Hello folks, I'm posting here mainly as a place to get put together some ideas for my first aquaponics system. I'll also use it to document my building process when I get to the actual build.

I'd appreciate any corrections to my thinking and my plans.

First the idea came from an interview that I heard with the lady from Colorado Aquaponics. She talked about a small AP system that she uses to feed salads to her family of 5 all through the Winter. That got me thinking that this is something that I'd like to do.

Here's my wants. I need it to be fairly small. I think the kids would like to watch the fish, so I'm thinking that an aquarium is what I'd like to use as the fish tank. I have a 20 gallon aquarium that I'd use and I saw on here someone cutting through the glass to put in the drain for the fish tank. I want to be able to grow a bunch of salad greens, enough to feed my family of 4.

What I've been finding online seems to point to a system that has the fish tank, the grow beds and a sump. Until I saw the thread where they cut into the glass, I didn't think I'd be able to do this type of system.

Since the fish tank is 20 gallons, the grow bed should also be at least 20 gallons. For the grow bed, I plan on either creating the beds out of wood and pond liner or using something like rubbermaid containers. They will be about 9-12" deep.

For the water, I'll have the 18-20 gallons in the fish tank. The grow bed will have the media taking up about half the volume, so the bed will have 9-10 gallons when filled. this means the sump needs to hold at least 10 gallons. I was thinking of a 5 gallon bucket, but obviously that won't work, but a 18 gallon Rubbermaid tote would work.

I'm not really sure what type of media to use. I think that using Hydroton may be the way to go. This is a small system, so the cost would not be too much. I also think that it would reduce the likelihood of having the media negatively affect my learning curve.

to be continued.