Aquaponics.

Hillbeartoe

Well Known Member
In short Aquaponics is the combination of Aquaculture (the propagation of fish for food) and Hydroponics (growing plants in a soil free medium where the plants get all nutrient from the water).
The down side of each hobby are as follows.

Aquaculture:
The only real down side is that you have to do frequent water changes. In a healthy system the fish eat food and produce waste. That waste is toxic and once the filtration system has established itself the waste is turned into Nitrate (pure plant food, but we will get to that.).
In order to keep the Nitrate level down you need to discard roughly 20% of the water, sometimes bi-weekly, and replace with fresh water. Most hobbyists know that this is a great pick me up for their plants indoors or out doors but most just dump it in the yard or down the drain. That can equal wasted water.

Hydroponics:
In Hydroponics the water used needs additives to create the nutrient base for the plants to thrive. They are expensive but what most people do NOT know is that the nutrients are Toxic. So if you are growing food plants in your Hydroponic system, 2 weeks prior to harvesting you need to clean the water and all of the water delivery systems out and flush the system and plants with fresh water for 2 weeks before the food is edible!!!!
The water removed from the system is toxic and is disposed of. Not only wasted but tainted water . For all of you hot house Hydroponic food buyers, you food was toxic a couple weeks ago.... :(

How it works.
Materials;
A container, 12" deep is best. Length and with depend on design but deep is the important factor.
Rock works best, nothing smaller than 1/2" because it can clog with sediment. 3/4" would be ideal but some people grow in broken brick fragments and even lava rock.
A large container for the fish, this is where design becomes fun because you can use almost anything fish/food safe. Some people use old bath tubs and even hot tubs.
A pond pump that has the ability to move water vertically, head pressure. Not all pumps can do this no matter how many gallons per hour they say they can move.
Various plumbing supplies. Again this varies depending on design.
Fish, TILAPIA work best because they are a warm water fish that can handle a lot of water quality issues. Did you all know that Tilapia are African cichlids? If you believe in this kinds stuff, scholars believe that it was Tilapia that Jesus fed the masses. They even have their own hieroglyph! But anyways use Tilapia.

Biology;
The way this all works is, you feed the fish. They in turn produce waste (Ammonia) that is toxic. Once the Ammonia is present in the system a bacterium called Nitrosomonus becomes present and eats the Ammonia which in turn produces it's own waste called Nitrite. This is also toxic to the fish and humans as well. Once the Nitrite is present in the system another bacterium called Nitrobactor becomes present and eats the Nitrate, the Nitrobactor's waste becomes pure plant food Nitrate! This is called the Nitrogen cycle. The Incas were floating reed beds with plants on lakes thousands of years ago... they knew what was up.

Result;
In the process of cycling the water through the grow beds the the physical and chemical waste produce by the fish is filtered by the rocks and absorbed by the plants and returns the water to the fish clean and even drinkable!
On top of that the fish are edible as well.
The plants never go through a period of toxicity and the water is not tainted nor wasted.

Simple, feed the fish, add water that is lost from evaporation and plant Transpiration. Eat the food.

This is something I would like to take down to PP and get people started on considering the water issues.
I have been reading on the subject and applying what I have learned to my own system. It has been very successful and I have managed to design a system that uses mostly recycled inexpensive materials.
It makes no sense to use expensive grow beds and aquatic tanks. No matter how well it works it would be the most expensive lettuce and tomatoes in the world and you would never recover your investment.

I have a Youtube channel that I have had running for over 2 years that has monthly updates from the beginning explaining how it all works and how I overcame issues in the process. I have over 100 videos free of charge and over 100 subcribers from all over the world.

Please look into it. I am not trying to pump my numbers, only to help educate and help design. If I could make a living out of it someday that would be great but I would love to help anyone interested.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKRjOFkxBD7xNdtsZ5-s81g
 

Hillbeartoe

Well Known Member
Hehe. It may seem like it but no, I luv to look at trees, but no hugging. Interestingly enough I am not much in chasing down organic foods but this system in design makes everything hyper organic. You can't add anything but Seaweed extract to the system because of the affects on the fish. No pesticides, only deterrents of which I have come up with a great one.
Even the fish food has no land animal byproducts in it.
I am glad you looked into it. Please check out the videos... it's a lot, take your time.
 

apricot

Well Known Member
In short Aquaponics is the combination of Aquaculture (the propagation of fish for food) and Hydroponics (growing plants in a soil free medium where the plants get all nutrient from the water).
The down side of each hobby are as follows.

Aquaculture:
The only real down side is that you have to do frequent water changes. In a healthy system the fish eat food and produce waste. That waste is toxic and once the filtration system has established itself the waste is turned into Nitrate (pure plant food, but we will get to that.).
In order to keep the Nitrate level down you need to discard roughly 20% of the water, sometimes bi-weekly, and replace with fresh water. Most hobbyists know that this is a great pick me up for their plants indoors or out doors but most just dump it in the yard or down the drain. That can equal wasted water.

Hydroponics:
In Hydroponics the water used needs additives to create the nutrient base for the plants to thrive. They are expensive but what most people do NOT know is that the nutrients are Toxic. So if you are growing food plants in your Hydroponic system, 2 weeks prior to harvesting you need to clean the water and all of the water delivery systems out and flush the system and plants with fresh water for 2 weeks before the food is edible!!!!
The water removed from the system is toxic and is disposed of. Not only wasted but tainted water . For all of you hot house Hydroponic food buyers, you food was toxic a couple weeks ago.... :(

How it works.
Materials;
A container, 12" deep is best. Length and with depend on design but deep is the important factor.
Rock works best, nothing smaller than 1/2" because it can clog with sediment. 3/4" would be ideal but some people grow in broken brick fragments and even lava rock.
A large container for the fish, this is where design becomes fun because you can use almost anything fish/food safe. Some people use old bath tubs and even hot tubs.
A pond pump that has the ability to move water vertically, head pressure. Not all pumps can do this no matter how many gallons per hour they say they can move.
Various plumbing supplies. Again this varies depending on design.
Fish, TILAPIA work best because they are a warm water fish that can handle a lot of water quality issues. Did you all know that Tilapia are African cichlids? If you believe in this kinds stuff, scholars believe that it was Tilapia that Jesus fed the masses. They even have their own hieroglyph! But anyways use Tilapia.

