So, since I got everything together, I’ve gone through about 3 distinct set-ups. It has evolved into a stable setup, but I will get to that in due course.

It all started with Ze Plans…

I changed a few design elements, but I’ll get to that.

First, I drilled a hole large enough to fit the tubing in the growbeds. Then I drilled holes every 2 inches along my water input tube, and fastened off the end with black electrical tape.

Next, I took the washed hydroton and spread a 1 inch layer in the bottom (I used a black plastic cup to keep the hydroton from falling out of the hole).

In my other bed, I did this, and placed the net pots on top of the tube and filled in around with more hydroton.

What I should have done at this point was pull the input through the hole and then put more hydroton on top. Instead, I had thought it would be sufficient to go over the lip and use the hole as an output. (Keep reading)

I hooked up my awesome water pump to the tubing and a T-valve that brought the water to the growbeds.

That output hole? Leaked even with silicone sealant and allowed too much water to build up in the beds. This needed to be fixed.

I let this drain, then poked holes every 2 inches underneath the bed (should have done this at beginning), careful to not get water on my electrical dremmel. This took the help of a friend and a towel. Growbed 2 went down nice, but I had forgotten about the bubblers in my tank. I had to take them out of the undergravel filter and let them loose in the tank while I solved that problem.. And placed shims down so the fish wouldn’t jump out.

Quick look at the tubing in the back.

At some point, I decided to remove the netpots (except one) because things like the strawberries weren’t getting enough water. I only left the one for the snap peas b/c it has finer aquarium gravel in the bottom that I figured they would need for stability.

After a brilliant conversation with a friend, I fashioned a window screen to fit tightly where the half hood used to be, cut a hole for the bubblers, tubing, and water pump’s power cord.

I propped the growbed up on two stacks of two 2×4s wrapped in saran wrap. I also wrapped some saran wrap so that the splashing wouldn’t get on the carpet, but now I didn’t have to worry about my fish jumping out. Hooray! One problem.. It was ugly.

I ended up shortening the bubbler tube, and propping up the back on 2 shims wrapped in saran wrap (I may only have the 2×4 pictured), placed under the end in the back. The medusa lamp holds 5 CFLs mixed full and daylight spectrums.

I didn’t include all the pictures above, but you can find them here:

Sylvia Bernstein has started an online Ning community for Aquaponics, where I’ve met and seen pictures of lots of people’s systems, at many different scales, and lots of people who have done this for much longer than I. It’s been awesome reading up on their ideas and notes, and it’s certainly helped me a bunch. If you’re interested in building your own, I highly suggest joining the community.

Ok, on to my stuff. As you read previously, I created my mini system as a model for my big system. I’m just waiting for my aquarium silicone to ship, and then I can show all the pieces together. Last Saturday, I picked up my new 55 gallon fully stocked fish tank. It comes complete with a ninja clown loach (Hattori Hanzou, or Hanz for short), a Kissing Gourami (Mick Jagger), a Leopard ctenopoma/African leaf fish (Edgar), a panda corydora (Edison), an albino corydora (Tesla), a bronze corydora (Marconi), a spotted corydora (Einstein), a panda barb (Confucius), and four silver dollars (Loony, Toony, Quarter, and Half Dollar). I was going to put my black neon tetras and otocincluses in there, but then Edgar yawned, and I decided that was a bad idea (Could swallow a shooting marble WHOLE). Hanz was a ninja and managed to survive stuck in a rock for the entire drive here, even though I had never seen him until this morning (and frankly, thought him dead).

I’ve been letting the tank cycle and get back up to strength for a week, now. Today, I added some plants into the tank and some charcoal bags in the filter to help keep the water breathable while the bacteria culture builds back up. I’ve also moved over the log with its attached java moss. On a side note, my 20 gallon looks really sad without it. Also for the 55 gallon, I’ve added the water heater set on low, and removed some of the “frocks” (fake rocks) that came with the tank, mainly so the loach would stop hiding in them.

On my to-do list is to attach my new air pump that’s coming in the same shipment as the aquarium silicone.

My seedlings are doing fantastically. I germinated the tomato, pepper, and lettuce seedlings using the paper towel method, extracted their little roots from the paper towel, and scattered them in the clay pellets.

I’ve discovered that there is a local hydroponics shop, called Sea of Green, that is branching into aquaponics and has some good information to share in person as well as on their website. I picked up a 50 L bag of hydroton, a fountain pump, a mesh filtration bag to go around the fountain pump, and some net pots from them. They also have fittings that can be bought from them, and they’ve even hinted that they’d let me use their tools to drill my own holes for said fittings should I not use one of their expensive containers.

I’ll post more in a couple days when I get the silicone caulk.

So I turned to waterscaping with lots of little fish, delighting in my ability to create a mini ecosystem that wouldn’t die a horrible death should I forget it for a day or two. All was good in the world.

What you don't see is me behind the camera making fishie faces at the fishies.

Again, I turned to the internet to research methods of container gardening. I like raised beds, but, as I am now living in an apartment with no nearby access to a hose, those didn’t seem practical. Hydroponics seemed a bit more feasible, but I am not a chemist and felt that monitoring the nutrient levels would be too much for this scientist-by-hobby-only type of gal. After all, if I was going to have that much space taken up, I might as well get a larger fish tank.

That last thought sparked an idea, so I went digging. I started where every internet-savvy person would: Wikipedia. Let’s just say that Wikipedia has a phenomenal hydroponics article (Dalek aeroponics tripod!). Aeroponics was more my style, but I didn’t want to pay $150 for a table-top system that would only get me a square foot of growing space. I’d build my own, first!

I scrolled down to the related articles and accidentally clicked on “Aquaponics.” I was quite excited to find that I could put my fish hobby to use and get something for myself out of it. The idea is that the fish fertilize the water, which you pump into your growing bed, where the plants filter the usable nutrients (which are actually toxic to the fish) out of the water, returning the cleaned water back to the fish.

Now, there are a bajillion different designs, improvements, and substitutions that you can make to an aquaponic system. I found GardenGirlTV’s version to be the best design for someone like me with limited growing space.

Now, I know I’ve mentioned that my parents are all scientists, but my grandfather is an engineer-turned-geophysicist, and from him I learned to start things on a small scale. I just so happened to have kept my first 5 gallon fish tank (to use as a hospital tank), which I thought would do nicely to help me figure out a good small-scale design that I liked – that may even keep my water from evaporating. I do live in the desert, afterall.

Aquaponics Supplies

Day 1: I first rinsed the gravel. This is très importante as most of the rocks you’ll find produce a dust that will kill your fish. I don’t suggest using marble as I found that as soon as I shake it, more dust is created. Stick to aquarium-grade rocks.

I flipped the bin around and fed the tube thru the hole where the red arrow points to

I then rinsed the Perlite (do NOT use the Miracle Grow kind! It’s slimy with LOTS of residue which contains ammonia nitrate and ammonia phosphates that would kill your fish), added it to top off the plastic bin.

I then popped out the other hole in the lid, since all the tubing wouldn’t fit on top of the filter.

The assembly of the fountain pump was the easiest part. Pop on the adapter, then pop on the tube. Very simple. The harder part was adjusting the pump so that the water would actually go all the way up the tubing and into the bin. I think I ended up putting it on the full strength just to keep it moving. I also timed the water flow, adjusted the tilt height, and got it so the water filled in, ran across, and dropped back down without the water raising higher than the gravel layer. A broken hair clip was used to keep the tube in place.

Close-up of the tubing arrangement.

All done!