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> How and when should I start up the system and then when after that should I add tilapia and plants?

You should add plants after you get the system into a starting location and have been running the system for a 3-4 weeks. while adding either raw urine or pure concentrations of ammonia daily to the running water. The ideal is to have the nitrite/nitrate cycle stable before adding fish.


> > I'm in USDA zone 7a. People are already planting soil gardens here but I'm guessing our night temperatures aren't quite warm enough for tilapia yet.

Depends upon the breed of tilapia. Blue tilapia can easily live in 40+ degree water. They won't grow very quickly but its surviavable.

> I've heard various recommendations to get the bacteria going: add chemical ammonia and let it run for a while, add disposable minnows or fish and let it cycle with them for a while, or add pond water which will already contain bacteria. I do have a large, healthy pond on my property with many fish so I have easy access to pond water, minnows, bluegill, crawfish, and tadpoles. I'm ok with losing pond fish as the system balances itself but I'll be buying the tilapia from a supplier so I'd rather have the system stable and safe before I add them.
What chemical levels will I need to monitor? What testing kit do I need and where should I get it? Is there a good one on Amazon?

Get the master aquarium testing kit. petco has them and amazon.http://www.amazon.com/API-Freshwater-Master-Test-Kit/dp/B000255NCI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458229467&sr=8-1&keywords=master+aquarium. test for ammonia, nitrites, nitratesm and PH. If you have hundreds of dollars get the oxygen meter too. http://www.amazon.com/Hanna-Instruments-HI9147-04-Water-Resistant-Aquaculture/dp/B0085X2GZ6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1458229571&sr=8-2&keywords=dissolved+oxygen+meter

>What kind of fish food and where should I get it?

Feed your self real food from whole ingrediants and feed the scraps to the fish. NO HOTDOGS. course tilapia will eat almost anything. but the main thing to concentrate on is... are you wanting a heavy harvest of fish?

>How many tilapia for this system? I'm hoping to stock them small and then harvest them at the end of the growing season.

Well, thats a 300 gallon system tank. A realatively safe level would be if you stock for aprox 1 pound of fish per 5 gallons of water. 60 pounds of fish at the end of the season, depending on growth.

>What easy to grow, hard to kill plants would you recommend for a beginner in zone 7a? We like full-sized tomatoes, jalapeño peppers, poblano peppers, zucchini, strawberries, and squash if they're not to difficult. If they are I'll probably skip them for the first year. I'm open to suggestions on whatever's easy!

The fruiting stuff will need a couple ounces of phosphorus and potassium added to the media beds. you should consider dual-root zone aquaponics. It allows for amendments to be added to the root zone of the plant instead of indiscriminately to the system.

>The person I got the system from ran it without any aeration aside from the natural splashing as water runs into the growbeds, fish tanks, and sump tanks. Think I'll be ok with this or should I add an aerator?

You will be ok like this most likely... But growth of tilapia follows the 1-1-1 guideline. 1 pound of feed plus 1 pound of oxygen grown for 1 year equals 1 pound. More oxygen will allow the quick growth that your interested in.

>What you have here is a cycle that's not complete. I know this can take a while (I actually just finished having my students run an experiment cycling tanks over a similar timespan, and not all the tanks finished the cycle). There's all the necessary bacteria there, they just haven't grown enough yet to process all the ammonia.

Phew! Good to know that this is probably incomplete cycling and not something else.

>You could change about half the water, but time and more plants are your best allies here.

I'll be patient and keep taking readings

>9 plant seedlings aren't going to eat all those nitrates, so that's why those levels are so high. Encouraging plant growth and adding some more plants will help. What's your lighting like? That's a mistake I've made before. You can also add more plants into your gravel to help get things rolling...pothos vines are a classic aquarist trick. Or just jam a ton more seedlings/seeds in there so they are crowded in. You can always weed out the spares later as some get bigger. And make sure they have enough light to grow...plants that aren't growing won't take up many nutrients.

I'll get to planting then! I have this LED light by the way.

>You are good, bacteria are tough. A bit of tap won't hurt them.

Thank heavens.

>It's almost never a good idea to screw around with pH. Just leave it be.
>
>Really, the best thing you can do is wait. I know it sucks to not have fish but at least you should be able to grow plants in there! So wait, but focus on getting good, healthy, vigorous plant growth. Once that's in place you should be good to go on the fish side of things.

Sounds good. I'm glad to hear this is a watch and wait situation.

Thanks for all your help!

I have a system similar to what you're describing, I posted it a while back here.

