Ask a guy, who is deeply endulged in the pointless task of building aquaponic systems since 2012, anything.
>>980912
Best type of media for the plants/filter?
Also post pic of a setup
>>980912
see
>>>/out/736028
There will be a new thread soon I'm sure and it will be linked in that thread.
What type of aquatic life do you use?
>>980912
what kind of systems? size? growbeds? what animals/plants?
what are your insights in feasability, work/maintanence/yield?
also seconding the pics of setup part
>>980922
recycled glas, in Europe its called "ecoglas" its avaiable in different sizes. I use it for the biofilter. The plants are either in DWC or in ecoglas. Last year we worked with basalt gravel which worked perfectly fine, only har dto move an clean due to the weight. Also i felt like it was kind of rough on the red worms, but there are still worms living in it so it cant be that bad.
If you dont mind plastics get the filter foam mats or that brightagrotech tower system.
Havent tried Helix so far because i want to reduce plastics as much as i can.
>>980940
Last year and this year: Tilapia (oreochromis niloticus). I will be testing shrimps this year. I hope the bacteria load will reduce fungi infection they are prone to. We had good results with koi and other carps.
>>980960
I have tried most of them. We started with the half IBC Growbed with gravel. Which is a pain in the ass due to the weight and access problems. The next year we plumbed 30L buckets together and filled them with gravel, which worked fine. This year we remove the gravel from the buckets and try it deep water culture style. Flood and drain still. We also have constant flow vertical setups in 10cm pipes. We use the buckets for peppers,physalis and tomatos, the vertical stuff for salads, spices and strawberries.
This year our focus lies on our 2 parallel 1800L systems in our polytunnel.
My insights are: its a pioneer type of field. You need to come up with your own methods and systems and put the focus on saving manhours and making it foolproof. Thats what we do. Automatation (is that the word?) will be the big thing i guess.
There are people like Nate Storey who have done great work on the field although i dont agree with everything they say, do or sell. Give them a watch on jewtube.
As for the pics: i will see if i can dig out something worth showing.
>>980922
>>980940
>>980960
Not OP but I've been at aquaponics for like three years now. I've grown beans, basil and tomatoes in my setup. Used both Shrimp and goldfish separaelty. I just use aquarium gravel because it's so damn cheap. Currently preparing twenty spinach seedlings and some huge goldfish for my next system! Pic related, using a biofilter this time.
Will post pics if anyone replies to this message with interest.
>>980992
OP again, did you use the filter you posted?
How did you clean it, how often?
>>980994
No I used a small spong filter in tank. I don't think I cleaned it more than once, worked well regardless.
Making sure you have access/can reach all the parts of your system to make modifications easily is something I struggled with early on. Another thing that I believe is aquaponics lends itself to growing leafy greens best because hand polinating plants is painstaking.
Pic: This is the very first setup I did with tomatoe plants, by the end they were around five feet tall.
>>981004
Well, tomatoes pollinate themselves if you shake them or ventilate them heavily. Lots of strawberries as well. The leafy greens tend to be used because people who do NFT use aquaculture filtration that gives out really clear water but extracts lots of nutrients witht he solids (especially phosphorus). For a low maintenance type of system its certainly a viable concept but i want to use as much of the pooptrients as possible.
The access thing is the first big lesson i learned. When some shit leaks or breaks and you cant reach it without cirque du soleil type of skills. Aquaponics, its a special kind of masochism..
>>981005
>Aquaponics, its a special kind of masochism..
Perfect for a shirt my friend. I'll try placing a fan on the flowering plants and see if that gets me some fruiting plants, turns out I just bought some strawberry seedlings the other day so more perfect time to try. Another thing I found is that one shouldn't use clear tubing, I had algea growing in mine and it was hell.
Pic: Plants after two months, moved to slightly larger system made from flipped over kids table.
>>981013
>>981018
I use iron supplement fish pellets and I think they are just hybrid beef steak tomatoes, not really sure.
Any one got pics of there systems to share?
>>981417
These were my tomatos in 2015 in a system we built in 2013
>>982042
We initially had 4 IBCs full of gravel, which we reduced to 2 in 2015 because shit was annoying to fix and clean.
>>982043
We got the IBCs for cheap, but they were nasty so we put EPDM pond-tissue in it. You can see the drain here. It was filled and emptied through this drain in a flood and drain cycle.
>>982045
The drain was initiated by a U-Siphon outside of the tank. You can see it in white in the pic (topview).
>>982048
This was our sump we dug in the ground, it was layed out with EPDM and contained about 600L.
We put filtration mats in it and didnt bother clearing out the solids which led to a nice shitty paste on the ground. As long as everything is aerobic ints not a big thing, but after 2 weeks of no-flow it starts smelling bad.
