Aquaponics [pic heavy]

[Valerie]

OK, there's not many pics yet, but I plan to add to these.

These are pics from the testing phase, just to make sure it works and doesn't leak. There's way more water in it for the test than what there will really be.

This first one is the grow bed near the end of the drain phase.



This is a pic of the bell siphon, with the outer gravel guard removed. This is what makes it drain all by itself.



And this one shows both the grow bed (top) and the fish tank (bottom).

[Granny Smith]

Valerie, do you raise fish in these, too, or just plants?

[Valerie]

Gayle, the fish go in the bottom pond and the plants go in the top one. It's funny because it's basically a wastewater treatment plant! My daddy would have loved this! The fish make the waste and it's pumped up to the growing bed. The fish make either nitrates or nitrites, I don't remember which. The bacteria in the bed convert it to the other form of nitrogen (I get the nitrates and nitrites mixed up) and the plants take it up. The water flows back into the fish tank clean and ready to be pooped and peed in again! If you add some worms to the grow bed, too, they clean up the solid waste and convert it to castings, and you know how the plants love those! The tricky part is getting the bacteria base built up so that it's properly converting the nitrogen from one form to the other. You have to test it regularly. When Dave worked for a company in Blackshear, he operated a waste water plant that worked on the same principal. After the influent was aerated, it was pumped to a serious of ponds. They were connected with pipes, like an ice cube tray. When one filled it would overflow into the next. There were fish and plants in the ponds, and by the time the treatment was done, that was the sparkliest, cleanest water I have ever seen!

This is a small system, so there's not really room for tilapia and bass (the best aquaponics fish for my climate). This is basically my learning system and it will just be housing goldfish. The goal is to make a big one in a greenhouse in the back yard one day, and it will have one or two tanks of eatin' fish.

I hope this is all running smoothly within a few months. I'd like to show it to the kids at school. Especially 4th grade, as a big part of their science is on ecosystems.

[Granny Smith]

That's awesome, Valerie! Instead of goldfish, maybe you could raise freshwater shrimp in this one. That way you could eat them (not that you couldn't eat goldfish, but you might not want to. I know I wouldn't)

[joanfromzone6]

Feb 19, 2013 10:20:49 GMT -5 Granny Smith said:

That's awesome, Valerie! Instead of goldfish, maybe you could raise freshwater shrimp in this one. That way you could eat them (not that you couldn't eat goldfish, but you might not want to. I know I wouldn't)

but you'd risk arrest raising manatees in either tub -

[Valerie]

LOL! No manatees here.

Gayle, freshwater shrimp is a very interesting idea! There's a big place in Hawaii that raises organic lettuce for market. They do a floating raft type of system with the fish in separate tanks, but they raise freshwater prawns in the water under the lettuce rafts.

[Granny Smith]

Hey, the manatees might not be a bad idea when you make a bigger tank. You could make some extra cash charging people to see the live mermaid.

Epcot does a floating island thing by putting potted plants in large pieces of styrofoam with holes in it (to hold the pots) and floating them on water that is 'enriched' by fish. You could do that in a pool and raise whatever kind of fish you want (no electricity needed)

[Valerie]

Hahaha! I don't think I'll have a tank THAT big!! They'll throw you in jail for looking at a manatee wrong, much less touching one. I think I'll pass.

Those raft systems are cool. You still have to be careful of the type of fish, though. They're not all suited to the temperature. Most fish like cooler temps in the summer than what we have here. The zoos and stuff use koi and carp. That might be what Epcot has, too.

With the rafts you have to choose lower growing plants, too, like lettuces, herbs, and flowers and stuff like that. A big ol' tomato loaded with fat fruits could tip the raft over.

There are lots of variations and I think they're all pretty much awesome. You have to be careful on the online boards and stuff, though. Seems like most of the members are guys and they tend to WAY over-complicate everything!

[Granny Smith]

Feb 19, 2013 12:46:37 GMT -5 Valerie said:

There are lots of variations and I think they're all pretty much awesome. You have to be careful on the online boards and stuff, though. Seems like most of the members are guys and they tend to WAY over-complicate everything!

You sure said a mouthful! I like to keep things as simple as possible. Less that can go wrong that way and easier to fix if it does.

[Cyngbaeld]

Yes, and when was the last time you heard a female say "hold my beer and watch this...." ?

[Granny Smith]

[Valerie]

Feb 19, 2013 16:33:45 GMT -5 Cyngbaeld said:

"hold my beer and watch this...." ?

Said no woman, ever.

[Valerie]

Here are some more pics from today.

Here's the growing bed with 4.5 cubic feet of pea pebbles.



And here is the piping that carries the water from the fish tank up to the grow bed. Right now it's just dumping out the end of the pipes, but tomorrow I'm adding holes to the bottom of the pipes. I had to stop and do supper and school today.



And here's my handsome assistant topping up the fish tank. We're supposed to have pretty much the same volume of water as plant medium (rocks).

[Granny Smith]

I really like the way it looks with the pebbles in it!

[Valerie]

Me too! I'm really glad I didn't go ahead and do this in the house. It would have been a horrible mess.