I have changed things recently, and maybe I can share with you some of the mistakes I made so you can avoid them. Firstly, you want a way to divide your flow and control it with ball valves. This is a great cheap pump on amazon. I know it seems like the gallons per hour are high, and with a small system that becomes an issue. If flow is too disruptive in your tank, your fish aren't happy. If flow is too high in your tiny grow bed, your plants aren't happy. I split the flow from my pump to divert some of it to two media beds and a third directly back into my tank. The splitting system was made of PVC and ball valves. It was the only way to reduce the flow rate so it wasn't crazy disruptive. A timer only costs about 10 USD and 15 min intervals really do help, even for an ornamental tank. I'd also recommend a bell siphon just because they're cool and can be made small. It helps your roots breathe.


I have aggressive filtration; small systems are very delicate and temperamental. Having lots of physical and biological filtration helps with this. I have an under gravel filter and also made a small canister filter that I run the water through before the media bed; you can make one out of anything water-tight. This provides a bit more water for your system and more aggressive filtration. Mine is full of filter mesh and bucky balls. I found that without this pre-filter, my media was getting disgusting within a few months.


My cheap fluorescent light worked like crap. You just can't grow things with anything but a good window or a good grow light. Amazon occasionally has great deals on lights, like this one. The T5's are great for little indoor systems.


Using clear acrylic tubing was stupid. It ended up with so much growth it gummed up everything. It also leaked like crazy everywhere even with hose clamps because it wasn't really made for any pressure. Use cheap black vinyl pond tubing like this. It's made specifically for this purpose and doesn't cost much more.


Heating a small system like this is a pain in the ass. I had a heater that was rated for 30 gallons, a heater in my canister, and it still couldn't keep up. Because there's so little water, as your water recirculates, it cools to room temp quickly. This makes your fish have to deal with constant temp fluctuations, which is stressful for them. You can get expensive line heaters on top of a heater for each tank, keep the room your tank is in at 24 degrees C, or just use cold water fish. I'd recommend the latter unless you have a good budget.


Finally, you still want to follow the general rules of aquarium keeping. Cichlids have no business in a 10 gallon tank, its way too small for them. Also an ideal pH for plants is ~6.8, so you need fish that are pH tolerant. I'm a little more lenient about goldfish and personally feel you can put 1-2 in a 10 gallon if you know how to keep your water chemistry happy. Goldfish police in this sub will tell you otherwise. That's up to your own opinion and research. Many people like to plant their ornamental AP tank, which is fine as long as they don't suck up all the nutrients and leave your herbs with nothing. I got rid of that second tank up top because I was naively hoping to use it as a little DWC area, but it became more hassle than it was worth for 4 net cups. I now have a 10 gallon tote, which is about the size you would want for your growbed as well. Fill it as high as you can to give your plants maximum root space.

I have some recent experience with a micro aquaponics setup. I was asked to discuss aquaponics at a community preparedness fair about 5 months ago, and I wanted to be able to show off a small-scale system to give people a visual explanation of aquaponics.

I used a 5-gallon water bottle, like you might find in the water cooler at your office. I cut the top of the bottle off and turned it into a growing tray for my clay media. The bottom of the bottle became the fish tank. Here's an image from the blueprints I handed out. The system was great to show off aquaponics, but I didn't love it afterwards.

So here's what I learned:

• The old maxim used in aquaponics that says "The more water in your system, the more stable it will be" is absolutely correct. My system had so little water in it that there was no buffer, and the whole system could be thrown out of balance very quickly. My total system size was about 3.5 gallons.
  
• I had 2 koi-style goldfish in my micro system, and that was too much. Those guys get big quickly.
  
• It took so long to get the nitrogen cycle right that I killed a lot of plants at first. I was growing herbs like basil, lemon balm, mint and ornamental peppers. I managed to kill all of of them within 2 weeks because there just wasn't enough food for the plants in that little system. I could have gotten around this if I'd run the system for a few weeks with some liquid fertilizer (like Maxicrop/SeaSol) however it turns water black very quickly and I needed the system to show off at the fair, so I skipped that. But my advice is to run it with a few drops of that without fish for a week before adding any plants. You might need to cycle out a portion of that water before adding fish, too.
  
• I was clearly growing too many plants, but once again that was for show at the fair. The plants were definitely nutrient-starved for a long time.
  
• I would say "test your water" to get the nitrogen balance right, but it is so volatile with that small amount of water that it didn't help me at all.
  
• The fish did great, despite all the trouble I had with the plants. I decommissioned the system 2 weeks ago and moved the fish to a proper fish tank. There was a period there where my pH levels got out of whack and I had to replace water in the system for fear of hurting the fish, but I probably could have left them in somewhat dirty water and they would have done fine. I'm like you, though - I wanted the fish to be happy and healthy.
  
