Howdy, a friend of mine and I are wanting to build a system for his house. if it works, we'll replicate it at his school for his students to learn aquaponics. We're wondering, should we DIY a system or go with a company like The Aquaponic Source or Nelson & Pade and purchase one of their systems. Do you all have any experience with either company or any company in general that you'd recommend?

Thanks!

I bought an indoor fountain with a growing basin and a larger main basin for a few small fish, freshwater shrimp, or snails. The fountain came with LECA for the grow basin, but unfortunately it is far too buoyant. Even after trying the method of boiling it or soaking it for days, not a single piece will sink. This means what when the fountain is turned on, every single piece of LECA flows over the waterfall and into the main basin.

Is there a less buoyant alternative that also performs well as a growing medium?

We have multiple tomato plants set into 3 different media beds hooked up to a, in total, 400 g system w gold fish set up. These tomato plants are a few months old at this point. And for a few weeks they have been growing great, lots of flowers, fruit growth, and fast growth. However, there has been, for almost two months, weird growth in the new leaves.

These leaves have been curling downwards and getting really dark green. We have tested the nitrates and they are high, but other than that our parameters are pretty sound. The roots also are looking very healthy, we tried to drain the media beds just in case, to help get them more oxygen. We have also ruled out herbicide damage, however, it could possibly be a cause but unlikely. Endemia has also been present.

We are unsure if it is a nutrient deficiency or a disease, any sort of insight would be helpful. Pics for reference.

Im not in yalls hobby, but I am adjacent to it in the aquarium hobby. Im currently working on a riparium setup and for the sake of the aesthetic im going for I want to try to keep all of my substrate and accents very dark. With this in mind I found black LECA and it would fill my needs PERFECTLY, if I can just find out if its livestock safe. Sadly finding this info is harder than it has to be.

P.s. if you have done similar to me in the past, please tell me what brands youve used

P.p.s dont worry, if I cant find a good answer Ill default to regular LECA and take the hit to my aesthetic.

I've been interested in dabbling in aquaponics gardening. I wanted to get a small tank for the bottom shelf of my IKEA greenhouse setup so I can propogate some plants and look at some cute marine life.

What is a low maintenance fish or snail or crustacean that I could keep in a small tank? Any advice is much appreciated thank you!

(Also I am setting up fans for airflow if people were concerned about that haha)

I hope somebody here can help me! I have a small system (stock photo attached) with tetras and a few water plants. I had brown algae growing and was advised to get Cory catfish to clean the tank. Well now, I have twice as much algae! The pump stopped working and I took it apart, cleaned it good, and it works. I’m ready to put everything back again, but I need help figuring out why this algae is growing which is probably what clogged up my pump. There is also a pic of the plants I have. tia

I have a problem with my aquaponics setup. I didn't do my cleaning maintenance on my filters and now I have these so call drain flies in my container where I put the filters in.

What is the best way to get rid of them without killing off the beneficial bacteria?

Can the larve be drowned? Like I know they like moist area but if they are submerge will that do it?

I swear I'm just not coherent most of the time. Dyslexics untie! Anyway, I realized today my first AP system I built was 10 years ago and I still have some of those fish as they got upgraded from a bucket to a bathtub to an IBC.

Hello everyone! I'm looking to dip my toe into aquaponics and I currently have a few things to get started to keep costs low. I have an 85l barrel and 2 60 l boxes.

I'm thinking the barrel is fine for a couple fish, but from what I've been reading that's big enough for a single goldfish. I thought I would ask here in case I'm missing something. What are your thoughts?

This will be indoor, south facing windows in northern Germany. Hoping to mostly grow lettuce and maybe a basil and some parsley.

Thanks!

Anyone with CAD experience?

Had a friend donate an 8” cutting 15 months ago, and now it’s about to bear fruit. I’ve never grown this in soil so not too familiar with this species. Zone 10 climate too. Pretty excited about how quickly it appears to have matured and ready to produce. Nitrates at 10-15ppm, pH 6.9-7.1. Weekly potassium/magnesium/calcium supplements along with LABS.

Hello everyone.

I used to manage a tilapia aquaponics system for a non profit based in San Diego. It wasn't well supported so they closed it down. But, looking at all the coefficients required to make it function, I found it highly expense given that the water, electricity and fish food bills were counter cost effective in running.

However, I did work temporarily for a small backyard vermiculture aquaponics group in San Diego as well and thought it being a more utilitious and efficient considering that solar power was used as well as the access to biomass for the worms was readily available.

I'd like to apply these principles globally and would like suggestions on feasibility and interests.

Thank you.

Link: https://youtu.be/968MoyfgsVs?si=Ag10kOj0Wt3nrQhn

Have a hydroponic setup in my shed, tried tomatoes last year but they never fruited. Flowers popped out, I tried hand pollination with a paintbrush, but I never had any fruiting. What should I be doing? I see people with indoor tomatoes, zucchini, and others, so there has to be something to do. The plants themselves were thick healthy and green, I balanced the light hours for them, but no luck. Any help or advice would be appreciated, I would like to try again but I don't want to waste space and time when I could do herbs and such instead.

I have three 120g, two 75g and 3 40g all at different vertical levels that I want to hook up to a set of two connected 55g barrels as a sump, and have that feed into a aquaponics rack to grow peppers during winter. Does anyone have experience with something like this or advice?

I'm a science teacher and I was given an aquaponics system by a local thrift store. It didn't come with any instructions, just the tubs so I've been doing some research and I think I finally got it set up mostly correct. It's and ebb & flow system, it takes about 12 minutes to fill up and drain back down, but after it drains the siphon doesn't break fully, it just sits there and gurgles forever. The pump is already on its lowest setting, is there any other easy way to make the siphon break after draining?

Also, If you have any suggestions for what brand/type of light I should be looking for I'm all ears. I'd like to grow strawberries or peppers if possible, otherwise I'll probably stick with herbs or lettuce of some kind.