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bcotton
06-15-2011, 08:36 PM
This journey starts about two years ago. In the midst of the hops shortage and [me being a home brewer] I decided I wanted to try to grow hops. I lived in an apartment, which limited my options. Understanding that hops was in the same family as a very popular indoor and hydroponically grown plant. I figure there was enough applicable information on the web to try.

I'll skip past my failed hydroponic hop experiment, just know that you have a couple of very important things working against growing hops indoors. 1) theya re a huge plant. 2) It typically takes 3 years for the root system to get mature enough to meet maximum production. The hops *MUST* have winters for vernalization. I tried to simulate vernalization in my kegerator but i had difficulties with mold and the majority of my root systems rotting or dying.

Anyway, while i was studying hydroponics, i stumpled upon this whole idea of aquaponics and sustainable agriculture which interests me greatly. i cannot explain my fascination with it... It's entirely possible i just enjoy designing something, building it and improving it and i havent stopped finding ways to improve my aquaponics.

Currently, I have moved to a house and i have expanded my setup outdoors, but i am going to go ahead and start back in my apartment. And then move forward to present day.

So I start with lets call it.. phase 1

Phase 1

October, 2010
I am using 2 metal racks that i got from home depot. I think they were specified to allow 400 lbs per shelf. I was exceeding the recommended weight with the 55 gallon aquarium, but i hypothesized that they were just being cautious with the weight recommendation and i rationalized that it was close enough to the ground that i could risk it. Behind the 55 gallon aquarium is a 27 gallon heavy duty Rubbermaid tote. I use a homemade syphon (made of 3" PVC, some 1" clear tubes and a 1 gallon bucket) to overflow into the sump where the pumps are.

I am using bell syphons that flood and drain but dont always stop draining. As gunk builds up in the plumbing, the flow to each bed changes slightly from day to day. Instead of driving myself insane trying to always adjust and regulate the perfect flow I just let it be and i put the water pump on a timer. Off 15 minutes every hour or so so that the entire tray could drain and it will fill back up the next time the pump came on.

I am using botanicare grow trays that i had left over from my hydroponic experiments. The top tray is 3'x3'x8" and the bottom 5 trays are 4'x6"x4"
http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4683&stc=1

I drove 2 hours to buffalo, tx (from dallas) to buy 1 lb of mozambique tilapia (12 fish) for $10. The man at the fish farm said "just feed them what they will eat in 20 minutes, then take what they dont eat." I established that i fed them just under a tablespoon once a day.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4684&stc=1

I was very interested in trying to utilize vertical space to optimize the amount of food i could produce in a given amount of floor space. I have 2x 4'-4 bulb t5 florescent lights. One for each teir.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4685&stc=1

bcotton
06-15-2011, 08:38 PM
1 more picture.

Every day or so I will add progress, what i learned and changes.

Mostly lettuce and herbs a week or so after planting seeds directly into the hydroton. The furthest of the 4'x6" botanicare trays was not filled with substrate and I attempted to grow duckweed. I called it duckweed pond.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4686&stc=1

keith_r
06-16-2011, 05:24 AM
looks good.. duckweed likes low flow..
the plants will do better if the light is closer

rfeiller
06-16-2011, 06:58 AM
very nice, keep us posted on the progress.
yup, some plants just don't lend themselves that well to ponics.

bcotton
06-18-2011, 07:29 AM
Phase 1 Update

1 week progress

Peppers are sprouting, The large plants in the back right are soy beans. There's also some transplanted lettuce around the sides.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4687&stc=1

Assorted herbs sprouting. The lettuce is taking off. Duckweed pond is filling out. I turned off the 1/2" valve on the duckweed bed. I was pushing water from the sump to the duckweed bed at the far end using that clear tube and a small 100 gph or so pump in the sump.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4688&stc=1

The romaine lettuce was planted very thick. I started thinning it out and moving it around to grow areas that didn't have something planted.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4689&stc=1

bcotton
06-18-2011, 07:34 AM
Phase 1 update

3 week progress

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4690&stc=1

Bottom tray growth

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4691&stc=1

Basil. Dill and parsley

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4692&stc=1

rfeiller
06-18-2011, 07:44 AM
things appear to be coming along very well. what temp is the room?

kneedeepinwater
06-18-2011, 07:56 AM
That is a very nice and clean looking setup. Plants look like they are growing very well. Keep up the good work

bcotton
06-18-2011, 11:51 AM
Keep in mind this is not my current setup. I am documenting from oct 2010 to present day and I am still in november2010 right now.

This was my den in my apt in Oct-November. I kept my apt at approximately 72-75 degrees. I left the door open to the rest of my apt most of the time .

This room was typically 78-82 degrees.

Keeping the door open also helped keep the humidity down.


brian

bcotton
06-19-2011, 08:42 AM
Phase 1, Nov 6, 2010Update
5 week update


So it's the first week in November, the system is about 5 weeks old. The plants look healthy but they are competing for canopy space. The lettuce are growing more tall than full.

