Aquaponic grow lab

[self]

I built myself a new veg room/grow lab.

It's roughly 10x10x6'.


I'm running a 600w digilux mh bulb in an adjustable phantom ballast, and some t5s.
I have a 50 gallon acrylic fish tank with 7 or 8 bluegill, just a few months old.

The aquarium water drains to a general hydroponics panda reservoir converted into a 2x4' grow bed filled with hydrocorn.

An auto siphon fills and drains the bed several times an hour into a sump tank, which contains the pump.

The 800gph pump, which is kinda overkill, pumps the water in the sump up to T above the fish tank. Here, two valves control the flow rate into either the fish tank, or through a heath Robinson inspired high-flow hydroponic cloner loop which aerates the water before returning it to the sump tank.

The clear tubing and valve are an anti siphon I have attached to another small pump, also in the sump tank, that runs water to c frame nursery sprayers i can stake into vegging plants.

 

[self]

Nursery drippers

And here's the first run!

That's the first bog medley in front, with a bunch of mango crosses I'm working on. On the left, aurora indica x (mandala 1 x (Burmese x bc mango)) on the right is sotf's sweet tooth 4 x aeroguerrillas mango haze piff pheno.
Some day the two will meet and fuck and have amazing delicious hazy mango babies.
MMMmmm.

 

[DHF]

That`s some serious DIY plumbin my buddy........Respect......Looks like them bream`s is shittin out what the plants need , so win-win comes to mind......

Good luck....DHF...........

 

[Lee Van Kief]

nice, looks like you got it up and running well

 

[self]

Thanks DHF & LVK
I lost five or six of the smallest fish in the beginning, one to a not properly protected intake, the rest to the nitrite spike when I was getting it up and cycling. Everything is gravy now, I'm just tying to figure out how to work the fish water into some kind of bucket dwc for the future, the growth is really explosive. I had a couple of runty plants in the grow bed for just a few weeks and i took them out for fear they would overgrow it. Now they have some of the largest fan leaves Ive ever witnessed on an indoor plant.
Slight stall but not too much trouble on the transplant to soil.
Easiest cloning I've ever done too.
NATURE!
Its freakin wild

 

[RM - aquagrower]

Pretty cool. Nice to see an aqua set up.

I built 1 back in '03 and ran it non-stop 'till '10 without so much as a single rez change/clean up. Mine was RDWC. Pics can be seen in my "old gallery". Details can be found here https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?threadid=23123

Let me know if I can help. BTW, a little trick to speed up the N cycle in the beginning in to toss a cup of fresh piss in the tank to kick start the BB.

 

[self]

Pretty cool. Nice to see an aqua set up.

I built 1 back in '03 and ran it non-stop 'till '10 without so much as a single rez change/clean up. Mine was RDWC. Pics can be seen in my "old gallery". Details can be found here https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?threadid=23123

Let me know if I can help. BTW, a little trick to speed up the N cycle in the beginning in to toss a cup of fresh piss in the tank to kick start the BB.

Excellent! Thanks aquagrower, good thread, ill go back and read the rest. I wasn't particularly intending on growing herb in the aquaponic setup, but seeing how it responded in a few test plants has me pretty convinced to investigate further. I think a RDWC could be spectacular, what did you use for flowering supplements? Will guano kill off the micro herd/fish? Maybe a top dressing of dried comfrey and bracken fern would be a better p source? Nice to find someone else into growiing plants with poopy fish water!

 

[im me]

thats a hell of a setup self! have fun and be safe. I'm subbed for this one

 

[self]

thats a hell of a setup self! have fun and be safe. I'm subbed for this one

Thanks IM,
Ill take a minute to explain my soil and pots.
I'm using mostly 1 gallon fabric pots from amazon, I'm not sure of the brand, but they have handles and were a good value. I sometimes flower in 5 gallon square root bags, they're great too, and I just picked up some 3 gallon smart pots for everything in between.
I'm 2 years in with my recycled soil, but I'm always topping it up.
It's very roughly 50% promix, 20% ewc, 20% homemade compost, or coast of maine bagged lobster compost, plus some perlite, greensand, neptunes harvest crab shell meal, crushed oyster shell, DE, sun leaves Jamaican and Peruvian guanos, wild harvested amendments like nettle and comfrey and seaweed, and composted chicken manure.
I top dress with more guanos in flower if need be, but otherwise water with fish water or compost teas and fermented plant extracts
self

 

[RM - aquagrower]

I used to keep a bottle of PBP on hand, but rarely was it really needed. Not real sure on the NPK values of a $.25 feeder goldfish, but that's what I fed the fish. Would go thru $20-25 worth a week with a full system (veg and bloom).

