Aquaponics

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pasco1102

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 13, 2012
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Anybody ever try or even think about trying aquaponics on there monster tank. I thinking about trying it with a sump with just bio media and then running the plants on top will a bell siphon on top straight back into the tank. Let me know what you think

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078.jpg

below is when it was first set up
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there are also plants growing in the back of the main tank, but the light is not as good, so doesn't work as well.
Water is fed to the aquaponics tank from a line from the sump.
@ types of lettuce and water cress so far, the main tank has lettuce, pothos and avocado.
 
cloudy water isn't a guaranteed problem in an aquaponics setup. There are ways to prevent discoloration... PH generally falls because anytime you have decaying plant matter you get more acidic water thus lower PH. In an aquaponics system you can effectively hold your water around neutral without much effort. But, I digress. Yes tehre are a few of us running aquaponics setups on this forum. I have a thread in the setup and filtration section, there is also a thread on using plants as the sole filtration on tanks (well kind of).

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?448952-Vermiponics-Fish-Plants-and-Worms
 
Oughtsix said:
I always though that it wasn't Aquaponics if you you don't eat the plants and the fish????

So I figure it is just plant filtration.
Click to expand...

Nah, loads of people use ornamental fish for the aquaponics setups... mainly people who live in colder climates, they use koi, etc.. As for the plants I use both house plants and harvestable plants. Aquaponics is just a term they invented to describe using fish in the place of ferts for hydroponics. the benefit is that you can eat everything you raise....
 
i heard you need to have the same volume in plants as you do water for it to be a stable system the bigger the tank the more plants :)
 
volume really depends on the number/density of fish you have. for instance, if you have 20 juvenile tilapia (common with aquaponics) you don't need as large of a growbed as you would with 20 adults. There are volume calculators made for just this purpose on several aquaponics sites. In aquaponics plant density is increased because you don't need soil.. this means that you can have a larger number of plants in a smaller area.. I am currently running a 6 square foot growbed with houseplants and 4 juvenile central american cichlids. I could increase my density quite a lot if i were to go with tilapia or koi or even bluegill as they do well and grow well in very dense populations. If i were to do that i would increase my growbed volume.. probably close to 12 to 16 square feet (8 inches deep with expanded clay media) and plant some tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, etc.. right now, my house plants do well enough to deal with my juvies.
 
I looked at homedepot and lowes and i could not find the clay balls...where can i buy the clay at

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