Uploaded July 2024 | Updated September 2026, 17 hours ago

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Aquaponic BSF symbiotic setup Temporary Setup (07-18-2024) [July]
Lots of info in this video description:

This uses bins for the larvae and an aquarium with floating plants for raising the flies which they go to on their own.

I see I have Booklice in my BSFL bin (which look sort of like tiny ants or more like springtails if you know what those are), but I read that it is okay and they will only compete for food and eat mold and dead larvae and dead flies and clean out the pupae casings, sort of like having springtails.

Special thanks to: youtube.com/@RGSurigao who is a BSF Farmer also and brought to my attention that I hadn't uploaded any update videos in 3 years!

Thanks to symtonbsf.com for the larvae (this is several generations after I received them)

I gave my larvae water after I finished recording this video, before I uploaded it.

I need to add more water to my aquarium, this is as low as I let it get.
I'll add about 3-5 gallons of water.
I could eliminate the duckweed and do away with the problem of duckweed sticking to the sides of the aquarium and drying up and dying, but it is a good soft food source, so I don't plan to do away with it.

The water Spangles and Water Lettuce also have a benefit of being a sturdy surface for the flies to land on to drink water from.

The aquarium has near 100% humidity, unlimited water without the risk of drowning and bright lights, so the flies are happy enough.

The #1 difficulty with BSF indoors, is making sure the flies have enough light to mate.
Without enough light, they will REFUSE to mate, no matter even if you have 1 million flies under a light, you will get zero mating.

So if they aren't mating indoors, they demand more light!

I currently use 3 lights (i'll check and update this later).
1 is sort of a daylight LED, maybe 15 watts?
1 is sort of a soft/warm white LED, maybe 15 watts?
1 is blacklight LED, maybe 5 watts?

So maybe 35 actual watts in LED total.
Maybe 1500 lumens + 1500 lumens + ?? lumens = 3,000+ lumens