My Aquaponic Experience So Far This Year

simple plan for me . I will not be combining the systems. I will just fish farm and then do the plants hydro. I will just use the fish heads and waste for the compost . I am more interested in keeping them seperate and using nutrient water for my plants. I do not need the headaches since my hands are full with many projects. I just see too many problems to worry about combining the systems. keeping them seperate just seems to be the best option, i know folks say aquaponics is the best but i really see no need. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb-ENedIEwE
 
TomKat said:
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Your algae eater (a pleco) might very well start sucking the slime coating off your goldfish. They're not compatible. The fish sleep at night, and that's when the omnivorous pleco roams. When the goldfish's slime is damaged, it's an invitation for disease.


If you can manage tropicals in your locale, otocinclus are a better bet for algae eating goldfish roommates.

Also - snails. They're a nightmare in an aquarium, but they eat algae like anything.

The only way to beat algae is to keep the water out of the sunlight.
 
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angelatc said:
Your algae eater (a pleco) might very well start sucking the slime coating off your goldfish. They're not compatible. The fish sleep at night, and that's when the omnivorous pleco roams. When the goldfish's slime is damaged, it's an invitation for disease.


If you can manage tropicals in your locale, otocinclus are a better bet for algae eating goldfish roommates.

Also - snails. They're a nightmare in an aquarium, but they eat algae like anything.

The only way to beat algae is to keep the water out of the sunlight.
Click to expand...


I read about the threat of this happening and decided to take my chances since it is a low probability but yet a possibility. I just wanted to get something to help clear up some algae and all of the pet stores around here had this one kind of pleco. The good news is that if I fail and all the fish die, I only had about $12 in goldfish! Lol!
 
I just made a new filter prototype that I will be modifying in the future. The basic design is to use a hot tub filter backwards to filter the water and then let gravity take over and deliver the water to the beds. Here is the mockup.


And here is my new filter in action in an update! Also I pulled all of the jalapenos and replaced them with romaine lettuce and trimmmed the tomatoes and strawberries.
 
This is truly badass, TomKat! I was planning on starting up aquaponics to grow duckweed for tilapia, and also give it to my chickens and rabbits. I got hurt pretty badly riding one of my horses and had to scrap the idea for this year. Next year for sure. Thanks for all the great info.
 
Just finished reading through the thread and noticed the mini-debate over tilapia and duckweed. This is the best use for us since it's a cheap way to feed the fish, foul, and meat for our consumption. We've accumulated about a dozen blue, thick-plastic barrels like the ones seen here:

2na203q.jpg


This is the sort of set up we're looking to do.
 
Deborah K said:
Just finished reading through the thread and noticed the mini-debate over tilapia and duckweed. This is the best use for us since it's a cheap way to feed the fish, foul, and meat for our consumption. We've accumulated about a dozen blue, thick-plastic barrels like the ones seen here:

2na203q.jpg


This is the sort of set up we're looking to do.
Click to expand...

I love that blue barrel design! If I could find some I would have a design like that siting on and draining into the tub.

As far as duckweed goes, it might be worth trying again now that I have a deeper fish tank and it shouldn't get caught up in the pump. It also might help shade the tank to help prevent algae growth as well. Not to mention that it is cheap (especially since I live in the swamps), multiplies quickly, and is good food for the fish or for the chickens like you said. I will have to try it again.

The chickens also love any garden pests that you find (one snail so far this year, yesterday in the ap garden, but many in the dirt garden) or any pest damaged crops.
 
Did you ever get a TDS/PPM meter?

Do you think it may have been the iron supplement that was giving you issues?

When water evaporates, it actually increases the TDS/PPM of your solution, so you would optimally want to add back zero or near zero PPM water (Reverse Osmosis is good enough), plus micronutrients to bring it in around 200-300 ppm. I don't know what the solution of the water in your system should be, but for hydroponics it is usually around 800-1100 PPM for growing plants. The fish poop and any supplements for your plants will bring up the PPM, but then the plants of course filter out the nutrients and will decrease the PPM over time which is why you have your fish to put more back in.

I won't discourage you from using TDS, but PPM seems to work pretty well for hydroponics.

I've had some experience with hydroponics, haven't experimented with fish yet.
 
