Okay, that's awesome! Are the 1/4 inch lines going to the plants powered by your bubbler or some other kind of pump? What are the black plastic squares? Are you adding hydroponic ferts to the water? Do your fish survive off of algae or are you feeding them through some of the empty holes in the lid? It looks like the tank is completely covered by what I assume is styrofoam (except those two holes) - does that cause heat issues or do you just not have a heater in there?
Can't wait to hear more about it.
I have two separate systems which are pretty much the same except for the size of the fish and the color of the light
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Each has two canister filters with the smaller one running to the plants and the bigger on just filtering. The fish are fed a lot. They are tamasaba goldfish from Beni Hanna Nishikigoi. Mat gives me all his babies to grow out over the winter. He comes in a couple of times a year to remove the less ideal fish. This is the first year he has given me year olds to continue growing. I have his top 20 and he will come in February to reduce that to 10. He would like me to get them to softball size by June. The black squares in the previous post are the mounts for the feeder.
Sometimes I add dried kelp, epsom salt and cleated iron to the water for the plants. I haven't done that this yet but I need to because my kale is a little yellow.
The tops are cut from a sheet HDPE. No heater for the water. One LED grow light was purchased by our PTO and the other was donated by the supplier. The irrigation system is RO tubing and fittings with a bypass for when I need to do maintance.
I am aerating with a 12v bubbler hooked up to a battery that is connected to a battery charger/maintainer. I had a incident a few years back where there was a power outage on a weekend and then snow days on Monday and Tuesday. The power up after the power outage tripped the GFCIs and the subsequent days of no filtration or aeration resulted in a lot of dead fish.
The plants are in 4 in net pot that sit in 4 in pvc that are screened on the other end so fish do get to the roots.
I have gone through many different configurations but have settle on this for now. Originally the plants were separate from the tank with grow tents and so on but it was too much. Also, I used to use tilapia and I got some push back from the kids when I started netting them and filleting them. This more simple all in one "desktop" system is not only more manageable but also more visually appealing than what I had before. For example, this canna is really doing well.
Please fire away if you have more questions. I wish the kids would ask more questions but they don't
