Aquaponics with my current pond

[rmottino]

Hi everyone!
I'm Roman from Argentina, i'm new to hidroponics and aquaponics... i have been reading the forum for a month or so, looking at the different systems and setups. Sorry for my english, it's not my primary language.
I got really exited with the idea of growing my own vegs without using soil and fertilizers.

I have been searching for an answer to my question but couldn't shed much light to it.
My question is if i can do aquaponics to grow vegetables (i don't want to eat the fish) using my current pond as the FT? (attached images)
The pond has been working and cycling for 6 months now, i has arround 750 liters, 10 small kois (arround 70mm long average), i have a pump in the bottom going to a gravity biofilter i made myself with a 20liter bucket filled with river gravel and some filtering medium.

I was thinking in a suspended grow bed to the right of the pond.
Will this work? Since it gets 5hs of direct sun there are a lot of algae and some floating plants.
if so, how large can be the grow bed? Should i add more fish? Should i remove the biofilter?




Thanks!
Best regards,
Roman

[jackalope]

First, let me welcome you to the Forum ..... we're glad you're here

If your weather will support growing veggies, I see no reason why you cannot use your current pond

Usually, the Growbed/Fishtank ratio is said to be 2:1, but since I've never worked with an outdoors AP setup, I'll defer to someone more knowledgeable in that particular area. Not only do you have to have an idea of how many Gallons/Liters your FT is, but it's necessary to know what the GPH/LPH of your pump is to determine the approximate size of your GB

Any kind of detailed information (even the approximate size/weight of the fish) is very helpful to anyone who is going to try to help you figure out the different formulas for your AP system to work. You will be able to figure out the exchange rate of the water in the FT and the GB are, as well as other important computations.

Sorry for my english, it's not my primary language.
I got really excited with the idea of growing my own vegs without using soil and fertilizers.

Don't apologize for your english, it's just fine! Some of us have spoken it all of our lives and we still don't speak it right

Once again Welcome to the Forum

[JCO]

Welcome to the forum and yes, you can use your pond as a source for your Aquaponic System. Be sure to setup a good bio-system for the bacteria to do their job and continue with the photos documenting your progress.

[keith_r]

your english is just fine! (but i can't see your pictures from my office computer)
with a small pond like that, i don't see why it wouldn't work, but i have read that goldfish (carp) tend to eat the roots of plants..
if you're using floating rafts, you'd want to filter the water..
if you're using media growbeds, you don't need the filter, the media in the growbed acts as your fitler - i normally add composting (red wiggler) worms to media growbeds to assist with the breakdown of solids..