More food, less water
A vertical aquaponic system grows vegetables without soil in columns above a fish tank. It is a water-efficient and space-saving way to garden and raise fish. By growing vertically, you can produce about twice the amount of plants as you can with a hydroponic system of the same area. One five-foot tower can produce more than 200 heads of lettuce per year. And it uses a small fraction of the water needed to grow crops in soil.
Mutual benefits The aquaponic system puts fish waste to work as fertilizer for crops. A small pump draws nutrient-rich water from the fish tank to the tops of the vertical columns. The water trickles down through the roots of the plants, gathering oxygen from the air as it falls back into the tank. The system is mostly enclosed, with little to no waste and no need for fertilizer or pesticides. And, if you do it well, you won't have to clean the fish tank much.
You would have to replace lost water as needed, power the pump and feed the fish. It might not be too hard to power one of these pumps with a small solar panel or some other renewable energy. If anyone has an idea, please share.
This is how to build Sean Brady's low-cost vertical aquaponic system. All the photos are his, and if you have questions for him, you can contact Sean Brady here or email him at
Materials:
You can use the following materials or swap out anything for whatever you have on hand. Brady built this system from scrap he had around the greenhouse. We're including pictures of other, fancier systems that he built out of similar materials to show the diversity that this kind of build affords. Measurements are in feet and inches. Sorry, rest of the world.
*Pipes
15-20 ft. of 4-in. diameter PVC or ADS
Four 4-inch elbows
Four 4-inch T connectors
*Two 50-gallon drums
*15-20 ft. of pex tubing, or aquarium tubing
*Plastic cups
*Strips of cloth, such as burlap sack, cable ties or another fastener
*Scrap wood
*Two rolls of electrical tape
*Pumps
One water pump - the size depends on how much flow it would need. An aquarium pump is enough to keep the flow going.
One air pump (optional). The system can aerate itself but it can produce more if it has an air pump.
Tools:
*Power drill or hand drill
*1-in hole saw
*3-in hole saw
Build time: About two hours.
Recommended plants and fish:
Leafy vegetables, tomatoes and herbs do well in these vertical aquaponic systems. So do flowers. You can experiment to find which do well and fit your needs.
Tilapia and trout do well, they grow quickly and they're delicious.
Cut the pipe into six 1ft. sections for the sides and two 14in. sections for the ends.
Drill two 3in-diameter holes in each of the 1ft side pieces.
Drill a 1in-diameter hole into the side of one of the end pieces.
Tip:You can use any kind of durable plastic or pipe, not just what's pictured.
Drill two 3in-diameter holes in each of the 1ft side pieces.
Drill a 1in-diameter hole into the side of one of the end pieces.
Tip:You can use any kind of durable plastic or pipe, not just what's pictured.
Assemble the pieces with electrical tape.
Cut the vertical pipes to the length that suits you.
Drill 1in-diameter holes in the vertical pipes, evenly spaced.
Insert the vertical pipes as shown.
The photo on the right shows the mostly finished structure to give you an idea of how it looks.
“The other consideration is how much water can you pump through the pump. One kind of rule of thumb you can go with is if you have a 100 liter set up, you want to be able to pump 100 liters per hour. But, when you get into the details of water pumps, you start looking at what is 100 liters per hour?”
“Active Aqua company, submersible pump 250. It can pump 250 gallons per hour. Now I’ve got 100 liters of water in my setup, which is about 30 gallons so obviously this is overkill.”
“Basically, the water gets suck in through these little grates, and there’s kind of a propeller type fan which is essentially blows the water up and out the top fitting. So this top fitting has screw threads, and it comes with some different fittings. They screw into the top, and there’s a couple different fittings for a skinnier hose or a fatter hose.”
“…One really cool aspect of this pump which I can hopefully utilize is that it comes with an attachment here that has a venturi…It’s a way to help aerate your water without using any aerator pumps or any electricity. It’s just a natural plumbing method of increasing the air intake into your water. Basically as the water goes through the pipe, it pulls air in through this air hose, so it mixes a little bit of air in with the water.”
“Most water pumps have some sort of way to regulate the water output that they can do and with my pump, this is one of them. Water gets sucked in through here because the fan (the propeller blades) is pulling the water in and pushing up.”
“When you take it apart, this is the actual pump. Inside here, that’s where the propeller blades spin to pull the water through. It’s got some suction cups (beneath the pump) so you can stick it to the bottom or the sides of your tank, and then you got your filter material.”
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Drill 1in-diameter holes in the vertical pipes, evenly spaced.
Insert the vertical pipes as shown.
The photo on the right shows the mostly finished structure to give you an idea of how it looks.
How To Choose The Right Water Pump
A good quality water pump and also a suitable one is essential for an aquaponics system. It enables your system to be efficient when transferring water from the tank to the plants and back down again.
