Aquaponics

[beerfish]

Anybody have an aquaponics garden? I realized that I have nearly everything I need for one laying around, and plenty of room in my basement.

I'm repurposing a 20g tank, T5 / MH light fixture, and a pump. I had a bunch of 2x3s around to build a stand, and tons of PVC for plumbing, so I just bought a small plastic shell for a grow bed, and some river rocks as a growing medium and am going to put it all together over the next few days.

With any luck, I should be able to keep enough growing for a fresh salad at least once a week year round. If it works, I'll expand to a bigger grow bed.

 

[tunicata]

I did a while back. I used one of those cheapo brute or mate containers that are usually used as storage containers. Drilled a manifold out of pvc pipes, used a small waterfall pump to run it. uber simple set up.

It was fun to make, however, I gave it away after seeing that it worked. Lol, I just wanted to see if I could build it just from seeing other models.

 

[beerfish]

I did a while back. I used one of those cheapo brute or mate containers that are usually used as storage containers. Drilled a manifold out of pvc pipes, used a small waterfall pump to run it. uber simple set up.

It was fun to make, however, I gave it away after seeing that it worked. Lol, I just wanted to see if I could build it just from seeing other models.

Lol, did it work well?

I got a 9 gallon pond / planter shell to use as a grow bed, so I'm going really small. Going to start with easy plants, beans and peas, with maybe some lettuce or spinach to get a feel for it.

 

[masterswimmer]

Will you be keeping catfish in the 'pond' section below the grow bed? Recirculating the nitrogen and potassium enriched water through the plants is supposed to yield bionic plants.

Russ

 

[masterswimmer]

Not sure if you've seen this comprehensive guide to Aquaponics. Very informative.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WYFM7J_TpTU

Russ

 

[beerfish]

Will you be keeping catfish in the 'pond' section below the grow bed? Recirculating the nitrogen and potassium enriched water through the plants is supposed to yield bionic plants.

Russ

I'm setting it up in my basement with a 20 gallon as the "pond", so I'm going to start with something simple like goldfish. Supposedly they are excellent for the grow bed, since they have poor digestive capability and spew out lots of plant nutrients.

That booklet is awesome! Just downloaded it and will spend some time reading through it. I'm hoping to put a small pond in the yard next year, so if it works well indoors, I may try a larger system outside next year.

 

[masterswimmer]

I hope you post pix of the progress. I'd like to follow along. Good luck with it.

Russ

 

[tosiek]

There was an hydroponic supply place in my neighborhood and they ran 2 50s linked together with fish, a trough above for the plant growth. Algae would grow, fish would eat the algae and produce nitrogen for the system. All they added was extra additive nutrients for the plants, think iron and something else, that they didn't get otherwise from the system.

They said growth wasn't as good as a base hydro garden because the food source for the fish was eating up nitrogen and other additives but the system was a fun experiment to play with.

The only downfall I see in a aquaponic system is that there are certain minerals and nutrients that get used up either by the fish or plants and need to be replaced. I understand growing edible fish for the system and supplementing them with fish food, thus more nutrients are going to the plants. But a simple system with fish that thrive only on plant matter will slowly strip the water of vitamins and minerals that they both use up theoretically. So in the end it only makes sense to go aquaponic if your planning on farming both plants and fish that you will consume. Or keep the system as novelty knowing you will need to replace nutrients not so much as frequent as regularly through the year.

 

[beerfish]

The only downfall I see in a aquaponic system is that there are certain minerals and nutrients that get used up either by the fish or plants and need to be replaced. I understand growing edible fish for the system and supplementing them with fish food, thus more nutrients are going to the plants.

Even with a non-edible fish system, you feed the fish. The medium in the growth bed provides a source of bacterial growth, and the plants use the nitrogen and phosphates for growth. Basically the grow bed receives fertilizer and the fish water gets filtered. It's not 100% self sustaining, but feeding fish once a day is a small price to pay for the potential rewards.

 

[FlexLuthor]

Dude would love to see how this works. Make sure to post pics

 

[beerfish]

Finally have some pics.

Initially I'm going to start with a 20 gallon tank (old sump I had laying around) and a black pond basin I picked up at Lowes. I drilled out a hole in the bottom and put a rubber gasket around threaded PVC to create a bulkhead for the drain. I cut a standpipe to set the water level and inserted it into the drain so that the water level can't rise above that level. There is a small hole in the base of the drain so that the whole thing can drain slowly. You can see the small drain in the second picture, and the standpipe water level in the third.

I picked up a large bin today so that I can add another tier later on. (It was on sale.)

Basically the way it works is the following:

Fish swim happily in the lower tank and get fed regularly.

Once an hour, the pump switches on for 15 minutes, flooding the river rock grow bed. The water reaches the standpipe, maintaining an inch of dry rock on top. (The dry rock prevents rot.)

The pump switches off, and the water slowly drains completely back into the fish tank.

The large rock bed and plants filter the water going back to the fish (similar to the way live rock works), and the fish waste is absorbed by the plants for enhanced growth.

I'm still rinsing the rock off (hence the dirty water), and I'm waiting on some parts to finish the timer / controller, but hopefully it will be up and running this week if all goes well.