My basic, basic system

[DruidFromAus]

Hello my fellow aquaponians

Here is a rundown of my very basic system, that I have been running for a little over a year.

Parts: 1 Fish tank, 1 pump 500 liters p/h, 2 grow beds, 1 tank heater, 1 air pump and stone, some 12 and 13 mm water tubing, clay balls, river stones and 2 gravel guards. (see? very simple.)

Setup: My fish tank (2 ft) sits on a workbench in my garage, which pumps the water up through the window and into my top grow bed (both are baby baths filled with clay balls), that then drains to the second grow bed, which is then drained back into the tank by going through the window again and thus completing the cycle.

Notes:

This is a continuous flow system at this stage.

I am currently growing tomatoes and strawberries (tomatoes have fruited and taste great, strawberries are just starting to fruit).

I have guppies and a bristle-nose catfish in this tank (catfish to help with keeping tank clean, I have bred my guppies).

My gravel guards are DIY, one was the cylinder of a filter in a bag less vacuum, the other is a 2 liter plastic bottle, the middle cut out and punctured holes in it to allow free flow of water, both have worked fine so far.

Before I started using the baby baths, I used two kitty litter trays, which grew tomatoes fine, just doesn't allow a lot of space.

Questions:

I have placed my air stone near my pump, I assume this will help the pump carry more oxygen to the plants, is this correct?

Are there any obvious flaws with this system? (I would assume not since it has been stable for a year)

Are there any simple/cheap things I can do to improve this system? (I am generally tight on cash, so try to go the DIY way as much as possible)

I have a live plant in my fish tank, does this have any effect on the plants in the grow bed? (positive or negative)

I have other fish tanks not yet setup to aquaponic systems, I would assume that the water I get out of these tanks when changing the water, would be much better for the system than tap water, with all that fish poo and whatnot in it, poured into the grow bed system to filter a bit before getting to the tank, is this correct? or should i use tap water?

Thank you all for your time

Jay the Druid from Aus

[dead_sled]

Welcome, DruidFromAus. It sounds like you have a great system. Some pictures would help in the "How can I improve it" department. What are your water parameters (ph, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, temp, etc)? The plant in the fish tank will use some of the nutirents, you can decide if that is a + or -. I think that adding small quantities of the other fish tank water to your AP system is fine. As long as you are not already nutrient heavy, it should add some fuel for those fruiting plants. Of course, you would be sharing anything that is in the other fish tanks with your AP system. Adding a large amount of the water to your AP system could also cause a large swing in water parameters, depending on the differences in the two. On the other hand, tap water can be much worse for your AP system. Measure your AP water versus the others and make an informed decision. You have already made it this far!

[DruidFromAus]

Thanks for the reply dead sled, i hope to have some pictures up in the next day or so.

Embarrassingly enough, I havn't actually ever tested my water in all the time I have had my setup going, I didn't buy one to start with, and just ran the system for 48 hours before putting fish or plants into it, from then my plan was, once there seemed to be a problem I would get the test kits, but so far no known problems in over a year (including baby guppies being bred and surviving in the water), I have my tank set at 25c or about 75f. I have had only a few fish deaths, most of which were in the first few weeks, and my tomatoes and strawberries have grown fine.

I do plan to test it eventually, but so far I have just tried to make as many logical decisions as I could to maintain the ideal environment.

As for the other tanks, again since i don't test them I don't know, but am fairly confident that I have good quality water in all my tanks.

once I get a tester kit I'll post the results.

thanks again for the reply

[DruidFromAus]

Here is the first lot of pics, some are from early on in the system

[DruidFromAus]

Here are some pics of my original setup (when i was using the kitty litter trays)

The pic of the baby bath is the way my setup is, just up behind that one is a second babybath (the top one), this is where the FT pumps to, this then drains into the baby bath you can see and then back to the FT.

[DruidFromAus]

In the first pic of my kitty litter tray setup at the back of the bottom GB you can see one of my gravel guards (this one is the plastic bottle one), still using that exact one in my current system.