• I found that the traditional 15 minutes-per-hour flood/drain system was way too much water for my plants and grow media combination. 15 minutes per every 2 hours probably worked better for me.
  
  What I would do differently if I did it again:
  
  
• Stick to 1 goldfish or betta instead of 2.
  
• Use smaller grow media. I used hydroton/expanded clay pebbles, but that was very big given how small the growing tray was. In a system as small as the one you describe, I'd probably stick to plain old fish tank rocks. The plant roots would be able to penetrate that just fine and it would look better in an ornamental system.
  
• Like you, I'd look for a plant that did better with shallow roots. I think most herbs would work OK, but I would need to find something better than what I used (which was all for looks). I don't think an inch of growing media will work for any plant - try at least 3.
  
• As mentioned before, I would run the system with a few drops of liquid fertilizer for a few days to establish the bacteria better before adding plants, and then run it for a few weeks before adding fish.
  
• I would consider buying a system rather than building one. I can suggest a few places that do it better than I could, and when costs were all considered at the end of my project their systems would last longer and be prettier than anything I built myself.
  
  I think you should consider trying to make a system no smaller than 4 gallons, for a few reasons. First, balancing the system is near impossible with that little amount of water. Just the amount you lose to evaporation will throw the system out of balance. And Second, the fish needs a fair bit of water to swim. When you flood and drain the system, you're removing a fair percentage of water from the fish tank, and you can't risk your fish's life each time by removing so much of that water.
  
  Let me know if I can answer any other questions for you!
  

I'm really close to having my first setup cycled based on those same tanks (although in 70 gallon for the fish and 50 for the gb). I'm really happy with them. A couple things to know about them:

• The drain plug at the bottom of the 70+ gallon tanks (the 50 doesn't have a drain) might need some tightening to fully prevent any leaks. Mine took quite a bit. I gave up on it and accepted the leak, then it seated itself and stopped. Weird.
  
• They flex and deform more than you'd think. So make sure your grow bed is well supported if it's raised.
  
  I used Grow Stones as my medium. More expensive but for a small system I figured it was worth it. Since they're made of recycled bottles they fit nicely with the resource minimization goals that most AP practitioners have. They're nice and light and very porous but need extensive rinsing/soaking to get the calcium carbonate off them, which will throw off your pH.
  
  In my limited experience so far, here's what I've learned and/or would have done differently:
  
  
• Avoid anything that will alter your pH. Test your grow medium to know what will happen.
  
• Avoid anything that will leach chemicals in to the system. Recycled HDPE, as much as you'd like to use it, is of unknown origin and might leach. I figured it was safer not to use the recycled stuff.
  
• Avoid metals. According to various aquarium forums, they will eventually harm your fish, even stainless steel.
  
• Do a fishless cycle. Don't listen to what your aquarium store tells you.
  
• When you add fish, quarantine them for 2 weeks so you can treat any diseases they come with (and many of them will) with whatever toxic slurry works best. Then when they're nice and healthy, add to your system for real. Be prepared for a bunch of water changes, but you can set up a quarantine tank for about $40 with a rubbermaid bin, a heater, air stone, and one of these for good measure: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000SP65N8/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  Hope that helps. If I'm wrong on any of this I'd love to know about it!

You're probably not going to find real quantifiable data like that because there are so many factors including growth media and I'm not sure it scales up and down linearly.

I have:

• a 10 gallon tank; with two goldfish; a water jet; airstones; automated feeders; and an eheim filter- supporting two house plants
  Imgur (left side)
  
  
• another 4l0L (10 gallon) with two or three yoyo loaches (rescued); a panda catfish; and an algae eater- that supports a large windowsill planter of growth media holding mint/shisou/thai basil and has a eheim filter for extra biomass and 2 water jets; airstones in the tank and biomass area; and an automated feeder
  Imgur (middle)
  
  
• Finally an outside setup with 150 gallon tub with 5 goldfish (rescued) that runs through PVC pipe with about 10 net baskets with heads of lettuce and an automated koi-pond outdoor feeder.
  imgur
  
  These are all stable systems that have lasted about two years a piece
  
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Issues of any cruelty aside- this is fine as a starter/intro and you'll find that you'll likely want to upgrade as things work out- mostly because small systems are a lot harder to take care of.
  
