Fish Folk Posted July 11, 2021 Share Posted July 11, 2021 (edited) I’m going to officially blame this journal on my sister. She keeps asking me about doing aquaponics with my aquariums. I’ve nibbled at it here and there... read this and that... but never really tried it. If I were to cast a vision, I’d like to imagine at least 3x of my larger tanks with space available above them designed as aquaponic setups. Very basic concept: Nitrates produced at the end of the nitrogen cycle get used to fuel indoor plant growth of herbs, vegetables, fruit, and flowers. While one way to do this would be in a sump — a tank-filter beneath an aquarium — another way is to build it above with a flow through / trickle down filter. In the sump design, you drill a tank, drain water down, and then pump it back up... (e.g. Joel / Corvus Oscen) Ornamental aquarium plants can be grown, but in theory, so could plants more ordinarily found in a garden. A trickle down system reverses the placement, leaving hydroponic plants above with water pumped up out of the tank and returned down. Its much easier to imagine with a large, outdoor fish farm (e.g. Dexter’s World, Philippines)... But I’ve seen lots of info on doing this indoors too (e.g. “One More Cast” YouTube channel) My sister has been telling me I should try this. Then, the other day at Lowe’s, this employee was helping me find Osmocote in the Garden Center and started going on and on about Aquaponics. SO! This is going to be a slow journal. I’m going to invite anyone who does this to jump on board, and flex their NERM. I’m a total novice with the idea. There’s a sense in which, with a setup like my 55 gal here, I’m already doing this by growing pothos from out of two HOBs in my 55 gal. I could change out the lights / or the bulbs to achieve better plant growth. But on the whole, this is the closest thing I’ve got to what I’m imagining. Now, last year, I divided a 33 gal long with sponges for breeding guppies in a school classroom. This got me musing on “matten” concepts of filtration. What if I placed sponges like these near the outside edges of tanks, leaving several inches space on either side for pump up and return? If I took out the large sponge filters already in there, and just made sponge walls on either side, I wouldn’t be losing much area, but could create a space where the pump out and return don’t majorly interfere with aquarium livestock. I’m going to let this idea simmer... watch a ton of YouTube videos, see if any NERMs flex science on me... and come back to this journal bit by bit. Edited July 11, 2021 by Fish Folk 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted July 11, 2021 Share Posted July 11, 2021 It’s easier than you might think!!! I’ve made a bunch of planted overhead sumps, plastic window planter boxes are a great shape and fairly cheap off Amazon - I use those with a bulkhead on one side to return water to the tank, and either a power head or canister filter return to pump water up into the boxes. Personally I like using a mix of lava rock gravel & flourite as substrate/root media because it doesn’t float like leca does, and then it’s just a matter of adding plants. I’ve had good luck with a wide variety of houseplants, emersed forms of aquarium plants, basil, mint, and a few others - although mint takes over VERY quickly and tends to choke everything else out. You got this! There are a lot of videos on YouTube about building above-tank sumps, then it’s just a matter of building something tailored more to plants than to actual “filtration”. Although the amount of substrate media & plants do provide a whole lot of filtration at the end of the day. I would also look into the effects of water conditioner on plants grown for consumption - when I started doing this years ago the internet warned that certain types of conditioners would build up in plants to levels that can become toxic when consumed by humans, but I don’t remember anything more specific than that. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!! 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted July 20, 2021 Author Share Posted July 20, 2021 Just drew up a “concept sketch” for a family member. Thought I’d share… 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eatyourpeas Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 That is a great setup! I just got a friend who is into aquaponics set up a planted aquarium to incorporate some critters. Matten filters are the best. I think running two panels of filter per wall will allow you to lift the outer one for cleaning without risking anyone getting sucked in by the filter. Then you just shift the inner layer to the outside and put the clean one on the inside. That, of course, is if you have the real estate. 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 I’m going to try a half-hearted version of that, sticking a tomato plant (roots rinsed) into an aquarium. We’ll see what happens! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
