Aquaponics Revisited

DISCLAIMER. Aquaponics is a new field and though I've done this for several years I continue to make errors and run experiments that could cost a grower replicating this time and yield.

Further to this differing species, strains, environment, water quality, content, and more can all affect the outcome.

This thread gets back edited as I learn so if you only read the recent posts as it grows, I advise you don't build a system till you've read the whole thread again, and asked me questions if you wish.

Though scientists claim - "significantly improved growth and yield with Aquaponics over conventional Hydro" - I can not. I have seen astounding growth at times, but I've seen better, or more consistent growth, in other system types found here at ICMag. This is not a problem with the scientists claims or the technology, it is mine, the growers fault, and system faults. I wanted to run as maintenance free and zero waste as possible, I'm trying to tweak things up only recently, to help those, including myself, seeking more growth.

I do claim - Aquaponics will improve the taste and strength of any strain.

It seems to 'add nurture to the nature'...

Aquaponics is the marraige of Aquaculture and Hydroponics. Fish wastes are converted by bacteria into nutrients for your plants. The plants in turn keep the water clean for your fish by taking up the nutrients. Simply move the fishes water and wastes through a hydroponic system and back, while having sufficient biological filtration, and you have an Aquaponic system.

DWC Aquaponics

DWC Aquaponics

Deep Water Culture appealed to me with Aquaponics as I was first dazzled in Hydroponics by username Hurtback, and the Bio-Buckets. The idea of combining bio-buckets, an already partially organic system, with Aquaponics...

Like Bio or DWC or Krusty, or whatever you'd like to call them - Bucket systems are fairly simple once you know them. A reservoir, some buckets, netpots and medium, pump & plumbing, lights, camera, IC mag action!

The Aquaponic version is not so different.


Parts.


Tank or Reservoir. Starting at 20 Gallons tank for fishes comfort (for 2-4 x 5 Gallon buckets) up to... Match the gallons of your reservoir with the gallons total of your buckets as you go bigger ie: 10 x 5 Gallon Buckets = 50 Gallons reservoir.

Undergravel filter. A plastic filter that goes under the gravel in the tank.

Gravel or medium. Scoria (lava rock) or hydroton, and a little whitechip (limestone).

Pump. Pumping 20 times per hour the volume of your reservoir. ie: 20 Gallons = 400 Gallons Per Hour. 40 Gallons = 800gph. Some of this will be lost in height, dragging through the filter, plumbed corners, etc, so bigger is good. Real aim is to circulate, with all taken into account, between 8 and 15 times per hour.

Solids/inline filter.

Used for DWC and floating raft culture. A filter to catch any solids and silt that may have worked it's way through the pump. Between the pump and the plants, inline, to do the job.

Fish. If you know fishkeeping or have experience, excellent, go with what you want and check in for feedback. If you are new to this, goldfish are tough, big eaters (and thus shi**ers, making them a good nutrient source), and cope with many variants in temperature and ph etc. Local species knowledge is a great help if you want to do something like this outdoors.

Plumbing. 1/2" line and fittings (pipe, grommets, t's, elbows, x's) from pump to buckets. 1" line and fittings (pipe, grommets t's, elbows) from buckets to return.

Buckets. 5 Gallon. Lightproof. Sturdy construction and good lids.

Netpots. The bigger you can fit in your lid, the better. Small stainless nuts to fix em, bio-bucket style to your bucket lids.

Nutrients. Fish food. The start-up process for bacteria to be present and convert fish wastes takes time. This can be greatly accelerated which I'll teach you as we build it.

Heater. Optional. you need the water in this system over 70 Fahrenheit to keep the bacteria working optimally. Colder temps can be used but compensate for this with - less fish or/less feeding or/more gravel/medium.

Bubbler. For blending supplements when you start up. And adding to the tank when the system gets older (and the fish bigger).

Environment. Your growroom or outdoors. Lights, ventilation, odour eradication etc, all subjects discussed at length within these forums.


I think that's it for bits.

Tools. You'll want a drill, holesaw kit, good knife, optional jigsaw (my reservoir, you'll see) tape measure'll help, um....

Good to see you kept your head above the water some much for the fish right? Glad to see ya again and look forward to your many wonders of aqua.



Mr.Wags

Thanks Mr Wags.

Yep. Head above water, and ass in the air...

the powdery mildew and budrot problems I was experiencing with the basement prototype in the past ceased simply by switching strains, no sign of either problem since.

