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  1. #1
    Members
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
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    Senegal
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    2

    Hello from Africa

    Hello everyone. I am English but have been living in Senegal, West Africa, since 2004. I came here initially to help save a Game Reserve that was in danger, but over the time I have moved to helping poor people create small agricultural projects. It is working to a degree but obviously here it is hot, and there is a lack of water for irrigation. I fell upon Aquaponics and it interested me. I fell to this site and it interested me more.
    In Africa there are many IBCs and are not expensive as well as the blue plastic barrels.

    I have never done anything like this before so I may need your help but this seems like a great solution for Africa.

    We have Tilapia here in the rivers so fry will not be a problem.

    If anybody has any inclination to offer ideas on starting from scratch, I would certainly appreciate all help available.

    To get to know me a bit, you can look at my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Tambatoubab
    It has loads of albums of photos taken here in Senegal.

    That's me.

  2. #2
    Members
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    Ronkonkoma New York
    Posts
    26

    Re: Hello from Africa

    Hi tambatoubab, welcome, you have found a very good forum here. I'm fairly new here, and studying the how to's of aquaponics. My advice to you is that you will not find everything in one place, no matter where you look. To do aquaponics, you must go to many websites, read everything you can, go to youtube and see what others have set up. It is all very easy, it's just that there are many many easy things to know. So to be a do it yourself person you need to study as much as you can. Many people are successful at it, and they all have slightly different set ups, but they basically all work the same way. A good starting point is to know this,fish tank-mechanical filter-bio filter-sump tank-grow beds-, in that order, and then work from there figuring out how to put it together. Some people don't go in that order, but you can't go wrong with it either. Keep a list of questions and submit them here. As you look around you will come to know what the starting point things are. I have never seen it anywhere where everything is lined up by the numbers, so to do this it is up to you to do your own research. Youtube is great as you'll see many pictures, and come to know what the parts are, how they work, how to build them. To do this right it is a long learning curve. I am still months away from actually getting started, but I know a lot already. On youtube look at the bell syphons, how they work, how to adjust, why the top is wider than the bottom, how to build them, etc,etc. I personally believe that aquaponics is like a dream come true as everything fits together in a perfect system. It's almost all advantage with no real drawbacks. So read every single post on this forum, and try to get others involved, and you'll get familiar with it all and be able to build your own. There are systems you can buy but it doesn't come with a learning curve, and they are expensive, and you still need the knowledge, so I think the best thing is to do it yourself, make that effort, keep lots of notes, and you'll be able to come up with your own plan. As you're designing your system, ask questions about it here and you'll keep getting more insight. Good luck.

  3. #3
    Moderator JCO's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Orange Park, Florida
    Posts
    1,830

    Re: Hello from Africa

    Welcome. We have other members on this forum from Africa also and they are operating their systems from information gleaned from the site. If you take the time to look, everything you need to know about Aquaponics can be found on our main website here at DIY Aquaponics and if you still have questions, do a search on the forum and ask all your questions there. There are no stupid questions, only ones that were never asked. DIY Aquaponics is one of the first websites of its kind and one of the oldest Aquaponics websites on the internet.

    When it comes to Aquaponics, I am a purist and believe a system should be set up in a specific manner. That's just me, but that's what makes the world go round so figure out what works best for you and go with it.

    If you study everything that is offered here, you will know more about Aquaponics than 99% of the people in the world so pull up and easy chair, sit back and

    STUDY, STUDY, STUDY & LEARN, LEARN, LEARN...!
    JCO
    Irish eyes are always smiling but
    • "In the eyes of the world, you are only as good as your last success"
    so never forget
    • "MAN IS ONLY LIMITED BY HIS IMAGINATION"

  4. #4
    Members
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    Senegal
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    2

    Re: Hello from Africa

    Thanks Guys,
    Good to see replies so quick. Some forums take ages, if ever, so I'm impressed. Often when starting something new, it is easy to fall into the same pits as others have done, so it is important to know the "What NOT to do" as much or more than the "How to do". Thanks for the advice and, Yes! I will look at youtube and other sites to get an all round picture and then will go from there. I am going to have to build a system with as much gravity gradient as possible because it will probably be in a village with no electricity so will hand pump or small generator to pump the water. A challeng I am looking forward to. Thanks again.

  5. #5
    Moderator urbanfarmer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Zone 9b
    Posts
    2,294

    Re: Hello from Africa

    Greetings Earthling, and welcome to the addiction!

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