Over the last month, I have put a lot of time into our aquaponic system. In brief, I had to install all the PVC plumbing, get the water flowing properly, add the grow media, install heaters, and begin hanging the lighting. The majority of the work has been associated with plumbing. There are still a few small leaks, but it all functions properly. There is still a lot of work to do, but having the water all flowing correctly makes me confident I will soon have a variety of plants growing, and a crop of tilapia.

I have tightened the grow bed stands, aligned the grow beds, filled them with grow media and started the water flowing. The syphons all worked on the first try, and I have adjusted the flow so the beds fill-up in roughly the same amount of time. I have the rigs partially built to hang the lights, and will finish installing them this weekend.

Yesterday when I first filled the system the water temperature was 46.9F. This morning it was 52.3F. I have 3 400W heaters running, and hopefully by this weekend the water will be up to 70F and I can start the cycling process. I think by that point the greenhouse will be a steam bath, but I am sure that will be good for the plants.

Many thanks (again) to Sylvia and her team at The Aquaponic Source. The binder of instructions for building the system has been very good. There are a few topics that I would modify but overall I have been able to make everything work as described.

This is a 180 gallon tank, which takes up more room than I think I expected. Soon it will be home to about 40 tilapia. First, the three heaters in the lower right need to do their job and get the water temperature up to about 70 degrees (fahrenheit). When I added water to the tank, it was about 45 degrees, and it is now up to 53 degrees. I suspect it is taking a lot of electricity to get the water temperature up to where it needs to be.

The plumbing has been the most time consuming part of getting the system set up. It started out easy, but as more and more pipe components were attached together, it became challenging to get everything to fit properly. I made several modifications to the original instructions, including liberal use of zip ties. It became a lot easier after I was clear in my mind how the water was intended to flow. All the pipe connections that are supposed to be glued have been, but a few of the others need to be tightened further with a pipe wrench (that I don't have yet).

The next step in the process of establishing the aquaponic system is 'cycling' which means establishing the bacteria necessary to the nitrogen cycle. I can start adding leafy plants like lettuce while cycling is in process, then when it is complete in a few weeks I will add tilapia. The bigs tasks for the remainder of Christmas vacation will be starting cycling, installing the grow lights and starting some lettuce seedlings.

Building our Aquaponic System - Part 2

My Old Shoebox