Water Reclamation Through Aquaponics?

[Arturtle]

I know some people have tanks to age water for water changes, but has anyone ever tried to reclaim old water from tanks with plants?  I was thinking about this the other day and was curious if anyone had ever experimented with this.

I was thinking you could maybe just float something like a peace lily in a 55g drum, or maybe have a closed loop aquaponics system that you refresh with dirty tank water and siphon it back out for water changes when appropriate.  I'm guessing you'd want to supplement with regular water to supplement minerals and such, but I'm no biologist.

It might be an experiment for the winter months

[Regalblue]

I would think that you would need a lot more plants than you're thinking.

I know you've played around a bit with peppers & your turtle's water... Did you ever test the water & monitor it?

[mibwb]

Sounds like great thinking and a simple plan......sounds like you have an understanding of how it works and what to do to maintain said system...... but like Blair said you'll need more plants and a bigger water source(way bigger than a 55g drum) even just for a 5gal tank water change weekly.

[Arturtle]

I tried peppers and potatoes with my turtle tank.  I honestly didn't pay as much attention as I should of.  Things would start off good, but I couldn't provide enough nutrients to really yield anything worth mentioning.  The times I tested the water towards the end of the potato experiment I had zero's in everything except ammonia.  I either bypassed the nitrate cycle or had some other serious issues.  I would think with 30-40 some scrubbies and a couple hundred pounds of lava rock I would have sufficient BB.

I very well could just be lazy and optimistic.  I might just do it to see what happens

[mibwb]

It's not being lazy....it's having the time while you've still got the gumption to do it.
Optimistic is not being frustrated enough not to try again..again

[Mastiffman]

Grow lettuce with 6" PVC pipe in "S" formations. Cut 4" holes in the top and slip plastic party cups down in them with some sort of aggregate in them and plant lettuce in them. Romaine Lettuce is a great choice. Use LED lighting for ample photosynthesis... 

I've seen hydroponics systems growing Tilapia in ponds that works great!

[Arturtle]

It's not being lazy....it's having the time while you've still got the gumption to do it.
Optimistic is not being frustrated enough not to try again..again

I appreciate the enthusiasm.

Grow lettuce with 6" PVC pipe in "S" formations. Cut 4" holes in the top and slip plastic party cups down in them with some sort of aggregate in them and plant lettuce in them. Romaine Lettuce is a great choice. Use LED lighting for ample photosynthesis... 

I've seen hydroponics systems growing Tilapia in ponds that works great!

Hearing about stuff like that just sounds like fun, and is kind of why I've been playing with stuff.

The biggest thing I've seen so far messing with it was that the plants would take off, but then die off after a certain point.  I could see if you also have some fast growing fish that will increase waste as the plants grow, that would probably be beneficial.  My plants would "flower" and then kind of die.