# Planted Tanks > Beginners' Corner >  Aquaponics?

## antjoey1122

Hi anyone into aquaponics here? Not sure can I post this here 

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## antjoey1122

The picture showed my old setup for my tanks. I had my tanks setup along my corridor, previous designs for the planted tanks were pond style http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ttle+ecosystem. I was using 2 planter boxes acting as filter, planted with Peace Lily and Arrowheads to manage the nitrate.


Now I intend to go low tech and fully planted for my tanks, also I wanted to change to full aquaponics.

I still love planted tanks, but I also like to use the waste water from the fish to grow some vegetables and herbs.
Attachment 51969

I will place my tanks close together horizontally.
Will update with master plan.

Anyone has experience with setup on this scale? It would be fun to share.

Cheers!

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## Urban Aquaria

Sounds like an interesting plan... do update on the progress of your aquaponic project.

So far, i've only played around briefly with simple overhead box setups using various emersed hardy aquarium plants in LECA substrate (ie. anubias, crypts, water wisteria, even mangrove plants too) and it worked quite well on a small scale system. Haven't tried with vegetables and herbs tough, i assume those usually tend to require alot more nutrients to grow, based on my experience a while back trying to grow them hydroponically with DIY kits.  :Smile:

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## antjoey1122

Ok. the attachment is dead. Let me add it as a image link.
my_fish_room_old_setup_small.jpg

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## antjoey1122

> Sounds like an interesting plan... do update on the progress of your aquaponic project.
> 
> So far, i've only played around briefly with simple overhead box setups using various emersed hardy aquarium plants in LECA substrate (ie. anubias, crypts, water wisteria, even mangrove plants too) and it worked quite well on a small scale system. Haven't tried with vegetables and herbs tough, i assume those usually tend to require alot more nutrients to grow, based on my experience a while back trying to grow them hydroponically with DIY kits.


I have not been into hydroponic before, but it would be an added knowledge for an aquaponic setup.

I intend to use bigger planter box hook on the railing of corridor and put clay pellet to act as the filter media and as the grow beds for the vege and herbs.

Yes, same as you mentioned, I will also be using LECA=clay pellet.

[Image showing the clay pellets=LECA (Light Expanded Clay Aggregate), also know as Hydroton,]clay-pebb[email protected]1.jpg

LECA is a cool addition as a filter media as it is had lots of surfaces for the beneficial bacteria to grow and it promote aeration, which is good for plant roots and bacteria. So it is only natural to use in a 2 in one system, like a aquaponics.

Directly below the hanging planter boxes will be the planted tanks.
My only worry is when the water nutrient get soak up by the vege and herbs in planter boxes, there may not be enough nutrient for the planted tanks.

There will be lots of DIY, lots of PVC piping and joints.

I will add another picture of the master plan.


Are there many people, who are crazy about fish and vege here  :Laughing: ?

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## Cmlee

i am interested too. Can share how you set it up?

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## antjoey1122

> i am interested too. Can share how you set it up?


Hi Cmlee,

My idea of the setup is to make 3 overflow pvc pipes and have the 3 tanks put side by side together arrange horizontally and then the overflow will drain to a central sump. The sump will then be the Lifeline for all subsequent new tanks, so to speak the water maintenance and other miscellaneous or new setup will link from the sump to them.


So from the sump I will pump the water up to some planter boxes for aquaponics (grow beds or DWC or NFT), the aquaponics will then serve as the central filtration system. Also from the central sump I can add some other water features or some tubifex sub-culture. I will also do my water top up for the system directly into the sump.


This should take at least 3-4 months to complete. Master plan coming up soon.


The overflow PVC pipes would be based on this design as I do not intend to drill my tanks.


Reference from http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/topi...w-box-or-pipe/


Do you have a design in mind?
Are you starting from scratch or use your present tanks setup?

As I shared in my post, my tanks are along the corridor with direct sunlight exposure. This may make my setup a bit easier, as there would be no need for lighting fixture.  :Laughing:

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## antjoey1122

This is a great link on how to make a PVC overflow pipe. No drill to tank.

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## antjoey1122

This my master piece setup for aquaponics, the image is an explanation of how the tanks are going to be arranged.

Had included a Swirl flow filter to collect the solids or poop from fish. This will prevent solid waste from accumulating in the grow beds (planter boxes). Solid accumulation will prevent aeration in the LECA, which will cause denitrification and will break the system proper working conditions.

