Aquaponics
Submitted by roddo on Sun, 2015-07-26 19:39
Anyone into aquaponics?
I'm looking at setting up a reasonable size system just wondering who else does it and what sort of system your running, and all pros and cons of it.
I'm thinking of setting up 2 systems consisting of 2x 1000L tanks with a 1000L sump with 3 200L grow beds. most likely with clay grow media. the system will be 100% run on 12v with solar panels to make it self sufficient. I might set up one system with a bell syphon and one on a 15m on 45m off timer and see what is better unless someone can give me some advise. I have read a lot online but want some honest opinions.
cheers
Rod
hezzy
Posts: 1519
Date Joined: 27/11/09
rod , my son is into it , he
rod , my son is into it ,
he has a 5000 litre below ground tank and 3 grow beds ,all the gear etc under full shade
we have grown out trout and silver perch over the last couple of years,
he is on a aquaponics forum that has the good oil if your keen ?
pm me if you like and ill put you in contact with him
hezzy
OFW 11
evil flourishes when good men do nothing
fisharoo
Posts: 297
Date Joined: 02/07/11
Set up a simple system with
Set up a simple system with a drip trough wall planter boxes that I bought from green fingers in maddington. I have a 1000 litre pond. Grew 20 fingerling trout to 30 cms last year. Herbs are great but found it hard to keep pest away from leafy vegetables. Also birds tend to eat all my cherry tomatoes and strawberries. Not hard at all to set up. Although I don't have a second thought about necking fish I catch, found it hard to harvest my trout coming into summer. Felt like pets. So this year I'm keeping a few silver perch that last through the whole year.
i have ten planter boxes with the clay balls in it.
randall df223
Posts: 6454
Date Joined: 08/08/11
Just out of interest, what
Just out of interest, what sort of cost are you looking at, and are they an eye sore or can you make them decorative?
Fish! HARD!
TGMitchell
Posts: 221
Date Joined: 24/11/09
19 IBC System
I have a 19 IBC system with a 7000L tank, a double IBC sump tank and tank under half of the IBC - in total about 12000L of running water.
I have learnt a lot of lessons the hard way.
First - definitely bury your main tank - too many things can and do go wrong with a large sump system. You want to avoid having to rely on overflow pumps if you can.
Things you want to know about: SLO's, filtration, pest control, vermin control, aeration, nutrients (esp. iron), salinity
I have 15 on, 15 off - in summer 45 off will be too long.
IBC frames rust out fairly quickly - consider going straight to fibreglass. Be careful with galvanised steel though - contact with your water will kill your fish.
Trout are great - but be careful with aeration and filtration - you can lose a lot quickly if your water is bad coz they are quick growers - get triploids if you can.
Barra are a pain in the arse - I keep a baseload of siver perch year round and just run trout in winter.
Summer is a pain in the arse - be prepared for high water bills. I have a 10000L rainwater tank but that doesn't do much - talk to Tankswest about tanks and rainwater harvesting - they are the cheapest too.
Fibreglass not plastic tanks
Be careful what you put in your growbeds - most things will grow really well - I have the biggest boysenberries in Perth I reckon but I wouldn't do it again. Don't put in any mint, berries, chives or figs. Chives attract pests.
Plants I grow in mine: tomatoes, rhubarb, basil, silver beet , aloe vera, elderberry, ferns, strawberries, parsley, lettuce, mizuna, broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, caulis, citrus, feijoas, ginger, garlic, beans.
There are good fish safe pest control products available in Masters. If you are desparate you can use neem but put some plastic around the plant as you spray so that none gets in the water.
About 1-2ppt salt is good enough to keep fish and plants happy.
Intersperse with shitloads of garlic.
Definitely use expanded clay - its definitely worth the money.
Invest in a good electric smoker - you need to do something with all the fish you will grow out (I had 100 trout last year - up to one kg)
You will need rat traps as they will come from miles around to sample your tasty tomatoes.
Consider a greenhouse / shadehouse - pest control will be easier.
Learn about PVC piping - don't use any flexible hoses.
Invest in good quality pumps
That's all I can think of at the moment
You can see my system if you lookup BFG of IBCs on the backyard aquaponics forum
Any questions feel free to ask me :-)
The Black Baron
sandbar
Posts: 704
Date Joined: 25/10/09
Wow
That is awesome Big Farkin Gun!
My wife has a "small" (100ltr tank 2 x grow beds) and we are experiencing small growth crops. I am sure it is due to positioning
and am in process of manufacturing a way of making them mobile so I dont have to empty the beds before relocating.
It looks that your main water tank is under cover? Is there fish in that and would you recomend that our water tank with fish (perch)
should be under the grow bed or in full light with shade cloth over the top.
Thanks
TGMitchell
Posts: 221
Date Joined: 24/11/09
Yes its big :-) - A lot of
Yes its big :-) - A lot of work to set up - just the concrete slabs took 3 of us a few days.
Yes - thats the main fish tank.
