Automated Aquaponic System

I have a 20 gallon fish tank and I wanted to create an aquaponic system to utilize the nitrate rich water the fish create for a variety of plants.

We started feeding water to the house plants whenever we did our weekly water changes. The plants love it and have been flourishing. 

We decided to create a living wall. I have seen a few systems but wanted to take advantage of the fact I can print something that can be placed in the living room and not be an eyesore.

This system uses an air pump to push water up to a manifold and feed 4 rows of planters, 3 rows high for a total of 12 planters. The air pump has a check valve and operates on a 15 minute schedule every 2 hours. This was accomplished with a $20 timer from Amazon. Each columns flow can be adjusted based on the water requirements for the plants within the planters.

To get the water pump to work, place a tee at the bottom end of the air line that goes to the manifold at the top of the wall, place the air pump in another connector on the tee (ensure a check valve is on this line to avoid flooding the air pump when it's off). finally, draw a siphon from the fish tank, and plug it into the last port on the tee.  When done correctly, the air pump will have an easier time pumping bubbles of air and water up to the manifold than it will have pushing back against the siphon coming from the tank. If it's not working, the tee may have to be moved lower, or make a loop on the siphon line coming out of the tank that's longer and reaches closer to the floor.

The pellets in the basket are clay balls (hydroton). They're all that's needed for plant substrate. We rinse the roots off as best we can before placing the plants in them.

The files that have “pex” in the file name are made for the bottom row. A 3/8" pex connector will fit nicely when heated up with a torch for a few seconds. Just make sure they are lined up parallel to the wall when cooling as the baskets tilt forward a bit to allow the plants to be a bit more visible. I checked many times and have not noticed any water leaking out from around the pex fittings after mounting them.  If there's any concern, some silicone would probably add an extra layer of protection. The other files are for the top two rows of baskets, and a mount for the UV light. All files were printed with PLA which is safe for the fish.

To avoid splashing, I dropped some zip ties down between the top and middle rows and the row beneath. I want to upgrade this to a chain at a later date, but need to find some small fixture chain that is zinc free to avoid putting harmful chemicals into the fish tank. For now, the zip ties work fine, they just don't look as nice as they could.

I temporarily ran a longer pex line on the bottom so I could rinse all the pots before putting the system into use. I ran this line into a large pail, then re-routed the final line into the tank. This was to ensure any grime in the system didn't make its way into the fish tank.

We bought tropical plants from home depot - 4 for $12.  Others are plants we're trying to save that weren't doing well when potted, and chili plants we started in our click-and-grow planter.

If people are interested, I would be happy to post a parts list of all the components required to build this.

Print Settings:

All files were printed without supports at 0.20 layer height, 15% infill, with PLA.