I built this bad boy about a month and a half ago and got it cycled. It's currently home to 25 goldfish and a small zucchini plant.
When at full capacity, it will be able to host about 25 lbs of tilapia and about 80 plants. The towers are ZipGrows - I have been growing with them for a while and they are excellent for growing leafy greens, herbs, and strawberries. The media bed is filled with Hydroton and is going to be good for tomatoes, eggplants, melons, squash, etc. during the warmer months and root crops such as carrots, onion, and radish during the cooler months.
The system is outfitted with an electric heater to maintain warm water temperatures for the tilapia, a reverse osmosis filter to top it off with purified water, and a float valve to automate top-offs. I also built and installed two screen doors to keep critters out of the fish tank.
I put 30 goldfish in the aquaponic system as a test to rule out any weird contamination or disease issues. I lost a few to an opportunistic fungal infection (which is normal), but the rest are healthy. This is a good indicator to me that I will soon be ready to order a batch of Mozambique tilapia fingerlings to stock up the system with.
I'll be posting updates on my aquaponic adventures on this thread. I manage multiple systems for my job, many of which are mature and productive, so there will be more to come. Cheers!
P.S. One of my eventual goals is to grow bananas aquaponically. Hopefully soon!