I was always gonna set up a worm farm in order to better control what was going in to the system. Need more K? Feed the worms banannas, then feed the worms to the fish. Never got around to doing it.

My tank was a "show tank" in the living room with the garden in a hidden room in the basement below. When i built it, It was a "2 stage" recirculating system. 1 stage circulating the water thru the grow system and 1 stage to circulate the water between the tank and garden.

Found out pretty quick that I shoulda saved a few bucks and skipped the 2nd stage. Plants used a lot more water than I anticipated in the planning stage. I eneded up putting a float valve in the pump rez and hooked it to the fishtank via a valved line on a syphon. Would turn off the tank pumps, open the valve to fill the grow system, when the water quit dropping re-fill tank, and close the valve.

The grow in the thread linked above was started back at OG and moved here when OG went down. "Guest" (thread starter of aquaponics rocks) was Worbong, another aqua guy from OG too.

The only thing about aqua buds is they take a little longer to mature and the larf is 'larfier", if that makes any sense. I think it's because of too much N late in flower. I did always think that the buds tasted better tho.

For a hobbiest, aquaponic RDWC is a great system. Used to joke with the woman that I build something that you could pour goldfish in one end, and pull high grade weed out of the other end.

 

[self]

I used to keep a bottle of PBP on hand, but rarely was it really needed. Not real sure on the NPK values of a $.25 feeder goldfish, but that's what I fed the fish. Would go thru $20-25 worth a week with a full system (veg and bloom).

I was always gonna set up a worm farm in order to better control what was going in to the system. Need more K? Feed the worms banannas, then feed the worms to the fish. Never got around to doing it.

My tank was a "show tank" in the living room with the garden in a hidden room in the basement below. When i built it, It was a "2 stage" recirculating system. 1 stage circulating the water thru the grow system and 1 stage to circulate the water between the tank and garden.

Found out pretty quick that I shoulda saved a few bucks and skipped the 2nd stage. Plants used a lot more water than I anticipated in the planning stage. I eneded up putting a float valve in the pump rez and hooked it to the fishtank via a valved line on a syphon. Would turn off the tank pumps, open the valve to fill the grow system, when the water quit dropping re-fill tank, and close the valve.

The grow in the thread linked above was started back at OG and moved here when OG went down. "Guest" (thread starter of aquaponics rocks) was Worbong, another aqua guy from OG too.

The only thing about aqua buds is they take a little longer to mature and the larf is 'larfier", if that makes any sense. I think it's because of too much N late in flower. I did always think that the buds tasted better tho.

For a hobbiest, aquaponic RDWC is a great system. Used to joke with the woman that I build something that you could pour goldfish in one end, and pull high grade weed out of the other end.

That system sounds awesome! Makes sense that the profuse veg growth would have a downside in more larf. Ill have to keep up with the manicuring before and during flower If I go that route.

This aquaponic system is sort of a prototype test run for a larger system i would put in a passive solar greenhouse I am building. I'm envisioning 200-400 gal fish tanks (bass, trout, or bream) with rafts, feeding grow beds of vegetables and a 2-5 RDWC tree grow in big tubs or halfed plastic drums (20-30 gal). The greenhouse has a single south facing double walled polycarbonate glazing, which I would like to have the option of covering with a timed curtain to assist light dep and insulate during the cold winter. Inside I'm thinking of hanging 2-3 600w bulbs, or LEDs if i hit the lottery. Wnd power would be ideal ofcourse, but for now I'm still on the grid.

 

[supermanlives]

sweet setup bro. respekt

 

[JohnWayne]

Never seen anything like your setup.
Impressed

 

[RM - aquagrower]

:I'm envisioning 200-400 gal fish tanks (bass, trout, or bream) with rafts, feeding grow beds of vegetables:

If you are talking about the rafts being the beds, similar to hydroponic lettuce, probably not a good idea. lots of fish eat plant roots.

For a green house, where it will be pretty difficult to controll temps, both "above and below ground", I would go with something like the https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=261919 big ass PPK.