The rainwater tank is elsewhere on the property.
Fish must be undercover - shadecloth won't be enough - you're water is shallow so the sun will kill them if they are in direct light.
I built the cover from a tin shed that was already there.
The Black Baron
sandbar
Posts: 704
Date Joined: 25/10/09
and plants....
should they be in full sun light?
Or is that dependant on variety?
TGMitchell
Posts: 221
Date Joined: 24/11/09
No Sun
Doesn't depend on species - Fish need to be covered - they stress if they can't hide
The Black Baron
TGMitchell
Posts: 221
Date Joined: 24/11/09
Sorry read that
Sorry read that wrong.
Plants - depends on the plants. The ferns are in covered grow beds.
You want a decent amount of sun but remember if your growbeds are exposed to the full sun for 15 hours a day in summer you will lose a shitload of water just on evaporation. The fence on the right of my system is west. So that breaks but I get full morning and midday sun - quite a few sunburnt plants in the midddle of summer. I have some trees around the system which help provide shade.
The Black Baron
Wilzee
Posts: 93
Date Joined: 10/12/14
Rod, we have 3 x backyard
Rod, we have 3 x backyard aquaponics setups. That is 3 x 1000 litre tanks. They come up on gumtree from time to time at the right price. It's an interesting hobby and we get plenty of leafy vegetables out of it. We have koi, goldfish and sliver perch at the moment. As mentioned above you can become attached to the fish. We raised about 20 Barra. One was very tame and loved to have his belly scratched. They grow fast and eat a lot.
I will load a few pics.
"My greatest problem lies in reconciling my net income with my gross habits"
randall df223
Posts: 6454
Date Joined: 08/08/11
Do you need to feed the fish
Do you need to feed the fish separately or do they get nutrition through the run off from the planting beds?
Fish! HARD!
sandbar
Posts: 704
Date Joined: 25/10/09
Feed the fish
and then their excrement is what feeds your plants.
randall df223
Posts: 6454
Date Joined: 08/08/11
ok, I always thought it was a
ok, I always thought it was a self sufficient system, ie fish feed the plants, plants feed the fish...
but its you feed the fish, fish feed the plants, the filtration cleans the water....
Fish! HARD!
roddo
Posts: 482
Date Joined: 16/10/09
Thanks for all the info and
Thanks for all the info and comments it is all very helpfull.
TGMITCHELL your system is rather impressive and large. where possible i would rather learn from other peoples mistakes looks like you encountered a few in your early setup days but have it fairly sussed now.
This is the system i am thinking of running 1000l sump that pumps to the grow beds 3x 200l beds the grow beds dump into the fish tanks 2x1000l tanks via gravity then the fish tanks have a slo that go into the sump. I believe doing it this way will be the easiest for what i want to set up as i will need less pumps. Is there any dramas with the grow beds dumping straight into the fish tanks?
I have sourced all the ibc's just in design stage now trying to get it all sussed before i commit some money on it all.
Cheers
Rod
TGMitchell
Posts: 221
Date Joined: 24/11/09
Doesn't add up
Hi Rod
Thanks - yes lots of mistakes and disasters. Certainly would do it differently if I did it again. I will be revamping the whole thing this spring. BFG 2.0!
Ok. Looking at your description your numbers really don't add up.
You have 2000l but only 600l of growbed. The amount of fish you have is limited by your growbed capacity not your main tank capacity. Look up 'fish stock rates' on backyard aquaponics forum.
The recommended max stocking rate is one fish per 25 litres of growbed. But that's a pretty highly stocked system. I would recommend one per 50 litres to start. So you will have 12 fish swimming around in a 2000 litre tank....
You need an absolute minimum of 1 to 2 growbed to tank ratio - which i will talk about after your main tank.
Am I assuming correctly that you have 3 IBCs in total and you are making you main tanks and sump from there? If so you need to factor the cutting up equation. If you are cutting the growbed off the top - there is 200l, plus you won't fill your tanks up to the brim - so there is another 100l. So you tanks are actually going to be 700l.
Your sump tank is huge. Too big for just a sump. So put fish or yabbies or marron in it and add it to your capacity.
Considering those things it looks like your tank capacity is going to be 2100l so you need a minimum of 1050l of growbed but i would say 1500l is better - that's a lot of growbeds and a few more IBCs.
Your next problem is what you want to raise. If you are happy with slow growing, not that tasty, fish then silver perch is just fine. They are hardy - that's for sure. But they are really slow growing and they are pretty boring. Inevitably you will want to grow trout - they grow really fast and are delicious and are fun. And remember fast growing fish mean lots of nutrients for your plants.
Problem then is water circulation. Trout really need moving water. To get moving water you really need a round tank and IBCs are not round...
So.. I wouldn't tell you all the problems if i didn't have a solution ;-).