Got pH sitting rock steady with the right combination of mediums. It sits at 7.0 now and does not budge. I'd prefer it a little lower... I've had good growth higher and lower than this.

Fantastic thread!

Can't wait to watch and learn and soon enough replicate!

BongSong....
You say you are growing several veggies with aquaponics.....
how do you control ppm strength?
is it even necessary?

Good luck with the build!

Hi Brand.

ppm meaning the amount of nutrient delivered to your plants? If so, this is respective of several things... Put very simply - The amount of fish you have determines the amount of growspace you can have.

However, you can have less fish and supplement your grow.

Or you can have more than is needed and do water changes, additional mechanical filtration etc, to compensate. (not recommended, too much work)

Other factors - Temperature affects bacterial processing speed. Carnivorous fishes waste is more potent than omnivores, the amount they eat (related to temperature too) also determines the amount they shit.

When a system is running you should only need to - feed your fish, top the water, and tend to the plants.

Some basic tests can be done too if you wish, every few months is plenty. - pH and nitrate. Nitrate to determine if waste is accumulating, pH to determine if the water is correctly buffered or trying to drift down.

It was a complex learning curve, but it's pretty simple maths now.

Veggies. - Tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum, chillies, spinach, sage, thyme, spring onions, peas, beans, ermmm, nasturtium, red silverbeet... plus various ferns and grasses in a forest garden, succulents, and an erb or two...

Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and lettuce all bolted (too hot) but have been grown well by others in Aquaponics.

My sweetcorn sucked, and no ones had luck with it.

Back to puffin stuff, there's much to be covered, try not to digress too much before we see the how to and some hardware in here.

Tank or reservoir.[/B]

convert a 44 gallon drum into a tank to run buckets from. laid on it's side which makes it 24" high. bury it in the ground to a depth of 16" leaving 8" of the drum above ground. The top will have a square cut out (approx 12"x24") for access to the fish.

This will give the buckets sufficient height for gravity return for the water.

Drums can be found cheap on e-bay, cut them in half for gravel beds, and use the halves for floating raft culture

Undergravel Filter. (UGF)

An undergravel filter is merely a piece of plastic raised 1/2"ish above the base of your reservoir or tank with many slits cut in it to allow water but not gravel through. A fitting is placed on the UGF so a pump can be installed that pulls the tank water down through the gravel and filter, then out to your plants.

A circular drum poses problems for a UGF so I am going to make my own out of perspex. The top can be flat across giving a curved space underneath for water circulation, and the ends plastic welded on. I may just use a conventional filter and make ends - time and an inventory of the junk cupboard will tell.

Gravel or Medium

You need something that sinks for this job so hydroton won't do (but can be used in your netpots). I'm using a combination of Scoria (lavarock) and whitechip (limestone). 20 parts scoria (or other) to 1 part limestone. You can use many types of gravel but be aware some material is recycled and will cause you grief. River pebbles are good, or aquarium gravel, but try get a bigger size - 1" - you want poos getting trapped in the gravel, not sitting on top like they do with the finer stuff. Porous is better, porous rock houses more bacteria making the volume more efficient.

The proportion of gravel is important. You need enough to break all those solids down properly. To plan this you need to know what you plan your system to be growing at it's maximum. I work it out like this

A bucket = approx 4 sq ft growing space.
Needing 2 gallons medium to process the wastes.
Needing 1 lb goldfish (omnivores that eat plenty) to provide the wastes.

Or reverse that - 1 - 2 - 4.

1 lb fish
2 gallons medium
4 sq ft canopy space
1 - 2 - 4.

So for each bucket, you want 2 gallons of medium.

However, some of the medium goes in your netpot. Say it's a half gallon netpot. That's 1.5 Gallons per bucket to go over your UGF.

For my 6 Bucket system I'll want 12 Gallons of gravel. (9 for the UGF and another 3 for the netpots). Roughly 8 1/2 of scoria and 1/2 of whitechip over the UGF.

All the whitechip goes in the tank, plants prefer more inert mediums.

9 Gallons of medium takes a fair bit of room - the bigger the netpot is, the more you cut this volume down. Also, a larger flatter tank is more suited to the task I'm just improvising with what I have.

Washing the medium is a messy job but must be done and done well. I use a piece of shadecloth and shake a gallon or so at a time with the hose running through it.