  The thing with goldfish is that they put out a lot of ammonia (so in a small tank ammonia poisoning might be a thing) and the size of the container tends to cap their growth. But I wouldn't sweat the fish thing too much because a few of them might die due to the tank being new (although goldfish are extremely hearty) sketchy source: http://www.firsttankguide.net/newtanksyndrome.php
  
  It's hard to tell you straight away about how many fish etc because this aquarium system looks fresh and not yet cycled- ie. your aquarium probably doesn't have it's fill of microscopic plant life living in it and in the growth bed material you are using. Be aware you'll likely need to treat the new water you add into the tank. (chlorine remover etc) and that adding new water will have a relatively large effect on your tank due to it being compact. sketchy source: http://nippyfish.net/2009/05/27/cycling-a-small-aquarium/
  
  This means that you'll need to watch the amount of food you feed your fish carefully.
  
  100 grams of fish food will generally support about one square meter of plant life.
  sketchy source: http://www.doityourself.com/stry/aquaponics-knowing-the-fish-to-plant-ratio
  
  The great thing about what you are doing (cycling, establishing your grow bed as a bio filter) is that if you start a new tank, you'll be able to use this water and material to start out a larger tank faster (largely what you did by getting some of their gravel).
  
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Nice tips/ways to scale up or automate things to make your life easier:
  
  
• Petco often has dollar-per-gallon sales and there's usually tons of tanks on craigslist etc if/when you decide to scale up.
  
  
• Automatic feeders make the process less hands on:
  ie. http://www.amazon.com/Automatic-Fish-Feeder-AquaChef-Batteries/dp/B004249KFG
  
  
• A water pump to run the fish water through the growth media might do your tank very well and are quite cheap, this one is 8usd: http://www.amazon.com/Patuoxun-Submersible-Aquarium-Fountain-Hydroponic/dp/B00EU74MJY/
  
  
• Additional biomass:
  
  
• This filter (15usd) might add a little additional biomass, which makes your aquarium a little larger and helps breakdown the ammonia etc: http://www.amazon.com/TM1250-Aquarium-Internal-Power-Filter/dp/B00176GKM8/
  
  or
  
  
• (25usd) http://www.amazon.com/Aquarium-Rapids-Canister-hang---tank/dp/B000YJ0M1E/
  
  
• Again waterflow (helps with algae) then something like this is about 9 usd: http://www.amazon.com/Submersible-Circulation-Maker-Water-Aquarium/dp/B009YEEW2K/
  
  Note: most of these links are sketchy- just conveying ideas in an easy to read/digestible format.
  
  

Save your money for a bit and try something like this

http://www.japan-aquaponics.com/micro-aquaponics-plans.html


It will give both your wife and you a chance to learn how AP really works AND because of how small it is, you'll learn about a lot of problems faster ( balancing fish to plant density, fighting PH, etc ).

If you have a sunny spot, that micro system will cost MAXIMUM $150-180. If you don't have a sunny spot, lighting varies but I would recommend some variety of fluorescent ( or compact fluorescent ) fixture ( $100-120 ). If you google for aquaponic starter kits, they start sometimes @ $3000 and thats for a small one with a lot of things missing still ( media, chemicals, fish, plumbing, etc ).

edit:
Also, a very good overview of Aquaponics is this book by Sylvia Bernstein - http://smile.amazon.com/Aquaponic-Gardening-Step---Step-Vegetables/dp/086571701X/ref=asap_B005RENDS0_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413895720&sr=1-1

It's a good foundation that goes over major parts of AP ( fish, plants, water testing, media, etc ). Two things I disagree with:

• A lot of people recommend against using feeder goldfish. I love them because they're insanely cheap, extremely hardy, and they pack on weight fairly decently so you get some validation that they're developing well. Downside is that if they do survive, they can live for 10 years and they can get a little big
  
  
• A lot of people suggest starting with a 250 gallon system. That's a lot of money, even if you build almost everything yourself, to invest in something you don't really know anything about. Dr. Wilson Lennard somewhat sums things up in answering "What's the biggest threat to building an “Aquaponics Industry” as you see it?" - http://www.ecofilms.com.au/dr-wilson-lennard-on-the-future-of-aquaponics/
  
  
  Three things a home or small farm AP system can provide for you: 3 (maybe 4) seasons of plant growth ( coldweatheraquaponics.com has some great idea's for surviving Zone 4 winters ), fish dinners every few months ( if you stagger your population out ), and once you get to a certain size a system to produce fertilizer for conventional farming ( or for wicking beds ).
  

The blog is mine. I'm not quite sure I understand your points, so please respond. :)

>Frequent cycling water isn't just for the plants, but to filter fish waste solids and chemicals to help keep the fish healthy.

>Why make a single filtering job with one electrical item into a two-filter job with multiple electrical points?

