Home Aquaponics Build

The build pictures you will see below are for an aquaponics system. Aquaponics is a method of growing vegetables (indoor or outdoor). The system acts as an entirely self sufficient ecosystem that circulates the water through the plants and back into the tank. Essentially the fish eat food, convert that food into waste that dissolves into the water, then the water gets pumped into the grow bed and is absorbed by the growing plants. The water is then cycled back down to the fish tank cleaner than when it arrived.

Here I have attached several pictures of the build process for my home aquaponics system:

Here you can see the frame construction. We bought the 2x4s, sanded them down, and did two coats of stain to help them blend in with the brick of the apartment.

At this stage the 55 gallon fish tank was installed with everything except the fish. The frame was just finished up and dropped over the full tank. As you can see there is a long air-stone in the tank. This is to aerate the water, which is super important in making the dissolved nutrients available to the plants.

Here you see the 4'x2' grow bed made of food grade plastic. On the right you see a small PVC tube sticking out of the plastic. This will be covered by a large PVC tube with a cap that creates an auto-siphon when the water reaches a certain level. This allows the system to automatically fill up and empty out without an extra pump/timer.

At this stage I added three crucial components to the system. The first is the grow medium (hydrocroton - white rock like substrate), which allows the plants to form roots in order to grow. The second thing is the water pump that brings water up from the tank to the grow bed (top left tube). Lastly, I added the grow lights (two 125 watt fluorescents).