>>982050
These were our fish, mainly koi youngsters we got from the pond near by, they were really easy to handle and took temperature and water quality really well.
>>982051
These were our first attempts in 2013, afterwards we changed it all up and build a new system in 2015, which is in a polytunnel we built. I can provide pics of that as well if you re interested.
>>982052
thank you for the pics!
I would love to see your new system
>IBCs were annoying to fix and clean
what was broken and what did you need to clean up?
any other problems?
>>982654
Roots and sludge limited the waterflow through the holes we drilled in those pipes. The U-Siphon kept his vacuum and constantly drained the water instead of letting it fill and drain it then. Automatic siphons are a science in itself ;)
All the solid shit we didnt filter out settled beneath the gravel. If the layer gets to thick it goes anaerobic and releases toxins.
>>982662
so a bell siphon and a container to filter or settle the solids should solve these problems and make these growbeds less laibor intensive?
>>982676
yes, if you make sure that the bellsiphon cuts the vacuum after draing (look up "better bell siphon").
Filtration pre-growbed makes sense, you can keep the shit in the sump if you want the nutrients.
Another work intensive step is removing plants and roots and planting new ones. lots of digging, lots of remaining roots. thats why we switched to buckets.
>>982721
Looks like some great tomatoe yields, congrats! Can you guys supply some pics of your new system? I definetly understand using separate buckets for each plant. When you sow directly into beds you cant move the plants and it makes cleanup terrible.
About how many koi did you guys keep?
What are you growing in your new system?
>>984010
Better than the amount of fruits was the taste.
Most strains taste watery and boring in Aquaponics but these little fuckers taste awesome. Sweet, aromatic, spicy. I was honestly surprised. To be honest i cant account for the amount of koi because they procreated in 2014 and we had a lot of newcomers afterwards. there was the occasional goldfish too.
In our new system we grow strawberries and salad in the vertical tubes, and tomatos and peppers in the buckets. This time we have 100 Tilapia.
This is a pic from our selfmade polytunnel(2 layers, blown up with a blower, ratatatatt!)
>>980912
good stuff OP, used to keep marines which was a similar thing but with algae (Chaetomorpha), with this setup are you feeding at all? is it supposed to be self sufficient?
What fishes can I raise on the same tank as tilapia?
What kind of shrimp can I add to keep the bottom clean?
Do I really need a swirl filter in addition to the growth media?
>>984037
I am feeding a regular pellet feed. 42%protein, which is too much actually for tilapia.
I want to start my own formula based on insect protein but my university guys were faggots about the project and i ended up not being able to do the research at the faculty. I will do my own research and tests which will be painfully slow and amateurish.
>>984047
Tilapia are aggressive, you should pick fish that can handle them size-wise, large carps like koi for example. Tilapia grow fast so you gotta make sure that they dont get significantly bigger during a season, so you dont get bullying.
I didnt test shrimp so far, saw people who used macrobrachium rosenbergii. I'd look inside the macrobrachium family. There are shitloads of edible shrimp-like creatures and almost none are tested in aqua-pizzle.
You dont need it, but the amount of shit generated by tilapia shouldnt be underestimated. And at some point (1 year from now) you'll have to dig between gravel covered with shit to remove and plant new plants.
>>984078
Feel free to post which papers you need and I'll put them in a mega folder or Dropbox for you
>>984330
Thats really nice man, thx. I got the papers mostly what i'd needed was the rearing facilities in the entomology department.
>>984078
How much that greenhouse set you back?
What kind of insects were you going to use? Nightcrawler, black soldier fly, meal worm, etc?
Ever consider feeding fish duckweed? I dont know if you can sustain a fish on it but my goldfish always eats every last bit I put in his tank.
>>984078
You just throw out fish wastes? it must habe a use right? could sell as organic fertilizer??
>>984911
The greenhouse.. lets see. A lot. 600 Bucks for the steel arches, concret for the foundation, lots of wood (which was a bad idea), screws, the poly-fabric in 2 layers (about 400 bucks), plus we but a styrocoat (sevral hundred bucks)around the floor in 80 cm depth for insulation reasons.
I guess 2500€ at least. Its 4x7 meters and 3m high. Its the little things that makes it expensive.
I wanted to research if there were members of Dioptera (flies) that belong to our region so that i didnt have to introduce new species that i cant reliably contain.
I didnt try duckweed. The point is that if i target a scenario were i pull large quantities of fruit everyday i cant use the same pool of nutrients to produce duckweed to feed fish.
I need to get the food in from somewhere outside.
>>984915
Of course, its desired by farmers because its avaiable fast unlike manure from cows for example which needs more time for nitrification. If the species isnt native to your region you cant use it though (law).
In Berlin they have to put the shit in the sewers because tilapia is a foreign species... I can't even..
Just use it in your garden or brew up a hydrofertilizer