The filter will be running constantly to filter the waste, build biofiltration, and keep the fish healthy. I'm spending less on grow media, so the cost of the filter is almost covered by savings on excess grow media (net cost is $20 if I only buy 25 gallons of media instead of 50). The electricity consumption may be slightly higher, but I think the pro's of being able to move the plants, spend less on media, and have a more stable biofilter will negate the additional cost of electricity to run the filter. The hydroponic guy suggested that using a grow bed will not be as effective as using a filter for the bioload. He suggested that as the growbed fills with water and then drains, any part of the grow bed that dries will not have bacteria, only the moist parts.

The point of NOT using a completely filled grow bed is to allow me to move the plants around, facilitate cleaning the grow bed, and cut down on how much grow media I need. The timer won't use the same amount of electricity as a constantly running pump.

The filter is necessary because the water isn't running directly onto the grow media. Using the grow media as a filter still requires cleaning out the grow bed and the sediment at least once a year. This will be much easier with this design.

I'm new to aquaponics, so I'm learning. I've read Sylvia Bernstein's book on Aquaponic Gardening from front to back, so I know all the suggestions and rules of thumb. I'm suggesting a better way to do things based on advice from a hydroponics expert with a little aquaponics knowledge.

I can still return the filter if need be, but please do respond so I can figure out what design I want to go with. I'm not suggesting that I know more than you, but this is what I know. That's why the header of my blog says "sharing my learning experiences with aquaponics." I come to this community for knowledge, and to share my experiences.

They're selling you a blackbox education package and some weirdo modular farm for $2500. You have no idea what you're getting in either. All I can tell you is this:

A 200 sq ft system (including everything) cannot feed 8 people. 1,100 lbs of vegetables and 400 lbs of tilapia won't feed 8 people, and that's what they claim their system makes. Average people eat 4.5-5 lbs of food in a day on average, meaning 1652-1825 lbs per year per human. A system that produces 1500 lbs won't even feed one person, but they say it right there:

>This one module will feed 8 people FOREVER

That's a lie. Even on their inflated estimates of how much food they produce, that's an outright lie.

Another thing I know: This system does not include fish tanks. Fish tanks are the most expensive part of every build I've ever done, and this system asks that you provide your own. This system does not include filtering tanks, either, which will run you another good bit of change. Potentially most importantly, This system does not include fish. Food-fish are hard to source, and you'll have to source your own.

And to add insult to injury, this system does not include grow medium or PVC. You are paying over a thousand dollars a unit at the the lowest prices (which you can only get at huge volumes, over 50 units) for grow beds, a patented water pump, two air pumps (for no reason, one air pump works just as well), two air stones, tubing, a patented electrical panel, worm castings, mineral dust, and a list of all the other shit you'll have to buy.

Let's price this out:

• Grow Beds - they're not using box beds, they appear in the pictures to be using black pvc sheeting, like for ponds. 250 ft sq - $150
  
• Water Pump - Dr Nate from Bright Agrotech says moving all of your system volume once every two hours is okay. if you have an 8 inch deep grow bed filled to 2 inches below the top of the medium in a medium that takes 60% of the space in the container that would be roughly 320 gallons, so you need to move roughly 160 gallons an hour, and you'll probably want to move them three feet up. So using Pondmaster pumps (a pretty solid brand I see in heavy use) you'd use the Pondmaster mag Drive 3 - $65
  
• Air pumps - fuck it, use whatever. If it won't kill aquarium fish, it won't kill aquaponic fish This looks like insane overkill, let's buy two, then add air tubing and a fistful of junctions and Four of these air stones and call it a day (I measured NOTHING and I don't regret it, everything I picked was probably insane overkill) for a grand total of $125 for the air setup.
  
• A patented electrical panel? We'll use a surge protector. $10 if we're fancy here.
  
• A pound of worm castings - $6
  
• Two pounds of Azomite Mineral Dust - $12
  
  And the grand total is: $368 for everything they offer, minus the list of other things you'll have to buy.
  
  Hope that list is worth $600+ in your mind.
  
  Seriously though, just go watch all of Bright Agrotech's videos five or seven times apiece to get the science and then read here to figure out what kind of system you want. I just spent fifteen minutes and saved you over a thousand dollars setting up your system. Imagine what you can do in a couple hours.

The most important rule about pumps: there is no such thing as a "xxxx gpm/gph" pump. For every pump, flow is dependent on resistance (or back pressure). So you need to know both in order to select a pump successfully.

So, Back pressure - also called head - think resistance

This has two components:

• static resistance: this comes from the vertical height you have to overcome. This is the 8' you listed.
  
  
• friction or dynamic resistance: this is a tough component because it depends on the length of pipe used, size if pipe, and flow. And since it is flow dependent that makes it dynamic.
  
