DIY apartment aquaponics system

My friend came to me and said he wants an aquaponics system to put on his small patio at his apartment. He had a 20 gallon aquarium (full of fish) and and an Ikea table that he wanted to use for the build. So this is what I came up with. Since he already had the table and the fish tank, all I needed was a grow bed and some plumbing. I went to my local hydro store and we picked up a 10 gallon reservoir.
The reservoir has a strong lip around the top edge and is tapered. I cut an appropriate hole in the top of the table and dropped it in. Put in a 250 gallon per hour pump and 3.2 LPM air pump. Since the grow bed is already limited on space, I went with a loop siphon on the back of the grow bed instead of a bell siphon. I dont really like using loop siphons but it was the best option for this build. I put some spare 2 inch PVC fitting in the fish tank for the fish. We didnt just use the aquarium decorations he already had because all those little plastic models are made in China and who the hell knows whats in the paint that is used on them. I dont like using the aquarium media on the bottom of the tank because fish waste can accumulate in it very quickly and you will develop anaerobic zones in the fish tank. Its also a lot easier to just wipe down the surface of the tank than it is to clean the media. Or just get a Plecostomus and let him keep the surface of the tank clean ;) Since the aquarium already had fish in it, there was a good amount of nitrifying bacteria already living in it. This made it quite easy to establish a strong bio-filter in the media and didnt take much time. I put some bamboo around the unit to provide some shade for the fish tank and to give it a nice look. The entire unit cost about $60 since we already had a lot of the components. It took only a few hours to set up and has been running strong for almost a year now.

Here is an update picture taken a few weeks after installation.

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