I will explain further by improving the picture labeling.

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## boofeng

Wow nice work antjoey1122! Your pics are like professional graphics - very nice!  :Very Happy:

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## Urban Aquaria

Looks like a very detailed setup!  :Well done: 

Its interesting how you designed it to get around the current DIY configuration, ie. the multiple small sump tanks linked with water bridges due to the existing bench/stand legs.

I guess if you want to grow the plants on top well, the plants in the aquariums would have to be reduced or removed altogether, so that the maximum amount of nutrients can go towards feeding the plants above.

The only thing which i'm curious about is whether you have a fail-safe mechanism for the swirl flow pipe? As it is submerged in the bucket, if the power is cut and the pump doesn't push up water anymore, water in the bucket would siphon back into the sump below. 

Though i guess if the bucket volume isn't that large, and the sump tanks below have enough space, they could still contain all the back flowed water. Or maybe a check valve could be installed on the piping to prevent the back flow.

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## antjoey1122

> Wow nice work antjoey1122! Your pics are like professional graphics - very nice!


Hi Bufeng,
I'm trying my best to put the design up using good old PowerPoint. I think it looks fine. Thanks!

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## antjoey1122

> Looks like a very detailed setup! 
> 
> Its interesting how you designed it to get around the current DIY configuration, ie. the multiple small sump tanks linked with water bridges due to the existing bench/stand legs.
> 
> I guess if you want to grow the plants on top well, the plants in the aquariums would have to be reduced or removed altogether, so that the maximum amount of nutrients can go towards feeding the plants above.
> 
> The only thing which i'm curious about is whether you have a fail-safe mechanism for the swirl flow pipe? As it is submerged in the bucket, if the power is cut and the pump doesn't push up water anymore, water in the bucket would siphon back into the sump below. 
> 
> Though i guess if the bucket volume isn't that large, and the sump tanks below have enough space, they could still contain all the back flowed water. Or maybe a check valve could be installed on the piping to prevent the back flow.


Hi UA,
Thanks for your comments.
The small sumps may cause some problem if they are not higher than the big sump as the water bridges will try to level all their water levels with the sump with the highest level of water. I think I'll need to raise them a bit too.

I was searching around on aquaponic everywhere and you're right about the planted tanks nutrients needs and there's no reference on this topic about planted tanks and aquaponic. Maybe I can look at bio loads instead to address the nutrients needs for planted tanks and Vege.

Yes the swirl flow pipe back flow during a power outage or pump failure will cause all the water in bucket to cause a natural siphon and flood the big sump. I'll incorporate a 1 way ball valve.

Shall update the design again. Cheers!

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## antjoey1122

Hi All,

Just to give everyone a clear understanding of what a swirl pipe look like, below image is from my research.



Reference to http://aquaponics.net.au/forum/threa...voponics.2866/

This kind of filter helps with the solids (fish poops, uneaten food, plants debris, dirt ...) removal and reduce big floating particles from going back to fish tanks. I believe it helps with water clarity.

I had actually a completed set of overflow and swirl pipe. Shall update with some photos.

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## antjoey1122

Design updated with raise sump to be same level as big sump and added check valve to prevent flooding.

Added more labels to provide better explanation. Will keep improving my design.
No time to take those photos yet, will do it soon. Shall keep everyone posted. Cheers!

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## sthh

Here's sharing my fishtank aquaponic setup started in Nov last year using readily available LFS items, for your reference. Hope you can find some use.






Waiting for CNY Harvest: 



Close up of naibai and maiko lettuce

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## antjoey1122

> Here's sharing my fishtank aquaponic setup started in Nov last year using readily available LFS items, for your reference. Hope you can find some use.
> [pics removed to save disk space, refer to http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...081#post837081]
> 
> Waiting for CNY Harvest: 
> [pics removed to save disk space, refer to http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...081#post837081]
> 
> 
> Close up of naibai and maiko lettuce
> [pics removed to save disk space, refer to http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...081#post837081]


Hi sthh,

This is really cool. Great inspiration  :Shocked:  for those who are going to marry the 2 arts of fish keeping and gardening!

Where do you get the seeds for the colorful lettuce, my wife love the nai bai - I want to get those seeds too?

They looks ready to be harvested.  :drool 2: 


I think I am crazy, trying to combine 3 things: fish keeping, planted tank and gardening. I think I will drop a few compost worms in my grow bed and that will add in another hobby, vermi-compost.
Then that would be 4.