  In general, I recommend taking the static height and adding at minimum 5' to that for the dynamic head.
  
  Now you have an effective height that your pump will work against.
  
  
  Next you need to determine how much flow is required. I've always been told between you want to move your total system volume between 1-2 times an hour. So my philosophy is to pick 2 times an hour, and if I messed up my resistance part then I have some wiggle room to make sure I end up with at least 1 time an hour.
  
  So given all of that you want to find a pump that can move 400 gph (gallons per hour) at a height of roughly 13'.
  
  
  Now, neither of the pumps you linked to have any kind of flow chart, which is a red flag in my book. Any pump manufacturer worth the purchase should publish this and make it easy to find.
  
  For example, this pump shows for all their models what the flow is at various heights (last picture). Find a pump that shows this information. Unfortunately this brand doesn't have one large enough for you.
  
  They also show the power consumed. This is measured in watts. You want to compare pumps in either watts or Horsepower. 1 horsepower is roughly 750 watts.
  
  The hz your mention has to do with where you live. Generally the US has 60hz and Europe has 50hz power. Some devices may only be designed to work on one or the other.

I have found with aquaponics that it is all about experimentation still. It's a new growing method in wide use so it's still not very widely written about. I would steer you away from a float bed and say if you are going to do that to use a board and a modified ebb and flow as foam is expensive and limits gas exchange in the water (needed for life). Just do the same as a float bed but use plywood you put on top of your tray with holes for your baskets. Use a high water bell syphon. I have found for growth media just use hydroton for everything in various sizes. I haven't gone wrong and have had success with everything from leafy greens to cucumbers and tomatoes.

If you are starting from seed I would suggest starting with rockwool (grodan). It makes life so much easier and no mess to clean off the roots before you put into your system. you just pluck up your growing seedling after the roots erupt and drop it straight into the hydroton.
Anyhow, Enjoy

Edit: Forgot also there is this... a MUST read HERE

Do yourself a favor and get this book. It will tell you everything about how aquaponics works to include EVERYTHING scientific behind it. This was the first book I purchased and I read it front to back twice before I even thought about starting a system. Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/086571701X?cache=ef0e54c7d28c493923004a32aae3b4a2#ref=mp_s_a_1_1&qid=1393886769&sr=8-1

YouTube is great, however, a lot of YouTube videos are just showing systems, not the guts or science. Again, if you want to know the science behind it, find "Bright Agrotech" on YouTube. The guy deals with large aquaponics daily and dumbs it down for the novice.

Lastly, if you can't find what you're looking, ask here! We're here to help just as others have helped us in the past. But read that book seriously! It will answer 98% of your questions.

Good luck!

There is a ton of information on this subreddit! Takes a little bit of digging with the search function, but it's out there.

There is more information than you can imagine for free out on the internet. I believe that if you're paying money to learn about aquaponics, then you're getting ripped off. The exception to this is perhaps a book or two, such as this one.

This site has the basics covered.

This forum has an incredible amount of knowledge, run by people from all around the world who have years and years of experience running aquaponic systems.

Good luck in your hunt!

Difference in W looks like 36 versus 650. Is that a measure of the effectiveness of a grow light?

What do you think of this http://www.amazon.com/Galaxyhydro-Greenhouse-Indoor-Hydroponic-Lighting/dp/B00PH1MQV8 -- it looks like an older model so that might be a dumping price.


What do you think about a more concentrated source like this http://www.amazon.com/dp/B016NT1JO2?psc=1 versus an array like this http://www.amazon.com/MOKOQI%C2%AE-Advanced-Spectrum-Hydroponic-Growing/dp/B016NT1L36 in terms of effectiveness?


Is there no possible (practical) way to take something like this http://www.amazon.com/Geeetech-LED-Matrix-8x8-Display/dp/B007ZK4I10 and set the brightness very high and use that as a grow light?

I read Aquaponic Gardening by Sylvia Bernstein (https://www.amazon.com/Aquaponic-Gardening-Step-Step-Vegetables/dp/086571701X) before starting a small hobby system. It's not geared towards the science or business side but I thought it was good. It does have info on sizing, building, choosing fish, cycling and maintaining a system. You can find all that and more in the links people shared but the book is a good coherent baseline to start a small system.

That is supper helpful. So probably something more like this instead, correct? I'm simply searching for 'food safe bin' on amazon. I don't 100% know the correct terminology, but I think I've found something I'm happy with.

$25 is a lot of money for a bulkhead. I just bought three of these bulkheads on Amazon. They are outstanding quality and well worth the ~$7. ~$9.

Even Sam was amazed at the quality!

