Aquaponics 101 – my dream list

OK, my slab is down and I am ready to put my ponds in and fill. It took almost 3 cubes of concrete, 6 hours, a concrete mixer, 4 Malawians, my son and I to complete the slab. Here are some action shots of the laying of the slab. I have plumbed inflow, outflow, grow bed, drain and electrical pipes into the slab.

My rain dance has definitely worked and we have had 67mm in the last 24 hours. Both of my 2500L rain water tanks are full to overflowing. This will be enough water to start filling my ponds (2 x 2900L).

Today my grow beds arrive. I have ordered 10 x 200L plastic drums, which when cut in half will give me 20 x 100L grow beds.

While I plan the rest of the pumps, grow bed plumbing and planting work, I thought I’d put together a dream list of what my ideal system could comprise. Nothing on this list is rocket science, and it is all achievable.

It all starts with the Tilapia fish.

One of the first crops to be cultivated in one or two grow beds is Water Hyacinth. This will provide the Tilapias primary food source. The fish is thus cultivating it’s own food.

Secondly sunflowers. These will be no ordinary sunflowers. In an aquaponic system, these will be high-yielding giants producing many times the yield of the their poorer cousins growing in soil. From these seeds I will make sunflower oil, and from the oil, bio-diesel (I am going to show you how in an upcoming blog.) This bio-diesel will fuel the standby diesel generator and possibly a small diesel car (which I have just bought in anticipation.)

A solar panel on the roof of the greenhouse will charge a bank of batteries, which through an inverter will provide enough electricity for the pump, a light in the greenhouse and possibly a blower to aerate the water.

Other crops which will be planted will be leafy vegetables such as lettuce and spinach. The off-cuts from these can also be fed to the Tilapia. Then also brinjal (eggplant), tomatoes, peppers, basil and beans.

I also want to introduce earthworms to the grow beds which also provide a snack for the Tilapia.

Here is an image from Backyard Aquaponics to keep me motivated.

I cannot wait.

Synaptoman

Aquaponics 102 – deviating from the project

I have just come across some interesting images relating to Hydroponics/Aquaponics. This is one serious installation. The crop? Marijuana.

This looks like an ordinary house in Tennessee, USA.

At the back of the garage is a secret door.

From the inside the door looks a little more robust.

Excavated 50 yards into the cliff face behind the house is a cave filled with marijuana plants, grown hydroponically.

Irrigated, temperature-controlled, humidity-controlled, artificial grow lights, everything.

A crop in these ideal conditions can be harvested every 60 days.

Important to have an escape route in case the “feds” come calling.

A rock? No, an escape hatch disguised as a rock.

All of this sort of equipment and infrastructure gets auctioned off by the Justice Department after the court cases have been finalised, and are snapped up by keen Aquaponic and Hydroponic enthusiasts.

Interesting !!

Synaptoman

P.S. I think I’ll stick to lettuce and spinach, not as lucrative, but a lot safer.

Aquaponics 101 – Plans are for changing.

What a week! This project is as slippery as an eel. Everytime I think I’ve got it sorted, circumstances change. After the gale force winds last week, I chickened out of building my own greenhouse frame out of PVC, and drove through to P.E. and bought a galvanised iron frame (6m x 3m) from Rhino Plastics, custom made in France for the job. It has no straight sides and slopes right down to the ground, so one loses some headroom, but at least I know the whole thing won’t blow away. The child-bride and I set about constructing the frame which would have been quite easy, but for the fact that they had sent no plastic film and some of the parts were incorrect. Anyway, the replacement parts are being sent to me tomorrow by courier.

Here is a side view of the frame. (You can see the door leaning up against the bush in the background)

I stuck to the plan for another 2500L water tank as a sump, and constructed the slab and placed the tank in position over the weekend. As far as the other tank is concerned, I don’t think that water collection is going to be a problem. We have only had 5mm of rain since putting the tank in, but it’s already a quarter full (about 600L). Still a lot to go, but I’m out there every day doing my rain dance.

Here is a picture of the new sump with the greenhouse frame in the background. (Yes, I am going to build a retaining wall around it.)

