I am glad to be here in a community of knowledgeable growers, sharing what has worked and failed for me. I would like to use this topic to discuss my grows, and get feedback to improve.
I started playing with aquaponics about 10 years ago by building a 3 IBC tote system and some 55 gallon barrel systems. I followed Rob Bob’s Aquaponics channel and modeled my systems of the ones i watched him build.
the systems have been great producers of strawberry, tomato, leafy greens etc. I have them stocked with a variety of fish (some channel cats, bluegill, and some goldfish)
this year, planted a few clones taken from my indoor, and put them in the system (although they didnt get planted till quite late in the growing season) though the plants are not massive they are nearing the end of flowering and have quite nice buds.
am looking forward to growing in these guys for a full outdoor aquaponics powered grow for next year.
here are a couple short vids on TikTok showing the systems
in addition to the aquaponics, have a dedicated 10 x 10 ish area in my shed where will be growing hydroponically in a RDWC system based on totes and a sump. here are a couple pics from that setup and last little harvest from my indoor 3x2 tent.
Its certainly got a lot more uncontrollable variables in it. But with a little luck it can produce like crazy. am planning on using a dual root zone setup, so that i can supplement the plant directly with bloom boosters (compost tea + molasses + microrhyzai) without introducing to many nutrients directly into the nitrogen cycle happening from the fish.
Whatever happens, certainly plan on having fun with it!
“Dual root zone” - you just made my day don’t know how I hadn’t encountered that concept yet, but it’s epic.
I’ve been itching to do some sort of aquaponics for years now. Had plenty of aquariums, and plenty of plants, uniting the two just seems meant to be.
The biggest issue for me is space. We have very little yard, none of it private, and aren’t legal to grow cannabis outdoors. Indoors lacks the space also. Its also zone 8b, so cold in winter. I’ve been entertaining two crazy ideas for a couple years now, since we own a 1979 mobile home and it was a terrible fixer upper.
Wild idea 1: remove the floor in my plumbed 6x9 grow room space, install an IBC or two in that space and build a walkable grid over them.
Wild idea 2: plumb through the wall. Most of the fish in water outside, most of the plants inside.
fellow 8B here… the nice thing about IBC totes is that with the framework they come with, they are quite easy to turn them into mini greenhouses, but any way you make it work is great. basically you need an area with enough water retention to keep your fish, cool, fed, safe and happy… and then growbed on either an ebb and flow or even a dual root zone setup… strongly encourage you to check out various builds by Rob Bob’s Aquaponics on youtube. easy to understand and very adaptable.
game plan for the morning is to harvest the two small plants in the aquaponics system. they have plumped up very nicely and are just starting to have some amber. Will be the first time trying all these strains. The aroma’s and stickiness they are showing me has got me feeling some kinda way.
I picked up the seeds from a facebook group (Legion of Roots) and although i’m still a newb at this stuff, the plants have been looking really great. The varieties were Cosmic Witch, Dosi Domina OG, Blueberry Bella, and Doughnut Donna. Additionally grew one random bagseed that i was gifted and referred to her as Bagseed Betty.
Bagseed Betty, and Blueberry Bella finished in my indoor tent and were dried / cured by freeze drying. Both of them have had a bit of “testing” already and all that can be said is “Happy Happy Happy…”
with a fair amount of rain scheduled for the next few days in my area(which we sorely need), the aquaponics girls are getting some well deserved nap time in the drying area.
Doughnut Donna was ready and showing a nice little flush of amber in her trichomes, Dosi Domina could have probably used a couple more days, but with rain in the forecast (and being very humid here) I decided that full cloudy with just a couple amber trichomes would have to do.
Both plants were germinated on July 8th and placed into the aquaponics system around the first week of august (if i remember correctly). So neither plant had a great amount of veg time until the days got short enough that they started flowering. That said, still very happy with what they ended up at very vigorous growth, and by far the biggest bud’s that i have yet grown.
Really excited about what this system can produce next year, when it will have a full growing season outdoors (speaking of which how can i determine when is the earliest time i can transplant seedlings into the system, so they have maximum veg time before going to flower?)
Just lit up a nice cannagar to contemplate these possibilities.
Looking forward to sharing all this bounty with people who need this medicine.
off to play with the 3d printer and find some more neat stuff to print. G’nite and Great Grows to all.
You actually don’t need much room… I successfully ran an aquaponics setup in a lot 3’x11" 7’ tall cabinet from Canadian Tire… I had a 10 gallon tank in the bottom with a filter pushing water to a 10ish gallon rubbermade tub that drained back down to the tank. In the rubber made tub I had a 12"x8" basket that was about 4" deep with grow media. I had 2 lights on either side of the grow basket and 2 more angled down from above. A computer fan pushing air out through a 4" hole I drilled in the side. I stacked blankets on top and had on strategically hanging over the hole in the side to cover it up. With the doors closed it looked like any other cabinet.
My landlord at the time did an inspection with an insurance agent and came up clean .
In mine? Sorry, yeah, I had goldfish in the 10 gallon in the bottom… Autofeeder for the fish, lights on auto timer… I could walk away for a week or two and come back to a crazy jungle, lol.
The bonus of goldfish is that they poop, a LOT! And, as nasty as it is, that’s kinda what you’re aiming for, lol.
I’m not sure how guppies would do, in terms of creating the nitrates, but it would be very interesting to get a master test kit and check it out!
Just remember, ideal aquaponics water is a little on the brown side, all the PhD’s I learned from said it should ideally be tea coloured, although I’ve never got mine quite that brown, lol…so, not ideal for a display tank.
don’t know how I hadn’t encountered that concept yet, but it’s epic.
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