Setting up a goldfish tank

[Greenteam]

If I get say Hikari Saki-Hikari Fancy Goldfish as my main staple would I still want to add the Repashy Soilent?

 

Also I was setting up a Hydroponic system in my patio to try messing around with growing some random test plants. I have all the equipment setup for it and my wife asked if rather then buying a bunch of chemicals to feed the plants why not just use my 55g fish tank. So now I'm going to try an Aquaponic system and skip the whole chemical fertilizers completely and also save on having to run two different setups. 

 

Since I'm change the whole plan I think I might try 1 or 2 Orandas in the system to test how things go and I can avoid a costly mistake. 

 

The basic setup will be the 55g with the Fancy Goldfish connected to my Eheim filter that will pump the water up into the 25G Media bed (Hydroton). Originally it was setup for an Ebb & Flow but I can easily switch to a flood style to test things out since I want to avoid stressing the fish. 

 

Here's a sample picture of what the setup will roughly look like once it's all in place. Not sure if I'm actually going to eat the lettuce and other greens it grows since I'm mainly doing it for the fun aspect. 

[svetilda]

I can't help you with hydroponic system as I've never used it. But I do use water from goldies tank to water plants growing outside. The plants grow and bloom very nicely! But as I said I do add a bit of fertilisers to my fish tank. I don't think there's enough of micro elements for plants to grow. If you will keep tank without life plants then no need for fertilisers. But I don't water my edibles with fish water again because of those fertilisers.

 

Forgot to say that I always used hikari but then read that Dainichi is better and bought it too. After that new food my Ryukin developed problems with swim bladder.

[Soothing Shrimp]

I know goldfish/koi and Talapia are supposed to be great for hydroponics because of the waste they produce.  Some people use crays as well.

[loubapache]

I did some aquaponics last year.

 

Your setup can support more than just a couple of fish.  If you really want to grow the plants, then you need more fish.  Also you do not need an expensive filter.  All you need is a little pump.  The right before the water goes into the grow bed, use some kind of coarse media (filter floss, for example, inexpensive so toss and replace) in a basket to filter out the heavy solids.  The growing media will be a gigantic biological filter.

[Greenteam]

I did some aquaponics last year.

 

Your setup can support more than just a couple of fish.  If you really want to grow the plants, then you need more fish.  Also you do not need an expensive filter.  All you need is a little pump.  The right before the water goes into the grow bed, use some kind of coarse media (filter floss, for example, inexpensive so toss and replace) in a basket to filter out the heavy solids.  The growing media will be a gigantic biological filter.

 

I thought about cutting out the Eheim filter and running a simple pump with the outflow landing on filter media, or potentially setting up a simple swirl filter.

 

Any suggestions for GPH pump size?

 

Also how many Goldfish do you think the system can handle?

[loubapache]

your tank is 55 gal and it looks you have two 20 gal grow beds. You can easily put a half or even a full dozen medium size goldfish in there. That famous bay seller has a 370 gph pump for very little $. You can connect to your PVC plumbing.

[lizam]

Repashy solient green or super green is great for goldfish and a good one to add to your staple diet.  For fancy goldfish you want to try and keep your nitrates under 20ppm.  I try keep mine under 10, which means I do 2 85%water changes per week.  I need to upgrade to a bigger tank but still expect to be doing big frequent water changes.  I keep bare bottom tanks because it works for me but lots like to use a thin layer of sand because goldfish like to naturally sift through it for food. Gravel isn't good because they can choke on it.  They eat everything.   Goldfish are a lot of work and they get big!  Personally I adore them, especially orandas.  Even with the aquaponics system I would still probably keep it to 3 goldfish...at least maybe just start with that.  That's just my opinion anyway.  Enjoy!