Edit: Wrong dollar value.

I have the one your looking at and a 4 lamp T-5HO, I like the T-5 a lot. The bulb replacements for the first are like $70, T-5 are like $8 a peace. This is what I use http://www.amazon.com/EnviroGro-4Ft-Tube-Fixture-Bulbs-FLT44/dp/B005H1C7NA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1397239752&sr=8-3&keywords=t5+grow+lights

The tldr of it is that you feed fish and they produce ammonia waste. You need to have enough media (gravel, hydroton, etc) to support enough bacteria to convert the ammonia before it kills your fish. Ammonia is extremely toxic to fish so any detectable level of ammonia will cause stress, disease, and eventually death.

The bacteria converts the ammonia to nitrIte and then eventually nitrAte. NitrIte is toxic to fish as well but not as toxic as ammonia. NitrAte is what the plants consume so this is where another aspect comes into play. Too much nitrAte is...you guessed it...also toxic to fish. This means you need to have enough plants to keep your nitrAte in check.

So it becomes kind of a dance to get the right balance in your system.

You absolutely will need this test kit and in the beginning you will need to be testing the water every day. You will eventually get extremely good at it.

My advice to you is to start small. By a 20 gallon fish tank and cycle it for 30 days. Add 1 fish and do a Styrofoam floating raft with plants on top. This will do a few things. First, it will make sure you actually want to get involved in aquaponics. Second, it will make sure you kill the least amount of fish. I haven't met a single person who hasn't killed fish in their system. It's going to happen. At least this way you get the hang of it and get a better understanding of how it all works on a smaller scale.

http://www.amazon.com/Aquaponic-Gardening-Step-By-Step-Vegetables-Together/dp/086571701X this book is an awesome introduction to every aspect you need to worry about. also check out Murray Hallam on youtube. he's the Aussie aquaponics guru. If you want to do it in new england there are several options. either do it inside with supplemental lighting or you can do it in a greenhouse. you just have to realise that growth of both the fish and the plants will slow down considerably in colder temps. and you must select fish and plants that will do well in the colder environment. most people do Tilapia because they are idiot proof and tasty. but they won't do well in cold water. trout would be a much better option and salad greens, especially spinach, taste better when they're grown in colder conditions.

Depends on what type of learner you are. Do your prefer hands on work (tacit) or reading from books (explicit)? If you prefer tacit try building a small system from scratch and find out what works and what doesn't. Experience is the best teacher in my opinion. If you prefer the other method start with http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/086571701X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1373268569&sr=1-1&pi=SL160_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-dp,TopRight,12,-18_SH30_OU01_AA160 If you have problems along the way we are here to help! :)

I recommend an LED grow light for indoor use... You can get 165W or 300W lights for about the same price as the metal halide light the previous guy suggested, and it won't produce any noticeable heat, as it is LEDs.

This is a Chinese made light, but I use them to great effect...

Galaxyhydro LED Grow Light,300W Indoor Plant Grow Lights Full Spectrum with UV&IR for Veg and Flower https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PH1MQV8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_N6pkzb32J33Y6

I bought this book and it has so much useful information that you will need to know. You could find all the info online, but when it is all in one place it makes it so much better. Best $20 I've spent so far.

I'd say head toward solar + batteries (or even just a battery array charged from your normal home power supply). I've done a lot of thinking about the same requirements because I also have frequent outages where I live

A storage tank would work, but only for a short time. Most AP systems at your scale use a 300-900 GPH air pump, but from http://www.binks.com/resources/tip-of-the-week/how-much-compressed-air-is-stored-in-a-storage-tank
> If you have an 80 gallon tank pressurized to 150 psi, the tank would store about
> 880 gallons of air. This is typical of a two stage compressor. A single stage 30 gallon
> compressor common to the big box stores usually maxes out about 110 psi and
> would hold about 300 gallons of free air.
It just wouldn't deliver what you need for long enough unless you scale up a ton.

You'd need something like 1300 AH of battery capacity assuming the following

-a 24 hour power outage

-an air pump that uses 30w 0.3amp 120v (e.g., https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002JLJC0W)

-constant 24 hour usage of that air pump

-no recharge opportunity (no solar panels/generator or worst case cloudy/snowing)

Back of envelope estimations done using https://www.batterystuff.com/kb/tools/calculator-sizing-a-battery-to-a-load.html and https://www.batterystuff.com/kb/tools/ac-to-dc-amperage-conversion-run-through-an-inverter.html

Runtime gets much better if you use a timer to run on a cyclical basis, if you assume solar panels are available during the day, etc

Aloha, and welcome! I would start with either Bernstein's book Aquaponic Gardening and/or Small-scale Aquaponic Food Production (free option). You will get a better start from either of these resources.

