Very interesting: what are your avg day/night temps?

I don't have any aquariums laying around, but I'd like to do an indoor system just to mess around with.

This picture I posted earlier:



Seems functional and would make a good display. The only concern I'd have is water control. If you pump water up to the grow bed and fill it until the siphon kicks in, your aquarium will drop by a noticeable amount.

The two ways I know of to remedy this problem:

1) Add a sump tank. The sump tank is just another water filled container added to the system. There are several ways to set one up, but the simplest is to have the grow beds drain into the fish tank, and have the fish tank overflow into the sump tank until it reaches the desired water level. Water is then pumped from the sump tank. This setup allows a constant water height in the fish tank.

Problems: An extra container is needed, and it's difficult to setup a pipe from the aquarium to the sump tank without drilling a hole somewhere. There is a no holes siphon that can be used, but I understand it is notoriously fickle.

2) Set up a constant flood system. In this setup, water is constantly pumped from the fish tank into the grow bed, and the grow bed constantly drains into the fish tank. In the grow bed, set a pipe up that drains an inch or two before the water reaches the top of the bedding material, and make sure the water always drains faster than water can be pumped in. Unless you like floods.

Conventional wisdom states that the water needs to drain from the media completely on a regular basis so the plant roots and bacteria get plenty of oxygen. I think this idea may be incorrect though, because I've seen discussions where constant flood systems do quite well if the water is well aerated.

Average temps this time of year are 60F/40F. In the summer, we're looking at 95/75ish. I'm more worried about the summer than the winter, tbh.

I was waiting for this question - but of course, if this were OOT it would have been the 2nd post -

this is cool - I look forward to regular updates and posts

RB

seems a little fishy to me.

Actually, it seems like a lot of work and a very cool project.

I like this method. I think mold avoidance would be the biggest problem, but if the flow of water is fast enough it wouldn't be an issue. Also, the constant draining of water from the plant bed to the fish tank would aerate the water enough IMO. Where are you finding info on the layers of the plant bed? I want to make sure the materials I'm using and depths for each layer are correct.

Mold shouldn't be an issue unless things turn anaerobic (I think), in which case your plants and bacteria will die anyway. Introducing a few composting worms to the grow bed also helps keep things fresh. Algal growth can be an issue, which is why you want the water level an inch or two underneath the rock/hydroton media, where light doesn't reach it but roots can. Algae growth within the fish tank can be combated through reducing direct light somehow, or using algae eating fish, or both.

Media: Most people use pea gravel or hydroton, which are clay balls. Hydroton is lighter, wicks water pretty well, but I think it can be difficult to find cheaply.



Link embedded in picture above.

The general consensus on media depth is 12". This is not a hard and fast rule, as people go deeper or shallower, but it's a good bench mark. This depth allows a couple of inches for a light barrier, 6 to 10 inches of nutrient deposits and root growth, and 2 to 4 inches of nutrient settlement at the bottom. Much less than 12" may start to impede root growth, and much more is just adding weight and expense for no reason.

Makes me think of the recent CSI episode.

I found an intro to aquaponics seminar < 10 minutes from me taking place tonight. Probably going to be full of smelly hippies but might prove useful. TR to follow.

Good deal. I wouldn't mind going to a seminar that I didn't have to drive 3 hours to get to.

I'll be posting interesting (to me) videos, articles, and discussions related to this topic as we go, especially since my system isn't really geared up and is pretty boring right now.

Here's one of the first articles I saw on the topic, and it's probably the reason I started looking into this at all:

An Urban Farmer Is Rewarded for His Dream

This urban farm was started by Will Allen, an ex-basketball player and the son of sharecroppers who, after retiring from basketball, wanted to get back to his farming roots. It's a really interesting story.

Video:

TR:

Turns out that the proprietor of the aquaponics supplier and consulting company is a startup by a guy that is a member of the home brew club that I was active in until my diagnosis last year when I had to stop drinking beer. It turned in to a very informative seminar for one.

He did the demo at one of a number of systems that he has set up. It is an indoor system and there was simply not a good vantage point to get a good picture of the whole thing, as it took up most of the room. It is 600 gallon, 3 level raft system growing greens and herbs. Tere are a couple dozen koi and maybe 10 channel cats in the bottom level, and a continuous pump running.



























This particular system provides live basil and lettuce for restaurants and farmer's markets.

We discussed other systems at some length and I can find out whatever you might want to know if I forgot to ask a question or can't explain something here.

They also really like the black soldier fly setup and will likely employ it in their first outdoor build next month.

Overall, it seems likely that I will be starting a system in the near future. They have offered to give me a few gallons of already cycled water to give me a headstart.

Pretty cool stuff, thanks INAR2

Great tr, crash. It'd be nice to have someone else to bounce questions or ideas off of, and it will be really good for you having someone local to talk to if you decide to do this.

I can't even try to explain what I'm doing around here, because no matter what I say, they're all, "Growing weed, eh?"

Luckily around here the growing weed part is simply assumed and we can move on to the rest of the discussion.

We were talking about aquarium systems earlier, and I ran across this:



(Credit to Gardenpool.com)

It's an interesting shelf system that allows a good deal of grow space with minimal fish tank volume required. Click the picture for the website. It's got instructions. It's got video. It slices, it dices, and.....I hope it works.