Biology;
The way this all works is, you feed the fish. They in turn produce waste (Ammonia) that is toxic. Once the Ammonia is present in the system a bacterium called Nitrosomonus becomes present and eats the Ammonia which in turn produces it's own waste called Nitrite. This is also toxic to the fish and humans as well. Once the Nitrite is present in the system another bacterium called Nitrobactor becomes present and eats the Nitrate, the Nitrobactor's waste becomes pure plant food Nitrate! This is called the Nitrogen cycle. The Incas were floating reed beds with plants on lakes thousands of years ago... they knew what was up.

Result;
In the process of cycling the water through the grow beds the the physical and chemical waste produce by the fish is filtered by the rocks and absorbed by the plants and returns the water to the fish clean and even drinkable!
On top of that the fish are edible as well.
The plants never go through a period of toxicity and the water is not tainted nor wasted.

Simple, feed the fish, add water that is lost from evaporation and plant Transpiration. Eat the food.

This is something I would like to take down to PP and get people started on considering the water issues.
I have been reading on the subject and applying what I have learned to my own system. It has been very successful and I have managed to design a system that uses mostly recycled inexpensive materials.
It makes no sense to use expensive grow beds and aquatic tanks. No matter how well it works it would be the most expensive lettuce and tomatoes in the world and you would never recover your investment.

I have a Youtube channel that I have had running for over 2 years that has monthly updates from the beginning explaining how it all works and how I overcame issues in the process. I have over 100 videos free of charge and over 100 subcribers from all over the world.

Please look into it. I am not trying to pump my numbers, only to help educate and help design. If I could make a living out of it someday that would be great but I would love to help anyone interested.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKRjOFkxBD7xNdtsZ5-s81g
You might be interested in this link which I posted previously in the Tilapia thread: http://durangoherald.com/article/20140416/NEWS06/140419652/0/NEWS01/Fish-helped-grow-these-greens
 

Hillbeartoe

Well Known Member
I haven't looked over the whole site but I didn't see anything that was actually Aquaponics. I will look further into it, but I think you should check out some of the videos so you can visualize what Aquaponic systems do.
But thank you for the link.


Edit:
Ahh the first link yes, sorry the site took me to the main page. The first images definitely work off the same principle but that is refered to as Deep Water Culture. Those tend to work in tandem very well with an Aquaponic system. They just rely on a lot more filtration for them to work properly.
Same Source but were the grow beds clean the water for the fish the DWC system cleans the water for the plants. Any extra particles that make it into a DWC system will foul the system and cause the roots of the floating plants to act like a micro filter. Once the plants are doing the filtration they can not absorb the dissolved oxygen they need to and dont work as well as they can in that style of system.

At present I do not have a DWC system attached to my core system but I did for a short time. It's all on video. Thank you for your input.
 
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jerry

Well Known Member
Round tanks better than square.,fish don't do square well..scrape noses... The tomato test is the key...you go side by side...same seed and do they taste as good?
 

Hillbeartoe

Well Known Member
Ripe red Roma with rich full flavor with the added texture and brightness of a fried green tomato. Everything that comes out of this garden are better tasting than anything I have had before.
I know it's cheesy to say that but most people dont know one of the essential flavors from Basil is Licorice....The Thai basil is ridiculous.
Right now my swiss chard leaves are 7" wide and 16" long not inclucing stem.
 

Hillbeartoe

Well Known Member
well, thats the problem, IMO. "Suppliers" have stuff sort of what you need and they are all top dollar. None of the big stores like Lowes or Home depot have everything. Some have good no kink hose but none of the fittings that go with them.
I have based my system off of Food Grade recycled 55 gallon barrels.
If you dig into my videos you will be able to see exactly how I did it and I would not be insulted if you used my design.
Finding something for your fish is a good way to start. I would not use anything less than 55 gallons. Nothing opaque or clear to avoid algae growing as much as possible. The fish will eat the algae too but the algae uses nutrients and oxygen as well.
As for grow beds anything is possible, just shoot for something 12" deep. The reason being is there are zones you want to have the room to properly supply. When the grow bed drains you want there to be no more than 1.5" of water left in the bottom. When the system drains is causes a vacuum effect that draws oxygen to the roots. You want the system to fill to about 2" below the top of what ever medium you use. If the system fills to the top what happens is nutrient rich water coats the top of the rocks allowing algae to grow and the algae will compete for Nutrient and dissolved oxygen that the plants and fish need.

I know that there is a lot to watch. But if you look into my videos, they are very descriptive and the series begins from the very beginning before there is any rock or water in the system. You can see how to make and how the bell siphon system works.

In the videos I have a tendancy to be very wordeeeee. But that makes for a very clear understanding. If I were to type it all out you would never finish reading it.

Once you have an idea it is easier to answer individual questions than to some it all up with out writing a book on it.... BTW I might have said in depth instructions that cost quite a bit somewhere in my computer if one was inclined to ask....:rolleyes: Writer of said materials is very latigeous and I would not want to attract attention... lol.
 
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