EMO's Eventual Aquaponic Thirty

Okay, I'm hoping this works and that I'm putting this in the right place. If not, feel free to move this wherever it needs to be.

Anyhow, as I said in my introduction post, I'm planning on making my thirty gallon tank an aquaponic tank. I'm hoping to mainly grow herbs and maybe some lettuce in this tank. Right now it's just a nice pretty tank with a few plants in it. I couldn't just do a bare tank. It needed plants.

FISH
-two julii cory cats (will be buying more)
-one pale blue dwarf gourami
- five fish that are either three platies or and two mollies or three mollies and two platies. I literally can't tell the difference.

PLANTS
-four of something all the same.

HARDWARE
-two Aqueon 30 filters (rated up to 45 gallons each)
-bubbler
-preset thermometer at 78 degree F
-some light (was using an Aqueon light but it died and I only go to PetCo once a week due to distance)

EVENTUAL
-seven julii cory cats
-seven mollies
-thinking four gouramis (advice needed as I've literally never kept these fish before)
-seven platties
-maybe guppies?

Honestly fish wise I'm looking for pretty colorful fish that poop a decent amount, but aren't super heavy poopers as I need their poop and such for the plants eventually.

IF this works out I also have a forty gallon tank that had housed my bearded dragon at my parents house (I have the dragon in another forty gallon tank that was at my house). But the forty gallon needs a stand as it's currently on milk crates.

Am I missing anything?

Okay, time for an update!

Numbers are holding steady at 0.0ppm for ammonia and nitrites. So yay for that!

Added about ten more fish today.

Fish count:
One pale blue gourami
Five platies
Five mollies
Two Julii Cory cats
Ten emerald green Cory cats (hopefully) (otherwise it might be five bronze Cory cats and five emerald green Cory cats)

Four plants that look the same.

Now, PHOTOS!











Next step is to make a mock up floating garden to see how well it floats and how well it holds the orbeez. Also am looking into possibly doing plexiglass with holes cut out for clay or plastic pots and looking to get an adjustable light that I can raise or lower depending on the plant height.

April TOTM will be for tanks sized at 17 to 30 gallons. Hint.....hint

Fishmanic said:

April TOTM will be for tanks sized at 30 gallons and smaller. Hint.....hint

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Tis a tempting thought. I'll see where I am in March before I decide.

And I came home to three more dead fish. Water parameters are all good. 0.0ppm ammonia, 0.0ppm Nitrites, and 0.0ppm Nitrates. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I've literally never had this issue before.
Really getting frustrated. I was hoping to have enough fish to start the aquaponic part of my journal by now. But I've literally replaced all my fish once already. Now I might be doing it a second time.
I see why my dad decided to stop. I keep everything perfect and they still *insert f word curse word* die. I can't keep affording new fish. $40-$50 worth of fish is a tank of gas or groceries.

xxEMOxLIZZARDxx said:

orbeez

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I almost forgot orbeez existed! They were so popular like 5 years ago.

connorlindeman said:

I almost forgot orbeez existed! They were so popular like 5 years ago.

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I have been obsessed with them since I was like fifteen or so and I'm in my thirties at this point. Discovered them at a flower show and have been hooked ever since.

UPDATE!

The Orbeez have been delivered!!

I'm going to try and set up a makeshift planter and see how the Orbeez react. I got just plain clear ones so no colors or anything should leech. Plus it'll be fun to see the roots as the plants grow.

So uh, word to the wise, let the Orbeez sit in water and FULLY expand before putting them in the makeshift planter (don't half ass and wait until they are just large enough to cover a hole). I may have woken up to Orbeex IN MY TANK and the problem with the clear, well, they are clear in the water. This ought to be fun tonight to clean up.

xxEMOxLIZZARDxx said:

So uh, word to the wise, let the Orbeez sit in water and FULLY expand before putting them in the makeshift planter (don't half ass and wait until they are just large enough to cover a hole). I may have woken up to Orbeex IN MY TANK and the problem with the clear, well, they are clear in the water. This ought to be fun tonight to clean up.