For the basement, where total environmental controll is fairly easy to achieve, RDWC is pretty damn hard to beat.

I didn't use a chiller in my system. Did have a little root rot on the first run (the run posted in that thread), but added a small AC to keep temps (outside the flower box) at 68 and that solved the problem.

The big external bio-filter (trash can on the left) was full of a mixture of lava rock and pea gravel. This acted as a big ass heat-sink and cooled the water to 70. I would add a small fan to the top of the bio-filter (think swamp cooler) to add some additional cooling while the canopy filled in (blocking the grow tubs from direct light). Once the canopy was full, I would remove the fan.

Thanks for this thread. It's a nice trip down memory lane. Wonder what 'ol Warbong is up too....

 

[self]

sweet setup bro. respekt

Thanks SML,
You still growing any dgs gear? I lost my oger and dieselrella moms this winter before the new room, managed to save my sweetest cindy (my personal favorite) but bummed to have lost some of the most impressive genetics Ive ever had. I ordered more Camelot kush a while back, but it never got to me for some reason.
Keep it green

Thanks JW, I'm always dreaming, sometimes it actually works out.
So far so good on this since the beginning of April.

Originally Posted by self
:I'm envisioning 200-400 gal fish tanks (bass, trout, or bream) with rafts, feeding grow beds of vegetables:
If you are talking about the rafts being the beds, similar to hydroponic lettuce, probably not a good idea. lots of fish eat plant roots.

For a green house, where it will be pretty difficult to controll temps, both "above and below ground", I would go with something like the https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=261919 big ass PPK.

For the basement, where total environmental controll is fairly easy to achieve, RDWC is pretty damn hard to beat.

I didn't use a chiller in my system. Did have a little root rot on the first run (the run posted in that thread), but added a small AC to keep temps (outside the flower box) at 68 and that solved the problem.

The big external bio-filter (trash can on the left) was full of a mixture of lava rock and pea gravel. This acted as a big ass heat-sink and cooled the water to 70. I would add a small fan to the top of the bio-filter (think swamp cooler) to add some additional cooling while the canopy filled in (blocking the grow tubs from direct light). Once the canopy was full, I would remove the fan.

Thanks for this thread. It's a nice trip down memory lane. Wonder what 'ol Warbong is up too....

Makes sense, I thought I saw lettuce or something grown in rafts above fish somewhere, but they could have been separated. I've had no problems at all with temps in the basement, but the greenhouse is another beast, I agree, ill check out that thread....ty
It's nice to have something of a mentor show up so quickly, there not much out there on aquaponic cannabis that I could find, except interviews with breeder Steve on his guppyponics.

 

[RM - aquagrower]

Glad to be of assistance, and I know what ya mean 'bout not a lot of info available. I read every single Aqua thread on OG several times and there was a contant, re-occuring theme: Once folks got up and running, they would stop posting, usually before completing the grow that they were posting. Thing is, there never was a whole lot of us doing it.

I can't say too much, 'cause I did the same thing (didn't post for a couple years). But I did post a completed grow, overcoming a great degree of paranoia (posting pics of felonious activity) to try to give back to the community.

The Aquaponics sticky in the organic hydro forum was written be a VERY well respected grower, and back then, we were lucky to have him pop in and keep an eye on us.

I'll be keeping an eye out, and let me know if there is anything I can help with.

 

[self]

Fish shots!
The bluegill are getting bigger all the time, one is e specially aggressive and chases everyone else when ever I feed them or he gets bored.

The grow bed with room in background

A few shots from around the room

 

[self]

Bog medley #1 female, any ID help? Lifesaver, sour strawberry, or BMR?
Here's another one...

I have three other females, one is on the verge of getting axed due to slow growth and fragile branches that don't take training well, the others look awesome.
Thanks for checking things out, ill try to show off my flower set up later...

Self

 

[self]

Here's what I'm working with to flower, stealthgrow 602 on a 4' light track. Blumat watering, custom recycled organic soil

And here's a lights out of my cannatonic, smells like grapefruit and orange peel, this will be my first harvest of her. Patients and I both are looking forward to it.

 

[self]

Update!

Update!


I grow edible mushrooms in here for co2, and cause i love me some shiitakes! These blocks are pretty much spent, I might shoot for one more flush, but I've neglected them pretty bad.