Hello from central Illinois

[Roger R.]

I'm new to aquaponics but have had a backyard pond for a number of years and have always had a garden, so it was time to combine the two. We always bring the goldfish in to an aquarium each winter cause it's too much of a hassle to winter them over. The pond is too shallow. So instead of cleaning the tank every couple of weeks I'm trying my first aquaponics in the basement. Might as well put the fish to work while they're inside!

It's set up, seems to be working, and we have plants up and growing. This will most likely lead to a larger system with food fish instead of goldfish, possibly in a greenhouse. But one step a time.

Looking forward to browsing and learning on the forum.

[urbanfarmer]

Greetings Earthling, and welcome to the addiction!

[bsfman]

Welcome! Post pictures of your system!

[alex281]

Welcome to the forum!

[davidstcldfl]

Hi Roger,welcome to the forum....

[Roger R.]

Thanks for the welcome! Here's what I've done so far.
I built it on the end of some existing storage shelves in my basement. I reinforced the shelves and added a few bits for the sump tank and grow bed. The fish tank is a rubbermaid 31 gallon tote, the grow bed is a 17 gallon tote and the sump is a 20 gallon aquarium. I tried a loop siphon first and it worked until I put in the medium then it went crazy so I converted to a bell. The bell is working perfectly. The little swirl filter is a 6 quart fuel funnel from the farm store.

I made the grow light with about $6 worth of electrical parts plus (4) 100 watt 6500K CFLs. The rest of the material I had around the house.

We are still using the top shelf and half of the other two shelves for storage.

A few pics...






The sock is gone now. That was to filter out some of the dust from the lava rock.

Three days after planting.


Today, two weeks after planting.

[davidstcldfl]

...love the swirl filter, very clever....

[Roger R.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJayYc_YHw4

[Deadeye]

awsome, very creative. do you have some more pics of the stock tank? i would like to see how the pvc is set up..

[Roger R.]

awsome, very creative. do you have some more pics of the stock tank? i would like to see how the pvc is set up..

It's pretty simple. It comes thru the side at the height I wanted the water level to be and then turns down to the bottom of the tank. I probably could have gotten by with stopping it there and just put a screen over the end of the pvc to keep the fish out, or just a single pipe across the bottom, but I went with two pipes.
The pvc across the bottom has saw cuts on the bottom half about 1/2" apart to take up the water and waste. The end caps are glued on but everything else is just dry fit together so I can take it all apart to clean if needed. There's a 1/2" hole drilled in the top of the elbow above the water line to prevent any possible siphoning.
It seems to be keeping the tank very clean so far.

It's all 1" pvc and I'm using a pump rated at 170 gph. With the height it's probably pumping around 120-130 gph and the 1" pvc runs about 1/3 full coming out of the tank.