Having a go at aquaponics DIY

[Grnwzrd]

So ive decided to start a new project. Hoping to make something good out of it
but at the moment just playing and building and thought i should document it.

Anyway,some of you might have seen some of these pics but i'll get everyone up
to speed.

Basically i stumbled apon aquaponics and took an interest in it. Had a big steel
drum lying around and decided to chop it up and have a go. So heres what i did.

Chopped the drum

Made a bell syphon

And a swirl filter

Got a pump,wire buffed and painted the barrels and fitted them together.
Welded pins and tube so the top can slide up and off should it have to.

And got some gravel and plants in.

No fish as of yet, this little setup is just for me to play with for now and to experiment.

Even though i know nothing about aquaponics really, ive started building some
of my ideas and drawings of what i want to do. Plan is to have a 3m square green house
with a decent size aquaponic setup in there,making vegetables.

Here's the first thing ive made for the project. Planning on growing lettuces in these.
This one is smaller that the ones i'll be making but i was just experimenting and i'll use
it in the yard at home.

Plan is to have ten of these down each side of the greenhouse,hanging on a frame with
each section easily removable. 30 holes in each section,ten sections to a rack,two racks,
thats potentially 600 lettuces, in a very small space. A lot of drilling and cutting though.

The vertical sections will hopefully be filled with coco. I'm still trying to work out if the coco
will make the water brown and what hurdles there might be.

Very excited and a bit nervous about the whole project but it should be fun.

Hoping to grow lettuce down the sides of the greenhouse and have a big gravel bed or two
in the middle to grow things like tomatoes and cucumbers. I'll probably be using half
of an IBC for the fish tank. Going by whats in my head i'm going to need two pumps
and a bit of a clever filtering system. Anyway

Thanks for looking, hopefully some more updates soon.

Edit,forgot to mention the whole thing will be run of solar power,all going
to plan.

Comments welcome.

 

[dumme]

Any nutrient additives?

 

[Grnwzrd]

Hey dumme, i put in some coco grow ferts i had lying around and added some
seaweed emulsion stuff too. I wanted to make sure everything works before i start
thinking about fish. The plants seem to be happy in there so far.

Apologies for the bad pics.

I put some lettuce seeds in some coco and put them in a container. after 4 days they
sprouted up,so i put some in one of my towers to see what happens.

Ive got a bunch more towers to make,and everything else i want to do.
Got to get the fish tanks,setup the green house,plumb everything. Lots
of work to do.

I went to a local fresh market yesterday and saw eggplants for a dollar,
and other cheap things. I'm going to have to grow more valuable types
of plants i think if this is going to work. Focus more on the niche side,
because growing something common isnt going to be viable.

Anyway,thanks for looking.

 

[Grnwzrd]

So, i didnt update this for a while because i thought no one was interested and didnt
have much to show really. Was actually going to delete this thread. Anyway, after a
lot of procrastinating and wondering if i'll actually keep going with the project,
i pulled my finger out and got cracking.

Built a greenhouse which isnt the best,and not really a greenhouse yet (no front)
and started building the fish tank. Chopped up another barrel and welded feet on it.
Put it in the greenhouse with some cheap plastic and filled it for the sake of it.

Then decided to make a grow bed from timber, buy some decent pond liner,and line
both grow bed and tank. Made another bell syphon so it floods and drains like the first thing
i made. I got in some gravel and put in a small amount of seaweed stuff for about a week with
no fish.

Then after being nagged for a week about fish, and cleaning the water and gravel i got 5 silver perch. Only small ones.
So here's where we are now, 5 fish,been in for a week. theyre alive and hopefully happy.
pump is set on for 15mins every 2 hours. I fitted my solar panel to the roof of the house
and extended the wiring about 20 meters down to my "greenhouse" to charge my deep
cycle battery.

Ideally i want more oxygen so i can have more fish and ramp everything up, just need money
for solar panels at the moment. Getting there though, heres where i'm at.

That last photo was just some tomato seedlings i did. Some of the plants in there
i got established or started so i cant take credit for them (passionfruit and strawberry)
but the tomatoes closest the camera are the original ones i got and the cucumbers too.

There is movement but it's slow at the moment. Been doing water tests and the nitrogen cycles
started, just need to sort a few things out so i can ramp it up.Power or lack of,
being the main concern.

I will be planting a bit more heavily,and putting some more fish in,but not much until
i have the power sorted.

Todays work was putting up the mesh for the cucumbers and planting more cucumber seedlings
and squash seedlings. Tested the water,gave it a top up and have modified my swirl filter.
It doesnt swirl anymore, i'll get more into that at a later date, all experimenting.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Grnwzrd]

Couple of update pics, been collecting seedling trays, got some heirloom seeds
of kale and celery, and potted up my roma tomato seedlings. Bought an eggplant from the shop
and took the seeds out of it and also put some potato skins in a bucket with coco.
Trying different techniques with different plants to see what takes off.

Probably going to end up buying more seeds and selling plants when theyre about
150mm high. I seem to be able to get them sprout pretty good.


The kale has sprouted, the celery hasnt yet.

Getting there slowly. Some of the plants are in coco in pots and getting handwatered
with the fish tank water.

Plants all seem happy so far.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Grnwzrd]

 

[Grnwzrd]

Got a few cucumbers growing,the tomatoes are having some sort of issue with yellow
leaves. Have to check that out. update pic

 

[intuitional]

What fish are you thinking of? Seems a little backwards from all the experience I've had where you start with the fish and get the bio filter established before you get the plants going. Not trying to sound mean or anything. You want the fish to get going and have the filter established, AKA needed bacteria colonized, for a while before the plants can start utilizing the converted waste.
Do you have an idea of your tank to grow media ratio? I'm not sure if you're using a typical IBC but a good rule of thumb is to go 1:1. Every one gallon of fish tank you have you can utilize one gallon of grow media approximately which I'm not sure how that comes out to in soil gallons.
I've done a few Aquaponic adventures and talked with some people much more experienced than myself so there is a lot of info out there if you do some digging. The main guy to look for is Murray Hallam. He's an Australian guy that's one of the major players in the aquaponics game and he's really active and continuously expanding aquaponics. He operates an aquaponics site that you can subscribe to here. You can also just start off with the basic aquaponics book - "Aquaponic Gardening: A Step-by-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together", that's also referred to as the aquaponics 'bible'. I'm not sure what info you already have but those are all really good resources for beginners. The book is enough to get you started and the website can keep you going through all of it if you're really serious. I was subscribed to it for a while and Murray Hallam is the real deal.
Good luck and let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to help