Aquaponics this spring:
It will be the next step in the fun I'm having with home build recirculating aquaculture systems. Might as well use the nitrate rich water to grow garden plants and use the plants to remove nitrates, some suspended solids, and do some biofiltration for the fish. Verses the bluegills, yellow perch, brook, brown trout, and smallmouth bass I raise for profit, I'll probably use tilapia for the table. The waste water will be used to irrigate a raised garden that is close to where I hope to set up the system.
I'll try and use both media based and nutrient film technique in the system for a range of experience to see what works for me which will include flood and drain, growing beds, satellite pots, and floating rafts.
There will still be biofilter and a clarifer tank but the biofilter will probably be a moving bed reactor with plastic media vs. an RBC. Just a 55 gallon plastic drum half filled with plastic media and a diffuser in the bottom. Water in at the bottom and gravity flow out.
At least some of the plants will be on the deck in the following photos where water will be periodically pumped up to the deck after the biofilter via a timer. Water then will drop back to a sump tank via gravity before going back to the fish tank.
I'll use my waste water from water changes to irrigate this raised garden that is close by here seen more clearly in the following photos.
The fish tank will be under the deck for shade and most likely I will use a UV clarifier inline to eliminate competition by algae.
