Greetings from Central Virginia

[mevosper]

Hello All
As with a few other posts I've seen in here, i'm a total noob at Aquaponics.

My wife and I are looking to setup a 100 gallon fish tank (ok, it's a water trough from a local farm supply store) with plastic cement mixer tubs as grow beds.

We just found a place locally that sells hydroton (thank goodness, shipping the stuff is expensive ), but pea gravel for the grow media was something we had thought of also.

We will be raising the fish for consumption but have not decided on a breed (yellow perch or tilapia ).
My only concern at the moment is the solid fish waste that enters the growing beds. I hear cleaning the growing media is a laborious task, but if not cleaned it could lead to dangerously high ammonia levels. What are others doing regarding this?

Oh, great website and resource center.

[keith_r]

add some compost worms to your growbeds (red wigglers) and you won't have any problems..
my growbeds are about 1/2 river gravel and 1/2 hydroton

[urbanfarmer]

Hello and welcome!

[JCO]

Welcome to the show....pull up an easy chair, relax and stay awhile. New voices are always a welcome addition to our family..! Whatever questions you have on you mind, this is the place to get the answers so pick a topic of your interest and start your own thread and Enjoy.

To answer your question about solids in the grow bed:-

As I'm sure you have already found out, Aquaponics consists of two main parts with the Aquaculture part for raising aquatic animals and the hydroponics part for growing plants. Aquatic effluents resulting from uneaten feed while raising animals like fish accumulates in water due to the closed system recirculation of most enclosed aquaculture systems. The effluent-rich water can become toxic to the aquatic animals in high concentrations but these effluents can be used as nutrients which are essential for plant growth.

The Components (I am a purest, so no solids or worms in the grow bed)

Although consisting primarily of two parts, Aquaponic systems are composed of several components or subsystems for the effective removal of solid wastes, effluents and to maintain water oxygenation. They are listed below in the suggested order for which they should be put together:

1. Rearing tank: The tanks where the fish are maintained, water flowing from here to the;
2. Sump: The lowest point either in the fish tank or a separate unit between the fish tank and the bio-filter unit where the water flows to for settling solids such as uneaten food, detached bio-films, and for settling out and removal of fine particulates; the water then travels to;
3. Biofilter: A piece of equipment designed to promote the growth of nitrification bacteria which converts ammonia first into nitrites then into nitrates, which are the nutrients that are usable by the plants then to;
4. Hydroponics system: The portion of the system where plants are grown in grow beds in a number of different configurations by absorbing the nutrients from the water and from there the water is returned to the fish tank;

Depending on the sophistication and cost of the Aquaponics system, the units for solids removal, bio-filtration, and/or the hydroponics subsystem may be combined into one unit or subsystem, which prevent the water from flowing directly from the aquaculture part of the system to the hydroponics part.

[rfeiller]

Welcome to the forum.