Ive been recently getting into the gardening/planters hobby. I am going to be setting up a 40 gallon breeder aquaponics set up for some fancy goldfish. I always loved fancy goldfish such as white capped orandas and red/white ryukins but i got bored of them quickly. I had always purchased the ones from petsmart and was never a fan of them. I found the american strain fancy goldfish are not as good looking as the asian ones (just my personal preference). Also at the time i also was never really knowledgable building my own filtration so i neglected them and they unfortunately passed away. I will be rekindling this affection for goldfish by getting some China Strain Goldfish for this 40 gallon breeder. I will have a 20 gallon sump on the bottom and an aquaponics DIY planterbox filled with ceramic media on the top. I will be posting pictures in the future when i finally begin the process. I will have 4-5 goldfish in this tank (i will upgrade them when it gets big enough for the office in a 75). I will be starting off with some easy gardening plants after some thurough research. Since my system will not be a flood/drain system but only a continuious flow, i decided on Bush string beans (yellow wax and green snap) and some spinach. it'll be a continunous flow but with clay media for the roots. I am still debating whether the sump should be a wet dry or full submerged. This tank will sit in front of my window. i will paint the bottom and the back of the aquarium so sunlight does not penetrate through and cause an algae bloom. I am not using this to lessen water changes. i will still be doing weekly water changes on this tank. The tank will be a low tech sump with overflow box and barebottom. at the same time the sump will have a heater to keep water at 70 degrees so the plant's roots will survive the lasting cold spring/winter days of NJ. the tank setup itself will be so that if the results are not to my liking i will just tear down the aquaponics system and think of a new idea for my outdoor pond. I will post pictures and make a thread here. any tips or suggestions are appreciated. criticism as well, i take it as experience. What i am most afraid of is eating the remains of my fish that my plants had absorbed... i am not talking about fish poop and nitrogen waste. im talking about the coloration chemicals in commerical aquarium food. Fish feed for farm raised fish do not have coloration additives... so i am very skeptical about it. I'll post some pictures of the building as well.
Jesse
Jesse
