Aquaponics

[philip_hughes]

Thought I should start this thread.

Spent the day making a new aquaponic setup. Bought a builders tub for 25 bucks, some hardwood offcuts for 10, a bag of lime for 8 , some clean gravel and a few bolts. I estimate this project can cost about 50 bucks but could cost much less if you use a plastic garbage bin and pull apart an old palette. That would be about 20 bucks.

Oh and eat shish kebabs for dinner and have ice cream for dessert. That's very important.

I got some old ice cream containers, drilled holes in them and filled them with gravel. I took some kebab skewers, drilled holes in the top of the ice cream containers and pushed the skewers through. The skewers can be used to hang the containers on rails.

Then i made a frame around the builders tub, bolted wooden slats across the frame and hung the ice cream containers across the slats.

I can now fill this tub with water and the water will get into the ice cream containers via the holes. I'm hoping the pores in the gravel will create a wetting front an inch or so above the water line in the builders tub. If so that should be adequate hydration for a root system. I will do some experiments tonight to see where the water goes. This is important because i need to attach this to my other tanks via syphon hoses.

I plan to take photos and post them.

[Usenko]

Heads up, the cops are hovering a chopper round your area, looking at a suspected Marijuana farm.

[philip_hughes]

I wouldn't be daft enough to put a crop like that in the open.

Actually i could probably get a permit from the university provided i have a good enough reason- which i don't.

[greypanther]

Yes please to the photos.
I will be watching with interest.

[mrbadger]

Yes please to the photos.
I will be watching with interest.

Me too.

but it's totally a mary jane farm

[philip_hughes]

Did some tests. The gravel i used was porous. The wetting front was more than an inch above the water line which means we are in business.

[philip_hughes]

http://s1383.photobucket.com/user/JoeTh ... p.jpg.html

Hope the link works.

[philip_hughes]

[ external image ]
Syphon hoses added. It works perfectly.

A little overfull after some rain but ok.[/img]

[Usenko]

Mrs Phil probably wants her pizza knife back.

[philip_hughes]

Trying to resize the ×÷×÷ image.

Anyway, the syphon hoses work perfectly. Water equilibrates between the three tanks, 1cm in depth is now around 10 litres. That's massive redundancy in the system. You need to remove 10l to drop the water acm, or add 10l to raise it acm. This should come in handy.

The two tanks in the background contain 2 perfectly happy colonies of guppies. I will add more fish once this has settled.

[greypanther]

A few stupid questions...

1: How are you syphoning between the tanks? Gravity?
2: How are you maintaining that equilibrium?
3: How many Guppies in each upper tank, do you intend to have in the end?
4: Do you intend any fish in the main tank?
5: How do the fish cope with the lack of light? ( They do not seem to be getting much. )
6: How will you cope with the algae build up? ( Scrape it I assume? )


That is it for now, I will probably come with more idiot questions soon!

Edit: It's no use; just what is the Pizza knife for? Surely you are not feeding the guppies pizza? I know there is an obsession with pizza on this forum, but that would be taking the piss!

[philip_hughes]

1. Gravity. I spent some time leveling out the ground under the square tank and raising it to the correct height.
2. The syphon hoses ensure a constant head between all three tanks. The water level is the same in all.
3. 5 in one, a breeding pair in the other.
4. Yes.
5. This is australia. The sunlight is intense- that amount ofshade still results in huge amounts of light. Not only are the fish doing perfectly fine, there are aquatic plants growing happily in these light conditions.
6. Snails- although one of the tanks has a large algae issue atm. Too much light!

Edit- i cut the syphon hoses with the pizza knife.

[Morkonan]

What are you going to grow in these?

[Mightysword]

I wouldn't be daft enough to put a crop like that in the open.

Actually i could probably get a permit from the university provided i have a good enough reason- which i don't.

Or you can just come to live where I am, it's legal.

[philip_hughes]

Ill try lettuce first. It's currently autumn going on winter so it's the wrong time for most things. I will push on undeterred.

Ps i will also set the interior height of the syphon hoses. That means if one tank springs a leak, it won't drain all three.

[philip_hughes]

I wouldn't be daft enough to put a crop like that in the open.

Actually i could probably get a permit from the university provided i have a good enough reason- which i don't.

Or you can just come to live where I am, it's legal.

I will be at a conference in wageningen, netherlands in 2 months. I think it's legal there.

[Morkonan]

...Ps i will also set the interior height of the syphon hoses. That means if one tank springs a leak, it won't drain all three.

You might be able to get a miniature float-valve at your local DIY store. Surely, you can pick one up at a local industrial supply house. They're really handy little things, especially industrial grade versions. That should more than adequately serve as a safety mechanism. You could also rig one to control a fill valve. Entirely mechanical, but if you're willing to supply a little voltage, you could really supercharge the whole setup with solenoid controls so it's fairly hands-free. Limited power drain in monitoring mode, too.

Depending upon the requirements, you might even be able to hook up solar power and solenoid controls, which would keep everything in proper equilibrium, replacing evaporated water as necessary. (Batteries not, necessarily, required unless you want the system to respond in an emergency at night.)

(There's a bunch of other automated stuffs you could do, depending on what your concerns are. Water quality, etc.)

[philip_hughes]

Good idea (s).

I think I'll just look for an old toilet and grab the float from that. Re other monitering systems. ... i have spare solar panels sitting around and the guy in the next cubicle at work is an engineer who designs environmental monitoring equipment. I may have a chat with him.

If all the water quality can be linked back to ph and electrical conductivity that would make the monitoring very inexpensive.

And turbidity- a light monitor is all you need for that.

[Mightysword]

One thing to keep in mind that Aquaponic is a fantastic set up to grown green and leafy veggi, but some consideration is needed if you gonna grown fruit bearing stuffs in it (like tomatoes).

Fish's waste is mostly nitrogenous waste, which is good for root developing and promote healthy green grown, but I think it comes at the cost of growing fruit. At least by the time your fruit bearing plants (if you have them) start flowering you might want to balance the water out a little bit, or you may end up with really bushy plants but give small fruit.

[philip_hughes]

Yes. I presume the oversupply of water would increase the risk of burst fruit. Definitely not trying that first!