I am too scared to add up my costs so far, and labour is costing me a bit, but I am really trying to do as much as possible myself. Here is a picture of a little side retaining wall that I built. I know I’ll never get a job as a bricklayer, but hey, it may not win any competitions but at least it works.

Here is a picture of Joshua and I pondering things. The placement and size of the two ponds can be seen by the geomats on the ground. The height of the ponds can be seen by the mesh in my hands (1.2M)

I have 800 Tilapia fry booked and arriving on the 30th from so I have to move now. My tasks for the next week are;

• complete the greenhouse.

• lay the slab for the inside of the greenhouse.

• install the two ponds.

• fill the ponds.

• install the pump next to the sump and lay temporary piping to circulate the water.

Oh, and I suppose I’ll need to get power down to the pump. After that I’ll get cracking on the grow beds and then re-plumb.

Enough for now. I’m getting tired just thinking of all the work to be done.

Be Good

Synaptoman

Aquaponics 101 – good progress

“If you can find time to do something twice, then rather do it properly the first time.”

18 hours of hard slog and we (Joshua and I) have now completely rebuilt both the back and front terraces that were damaged in the rains. This time I have re-inforced with concrete and cross supports so hopefully it will hold, but who knows with these rains and the clay that I am working with. This is what the rebuilt terraces look like now.

And here is a top view of the terrace ready for the concrete slab. I just need to spend some time on clearing and getting my levels just right.

My next task is to lay a concrete base for the greenhouse. It will be 100mm thick and 6m x 4m in size. I have to start thinking about where I can get 5800L of water, so last week I went out and bought a 2500L water tank. We built a base and after much heaving and pushing (and swearing) eventually got it into position. The whole one side of my roof (about 200sq/m) will now drain into my new tank.

Damn, there are big rains coming and I won’t have the gutters and downpipes ready in time to catch the water.

I think I am going to use another of these tanks as my sump which will be at the bottom of the garden. The water will flow by gravity (overflow) from the two fish ponds over the gravel grow beds. I am designing them to be flood and drain. In other words the beds will fill up with water and then drain out with a siphon system. This sudden rush of water out of the bottom of the grow bed then sucks oxygen through the gravel to the roots of the vegetables. This water leaving the grow beds then flows into the sump. From there it is pumped back up the hill to the fish ponds and the whole cycle repeats. I am aiming for a flow rate that will move all of the water 3 times per hour ie. 5800L x 3 = 17400L/hr.

The “head” ie the height that the water has to be pumped vertically is 3m (1.8m to the level of the terrace and then 1.2 m over the top of the fish ponds. The pump will thus be purchased with these two factors taken into account (ie flow-rate and head).

I have been agitating about whether I should glue my PVC joints or not. Once glued it’s permanent so if I had to move the greenhouse I would have to cut it out. If I left the joints unglued the first big wind would tear the joints apart. Another idea is to drill through the pvc joints and pipe and fasten with a nut and bolt. Ingenious, secure and easy to disassemble.

Enough for now.

Synaptoman

Aquaponics 101 – the good, the bad and the very ugly.

Well good news and bad news on the Aquaponics front. First the very ugly news. After two weeks of gentle intermittent and soaking rain, one of the uprights on the retaining wall of my terrace started to move. Thank goodness this has happened before the slab was started.

You can see the subsidence just behind the bricks. Shit !!

To make matters even worse, my Malawian gardeners, Obvious and Joshua, didn’t arrive on Friday. I think they just stay away when it’s raining, and realised what a muddy and unpleasant task awaited them.

I am going to have to re-excavate this upright, and as much as I wanted to avoid it, use a concrete base to secure it. I’m getting absolutely nowhere in this mud and clay, and we are leaving for the UK on Saturday, so the project is going to come to a halt for a while now.

And now for the good news. The mesh pools arrived from Hydrex.

Set out below some images.

The mesh frame. It stands a little more than 1.2M high.

The Geomat (and Jess, my dog). It goes under the pool and shows the size quite nicely (diameter 1.75m)

The central drain. It drains the pool from the middle and is 50mm PVC.

My timing on this project is to complete greenhouse, fill tanks and cycle by 30 November and slowly introduce fish and vegetables by say Christmas.

This article will re-commence in November.

Be Good

Synaptoman