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Aquaponics Revisited

Strain

Member
loah

loah

This is freakin great, so would a small size aqaurium with bout a dozen or so small fish be able to grow a single plant? man im signin up :headbange
 
G

Guest

Sure could. I've seen a system only 13 gallons-ish. The bigger the system the easier it is to keep stable, but with small systems it aint hard at all if you go with ebb and flow. The E&F beds ensure lots of bacteria for filtration.


A tropical tank is well suited as it is kept warm, or a cold water tank in a well insulated house that keeps the temps constantly above 70 would work too. I do run this colder than that at times, but it doesn't do nearly so well.
 
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N

NZjay

howd you sneak this one past me Bongsong!
what an awesome setup.

love the fishes! and what a combo! youve done your homework bro!

IMPRESSIVE! !!! K+
 

muddy waters

Active member
BongSong,

I too have been studying aquaponics for some time but I haven't had nearly as much success implementing it as you have. My hat is off to you, this is a killer thread already and only looks to improve.

Let me share my current semi-aquaponic technique with y'all.

I tried to conceive of and implement a recirculating aquaponic cab on many of the same principles as BongSong's example cab posted earlier. I do not have glass drilling expertise however, and I was committed to using my own glass aquarium, so I opted to try to squeeze the fish reservoir inside of the cab along with the plants, which sit on a tray on top of the reservoir, everything recirculating. It was promising except for the very high humidity that build up when the cab was closed. I abandoned it.

Now what I am doing currently while I await making a more serious investment in an aquaponic setup, is growing in recycled bottles with the tops cut off and drainage holes aplenty burned in at the bottom, sized from .5L to 2L, filled with a compost- and charcoal-based media, and dipping these bottles into my aquarium usually 2x per day (or more when I'm around).

The aquarium water infiltrated the media from below, rising to wherever the waterline sits. I let it stay there and soak up water for about 60 seconds, then raise the bottles, and the excess drains back into the aquarium.

(The aquarium is only 10L, and has decomposing organic matter such as wood and fish mulm, some basalt for potassium, some laterite clay for iron, dump my cannabis ashes and a little bit of dolomite lime from time to time, along with several plant species, several invertebrate species, and two small groups of fish. With evaporation and the plant dunking (10-15 plants), I replace about 1L of tap water every 2 days.

At first, when I began using this method, I thought something was wrong. Something was--the water was a little too acidic, with very low GH and KH (buffering capacity). My plants were showing Mg and K deficiencies at times, and growing slowly. And I was dunking maybe one time a week, because of the work involved, laziness, not believing it would make a difference... Since I doctored the chemistry of the water however, and began dunking multiple times a day, I am pretty amazed by the health and rapid growth of the plants receiving this treatment. I have seen good results using even the smallest of containers, maybe .25L of actual substrate, because of how the media is saturated completely, compared to top-watering.

So all in all, I am eagerly awaiting the opportunity to automate this into an ebb-flow system. I still need to study how the pumps and drains are set up in these... do most setups simply use a timer with a slow draining sink on the grow beds? Pump for 2 minutes every 30 minutes and it slowly drains back over say 15 minutes? Include an overflow pipe in case the drain clogs or whatever. Is that basically it?

Thanks for the thread, BongSong, and in advance for any further tips
 
G

Guest

Gidday Muddy

Nice to see you bro


I love the research you've done. Charcoal would retain mineral content really well. The initial buffering can be a pain in the butt, nice work putting in basalt for potassium seems you're ahead of the game there I'm only just learning about rocks now.

Ebb & Flow is as you've described. Fast fill, on a timer, slow empty. Float switches are often used for stopping/starting pumps. I just do it backwards with auto siphons - slow fill, fast empty, no timers, no float switches.

The humidity problems I had (remember, always chasing bud rot and bloody powdery mildew around) - were strain related. I got a more local strain - no mildew, no rot.

I find with Aquaponics it's more important to pull air out of the room than pump air in leaving a negative pressure in the room.

CO2.... The ebb and flow beds release a bit every time they're flooded. In addition to this, knowing you love to DIY, an alcohol brewing setup with 'burpers' could be set up easily to utilise the excess heat, and the burpers on hoses that burp CO2 over the grow. Thinking hard about making some cider myself.
 
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T

TheOneWill

Can you make a bubble hydro with the fish and the plant in the same tank?
Or would you have to do an ebb an flow?
 
G

Guest

Yes, you can.

Pointers/stuff to think about.

The tank should have an undergravel filter or some other means of biological filtration. The gravel beds or filters are the hearts of these systems, so with water culture, you need to add filtration.
Some fish will eat plants roots.
Some plants (MJ) roots get very big in water culture. Will there still be room and oxygen enough for your fish?
If the water is too warm the solids float including fine silt which can get into roots.
The 'fishtank' will need to block light from the roots.