Once you have cleaned and placed the medium in the tank half fill it with water and run the pump to circulate it for a day then pump the water back out. Refill the tank leaving the pump on for another day.

kool just found a place in ohio that talks aquaponics cropking.com good source of hydrogear too....

Glad you found a local contact zolar. There are some great places on the web to accumulate aquaponic knowledge. There are as many adaptations to the theme as there are Aquaponic practisers.

The Aqua Buckets are really just my adaptation of bio-buckets to an Aquaponic reservoir. I have a unique raft system too we'll look at later.


Driftwood.

Part of the systems buffering, driftwood doubles as a fish hidey hole, and prettifies the tank. Get a piece and submerge it in strong marine or aquarium salt solution (2 tablespoons per litre). Keep it weighted so it is completely underwater. This will do 2 things. Kill anything harmful to your fish, and saturates the wood so it sinks. A lot of wood releases tannins into the water that will discolour it. If you are concerned with aesthetics boiling the driftwood for 2 hours will both sterilise the wood and speed up the process of 'curing' it to get the tannins out. Salt is not needed if you boil the wood.

Cycling the system up.

You can start to 'cycle' your system as you build the buckets. Once your water has been run through the system for 24 hours chlorine will be gone from the water and it is safe for fish.

Important note - Some water supplies have chloramine in them. Chloramine does not dissapate from water via aging or airation. Chloramine has to be removed from the water with a suitable water aging product or it will kill your fish.

It is good practise to remove as many chemical practises from aquaponics as possible. I have a drum of water I top systems from, and age the water in there. Thankfully the supply has chlorine, not chloramine.

Shortcut!

To cycle your system properly can take up to 6 months! Or.... You can do it the patient smart way, and save yourself a lot of time.

I'm running 6 buckets. This will require 6 lbs of goldfish. Well... Not initially. Initially you'll have small plants that won't be adequate to remove the wastes from this many fish. Nor will your bacteria be adequate, for any fish...

Here's what I'll do.

After 24 hours of cycling the tanks water with the pump I'll add...

2 small Goldfish - Like an inch and a half long, small - they grow! Feed a small pinch of flake or pellet food twice daily.
Stresszyme - An aquarium product suited to humans, this is beneficial bacteria and is VERY GOOD stuff for cycling systems up.
Now the magic ingredients -
WATER! You want water from a biologically filtered aquarium. At least 10% of the volume held in your tank. Make sure it's a healthy Aquarium, with healthy fish. If you have to, get some from an aquarium store. Water from an Aquaponic system is even better, but very hard to find.
HEATING! The bacteria need to be encouraged. Above 70 Fahrenheit will be adequate to give the bacteria a good start.

After one week The buckets should be finished, filled, and aged. Hook them up to your reservoir and add
Stresszyme - If you can't get this product the local aquarium store will have something very similar - beneficial bacteria is what you want.
Plants - Wee clones or seedlings. If raised in dirt gently wash off as much as you can. They wont grow fast yet but they'll start the process of accumulating goodies in their rhizosphere and begin developing water roots. The entire system benefits from adding plants early.
More Aquarium water if you can get it.

After 2 weeks You can supplement here - and add
Earth Juice range (1 20/th recommended strength) or Seasol Original (organic)at the same strength. Either product should be mixed with a bubbler (airstone) for 24 hours then added slowly to your reservoir. Weekly is frequent enough. you need the bacteria to cope or you'll run into problems.
More Stresszyme.

After 4 weeks add 4 more fish.

Around This time your system water may develop green or brown algal bloom in the tank. The above regime should have stopped this happening but if it does...

It resembles pea soup, is very ugly, is normal, will last about a month, will make you fret, and then it comes right, and your system is crystal clear.

You can avoid this by going slow with your fish volume, slow with your supplements, and add microflora and fauna with Stresszyme and Aquarium water.

The methods I've shared combined with driftwood and whitechip* has seen several systems cycled without the 'pea soup' part of the process happening, also saving months of trying to establish a decent bacterial population.

Trying to push your grow in the first 3 months will cause grief.

The first grow will taste amazing, but not grow amazing. But as for the second grow, the fish are getting bigger, the bacteria populous and diverse...

*Whitechip aka limestone was a bit much. A handful of shells is a better option, and removable if pH climbing too high. I've found a pH of 6.4-6.8 much better than 7.

