Aquaponic Update

Hay I remembered how to blog!


Alright it's been up and running for about a month. I really wish I had a window in this house appropriate for such a setup. Grow lights, sort of work, It's light that helps the plants grow but it's not a complete spectrum. Having a red light or heat lamp might help this and keep the plants warm but I can't do that just yet.


Up top, seedlings are growing nicely. The glass bowel is there to quiet the dull sound of water. It's not annoying, even without the bowl, it's just I'd prefer it not to make any noise at all. The bowl is also there to hopefully catch baby fish should they become part of the filtering system.

I've since lowered the lights too. Two metal coat hangers did the trick. I tied the lights to them too for added security. I see in gardening catalogs all the time these expensive setups, with shelves and lights you hang off of chains. You probably don't need to be paying $150 for that. Grow lights, especially when they're covered, don't get that hot. I could get away with rope if I wanted to instead of the hanger.

Down below, the fish are fine. Mostly everything is unchanged. The females are defiantly pregnant! I don't know how long they take to bare young but they're ready to explode. I've added a few more plants to give the little ones someplace to hide when they arrive.

Hopefully all the ammonia, bacteria, and such will balance out. I'm told though that there's no such thing as a perfect setup. Meaning one that requires no care at all.

Hi Fishy Fishy Fishy

So I went to a local, non franchised pet store and had a 100 times better experience. The sales person there was well experienced and not only answered my questions but elaborated on ideas! I showed him the pan flit that came with the Aquaponic System and he knew all about it.

The pan flit for the system does recommend fish but most of them are wild like Perch, and "netted" Minnows. You won't find those in most pet stores, but you will find assorted Gold Fish. I didn't go with them though. I wanted something easier to reproduce, so I bought some Fancy Guppies. We'll see how they do and maybe I'll move over to something else later on. Actually I'd like to add another kind of fish that won't nibble the tails to the Guppies.


So here's the system as I've set it up. It's on a four teared shelf with grow lights hanging above about. Ideally I should be able to move the lights to be 1 inch away form the plants, otherwise they tend to grow long which isn't great. I'll see what I can do about that. I know it doesn't look nice but that's partly the poor lighting. The fish tank and flower bed are closer together too to get rid of the constant sound of water.

Every hour for 15 minutes water is pumped to the upper flower bed. It quickly drains down to the lower level but the idea is the fish waste fertilizes the plants. That is to say it will.

While shopping for fish I learned all fish tanks when starting up go through "The Cycle." This is the first 2 weeks or so when all the bacteria grows like crazy and eventually finds a balance. Having your water tested after this cycle is complete is recommended and I fully intend to do just that! I'll report back in two weeks or so. Until then thanks for reading.

Aquaponic System partial Review

My brother isn't the only person to get a fish tank. Remember this thing? I actually bought it though I have to say it's very over priced. I suppose you could argue not by a whole lot though. The large flower bed above is probably the most expensive item. Along with being lined with waterproof material, there's PVC pipe running through it. It's a simple design and snaps together easy. The trouble is all this could have been done much easier and far cheaper by myself.

First off the 10 Gallon Aquarium is not included which I'm fine with. Stones I'm also fine with buying by myself. These things help avoid insane shipping costs and remove the possibility of it all showing up broken.

This sits on a sheet of wood with wheels on it... and is fairly useless besides. All aquariums are not exact in measurements, they're off by a few millimeters; just as the wooden part your 10 gallon tank is suppose to fit flush around is. This can be fixed with some simple sanding but nowhere in the instructions does it say this. The other issue is the wheels. They're so tiny and have to support so much weight I struggle to think when wheels on this flimsy thing would come in handy at all. Weather it's the deck, the rug, or over your hardwood floors, you're not moving this thing without some disaster. It's a useless piece of wood as far as I'm concerned, and you'll be far better putting the fish tank on a proper stand.

Moving our way up we find the wooden frame or stand that sits on top the aquarium. This too doesn't fit flush with the lid and can be fixed with some sanding. It fits just enough though to not be flimsy so that's good I guess. And it does support the full weight of the flower bed above it.

Next we come to the flower bed itself which is probably the only reason to buy this thing. It's just, I wish they sold this by itself as it's the only useful thing in the box that required some skill to build. And comes pre-assembled of thank god. Finally I found some value to this product! Two PVC pipes come along with this, one with groves sawed in it to drain water out the top, and another that gets inserted down below ... which isn't really needed but it helps I guess.

At last we come to the pump itself. Take a moment to view it on amazon and enlarge the picture just a sec. See that huge aqua green sleek looking pump that actually looks nice. Well that's not what they send you, no no, they send you a much smaller, but does the job though the hose doesn't fit pump that you could have bought at any pet store. I suppose I'm happy that it is smaller, and it does do it's job when the hose is laid down on it. It's just another thing on my "Why Did I Pay This Much?" list.


So I set it up just as you see in the picture. As per the instructions you need to get the water level right and play around with the timer some. The timer is another cheap thing but at least they included one. I personally upgraded that adds a few outlets. In toying around with this thing I discovered a few things.

1) When running expect to hear the constant sound of running water. It annoyed me to no end! For 15 minutes of every hour of the day you have to keep this thing running on the timer. So much for having it in the bedroom or anyplace that requires thinking.

2) There is no reason for there to be that much space between the aquarium and the flower bed above. Had this been lowered down it would have fixed problem number 1. I guess it's needed to get the plants at eye level, but you'll be bending over to look at and feed the fish, which are far more interesting anyhow. You'll be better off taking a VERY strong shelf next to some windows or grow lights and drilling a hole for the drainage pipe to connect with the fish tank below.

Let's do some math before continuing. At one point the instructions say add water to test the system out, but they don't say how much water is needed. So I filled the lower fish tank full of water and started filling the flower bed. The lowest drain always leaks some which is good and bad. This brings us to the next thing I learned.

3) Should the pump ever fail, all of the water in the upper flower bed can easily flood the fish tank below. Even when you only have the fish tank below filled with water, it's important to keep track of how much water is in your system. The pump only sends water to the flower bed for 15 minutes of every hour. The rest of the time it's either draining back down or doing nothing. So the only time you can really judge if the fish tank needs water when it's doing nothing at all.

That's where I'm at thus far. Please note I'm not following any directions with growing plants in such a system. I don't think any came with this thing but how hard can it be? So don't blame this product should I come back and moan about how awful my plants are doing. I've actually changed some things with this product to make it better. Like I said I cut a hole in a real shelf to get the fish tank and flower bed closer and I'm happy to say this got rid of the running water sound completely.