This book is like an aquaponic bible: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/086571701X/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Highly recommend it! It should have everything you need to know to get started.

I personally started with mosquito fish and a few koi. I originally had an issue with mosquitos because the water had been sitting a while before I got my system going. I buy this organic food off of Amazon. While the fish were young and after I got some tilapia fry I crushed up the pellets. Now when I feed them they go crazy almost jumping out of the water.

I'm still really new to aquaponics but I would like to eventually do duckweed as well. Unfortunately since this is my first time I have nothing to compare it to but it's organic and easy to obtain.

Edit: fixed link

I was thinking of getting fans like these:
Lasko clip fan 6 inch or West point 4 inch
My growbed is 15 in by 18 in. What do you think?

The API freshwater test kit is probably your best bet. It will test ammonia, pH, nitrates and nitrites. The strips aren't nearly as accurate.
https://www.amazon.com/API-Freshwater-Master-Test-Kit/dp/B000255NCI

Try Maxicrop. My plants love it, and the fish don't seem to mind.

https://www.amazon.com/Maxicrop-Liquid-Seaweed-Kelp-Extract/dp/B000COBUQC/

The Aquaponics Farmer, Southern & King. A very detailed explanation on how to build and operate a medium scale greenhouse operation. The best I have seen so far.
https://www.amazon.com/Aquaponic-Farmer-Complete-Operating-Commercial/dp/086571858X/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=086571858X&pd_rd_r=T27CK6946SAD3MRXRHXC&pd_rd_w=YXa6x&pd_rd_wg=Q15aK&psc=1&refRID=T27CK6946SAD3MRXRHXC

This book was recommended by a friend when I first got started.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/086571701X/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_NQDAwbGSANCPC

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Bernstein's book was my first one.

Some of the information/rules of thumb are a bit iffy, from what I'm told, but it's a good start, and you'll have edible plants.

Sylvia Bernstein's Aquaponic Gardening is a lovely primer.

I have a similar product from Amazon, and it has been quite satisfactory https://www.amazon.com/Titan-Controls-Repeat-Single-Outlet/dp/B01F60UKLW/ however the on-time scale does not correspond to the actual on-time that is produced - you have to calibrate yourself. Not a big deal.

I also use a siphon in the system: the pump gradually fills a "dosing tank" and when the tank is full, it auto-siphons into the system.

I use the API freshwater master test kit for all my testing needs and this thermometer.

For the hydroton "crib" I just meant that I dug a hole about 4" deep and filled it with just hydroton, and put 2/3rds of the plant in it. Assuming hydroton is the ideal medium for root development, I wanted the plant to have the highest ratio of it as they are starting out.

I liked Aquaponic Gardening May have everything you want.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/086571701X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1416005204&sr=8-1

This book is a good start to understanding aquaponics. The writer covers everything you will need to know in order to build your own setup. After you understand the basics behind a system it will be just a matter of finding the right equipment to meet your needs that you are describing (ie covered tank, aesthetically pleasing... etc).

Personally I looked up whatever I could, read some books, and then built my own system. After that it was just trial and error....and reddit posts of course :P

I got some good information from this book: https://www.amazon.com/Aquaponic-Gardening-Step-Step-Vegetables/dp/086571701X

It depends on the height you are trying to lift the water too.

Here is the last pump I bought:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006M6MSHE/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1


I was running it up 6 feet, so I was getting about 600 gallons per hour. There is a good chart on that product page that can clue you in for what you need specifically.

If you can't make a reading more accurate than that you need another testing system. I recommend http://www.amazon.com/API-Freshwater-Master-Test-Kit/dp/B000255NCI

They certainly can be cut in half. The minimum equipment needed to do so would be a skill saw and a hacksaw with a few extra metal cutting blades.

I can usually find them(IBC totes) on Craigslist for about 75 USD a piece.


You will need a bulkhead like the one below to add fittings.
https://www.amazon.com/Lifegard-Aquatics-Double-Threaded-Bulkhead/dp/B0002DKAU0%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q%26tag%3Dduckduckgo-ffsb-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB0002DKAU0

Galaxyhydro LED Grow Light

Idiot stoners at Worms Way said to use it as a foliar spray and "you'll wake up and everything will be bright green." I woke up and everything was black and stayed that way. You should get the API Master Kit. I found it at the local pet store. Throw some worms in there. Red wigglers are available at most gas stations in proximity to a lake or river. They seem to make nutrients more available. Do you have the Aquaponic Gardening book? She says pH should be between 6.8 and 7.