Just wondered if anyone has their own aquaponic setup on the forum?
I have a 29 us gallon aquarium tank (24 uk gallons / 110 litres). I haven't used it to keep fish for some time, many years in fact due to house moves, and not getting around to it, but now starting to become interested in this idea again and also the idea of a aquaponic type of setup.
If anyone on the forum has their own setup I would love to hear what size your system is, what you grow and what fish you keep?
I'm particularly interested in which types of fish are best for food source as well particularly in what is a relatively small aquarium such as this.
I have read somewhere one guy had tilapia in his setup. I'm sure that is a warm water tropical species. I am wondering whether it is better to keep cold water species or warm water and which species in general have the best returns in terms of production?
As far as growing your own food is concerned I am not a big veggie kind of guy though I do like fruits.
I am wondering what foods you can grow yourself that produce a lot and fill you up?
At the moment the only things I can think of that I wouldn't mind growing, that would be worth my while are things like potatoes, strawberries, blueberries, corn, tomatoes, and maybe a little spinach.
Spinach is probably one of the few vegetables I don't mind so much.
I actually have some Blueberry plants already, they have been at my mums home for some time in the garden in tubs. I did have three but one died. I have one blackcurrant plant as well. I did have a vine but that died, and it was a supposedly hardly variety.
What do you grow if you grow your own food with or without aquaponics?
Wondering if anyone has their own small paddifield in an aquaponic setup and producing rice?
Besides what you grow, the other question I have is your filtration system.
I already have an external eheim canister type filter for my aquarium, brand new, never yet used.
In an aquaponic system can you still use this or would it be of no use?
The way I understand it is that you're meant to filter the water directly to the top of the system and into what you are growing without filtering out beforehand so that the water feeds the plants you are growing.
If I understand it correctly I don't want to use a normal filter in such a setup but to use a pump instead which just sucks the water up before gravity lets it come back down again?
Where I live at the moment (urban flat) I do have a lengthy window that's probably about 6th long, it is north facing though.
My aquarium is not near the window but has plenty in the way of lighting as I was going to set it up as a planted aquarium with a few tropical fish and you need a lot of lighting for this.
I have an old fluorescent system using 20w triton tubes that are 24" in length and can use three of them all at once if I wish in the canopy that I built with reflectors.
I could instead divert some of that lighting above for two separate layers of plants in such a aquaponic system I would just need some sort of shelving system above to do that, and a way of draining water back into the tank with tubing.
Eventually I would probably need to replace the fluorescent tubes with less energy consuming bulbs and go to LEDs once the tubes eventually die.
If you have any advise on aquaponics or just growing your own stuff I'd love to hear from you.
I have a 29 us gallon aquarium tank (24 uk gallons / 110 litres). I haven't used it to keep fish for some time, many years in fact due to house moves, and not getting around to it, but now starting to become interested in this idea again and also the idea of a aquaponic type of setup.
If anyone on the forum has their own setup I would love to hear what size your system is, what you grow and what fish you keep?
I'm particularly interested in which types of fish are best for food source as well particularly in what is a relatively small aquarium such as this.
I have read somewhere one guy had tilapia in his setup. I'm sure that is a warm water tropical species. I am wondering whether it is better to keep cold water species or warm water and which species in general have the best returns in terms of production?
As far as growing your own food is concerned I am not a big veggie kind of guy though I do like fruits.
I am wondering what foods you can grow yourself that produce a lot and fill you up?
At the moment the only things I can think of that I wouldn't mind growing, that would be worth my while are things like potatoes, strawberries, blueberries, corn, tomatoes, and maybe a little spinach.
Spinach is probably one of the few vegetables I don't mind so much.
I actually have some Blueberry plants already, they have been at my mums home for some time in the garden in tubs. I did have three but one died. I have one blackcurrant plant as well. I did have a vine but that died, and it was a supposedly hardly variety.
What do you grow if you grow your own food with or without aquaponics?
Wondering if anyone has their own small paddifield in an aquaponic setup and producing rice?
Besides what you grow, the other question I have is your filtration system.
I already have an external eheim canister type filter for my aquarium, brand new, never yet used.
In an aquaponic system can you still use this or would it be of no use?
The way I understand it is that you're meant to filter the water directly to the top of the system and into what you are growing without filtering out beforehand so that the water feeds the plants you are growing.
If I understand it correctly I don't want to use a normal filter in such a setup but to use a pump instead which just sucks the water up before gravity lets it come back down again?
Where I live at the moment (urban flat) I do have a lengthy window that's probably about 6th long, it is north facing though.
My aquarium is not near the window but has plenty in the way of lighting as I was going to set it up as a planted aquarium with a few tropical fish and you need a lot of lighting for this.
I have an old fluorescent system using 20w triton tubes that are 24" in length and can use three of them all at once if I wish in the canopy that I built with reflectors.
I could instead divert some of that lighting above for two separate layers of plants in such a aquaponic system I would just need some sort of shelving system above to do that, and a way of draining water back into the tank with tubing.
Eventually I would probably need to replace the fluorescent tubes with less energy consuming bulbs and go to LEDs once the tubes eventually die.
If you have any advise on aquaponics or just growing your own stuff I'd love to hear from you.