My first Aquaponics Setup

The very first system.

It starts somewhere

It's hard to place the exact date I started looking at aquaponics.  One thing I do remember is that it was the idea of having all those fish that attracted me. Our kids were already home schooled and anything that looks like learning is a must for us.

The first system

Well this believe it or not, was the first system. I by now had seen all the many systems people had on the internet.Two years ago there was very little information easily available. I was skeptical and after one adventurous afternoon fishing, I came home with a fishing tackle box full of live Mozambique Tilapia.

I had to make a plan fast and so the fish were transferred into a black rough tote. My old fishing tank gear was resurrected and a quick visit to the hardware store for a few essentials and this was what happened on a Friday night.

How it worked

Based on what I'd seen on a number of aquaponics forums, I'd decided to try building an auto siphon system. The green bucket was filled with stones I had lying around in the garden. A hole was drilled in the side for the pipe to be pushed through. Inside the bucket the pipe bends down with an elbow and the pipe forms an upsidedownIt is a very tight fit so you don't get any leaks. A fish tank pump is placed in the bottom bucket and water is pumped up to the top. As the bucket on top fills with water it raises past the height of the outlet an the siphon will start.

It worked but required daily adjustment and tweaking. For anyone trying this, it is not a good idea. There are some people who get them to work for a while, but the main thing is to have something that doesn't require heavy maintenance.

Alongside you can see some of the veggies we grew in there. They worked well and it was such a pleasure to watch them grow, that we soon expanded the system.

The first problems

As I said the siphon required a lot of fiddling with and from what I know now, I'm sure it could have been done better.

I'd like to revisit this system and fit a proper bell siphon in so that anyone who'd like to give this a go can get it to work on a small budget.

The sump tank was too small to keep more than one bucket grow bed going. PS when you build a system like this they call it toteponics. It certainly works though and if you don't mind all the maintenance then it's your ticket. But there were several issues. I didn't plan this system ahead of time. Some of the issues were:

• High maintenance.
• Pump was too large and had to be throttled 3excessively.
• I grew too many plant to close together.
• Sunlight was an issue during winter.
• I had no idea how big plant could get.

The pictures on the right above and alongside will show how many different veggies and plant can grow in here. The nasturtium with it's big round leaves just love aquaponics and is an awesome medicinal plant.

One thing I got right here but failed in a later improvement of the system is the nutrient distribution. The bacteria that does all the ammonia to nitrate converting colonizes the stones closest to the nutrient feed. So make separate filling points on the buckets.

Below you can see I have all three buckets balanced with a pipe on the front and at the bottom. The idea was that the water level would remain the same in each bucket. Well it didn't work. I also only had one auto siphon seen in the far left of the photo below. The balancing pipe had the job of bringing all the water through during the drain cycle. Well it slowed matters down so you had to set the system with surgical precision.

Since stuff like to grow on the insides of pipes, as the days pass, the water slows down more and your system needs to be constantly set.

I tried a few more iterations of this system. On the good side the plants were growing and I was encouraged to keep going.

This little system still made for a great conversation piece and everyone who visited was obligated to come outside and marvel at our garden growing in stones.

If you would like to start a small system like this, it is great for things like mint and cherry tomato tree's. The mint will be limited to only the bed you grow it in and the cherry tomato trees don't need a lot of area to be rooted in. I do intend to build some satellite units in the future to do this. Both plants are absolute monsters and I don't recommend mixing them in a big grow bed. They both just take over.