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can I see pictures

xxEMOxLIZZARDxx said:

And I came home to three more dead fish. Water parameters are all good. 0.0ppm ammonia, 0.0ppm Nitrites, and 0.0ppm Nitrates. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I've literally never had this issue before.
Really getting frustrated. I was hoping to have enough fish to start the aquaponic part of my journal by now. But I've literally replaced all my fish once already. Now I might be doing it a second time.
I see why my dad decided to stop. I keep everything perfect and they still *insert f word curse word* die. I can't keep affording new fish. $40-$50 worth of fish is a tank of gas or groceries.

Click to expand...

I found your earlier thread dealing with all the dying fish,

I would suggest you keep issues in one thread so everyone can see past aspects and advice given.

I will just mention two things here...first, the water GH is very soft and livebearers will not last in this. And second, it is well water and it was suggested by others as well as me that you have the water tested so you know exacrtly what is in it. Either of these issues may be responsible for the fish deaths.

I would not get any cories for this tank, as the substrate will cause them serious problems. They cannot filter feed as they need to, and gravel is known to cause bacterial problems for cories.

joeyr188 said:

can I see pictures

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I didn't get any this morning as I was rushing to work, but I'll get some photos when I get home. Lord knows they aren't going anywhere.

Byron said:

I found your earlier thread dealing with all the dying fish,

Possible Restart...

Okay, I am getting frustrated. Woke up this morning to five dead fish in the tank. Water parameters are still good. 0.0ppm ammonia, 0.0ppm Nitrite and 5.0ppm Nitrate. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. If I just let the fish die and redo the tank, what species should I look for? I wanted to go...

www.fishforums.net

I would suggest you keep issues in one thread so everyone can see past aspects and advice given.

I will just mention two things here...first, the water GH is very soft and livebearers will not last in this. And second, it is well water and it was suggested by others as well as me that you have the water tested so you know exacrtly what is in it. Either of these issues may be responsible for the fish deaths.

I would not get any cories for this tank, as the substrate will cause them serious problems. They cannot filter feed as they need to, and gravel is known to cause bacterial problems for cories.

Click to expand...

Fair, I can keep everything together. Honestly should have but wasn't thinking.

What fish would work for the tank with the super soft water and be okay in a thirty gallon?

I will plan to switch out the gravel for sand. I just got paid today and my parents are coming to visit so I'll have time off to get some sand and some five gallon buckets.

I did have the water tested when we bought the house and as far as I can remember, the guy said everything was coming back at zero. But I can also get the water tested as well again to make sure. Just am not sure how long everything will take.

xxEMOxLIZZARDxx said:

Fair, I can keep everything together. Honestly should have but wasn't thinking.

What fish would work for the tank with the super soft water and be okay in a thirty gallon?

I will plan to switch out the gravel for sand. I just got paid today and my parents are coming to visit so I'll have time off to get some sand and some five gallon buckets.

I did have the water tested when we bought the house and as far as I can remember, the guy said everything was coming back at zero. But I can also get the water tested as well again to make sure. Just am not sure how long everything will take.

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I would do the water test. If fish are dying as you reported, and the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate tests are as you report them, there has to be something causing the deaths. Losing livebearers this early is not what I would expect from the GH, though that does severely weaken them. Similar holds for the cories, they will slowly weaken but this seems more rapid. The water report may ID something. As a couple of us said in the other thread, low levels of some metals may b safe for humans but deadly to fish.

As for fish, I don't really know what to suggest. The purpose behind this aquaponic setup is risky for fish. You are going to have to add nutrients for the plants, and being terrestrial plants they need somewhat different nutrients than aquatic plants and these may affect fish.

Byron said:

I would do the water test. If fish are dying as you reported, and the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate tests are as you report them, there has to be something causing the deaths. Losing livebearers this early is not what I would expect from the GH, though that does severely weaken them. Similar holds for the cories, they will slowly weaken but this seems more rapid. The water report may ID something. As a couple of us said in the other thread, low levels of some metals may b safe for humans but deadly to fish.

As for fish, I don't really know what to suggest. The purpose behind this aquaponic setup is risky for fish. You are going to have to add nutrients for the plants, and being terrestrial plants they need somewhat different nutrients than aquatic plants and these may affect fish.

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I'm not planning on adding anything nutrient wise for the plants. I'm literally only going to be absorbing what they put out. I've done this before on a very small scale (one gallon kit) and it only failed because of the size of the tank (because let's face it, nothing really fits in a one gallon tank). Which is why I'm now trying with the thirty in the hopes it works even better.