From what I know, imo...

A coldwater tank run at 20-22 degrees (68-71) would perform well for 'inhouse' water culture, with carnivorous fish. The carnivores waste is more potent than omnivores so a lower stocking density (up to 30% lower) can be employed if temps are kept in good range for
a) the species to eat, and
b) bacteria to work

If you have an existing tank that is biologically filtered (sponge, filter balls, etc) you should be cycled already and can put in plants and try your luck. Float them on rafts or make something more solid.

work out a plan, and then follow the guidelines for 'cycling up a system' somewhere's on page 1.
 
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TheOneWill

I got 2 tanks. I got a regular 10 gallon tank an a 20 gallon Long Tank.
I was planing on using the 10 gallon for space reasons.

I got a flow pump slash filter.
It kinda looks like this but completely black an not as big. It uses a carbon filter back thing.
13501biofiltre.jpg

Its been used before but its just sitting in the garage now.
I use to have an under gravel filter. It was white with little holes at the bottom. Also what types of fish that I could get for this project?

Another subject
I got a fish cleaning thing to suck up all the poop from the fish.
(The poop is in the gravel an it sucks it out. But when I'm done I have to add more water to the tank)
Would it be okay to water the plants with the poop water?
Like for a soil grow?
 
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G

Guest

Thanks for the details, they help a lot.

The Undergravel filter is best for a water culture grow. your filter is good, charcoal can be a little too good, and clean out nutrients as well as waste. Can you insert sponge where the charcoal goes? If you can make sure the sponge is for fish etc, not cleaning, the antifungal stuff in cleaning sponges will kill fish very quickly.

Draw water down through the UGF, to trap solids for processing.

A trip to your Aquarium store is needed for fish advice. Fish forums that are locally specific are gold. There are so many varieties, and different species in different countries...

You want fish that are hardy, big eaters. Preferably fish you like.

Yes you can use fish poop. Get a bucket of that stuff, add some molasses, brew it for 24 hours (bubbler) and water plants with it. Masses of bacterial diversity, and a food source for the new crew.

A 10 gallon tank should only support one MJ plant. The roots'll take up half of the space. Add plenty of oxygen.
 
T

TheOneWill

I might scrap the bubble hydro an do this instead BongSong. It's pretty stealthy and less shit to worry about.

But would I be able to do this type of setup though?
BongSong said:
Also my tanks are glass so could I put a tube to suck water from the top down into where the plants are?(Where #4 is)

What size tank should I use? For something like this?
I can build me a fish tank cabinet I'm pretty good with carpentry.
Also i don't have to worry about prices at a pet shop my friend works at one an his dad owns it.
 
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TheOneWill

Could I do it without getting a new back piece?
Also couldn't I have a constant flowing siphon to where the plants are?
Also for oxygen just have 2 air pumps with bubble wands in each tank. One for fish and one for plants?
Also to pump the water from the plant tank to the fish tank I got a pond pump.
 
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G

Guest

TheOneWill said:
"Could I do it without getting a new back piece?" - Yes. But if you're going to build a cabinet for it, I figured you'd want to see options that are tidy.

"Also couldn't I have a constant flowing siphon to where the plants are?" - A siphon will empty the tank, not good. You could just let water trickle out of the tank, but how, without slanting it slightly and the whole face making a waterfall, or again, drilling the glass to catch the flow lower.

"Also for oxygen just have 2 air pumps with bubble wands in each tank. One for fish and one for plants?" - Oxygen is all good. This system does have oxygen in with the fish already.

"Also to pump the water from the plant tank to the fish tank I got a pond pump." - What specs is the pump? You need to look for head height - How high you need to pump from the bottom of your plants to the top of your tank - That is the head height.
See if this pump will pump at least the volume of your tank per hour (100 or 200 lph) at that height. If it can, or does even more, and is made to run 24/7, it's good for the job.

To measure the flow rate at a given head (height)

1. Get a measuring jug.
2. Fill it to a litre (or quart) while timing it at the height required.
3. Divide the time into 60 seconds (1 Minute)
4. Multiply the answer by 60. (1 hour)
5. Divide by 4 if using Imperial.

ie: Metric

5 seconds to fill 1 litre
60 / 5 = 12.
12 x 60 = 720.
720 litres per hour.

ie: Imperial

5 seconds to fill one quart
60 / 5 = 12.
12 x 60 = 720.
720 / 4 = 180.
180 gallons per hour.
 
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G

Guest

What a missh!

What a missh!

security issues sux :rant:
 
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