My recommendation is this. First go to Tankswest (or gumtree - fibreglass not plastic) and invest in a 2000l or 3000l tank - they are brilliant tanks and well worth the money. That's your main tank. Ditch the sump you don't need it. Made an RFF instead out of a blue barrel and use that as a header tank.
Then with your IBCs make 2 growbeds from each one. And make them a bit deeper so they are 250l each (don't forget to have a lip otherwise your clay will fall out). Now you have 1500l of growbed. If you buy a 3000l maintank get one more IBC so you will have 2000l. You can have your growbeds over / under to save space. There are plenty of shade loving plants you can grow in the bottom ones - your plumbing is going to be a bit different though.
Obviously you will have to shell out a fair bit on more clay and a tank and a bigger pump, but trust me you won't regret it. I went from a 3 IBC system to my 19. The three was ok but very limiting on what I could be growing. When I expanded it was effectively starting again as i needed new pumps and plumbing. Better to do it right from the beginning.
If you do stick with using IBCs for main tanks, think a lot about water circulation - that's the main problem you will have.
Hope that helps
Cheers
Tim
The Black Baron
roddo
Posts: 482
Date Joined: 16/10/09
I will clarify a bit moreI
I will clarify a bit more
I will be using whole ibc's as tanks no tops cut off i have enough ibc's to use to cut 2 grow beds out of an ibc so i can make them 250l no probs and the sump tank will have yabbies in it. After your comments i am thinking that 1 1000l sump tank will feed both systems so i think i will have 5000l of fish tank with 8x 250l grow beds.
TGMitchell
Posts: 221
Date Joined: 24/11/09
Clarify more please
2 systems? 5000l of fish tank?
The Black Baron
roddo
Posts: 482
Date Joined: 16/10/09
Sorry when i mean 2 systems
Sorry when i mean 2 systems i mean i will split the grow beds in half pump wise and divide the return between all the tanks. Sorry if i am making it confising
TGMitchell
Posts: 221
Date Joined: 24/11/09
nope - still confused.
nope - still confused. Don't know how you get 5000l.. Do you have a diagram or can you give me a more accurate run-down on what you have and plan to get?
The Black Baron
sandbar
Posts: 704
Date Joined: 25/10/09
Cheers tim...
some great info there mate and a gread thread to boot.
Jackfrost80
Posts: 8050
Date Joined: 07/05/12
Been running mine 4 years now
I've got a system I built myself whenever the components I needed came up on Gumtree. I've got a 600L fish pond above ground that leads up to a smaller fish pond that is 400L which is my grow bed. Grows fantastic veges and the smoked trout in my electric smoker is a dream come true.
I've mucked around with a few configs for it and now have the pond half under the grow bed and run mine on constant flow with an air pump in the fish tank. I created a maron tank that went behind it with a SLO in the maron tank feeding back into the pond but you need to make a maron tank 100% escape proof and then escape proof it again! Forget the bell syphon, they are very cool but prone to eventually failing resulting in either dead plants or dead fish.
Just remember you will get scraggy veges until your system is well cycled so don't go stuffing around with PH levels etc. I've found that less is more when it comes to AP
Officially off the Pies bandwagon
TGMitchell
Posts: 221
Date Joined: 24/11/09
Seasol
foliage sprays of seasol do wonders when you are waiting for your system to cycle.
The Black Baron
Jackfrost80
Posts: 8050
Date Joined: 07/05/12
Yeah good advice. I have used
Yeah good advice. I have used both Seasol and Charlie Carp in the water along with dissolvable iron and also burried bananas in the growbed in the beggining stages but don't need added nutrients anymore. I also have compost worms in my growbed which break down any solid matter and produce further nutrients from it.
I also have a float valve installed on the side of my tank hooked up to my retic so when the sprinklers come on it fills my tank up which is very importantant during summer when the hot sun evaporates any surface moisture off your growbed.
Officially off the Pies bandwagon
TGMitchell
Posts: 221
Date Joined: 24/11/09
good plan on the worms.
good plan on the worms. Unfortunately the organic matter still builds up and you will need to empty your growbeds out once a year and rinse out your media. Do one at a time so as not to risk having to cycle again. And do it on your garden or fruit trees - they will love you for it. The chooks get a good feed of worms when I do mine :-)
I actually do the same thing with the sprinklers. Is your retic mains or bore? If its bore then you'll need to be extremely sure about the quality of the water. If its mains then be sure not to add too much at a time because of the chorine - but I guess you figured that out already :-)
The Black Baron
Deckie
Posts: 1297
Date Joined: 03/04/09
Just don't feed your fish
Just don't feed your fish with normal pond fish food.
It contains chemicals that are detrimental to the human digestive system.
If you do use it then spend a few months flushing the fish out with "People Friendly Food". before eating.
Just saying...
Cheers & Stay safe
TGMitchell
Posts: 221
Date Joined: 24/11/09
Right there
you should only buy top quality food.
I use Skretting which is the best you can get. I have used a couple of other brands that are ok and a couple which are terrible. But Skretting tops the lot.
The Black Baron