Aquaponics

[kigh]

Hello Everyone,

Just recently I was assigned to design, create, and run my own aquaponics for my Bioengineering class. I have been researching and found that the best combination of creating a biological filter is a type of lettuce and Tilapia. Problem is the cost of Tilapia is alittle to much and alittle to large for the size tank I'm planning on using. I was hoping for suggestions on another species of fish or a new combination such as goldfish and watercress.

Thanks,
Kigh

[MrMistery]

i have no idea what this is, but is it related to botany? Cause if it's not, we will have to move the topic. :d

[Linn]

I find water hyacinth to work very well and its
cheap and easy to find (seasonal where I live)
but can be ordered on-line
You can see how well it works when you pull
it out of the water and see all the debris it has
collected
ad fish are attracted to the organisms that collect
around it.

In my pond I do not have any mechanical filtration
I filter the water through water celery and always
float hyacinth.
A good fish is the mosquito fish.
And feeder goldfish are very cheap.
tomatoes of course do very well with aquaponics

This is a great website for troubleshooting.

Lynne

http://www.aquaponics.com/

[Linn]

yes its relted to botany, Plants, horticulture

But I guess this is ok for ecology too since it
is a way to learn to clean water.

[MrMistery]

I searched the web. And from what i saw, it looks like an artificial ecosistem(where man is consumer I,II,III and IV )

[kigh]

The aquaponics link helped much....but I'm still wondering on the better choice of how to filter the water through plants. If I went with an overhanging idea witht the plants above I need to create an artificial pump to bring the water to the plants then the water filters through and drops into the water. The second idea would simply be planting aquatic plants and floating plants to filter. Any ideas?
Thank you in advance,

Kigh

[Linn]

All you need is a plastic tube, pump
(you dont need anything heavy duty)
, and two tubs, and the filtering plants..
very simple. elevate the filter tub
(you can buy one with a waterfall outlet at Lowes)
or make a spout out of bamboo or piping and insert into
side and put Glue around .
on bricks, weigh the tube down inside toward the back.
Allow at least a week or two for the beneficial bacteria to
take hold.

Position. plant lights above the tub. Just get an old floor lamp
and buy grow light bulbs.