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▲ 30 r/aquaponics

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It all started months ago with a single-leaf variegated monster albo cutting. Then it mutated into an obsession independent of the source of its inception 🥲 (still very much obsessed with my monstera cutting)

Help me review my set up please. Any foreseeable mistakes and what should I do about them? Suggestions for improvement aesthetically, design/engineering, or planting tips?

Position is north facing on east coast Australia (cold but not freezing winters, scorching summers), but only a couple meters from a 2 storey building, so almost zero direct sunlight 🥲

Rubber mat underlay

200L fibreglass planter (hopefully) waterproofed and and sealed (60x60x60cm)

Zeolite coarse sand substrate

Pre-filter sponge + red scoria blockade, intake on the right against-wall corner

5000L/hr pump running at minimum capacity pumping water up to about 3m height

4 baby goldfish (2 fantails, 2 orandas) about 4cm each introduced about 3 weeks ago after 5 weeks cycling, currently being fed about 48hrly as temps are around 4-16 degrees Celsius (I have noticed they like to hang around the filter when they're not begging for food - is it for warmth? 🥲

Pond planted with milfoil, hornwort, elodia

Floating: water lettuce, sad remains of Amazon frogbit, sad remains of azolla ferns

Marginals: water iris, pink rolata

Covered with plastic mesh

About 60L of LECA in 20 vertical planters

A gazillion cuttings living off hopes and dreams (of the ones I can remember: orange jessamine, basil, spider plants, monstera, jasmine, climbing rose, tradescantia, pothos, Lilly pily, nasturtium, sage, spring onions)

Also looking to maybe add medaka, pond snails and crystal shrimp but I feel all of these need more hiding places otherwise I'm afraid the goldfish might decimate their population

u/bandaidbanditoken — 7 days ago
▲ 1 r/aquaponics

Is this off-grid pond-based system viable?

I live on a small homestead with no well and no connection to grid power. I am entirely reliant on rainwater collection for my water and solar panels for my power. Thus I am thinking that aquaponics could be a good way to grow crops while making better use of my limited water supply. I am planning to dig a ~3000 gallon pond, which I'm hoping can do triple duty as water storage, wildlife habitat, and the sump tank for an aquaponics system where I can grow peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, and leafy greens for myself and to sell for a little side cash. My goal is to be self-sufficient as much as possible and to require minimal outside inputs once the system is set up.

I have an 800 watt solar array with 4800 watt-hours of battery storage that I'm currently using as a backup for my main power system. I think it could be a good source to run my pond pump and aerator. I live in the Pacific Northwest, which means that I might get as little as 400 watt hours of power from these panels on the rainiest days in the winter. Because of that, I may not be able to run the pond pump 24/7/365, especially not if I want to cycle the pond once per hour. So my thinking is that I could just get small fish like white cloud minnows and mosquitofish that could survive occasional pump interruptions. These could provide nutrients to my plants. This system will be right next to a structure that will have 4950 gallons of water storage. In the summer, I'll be using this water storage for my in-ground crops, but in the winter, I can use this storage to occasionally do a water change on the pond. My thinking is that the rainiest days will provide very little power, so I may not be able to run the pump all day, but I can make up for that because the increased rainfall will mean more clean water entering the system.

I have experience with plumbing and gardening, but no experience with aquaponics. I have been trying to absorb as much information as possible from Rob Bob's and Hoochos, but there are considerable gaps in my knowledge. My tentative plan is as follows:

--> 3000 gallon sump pond with intake bay pumps into an IBC tote fish pond. Fish pond has an air pump running.

--> fish pond drains into an IBC tote radial flow settler

--> radial flow settler drains into moving bed biofilm reactor

--> moving bed biofilm rector drains into a bog filter made from 3 IBC totes, growing cattails and bullrush for filtration

--> bog filter drains into hydroponic beds

--> hydroponic beds drain into sump pond. Sump pond can have snails and aquatic plants like cattails, bullrush, wapato, and water chestnut for additional water cleaning.

I'm left with many questions though. If I'm not growing food in the winter, will the bog filter perennials alone be enough to filter out the fish waste? If the bog filter is big enough to filter out waste all year, will it eat up all the nutrients that my crops will need in summer? Would I be better off making rain gutter NFT beds, fill and drain media beds, or floating raft beds? Should I simply put my minnows in the sump pond so they can eat the algae and vegetation there, or would their population explode in summer to the point that they would consume all the pond's air in winter? With this unusual system, how do I size my grow beds? What can I do to make this system more resilient when I lose power? Is this way too big for a beginner and should I just start with a simple hydroponics system where I order and add the nutrients?