Aquaponics sounds really interesting! I've had aquariums for around 20 years now, so it's very cool to read about the combination of growing fish and weed!

Glad I tweaked your interest space cowgirl, if you've kept fish and grown weed you have a grounding in the principles behind this area already.

Basically, the systems 'cycling' is the nitrification process, but with the plants it can turn into pea soup if you're not careful at the start. The tweaks with the gravel mean no pH chasing. Then there's no cleaning, no test kit carry on, no pollution.... I'm a bit of a fan...

The plants remove the nitrates after the bacteria have converted them. Various trace elements can be dealt with in various ways. You can add iron by putting a couple of rusty nails in the growbeds. You can add it by feeding spinach and parsley to the fish. This should improved the potassium uptake too.

Put that NL you're growing into Aquaponics you will be VERY happy with the results.

Life, she be sweet.

Life, she be sweet.

Sweet indeed.

Did you know?

Did you know?

Aquaponics imitates a natural ecosystem. Light, water flow, oxygen, plants, animals, and a myriad of bacteria and enzymes combine to form a (relatively)closed loop. You add fish food and in turn harvest plants, and fish.

Aquaponics saves water. Water in the system is recirculated, and cleaned by the system itself, eradicating the need for water changes.

Aquaponic beds make great homes for worms. Earthworms will readily take to your beds. Even if you don't introduce them, they have a habit of showing up. Worms will rise in the night and work on decaying plant matter. The plant material must be partially decayed before worms will take it, as they feed on the bacteria (recieve greatest part of nutrient from bacteria), not the plant matter itself.

Aquaponics reduces pollution. No water changes means no organically rich water being thrown down the drain. Organically rich water competes for oxygen with our waterways flora and fauna. Growbed worms composting dropped leaves reduces waste even further.

The nutrients in a streams food chain come from the bacteria and algae forming on the streams bed and debris, not from the debris itself. It is the biofilm itself (the coating you get on rocks etc in streams, algae and the bacteria that start breaking down leaves etc) that contains the proteins, minerals and enzymes to support insect and animal life. These animals wastes in turn are processed by bacteria to support plant life, and the cycle continues.

Aquaponics can be built that supplies it's own food chain.

Security....

Cabinet - Tank on top.

Cabinet - Tank on top.

security..

holy crap man! that is genius! i have a similar size cab that would be perfect for this! how do you regulate the flow back down to the plants? would drippers work to regulate? what about this application with coco as the medium?

very very cool

tngreen - your name as in a cuppa and a smoke - tea 'n' green? My favourite time of day

Coco - I have no personal experience of this medium but coco has been used by other Aquaponic enthusiasts. I believe the medium breaks down over time? The bacterial colonies that make aquaponics work, in my opinion, are better off in a permanent home. They take months to fully establish, so after a grow, your system is ready for the real deal, the explosive growth, and then you remove some or all of the workers...

Of course, it may last many grows, I don't know.

Drippers - Aquaponics creates a bio film, that is a coating of everything that is comprised of many species of micro flora and fauna. This film WILL clog drippers, every time.



Lets talk briefly of the above mentioned bacterial colonies and bio film.

In the air, in our eyes, on our skin, anywhere there is moisture and oxygen, aerobic bacteria and algal spores exist. They colonise waterbodies within minutes and through a series of events become bound to all surfaces of whatever contains the water and is in the water. This binding creates a film, or bio film as it is called.

A huge contributor to the nature of your bio-film is light. Light allows algae to proliferate and this algae works at converting system nutrients into more algae. To avoid this, like you would in any grow, use dark planters/buckets or make them dark. Some algae in the tank is desirable, algal enzymes are responsible for breaking down any dead plant matter. If it is a fish tank, you will want to keep it clean, but algae can grow on the rocks driftwood etc that you place within it.

In your plants medium massive populations of bacteria colonise and get to work converting wastes into available nutrients. They also coexist with enzymes and other helpful additions to your garden like michorhizal fungi.

Upon harvesting your plants, the medium is never 'cleaned' as such. It may be rinsed out in some of the systems water to remove roots, and replaced, or as I lazily do, rip the plant out, pull the medium out of the roots and put it back in, and leave whatever rubbish is in there for the algae and worms. This can invite insects, keep the surface layer clean and dry, and encourage good insects to live in there. I checked a well placed spider web in a growroom recently, had more whitefly on it than the pest strips! Shame spiders don't all go for the rooms air intake...

security