Maybe a food for veg and 1 for flower. Also the gelatin might be a good way to give the fish your home cultured algae without risking an outbreak. Now that I think about it agar may be even better to use than gelatin, Its a gelatin like extract from sea weed. What do you think?

Sorry to hear about your pleco. Did the catfish swallow that poor guy whole? I wonder what made him do it?

once things get a little bigger I'll post some pics

 

[Me2]

Hi Guys
Great thread you got going here.
I`ve tried aquaponics in the past with reasonable results considering the simplicity of the setup (only growing normal chilli plants though)
It`s good to see pioneers like yourselves spreading the word and pushing the boundaries.

It`ll be interesting watch and enjoy your progress.

 

[The Budfather]

hello i have asked before about using my turtle water as a nute solution in plain ole dwc. i dont really like going to the hydro store and im setting up for a dwc. i have an aligator snapping turtle who eats i would say about 4 pounds of fish a month, i have a very strong filter in his tank which keeps the water moving ALOT i believe its a 150 gallon pump in a 55 gallon tank,is because Aligator snapping turtles are messy creatures. so here are my questions

i havent chaged that turtle water in something like two years so id imagine what kinda bacteria are in their although this could be a problem the water is constantly moving in the tank and the water is crystal clear with flecks of all sorts of fish matter no green or stagnant water. i would think beneficial bacteria have to be high in their because my turtle thrives pretty well althought fish dont hehe if ya get what i mean if i stir up the gravel bed the water ebcomes clouded a bit, the turtle is a nasty lil fucker so i dont do that that often. what are your thoughts on the beneficial and harmful bacteria in the tank?

could i just use the turtle water in my dwc and just every week add the water into my res and then add the water that the plants had been using back into the turtle tank? would this be possible? i would be using a very strong pump to circulate water in my dwc.

would pure turtle water be too strong? remember there is a juvenile aligator snapping turtle about 8" in diameter and alot of fish.

so i think that would be good i also have enzymes that i would want to add Earthjuicegrowth catalyst is the one is this safe for animals?
if not i dont think i would add it.
is ir good to get a biofilter for my filter?

do i really need a recirculation setup if my water inside my rez is be moved by a 20 gallon pump in a 5gallon rez?i could even throw in a power head for more circ

what should my ph be?

what is my maximum temp level?

should i expect any bud my first run, being a newb to hydro and aquaponics, not to growing tho lol


what kinda of nutes should i have on hand(purely organic, preferably dry so i can buy in bulk)

is hydroton ok?

5 gallon bucket with a 20 gallon pump sound ok? i can go higher on pump if need be or a power head aswell.

how well do you think aquaponics would do with some of my more finicky strains like nycd?
i hope i covered everything, thanx for the help to whom ever

 

[HinduKushed_423]

my question is why do you guys not use crushed coral to balance Ph ? it works great for fish tanks , i just have no first hand experience with it in aqua, but i have read that these kinda systems lack in calcium, so i think it would be a good thing , but ya do not wanna over do it

 

[The Budfather]

i checked the ppms in my turtle tank thye seem to be around 2130 im not sure what the ec is or anything else, does this sound ok?

 

[HinduKushed_423]

well that kinda ppm seems high i would not think ya would need ppm much over 1200ppm imo.

my idea thanks to this thread and previous interest in aquaponics is a Continuous Recirculating SWC hooked to the ol 45 gallon tank. does that seem doable?

 

[RM - aquagrower]

hey ya'll,

Budfather,
i don't know for sure if turtles will work or not. ain't never kept any turtles before. there was a thread on OG discussing it and some folks were saying that salmonella could be a problem.

as for your bacteria colony, ya can dip a (fish tank) test strip and see what your nitrate levels are. if you've got nitrates, then ya got a good bacteria colony going. when establishing a new system it's the nitrite levels that ya need to be concerned with. when they hit zero (then the nitrate levels will start to rise) you've got a good BB colony going.

ppm's of 2130, wow. ya used a reg ppm meter to get that number? that number, at first glance, seems real high, but if ya hook your tank to a dwc (or swc) recirc system, you'll easily double the amount of water in the entire system, thus 1/2ing the ppm's.

i usually keep mine between 1100-1500.

 

[RM - aquagrower]

sorry, had company pop in and counld't finish that last post.

Hindu,
in short, yeah, that'll work. Simply put, all ya have to do is hook a grow system to a fish tank. They need not necessarily recirculate together all the time.

I'll check out your build thread.

 

[Me2]

No turtles here either but i`d say it should be possible. The only issues i can see are the solid waste from a turtle would be a lot heavier and take longer to break down. Fish excrete waste directly into the water through the gills pretty much 24/7 where a turtle doesn`t?
That 2130ppm is pretty high, but if nothing is using the nitrates except algae perhaps then they will accumulate, especially if you don`t do regular partial water changes.

My tanks are usually around 1000-1400 on the meter but in reality a ppm reading means very little. A nitrate test kit is much more useful, my nitrates usually hover around the 60-80 mark, ph is always around 6.8.
Your 2130 reading might equate to nitrate levels of 160-200.
I guess the main thing after water quality/filtration etc is diet.. most of what goes in should eventually become available to the plants in one form or another so a varied diet is ultimately better.

Give it a go using expendable plants as a test run.. then you`ve nothing to lose.

 

[RM - aquagrower]

my question is why do you guys not use crushed coral to balance Ph ? it works great for fish tanks , i just have no first hand experience with it in aqua, but i have read that these kinda systems lack in calcium, so i think it would be a good thing , but ya do not wanna over do it

never tried crushed coral, but i have used a sack of sea shells to add a bit KH to things. boiled them first to kill any nasties.

 

[RM - aquagrower]

ME2,
ya bring up a very interesting point of discussion.

at this time i'm basically using my tank as "source water" for the grow system. the plants use enough water to satisfy my (fish tank) "water change requirements" , so no need to recirc water back to the main (show) tank. just top off the grow system with water from the tank, and top off the tank with tap (about 220 ppm).

in a perfect world, the plants use all they get, but my worry is that the plants probably ain't using quite every thing they're getting, and somthing is inevitably gonna build up. what will build up? that's the $64 question.

 

[Me2]

Hi RM
I`d say whatever is most abundant, usually the nitrates. You can feed less to reduce it, do partial water changes or increase the amount of plants.
I wouldn`t worry about it unless it is seriously high which will threaten the health of the fish.
Nature will usually find a way to utilise any excess, with an algae bloom etc even with plants in the system.

 

[Guest]

You might have run across this before, but some good info.
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/