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TomKat said:
I love that blue barrel design! If I could find some I would have a design like that siting on and draining into the tub.

As far as duckweed goes, it might be worth trying again now that I have a deeper fish tank and it shouldn't get caught up in the pump. It also might help shade the tank to help prevent algae growth as well. Not to mention that it is cheap (especially since I live in the swamps), multiplies quickly, and is good food for the fish or for the chickens like you said. I will have to try it again.

The chickens also love any garden pests that you find (one snail so far this year, yesterday in the ap garden, but many in the dirt garden) or any pest damaged crops.
Click to expand...

Have you ever seen a chicken go after a scorpion? It's priceless! They stand right over them and then WAP!! Nail em right in the middle of their backs a couple times and then eat them up! Like pros! Our hens free range and keep the pest population pretty well under control. Except the flies. We order fly predators for the flies (among other tactics), and I think the chickens are eating the fly predators.
 
dannno said:
Did you ever get a TDS/PPM meter?

Do you think it may have been the iron supplement that was giving you issues?

When water evaporates, it actually increases the TDS/PPM of your solution, so you would optimally want to add back zero or near zero PPM water (Reverse Osmosis is good enough), plus micronutrients to bring it in around 200-300 ppm. I don't know what the solution of the water in your system should be, but for hydroponics it is usually around 800-1100 PPM for growing plants. The fish poop and any supplements for your plants will bring up the PPM, but then the plants of course filter out the nutrients and will decrease the PPM over time which is why you have your fish to put more back in.

I won't discourage you from using TDS, but PPM seems to work pretty well for hydroponics.

I've had some experience with hydroponics, haven't experimented with fish yet.
Click to expand...

Hmm.. now you have me thinking....
The chelated iron that I used solved the problems at the time but that was because I had a small system and it used up the iron in the water and it needed to be supplimented. Since I moved the beds to the bigger tank there hasn't been any signs of iron depletion so it should be ok for now on that front. I don't have a TDS meter yet but using my "pool guy eye" I can say that for sure they haven't got worse, aren't in the highs, nor the extreme highs yet, but I don't have a number to throw out.
 
Deborah K said:
Have you ever seen a chicken go after a scorpion? It's priceless! They stand right over them and then WAP!! Nail em right in the middle of their backs a couple times and then eat them up! Like pros! Our hens free range and keep the pest population pretty well under control. Except the flies. We order fly predators for the flies (among other tactics), and I think the chickens are eating the fly predators.
Click to expand...

I have not seen that! It sounds like it would be great to watch, though. Can you video it?
 
I am really excited to share this video. It may not help the aquaponic garden much more than cleaning up the water quality but I think it is one of the neatest things that I have made for it.
It is a homemade sand filter, running on its own pump, made out of 1/2" pvc that expands to 2" for the filtrating area then back to 1/2". I let gravity do its thing and it holds the sand in the pipe instead of just pouring out with the water. As the water enters the 2" pipe and makes its way to the bottom, it has to pass through the pool filter sand that I filled past the 90 degree couplers. In this straight run, the water goes through the sand which will pull out big particles and later smaller and smaller.


Since I was in the mood to build, I tore apart the bucket filter idea and replaced it with a real swirl filter that I built. Simple idea. A bucket, hole at bottom with a shut off for draing solids, drain on the side with a 90 degree overflow like the last one, an input line that t's and goes to two 45 degree couplers that "swirl" the water at the bottom of the bucket, and something to deter the solids from floating (I used a smaller bucket lid).
Add these together and you get a swirl filter.
 
Water clarity clearing up pretty nice with the new filters. Newly planted lettuce is taking off like crazy!!
 
Major progress this week!
The water clarity is darn near perfect (for a fish tank) and the plants are going wild! Even the tomatoes that were dying out have sprouted new growth and are getting big (I forgot to mention this in the video). I modified the drains that fill the beds and then I picked up another two dozen goldfish and they fill out the tank perfectly. They all swim around in one giant school and eat every insect that I throw in. I have sighted the pleco for the first time and he seems to be fine. I picked up some bio-balls so I will be building a new filter system to incorporate them into and replumb the system yet again. Good thing I like to plumb!
 
Sorry for this entry. New swirl filter design made with bio balls. Crappy design but another design in my video diary. It will be fixed tomorrow.
 
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