Aquaponics enthusiast Aron Stock has a good explanation of how to choose the right water pump. Read on or scroll down to the bottom to watch the full video.
How Many Watts Does It Use?
“There’s kind of two considerations. One is, you want to look at the electronic specs for your water pump. Basically what you’re looking for is the wattage. How many watts does it use?”
“You want to get a water pump that does the job with using the minimum, smallest amount of watts that you can find. The lower the watts, the less money it’s going to cost on your electricity bill because your water pump in most cases, unless you’re on a timer, but in the system I’m doing, the water pump is going to be running 24/7.”
“So it’s really important to get the smallest wattage that you can to use the least amount of electricity, it’s good for the environment and it’s good for your pockets so you’re not paying a bunch of money to the electric company Also, you have to consider how much the pump costs to buy.”
How Much Water Can Be Pumped?
“The other consideration is how much water can you pump through the pump. One kind of rule of thumb you can go with is if you have a 100 liter set up, you want to be able to pump 100 liters per hour. But, when you get into the details of water pumps, you start looking at what is 100 liters per hour?”
“Well, the amount of water that can get pumped through a water pump changes for a lot of factors. The horizontal length of how far does the pump have to go, how much hose do you have…the longer the hose length, the less powerful your pump is going to be.”
“Also, even more so, the vertical height, how far does the water have to get pumped up. That really reduces the pumping capacity of your pump. Hopefully your pump company will have a graph which shows the maximum head, which is how high it could pump, and then it shows you a graph of how many liters per time [per minute or per hour] at different lengths and heights that the pump is able to produce.”
Analyzing The Graph
“You need to make sure that your pump is submersible because it will be pumping from underwater. You also need to make sure that it’s rated for pumping water and not some other fluids.”
“Active Aqua company, submersible pump 250. It can pump 250 gallons per hour. Now I’ve got 100 liters of water in my setup, which is about 30 gallons so obviously this is overkill.”
“However, if we look at the manual, we’ve got a graph here, and here is the 250, that’s my model and this is the grey line here (refer to the image on the right) so you can see the maximum head, maximum height it can go is about 6 feet.”
“Once you reach 6 feet in height [pumping the water up 6 feet], that’s where the pump seizes to work. So if you have to pump the water up 6 feet, you’re basically not going to get any water. If you go down to 5 and a half feet, you’re going to get a trickle of water. If you go down to 4 feet, you’re going to get about 30-40 gallons per hour. Now that’s OK for me because my setup needs the pump up about 3 feet. So with this pump, pumping up 3 feet, I’m going to get somewhere around 60GPH, and I only need pump 30GPH because I have a 30 gallon setup (100 liters).”
“So it’s better to have too much. You need a pump that can overdo it a little bit. Basically, if your pump is a little bit too strong, you can always use some kind of a valve to slow down the water flow or you can divert the extra water and help aerate your fish tank or something.”
“Make sure your pump is more than capable of doing the job. You don’t want to go overboard and get a humungous pump cos then you’re running too many watts and using up tonnes of electricity, but you want to get a pump that’s good enough, that’s definitely strong enough to handle what you need to do with leftover power to spare.”
Water Pump Overview
“Basically, the water gets suck in through these little grates, and there’s kind of a propeller type fan which is essentially blows the water up and out the top fitting. So this top fitting has screw threads, and it comes with some different fittings. They screw into the top, and there’s a couple different fittings for a skinnier hose or a fatter hose.”“…One really cool aspect of this pump which I can hopefully utilize is that it comes with an attachment here that has a venturi…It’s a way to help aerate your water without using any aerator pumps or any electricity. It’s just a natural plumbing method of increasing the air intake into your water. Basically as the water goes through the pipe, it pulls air in through this air hose, so it mixes a little bit of air in with the water.”“Most water pumps have some sort of way to regulate the water output that they can do and with my pump, this is one of them. Water gets sucked in through here because the fan (the propeller blades) is pulling the water in and pushing up.”
“I’ve got this guy here (the regulator fitting) and by twisting here, you can close the gate. So obviously if the doors open, more water can get pulled through, but if you need to lessen the amount of water, you just close it and the water only gets pulled through here (the grate openings on the pump).”
“When you take it apart, this is the actual pump. Inside here, that’s where the propeller blades spin to pull the water through. It’s got some suction cups (beneath the pump) so you can stick it to the bottom or the sides of your tank, and then you got your filter material.”
“It’s kind of some spaghetti foam so that none of your big fish solids are going to get stuck inside the propeller fan blades. Once a week or so, you’re going to have to clean this out. It’s going to get gunked up with fish poo.”
How do I build an aquaponics system?
To build the ISB 2′ x 4′ design, please refer For a 4′ x 4′ design, please visit this site.
How much will building a system cost?