castiel Posted February 26, 2023 Share Posted February 26, 2023 On 2/21/2023 at 11:24 AM, TheSwissAquarist said: I’m going to try a half-hearted version of that, sticking a tomato plant (roots rinsed) into an aquarium. We’ll see what happens! if you put it over an airstone it should help promote it to grow new water roots, a lot of houseplant people who keep plants in water have found using an air stone improves root growth expressly when transitioning plants over. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted May 27, 2023 Author Share Posted May 27, 2023 So I met a guy. Genius inventor! Turns out we’re virtually neighbors. He’s got a few patents pending on this aquaponics system. He 3D-printed me a prototype for my 20-long, and encouraged me to take photos, share feedback. I’ve signed an NDA, so I can’t get _too specific_ but… I now want one for every tank I own 😂 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torrey Posted May 27, 2023 Share Posted May 27, 2023 That looks infinitely nicer than the DIY PVC models I help people build! On 5/27/2023 at 3:33 PM, Fish Folk said: So I met a guy. Genius inventor! Turns out we’re virtually neighbors. He’s got a few patents pending on this aquaponics system. He 3D-printed me a prototype for my 20-long, and encouraged me to take photos, share feedback. I’ve signed an NDA, so I can’t get _too specific_ but… I now want one for every tank I own 😂 Seriously, looking good @Fish Folk!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odd Duck Posted May 28, 2023 Share Posted May 28, 2023 Looks very nice! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted May 28, 2023 Share Posted May 28, 2023 On 5/27/2023 at 11:33 PM, Fish Folk said: So I met a guy. Genius inventor! Turns out we’re virtually neighbors. He’s got a few patents pending on this aquaponics system. He 3D-printed me a prototype for my 20-long, and encouraged me to take photos, share feedback. I’ve signed an NDA, so I can’t get _too specific_ but… I now want one for every tank I own 😂 So cool! Is he retailing them yet? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted May 28, 2023 Author Share Posted May 28, 2023 On 5/28/2023 at 3:28 AM, TheSwissAquarist said: So cool! Is he retailing them yet? Not yet. Still in design phase. US Patents take awhile to get approved. Once the design is finalized / optimized, then it goes to the next phase. Production is hard to get down to a marketable level. Unfortunately, building in USA would raise costs so much that profitability would atrophy. Asia and Central America have cornered the production source on most goods mass-produced and sold here anymore. Funny fact: the designer is an engineer, mostly experienced with medical equipment design. He built some MRI equipment for use on animals. Only since COVID (ca. 2020), when his kids caught fish in the stream and wanted to bring them home, he just designed this system. It is a comprehensive aquarium filtration design. It adds flow, bio filtration, uptaking nitrate to feed plants. It’s particularly excellent if you overstock your aquarium like I do. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted June 2, 2023 Author Share Posted June 2, 2023 (edited) I’m photographing these plants daily, amazed at their growth. I love these Petunias, as a color-accent to the whole rack. Here’s a sequence of photos of just one flower… Edited June 2, 2023 by Fish Folk 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted October 3, 2023 Author Share Posted October 3, 2023 (edited) After some trial and error, I am very pleased with my Aquaponics system… Bamboo, Basil, Oregano, Rosemary. I add some Flourish, and no longer feed any unrinsed BBS. Salt destroys this sort of aquaponics system. Edited October 3, 2023 by Fish Folk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted October 3, 2023 Share Posted October 3, 2023 What sort of fish are you keeping in the tank underneath? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted October 3, 2023 Author Share Posted October 3, 2023 On 10/3/2023 at 1:44 AM, TheSwissAquarist said: What sort of fish are you keeping in the tank underneath? Swordtails, 2x Bluefin Killifish, and one random Sand Goby… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted October 3, 2023 Share Posted October 3, 2023 Maybe you should try adding plecos for the extra waste factor? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted December 17, 2023 Author Share Posted December 17, 2023 I’m going to link this video to two threads (live foods, and Aquaponics). I am very happy that this 10-gal is so well purposed right now… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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