Concept

[Timbo_Slice]

Alright so this is a concept of a setup I have been considering building. I have in the last couple years been looking at a method of fish / vegetable farming where they use the fish water to fertilize the vegetables and the vegetables or whatever plant is growing filters the water quite effectively. This method is called aquaponics. recently my wife and I have been talking about purchasing a blue tongue skink and I have also been wanting to set up a tank with an aquaponics filter but we have limited space so this is what I'm thinking.so what's happening here is the fish tank water will gravity feed down into the sump (I'm not sure if i want to put media in the sump?) from the sup it will be pumped up to the aquaponics filter. It will flow through the aquaponics and come out hopefully sparkling clean down into the skink enclsure. The skink enclosure will have a drain set for about 1 inch and about 3 inches of gravel for it to flow through which will also act as another filter and bedding on top of that. what i want to do is have it so that i just dig away a low spot for the skinks water source but i am wanting to be sure that this won't just kill it. and from the skink enclosure it will all go back to the fish tank and start again. I want feed back to see how to make this work.

 

[xraycer]

You want skink pooped water going into the fish tank?

I would reversed that: fish tank water into skink tank

 

[xraycer]

I believe reptiles are potential carriers of E.coli, so not sure if that would be something you want in a vegetable garden for human consumption. As far as I know, plants don't filter out E.coli or any bacteria

 

[Kogo]

There seem to be a lot of places where clogging may occur and add maintenance problems. Ive set up a few aquaponic systems and having easily accessible drains was always a plus. You also mentioned saving space, but this seems like a very tall system. If the plan is to have this indoors, you will need room for grow lights and plant growth before hitting the ceiling... if it is inside or outside, you still have issues with reaching and maintaining the grow bed. I'm not suggesting that these things are deal breakers, but simply conceptual considerations.

 

[Timbo_Slice]

Guys that is awesome feed back. For sure stuff to concider. I will look into the E.coli, I thought I had E,coli only came from warm blooded animals. As far as space goes I have a wall that's about 5 and a half feet wide and a little over 8 feet tall that I can put thus system on so that is why I designed it to be kind tall. It will for sure take some figuring to get the lights in. I was thinking of using T5s. Logo do you have any suggestion on ways to avoid clogs in an aqua phonics system? Or where to put drains? Thanks again for the feed back guys this is very much a concept at this point, when I do it I want it to work.

 

[xraycer]

Oops sorry, I meant salmonella not Ecoli

 

[Timbo_Slice]

Oops sorry, I meant salmonella not Ecoli

Alright will look into salmonella

 

[Chad55]

You will cause too much humidity for the skink. Great concept but you may want to rethink your choice of animals.

 

[Timbo_Slice]

You will cause too much humidity for the skink. Great concept but you may want to rethink your choice of animals.

I actually was not to concerned about humidity because I live in a very dry area. Bellow is a video of my current tank, when I turn off the mister it stays at 40% humidity even with a water fall. I could be wrong though

 

[Islandpaddler]

I would just bypass the skink enclosure. Blue Tongues need water for the occasional drink and "swim", but not much. They will occasionally defalcate in their water and a dish that can be removed and cleaned is best. Also they enjoy borrowing into the substrate so any water underneath it will cause problems (plus mould etc growing in the substrate).

BT's great pets and are surprisingly interactive and enjoy human company if they are handled from young. If you are thinking of getting one go for it but there are no advantages with flowing water in the tank.