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u/Aimless_Alder — 9 days ago
▲ 10 r/aquaponics

I don't understand the physics of solid lifting overflow piping.

For context, I have two fish tanks, A and B, and a filter tank. I have set up SLO piping from fish tank B to A, and from A to filter tank. The thing is, the SLO seems to flow strong/well from fish tank B to A. But it flows weakly from fish tank A to filter tank. The diagrams are approximate illustrations of my setup. Any idea why?

u/Even_Ad6636 — 9 days ago
▲ 21 r/aquaponics+2 crossposts

Philip, Pablo, Tyrone and their garden

Hey y'all! I wasn't sure where to share this, but I wanted to show it off somewhere.

This tank is about 6 weeks in. It cycled almost immediately because I just stole a sponge filter from another tank. The tub above the tank is about 15 gallons, and the main tank itself is about 55 gallons, so the total water volume is around 70 gallons.

The water quality has been great so far: no ammonia, no nitrites, and less than 5 ppm nitrates despite heavy feeding.

I have two sponge filters, a canister filter, and a hang over the back filter. The 'peace lily garden' in the tub also probably helps with surface area for bacteria with all the clay balls.

I sort of expected the goldfish to eat the roots and plants but they seem fine so far.

Plants above the water:

  • Lemon tree
  • 5 pepper plants
  • 2 tomato plants
  • Peace lilies
  • Pothos
  • A variety of other plants

Plants in the tank:

  • Vallisneria
  • Java ferns
  • Hornwort
  • Salvinia
  • Water lettuce
  • Elodea
  • One plant I still don't recognize

I supplement with chelated iron, epsom salt, and an aquarium fertilizer.

Overall, I'm really happy with how it's turning out. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!

Usually, in a tank this size, I would expect 3–4 fancy goldfish to be the max. But if the water quality stays pristine and the plants keep thriving, I might add a few more once my current fish are a bit chonkier, or I might but rice fish or endlers in the top bucket.

u/Silent_Impression577 — 11 days ago
▲ 24 r/aquaponics

Idk what I’m doing

First time post. I traded an old 3D resin printer to a friend for this set up a couple of years ago. The Monsteras are two cuttings from my first plant when I originally joined the plant daddy world. I was able to design and print some net cup holders and modify someone else’s moss pole design to fit them. I also added Pothos and a Frydek (Don’t think it loves the situation). In the tank I just have 5 Zebra Danios. Honestly just posting to share and say Hello, but feel free to comment how I could improve this.

u/Independent-Onion615 — 10 days ago
▲ 1 r/aquaponics

Set up question!

Hello fish loving gardeners of reddit. I had a set up question. I was originally making a aquaponics system but I am not quiet sure if I need to do something different.

I was originally making it hyrdoponics but, i realized I could just connect it to his little man made pond instead. Do I just need to have a filter for the solid waste or do I need more?

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u/DiceTamer — 10 days ago
▲ 24 r/aquaponics

Struggling plants

I'm fairly new to aquaponics, and I'm still learning.

My plants did very well when I first set up the system, but now they are really struggling. The only plant that's survived is this nasturium, which did well at first but is not shriveling up.

I have about 15 bluegills in a 150 gallon stock tank that feeds the plants. The substrate is clay beads, and it circulates every 24 mins.

Any advice would be very welcomed!

u/crazy_trashpanda — 12 days ago
▲ 29 r/aquaponics

Rough around the edges but functional, also everything was free(except pump)

Far right is a clone/seadling table that pumps off solar from a 25 gallon tank independently . The main system is IBC Tote fish tank with 9 catfish about 2 lbs each and a handful of fingerling bass suspended at the top with a drop net. Solid lifting overflow (main tank) that goes to a solids settling tank (55gallon trash can). Then flows to both my cray fish (100gal constant height) and growbed that has a bell siphon. All 2” pvc gravity fed off of single 40 watt pump (3000 L/H) to my 100 gallon sump that’s buried in the ground for temperature retention. The main set up runs off 198 watt x2 solar and 100 watt wind turbine, with a 140 AH battery bank.

u/dr_greenguy — 12 days ago
▲ 8 r/aquaponics

Wondering why I don't see multi-level shelf setups like this; seems like it would save space in small greenhouses. Is it a bad idea for reasons I fail to comprehend?

u/Aimless_Alder — 13 days ago