I think the term *Vermiaquaponics*can be used, but it is not enough to describe the planted tank.

Any idea anyone?  :Laughing:

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## sthh

> Hi sthh,
> 
> This is really cool. Great inspiration  for those who are going to marry the 2 arts of fish keeping and gardening!
> 
> Where do you get the seeds for the colorful lettuce, my wife love the nai bai - I want to get those seeds too?
> 
> They looks ready to be harvested. 
> 
> 
> ...


I got my naibai seeds from a girl in fengshan who was selling it for 80cents a pack in a makeshift stall. But I know you can also buy it from theseedmaster.com
They are very easy to grow. The maiko lettuce is from theseedmaster.com

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## kapitan

> I got my naibai seeds from a girl in fengshan who was selling it for 80cents a pack in a makeshift stall. But I know you can also buy it from theseedmaster.com
> They are very easy to grow. The maiko lettuce is from theseedmaster.com


do you and the family eat the vegetables?

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## sthh

Yes, we eat all the stuff that we grow, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and the occassional vegetables.

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## antjoey1122

> Yes, we eat all the stuff that we grow, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and the occassional vegetables.


Hi sthh, 
This is encouraging and I'm also looking forward to grow tomatoes, nasturtiums, basil, cabbage, pok chai, mint, sweet peppers with my 3 planters. I'll try DWC with lettuces 

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## sthh

> Hi sthh, 
> This is encouraging and I'm also looking forward to grow tomatoes, nasturtiums, basil, cabbage, pok chai, mint, sweet peppers with my 3 planters. I'll try DWC with lettuces 
> 
> Sent from my HM NOTE 1LTE using Tapatalk


Do you have an EC meter and ph meter to measure the water parameters needed for plants? lettuces are still ok, due to their low demand on nutrients and light, but tomatoes, sweet peppers are more demanding. Basil will grow no matter what you do.

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## antjoey1122

> Do you have an EC meter and ph meter to measure the water parameters needed for plants? lettuces are still ok, due to their low demand on nutrients and light, but tomatoes, sweet peppers are more demanding. Basil will grow no matter what you do.


Hi sthh,
I've a ph meter, but what's a EC meter? 

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## boofeng

> Hi sthh,
> I've a ph meter, but what's a EC meter? 
> 
> Sent from my HM NOTE 1LTE using Tapatalk


I'm guessing it's electrical conductivity - a measure of the number of ions in water (the more ions, the better electrical conductivity). I think the aquarist equivalent is TDS (total dissolved solids).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conduc...(electrolytic)

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## antjoey1122

> I'm guessing it's electrical conductivity - a measure of the number of ions in water (the more ions, the better electrical conductivity). I think the aquarist equivalent is TDS (total dissolved solids).
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conduc...(electrolytic)


Hi Bufeng, 

Thanks bro.. But I need to know where to get the EC meter. Do you have any idea? 

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## antjoey1122

*Update on progress*
PVC Overflow Pipe

I had made the Overflow PVC pipe and painted black as per the instruction from Youtube as shown in post#8 http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...591#post836591 in this thread and it is great.

IMG-20160202-WA0015.jpg

I made some changes to the design, instead of using PVC pipe for the big pipe in tank, I use a 40mm transparent PVC material tube from LFS. This way I can observe the flow and make sure nothing is clogging the intake.

Now there is no more powerhead or pump in the tank, it is very neat.

The flowrate is very high. I will try to take a video of the flowrate to my sump.

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## AquaHausSG

This is really interesting. Would really love to try my hands out on this especially with the relative small spaces that we have in our HDB homes..

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## aquaticlover

Does anyone know it is allowed to setup on the HDB corridor?

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## mincedmeat

You would need to get HDB's advise on this. You can write in to them with the request with specifics on the space used along the corridor and total weight involved in the setup.

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## aquaticlover

Thanks for your suggestion.

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## happydanio123

Hi there AntJoey! I love you enthusiasm in DIYing your aquaponics setup but I was just wondering if you connected all the sumps and aquariums together, won't that increase chances of cross infection? Anyways I really love your "Swirl filter" idea! It really makes me think of Koi ponds and I think that it was very creative of you to incorporate so many elements into your aquarium. I'm also thinking of startung an aquaponics project but I think my aquarium doesn't have enough nutrients for the plants to grow well. Do keep us updated and good luck on your exciting endeavour!

