Hello from Vancouver, British Columbia

[jared.plowman]

Hello Everyone,

To my girlfriends chagrin I am setting up an aquaponics system in my living room! I live in 800sqft apartment, so she is a little worried!!

I am trying to learn as much as a can a long the way, so far I have purchased:

- 264GPH EcoPlus Submersible Pump
- Marine 200 Air Pump
- 30G FT c/w Filter and Heater
- 2 MiracleLED Grow Lamps... not to sure how those are going to work...
- Lack Coffee Tables as stands (although I just realized they aren't tall enough to fit the fish tank underneath!! arggg! more modifications!) :-)
- Rubbermaid container as a starter GB and then I am going to custom make a larger GB from glass and dismantled Lack Coffee Tables


I feel ebbs and flows is the best system (do you disagree??) so I am going to build a bell siphon inside the GB.

Questions (I know this it the wrong place, but if you have quick answers that would be great!)

1. Do I need an external biofilter (bucket with gravel etc)
2. I want to use worms in the GB to eat the biowaste, I feel this will prevent clogs in the system... do you agree?
3. What is the best way to start? FT with a standard filter then slowly bring the GB online??
4. Am I crazy? Is this actually going to work? Has anyone produced real food within their apartment?

Cheers everyone!!! Glad to be a part of the group! :-)

Jared

[davidstcldfl]

Hi Jared, welcome toi the addiction.... :D

Start off with lettuces and that kind of stuff. It takes a lot of light for flowering plants like peppers and tomatoes.

[keith_r]

you don't really need the filter if you are using a media filled growbed (gravel works fine, hydroton is expensive, but not bad for a small system..)
worms in a media bed are a good thing - see this: 4707

remove your filter, and squeeze it out into your growbed,, this will help get your system cycling quicker...

i've been growing lettuce, carrots, radishes and other stuff in my basement with flourescent lights

[Oliver]

Jared

Welcome to the forum.

Please re-post these questions to an appropriate place so we can further discuss your system.

In the mean time, I want to invite you to read the Aquaponics 101 articles I've posted on the main portal page. Just scroll down and you will see them.

Oliver

[jared.plowman]

Hey thanks everyone for the hello's!!! Oliver I read most of the Aquaponics 101 last night... Although, it's a lot of reading so I will have to start again. It is hard for me to "downscale" your advice to apartments. I have the system up and running (just water right now) I will post some pics in the systems group soon!

Cheers,
Jared

[urbanfarmer]

Greetings Earthling, and welcome to the addiction! :mrgreen:

[jared.plowman]

OK so the sytem is kinda up and running. I am having serious issues getting plants to grow, at first it was light, then it was nutrients. Small scale apartment aquaponics 0 - dirt in a pot 1. I may not have enough fish....

11 - Red (Lamp)-Eye Tetras
4 - Zebra Danios
3 - Bronze Corys
1 - Bristlenose Pleco
3 - Ghost Shrimp
3 - Average Sized Aquarium Plants
1sqrft - Sylvania (spelling??)

I have now added a banana peel (a small one) and started dosing with small amounts of blood meal. I hope that the combination will provide better results than dirt.... or else my girlfriend might kill me!!! hahaha seeing as this system is in our living room next to the dinner table!

[keith_r]

are those real plants in the tank? they'll be stealing the nutrients you want to go to your plants..

have you tested your water params?

[jared.plowman]

Yeah they are real. I kinda fell for the fish.... so now I am 50/50 Aquarium Guy/Aquaponics Guy. I wanted my fish to have a healthy environment, fake plants just suck. I imagine they are "stealing" a little bit, but my plant growth was stunted before I introduced the tank plants.

The system is 2 months old. I just wanted to post an update to how it was going. I had an ammonia spike the other day, after re-arranging the tank, I am guessing it was because I had stirred up so much crap (no pun intended).

Ammonia: 0-0.25ppm
Nitrites: Always 0ppm
Nitrates: 10-20ppm
pH: loosing battle with my hydocorns so it stays at about 7.6!!! Argg I am dosing my water additions with lemon juice to try and free up some nutrients.

Oliver is this the right place for this discussion? If not how can I move my post.

Cheers,
Jared

[keith_r]

stop messing with the ph.. it will drop on it's own in time. you can dose with maxicrop with iron, which contains the nutrients that are being "locked out" by the high ph level..(and its really not that high)
is there an undergravel filter in the ft?
do you have an air pump? (this will benefit the fish, bacteria and plants!)

[jared.plowman]

Yes air pump to a 12" air stone, lots of movement, I also ebb and flow the GBs. We don't get maxicrop up here :( so I have been adding blood meal and I have a banana peel buried in the GB for potassium. I was supposed to wash my hydrocorns with a pH- solution before using them. I feel that they are acting as a buffer, so it doesn't seem to matter what I do. I will leave it for now, good advice, it's annoying having to keep dosing the water. Keith have you seen the pictures of my plants?

Cheers,
Jared

[davidstcldfl]

I am dosing my water additions with lemon juice to try and free up some nutrients.
The vitamin C in the lemon juice will kill bacteria. For sometning natural, try sodium ascorbate. Health food/vitamin shops carry it, or order on-line.

This post is about using sodium ascorbate...
Removing chlorine from tap water with Vitamin C? (http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/showthread.php?118-removing-chlorine-from-tap-water-with-Vitamin-C)

[urbanfarmer]

The vit C or ascorbic acid will not be persistent in the water for long. Also, the concentration is not high enough to effect the bacteria (unless you go nuts). Since sodium ascorbate is not an acid, it won't release the H+ ion thereby not effecting the pH.

ASCORBIC ACID
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/L-Ascorbic_acid.svg/620px-L-Ascorbic_acid.svg.png

SODIUM ASCORBATE (notice the H is replaced with a Na)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ac/Sodium_ascorbate.png/800px-Sodium_ascorbate.png

When I first looked into ascorbic acid (vit C) as something that neutralizes chloramine from water, the research made no mention of using sodium ascorbate. Ascorbic acid is a weak acid, which to me means that it likely plays a part in reacting with chloramine. If someone has the reaction documented, that would elucidate the subject. Do we know what concnetration (dosage) is needed from sodium ascorbate to have the same effect? Does it matter if the water pH is at a certain level versus another pH?

I'm not saying it won't work, but it raises a great deal of many questions in my mind.

[davidstcldfl]

Also, the concentration is not high enough to effect the bacteria (unless you go nuts).
See guy rule # 11....more must work better .....so, 'go nuts !'


If someone has the reaction documented, that would elucidate the subject. Do we know what concnetration (dosage) is needed from sodium ascorbate to have the same effect? Does it matter if the water pH is at a certain level versus another pH?

I'm not saying it won't work, but it raises a great deal of many questions in my mind.
If you have to use phrases like...that would elucidate the subject.....your thinking about it way too hard... :lol:
KISS...keep it simple silly.... add a little, test for chloromines...if needed, add some more... :P
If any one has never tried it before....A good starting point...try a 1/4 of a teaspoon to 50/55 gals of water.