For total costs of the materials needed for the two ISB designs, please refer to the 2′ x 4′ ISB Design Materials or 4′ x 4′ TX Design Materials lists.
I am a teacher and don’t have enough funding to build a system. How can I obtain funding for my aquaponics system materials?
Right now, the Institute for Systems Biology is working on a crowdfunding campaign to help teachers like you obtain funding for building a classroom aquaponics system. We also recommend Donors Choose, a crowdfunding website specifically for education projects. Just create an account, follow the instructions and create a project to be funded. In this case, that would be your aquaponics system. If you are using Donors Choose, nearly all of the materials listed can be purchased from Donors Choose approved vendors. Click on the following for the Donors Choose 2×4 Materials List or the Donors Choose 4×4 Materials List.
What type of fish should I use?
Typically, aquaponics enthusiasts use Tilapia because they’re incredibly hardy, grow quickly, and can be harvested as a food source! Tilapia require slightly higher temperatures, so a small tank heater may be a nice addition to increase their metabolism and help them grow faster. If you’re not interested in harvesting your fish, goldfish and koi are great alternatives. People have also experimented with crayfish and freshwater shrimp.
Do I need to change the water in my system?
Because the water is being cycled through the system, there is no need to change the water. Some water may be lost through evaporation. However, if you decide the water level is running low and needs replenishing, proceed with caution. Adding water to the system can throw off the chemical balance of the system, so add small amounts of water frequently to compensate for evaporative loss. Also, because there is chlorine in tap water (used to kill bacteria), you should ideally let the chlorine “gas off” before adding it to your system. This is as simple as filling up a bucket with tap water and letting it sit, without a lid, for 24-48 hours.
Is there anything I should be adding to my system?
One great part about aquaponics is there is very little maintenance required once your system becomes stable. In a stable aquaponics system, the only daily addition required is fish food.
Is it okay to have algae buildup in my system?
Generally speaking, you want to have as little algal buildup as possible. Algae thrive in areas with a lot of light (from the sun or a bulb), but they also use much of the oxygen that would typically be available for your fish. To reduce the likelihood of growing algae, ensure all tubing and tanks in your system are black or opaque so they block as much light reaching the water as possible. This sometimes also means covering your fish tank as much as possible, while still leaving room for oxygen to enter.
How long can the fish survive if the electricity were to go out?
Ideally, you should have a backup power source or battery for situations like this. However, in the event that you do not, a less crowded fish tank means the fish can survive longer without extra oxygen. Be sure someone is checking the system daily.
Why did my fish die?
If you have just started your system and put fish in, it may be the shock of a new environment that caused them to die. If your fish are used to warm climates but your water is too cold, that could also be a factor. If you have not added bacteria to the system yet, ammonia isn’t being converted into nitrate for your plants to take up; therefore, the ammonia buildup may have killed your fish. Overcrowding the fish tank can also stress out fish and cause them to die.
Why is the dissolved oxygen (DO) so low in my tank? Is that bad?
Ideally, you’d like to have about ppm oxygen in your tank for healthy fish and plants. If your dissolved oxygen is less than that, it may be due to the high temperature of your water (as temperature and dissolved oxygen have an inverse relationship) or an algal bloom. One way to increase your dissolved oxygen is by adding aeration pumps.
What should I do if my pH is too acidic? Too basic?
The water in your aquaponics system should be between 6.8 – 7.0; however, others have experienced success slightly higher/lower as well. If the pH is too acidic, add calcium/potassium carbonate (in the form of sea shells). Add in small doses. It is much better to make small but often changes rather than a large change at once. If the pH is too basic, add a very small amount of 18% phosphoric acid. The pH will not change immediately, so wait multiple days before adding more and checking the pH. Also, high (basic) pH can lock up necessary nutrients that your plants need to survive. This can cause slow plant growth or cause plant death.
My plants’ leaves are looking yellow. Is there anything I can do to fix that?
In this case, it is recommended you add pure iron chelate to your water for the plants. It makes iron soluble in water and thus, more accessible for the plant. In addition, it is also used as a way to treat a plant that is producing insufficient chlorophyll.
How do I establish healthy bacterial colonies in my system to ensure healthy nitrogen cycling?
Your fish need bacteria to break down their ammonia and make it less toxic, but your bacteria need your fish to feed them the ammonia so they survive! We recommend adding the appropriate amount of nitrifying bacteria for your quantity of water, and also adding small tilapia fingerlings (or just a few large tilapia). This will ensure your bacteria are being fed and are growing, but there won’t be more ammonia to convert than they can initially handle. As the tilapia grow and produce more ammonia, the bacterial colonies will be large and established enough to handle it!
To get the most out of your aquaponics system, I highly recommend the following articles, where you can decide from the highest rated and bestselling products for aquaponics.