Hey All,

First time poster. Been looking at aquaponics for a while. Finally decided to go with it on a proof of concept to appeas my wife.

My questions are concerning the growbed and the fishtank. Some of my reading indicates that I need to have some rocks in the fish tank to support beneficial bacteria that would convert ammonia to nitrates. Other reading indicates that I do not need rocks for the fish tank as the material in the growbed would support the nitrogen cycle. Little bit confused here and just trying to figure out what to buy.

Was looking at hydroton but cost is a factor. How deep should the grow media be? I was thinking we might want to grow carrots but I would assume that the media would have to be fairly deep for that to get good growth for a carrot. That would lead to extra cost as far as grow media is concerned as it would need more depth.

So can someone set me straight. Do I need rocks in the fish tank or just the media in the grow bed. One thing I do not have is a bio filter. If someone has a recommendation for a way to setup an expensive biofilter for a proof of concept I would be open to hear it. (25 gallon fish area)

Right now the fish area is only going to be about 25 gallons of water or so. How large a grow bed might I be able to have for this? I assume not very large considering. Setting this up in my basement how many tilapia do you think I can put into this one system? I assume it would be hard to secure tilipia in such small amount and maybe I should start of with something like just two gold fish for the proof of concept. I assume either case I may need some type of water heater? Anyone have any recommendations? Or would maybe some other fish be better to start off this POC. Final system will be the IBC tote style variety likely. Ultimately I will be looking to go the tilapia route.

Thanks for the help!

Scott