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## antjoey1122

> This is really interesting. Would really love to try my hands out on this especially with the relative small spaces that we have in our HDB homes..


Hi AquaHausSG,

Yes, I was inspired by the many news from such as these one:

http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyl...d-strawberries

http://uforest.blogspot.sg/2010/02/g...corridors.html

I was thinking, why waste all the water we have from our aquarium hobby.
And yes, with limited spaces in Singapore, HDB corridors are indeed an avenue we can explore. But must not be breeding ground for mozy.

Cheers!

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## antjoey1122

> Hi there AntJoey! I love you enthusiasm in DIYing your aquaponics setup but I was just wondering if you connected all the sumps and aquariums together, won't that increase chances of cross infection? Anyways I really love your "Swirl filter" idea! It really makes me think of Koi ponds and I think that it was very creative of you to incorporate so many elements into your aquarium. I'm also thinking of startung an aquaponics project but I think my aquarium doesn't have enough nutrients for the plants to grow well. Do keep us updated and good luck on your exciting endeavour!


Hi happydanio123,

I love DIY stuff. The idea of connecting all the sumps together is just to reduce my maintenance time of the aquariums - a lazy man approach to maintenance.
I agreed that there will be risks of cross infection, but I believe the fish will be happy with the more natural styles of setup once I achieved it.

I had been researching into incorporating algae into the design and riparium style to give the fish feel more at home.

Wow, Koi ponds would be good source of nutrient for a aquaponics setup.

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## antjoey1122

*Update on progress
*PVC Overflow Pipeoutput flow video as promised.





Looking at the current flow rate, it looks pretty good and very high.

I think based on the designer's flowrate calculation it should be about 200gph to a maximum of 1260gph.

I found that this design is very versatile and the output flowrate will adjust according to input into the tanks.

I will try to pull out one of the PVC Overflow pipe to show everyone about the transparent pipe as compare to normal PVC pipe for the big pipe in tanks.

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## simbk

Hi all,sorry to ask a noob question about aquaponic.
For the water,do you all use commercial dechlorinator such as Seachem Prime? If so,wouldnt the chemical be bad for our health if we eat the vegetables grown?
If not using using commercial chemical,what other ways to dechlorinate our tap water,other than letting the chlorine evaporate,so that the fishes will not die off due to chlorine  :Laughing:

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## sthh

> Hi all,sorry to ask a noob question about aquaponic.
> For the water,do you all use commercial dechlorinator such as Seachem Prime? If so,wouldnt the chemical be bad for our health if we eat the vegetables grown?
> If not using using commercial chemical,what other ways to dechlorinate our tap water,other than letting the chlorine evaporate,so that the fishes will not die off due to chlorine


The chemicals in the anti chlorine, Sodium thiosulfate, Sodium sulfite, Sodium metabisulfite and Sodium bisulfite are rather harmless.

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## simbk

Really? I always thought it might be unsafe  :Embarassed: 

Thanks for the enlightening,sthh  :Grin:

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## sherchoo

Hi All,

Wife had some problems growing herbs in pots and I took the opportunity to start a aquaponic system in my balcony (actually it was an opportunity to get another fish tank). Got some containers from Toyogo, some grow media, a 2ft tank, a pump and some piping.... and the results are as below:

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## antjoey1122

Been trying to show everyone the overflow pipe. Here it is. uploadfromtaptalk1463585515011.jpg

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## antjoey1122

> Hi All,
> 
> Wife had some problems growing herbs in pots and I took the opportunity to start a aquaponic system in my balcony (actually it was an opportunity to get another fish tank). Got some containers from Toyogo, some grow media, a 2ft tank, a pump and some piping.... and the results are as below:



Hi sherchoo,

Anymore updates on your aquaponics?

Been rather busy and had the tanks running and started a Paludarium, yet to grow anythings except some mints.

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## AQMS

Herb need full sunlight to grow so if you want to grow herb indoor you need grow light.
Looking at pic,the curry plant is dying.

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## antjoey1122

> Herb need full sunlight to grow so if you want to grow herb indoor you need grow light.
> Looking at pic,the curry plant is dying.


Hi AQMS, 

Yes I saw 




> sherchoo's curry leaves


 not doing so well, I was hoping for more encouraging images from him. 


I guess so far, the most successful pics are 



> sthh's vege.


I've not upload my setup yet. 

Cheers! 

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