To improve the lighting I moved both of the 4x4' T5's side by side on the bottom rack and added a 8bulb x 4' T5 hanging over the top rack.

Top rack: The peppers are growing well. The soy bean in the back sprouted up very aggressively then started turning yellow and brown. it ended up being spider mites and it was so bad I eventually pulled out all of the soy.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4693&stc=1

Bottom rack: oregano, thyme, dill, parsley, lettuces and one sad spinach. There's some small broccoli's in the back but you cant see them right now.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4694&stc=1

bcotton
06-19-2011, 09:03 AM
Phase 2, Dec 11, 2010

As all of the plants started filling out i realized i had way too many plants for my setup. And some plants like broccoli would never mature in such tight quarters. Even the lettuce was growing tall enough on the bottom shelf to touch the light and get scorched.

I was also having issues with fish solids accumulating at the bottom of the aquarium. The siphon only skimmed off of the top. Hind sight, i could have just vacuumed that weekly with an aquarium vacuum but i decided to go in a different direction.


Change log.
-I ate a lot of lettuce.
-I added a 110 Gallon rubbermaid stock tank that i bought from Tractor supply for about $60. This became the new fish tank.
-I added 2 - 2'x4' Botanicare grow trays with a new 4bulb x 4' T5 for each.
-Replumbed the 5 - 6"x4' grow trays and 3'x3' grow tray to empty into the new tank.
-Moved the water inputs on the vertical trays from the front near the bell siphon to the back near the window.
-1- ~512gph magnum style pump to the 2 story system and 1-~260gph pump pumps to both new 2'x4' grown beds
-The new bell siphons have the same problem of not breaking flow but this works out. I put both pumps on separate 15on15off pump cycles which ensures both trays are never filling up at the same time.
-Some plants like broccoli, basil, parsley, cilantro and a catnip were transplanted to the new trays.
-I planted new lettuce, cauliflower and cabbage in the bottom tray
-The top tray stayed pretty much the same. I thinned out some plants because they were getting too big.

New Tray #1: Turned one tray into an herb tray. This time i separated the parsley and the cilantro to avoid confusion. Also there's basil, and some red cabbage.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4695&stc=1

Bottom tray: Replanted lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage, and brussel sprouts.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4696&stc=1

Top Tray: A couple of Jalapeno trees have really taken off, I removed the rest so they wouldnt have to compete for light. Started a squash experiment in the back.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4697&stc=1

bcotton
06-19-2011, 09:08 AM
more pics

A view of the whole setup, you can see how the trays drain to the new fish tank.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4698&stc=1

davidstcldfl
06-19-2011, 09:39 AM
You are 'hooked' for sure bcotton.... :lol:

Keep up the great work.. :D

samtheman
06-19-2011, 01:43 PM
wow your sistem looks awesome!!!! 8-)
what kind of water pump are you using?

bcotton
06-19-2011, 05:12 PM
One was a Geoglobal partners brand 560 gph pump that i bought at lowes. I actually had two of them.. they both lasted 1-1.5 years and they are both broken now.

The other was a 256 or 264 gph submersable pump that i got at the local hydroponics store. I dont remember the exact brand there a bunch of them and they all seem to be about the same to me. It recently broke too but i think it lived out it's value a little better than the lowes brand.

Part of my problem is that I am pumping from the fish tank or sump to the grow bed, and the solids are wearing down the pumps and eventually damage the propellers. When i get a chance to redesign my system for like the 5th time (or 6th time? who's counting?) i will definatly have the fish tank overflow into the grow beds which empty to the sump... and i will pump the grow bed filtered water back to the fish tank which should help my pumps last longer.


brian

rfeiller
06-20-2011, 11:37 AM
The ceramic impellers are what usually give out. Replacement impellers last about the same as the new ones. Also for those that haven't checked the impeller magnets get slimed. And need to be cleaned occasionally. That is what normally makes the pump slow down. When the pump and impelled are cleaned performance is like new.

urbanfarmer
06-20-2011, 04:59 PM
Woo hoo! Very nice indeed!

What light fixtures did you get to fit perfectly into the wire racks? I like that concept.

bcotton
06-20-2011, 06:23 PM
Those are sunblaze T5's. The "bread racks' have adjustable shelf heights so I think pretty much anything could be made to fit.

brian

bcotton
07-02-2011, 07:04 AM
January 8 update

Since moving to 110 gallon stock tank from 55 gallon and adding a bunch of grow space, I added a dozen more tilapia. The Plants are getting too large for the grow space again and competing for canopy space.

I lost a couple of fish by jumping out. I built a game fence out of chicken wire. The 3" pipes i had laying around from a previous aeroponics vertical system i experimented with before aquaponics.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4699&stc=1

From left to right, cilantro, red cabbage, basil and parsley.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4700&stc=1

One broccoli is taking over the whole tray

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4701&stc=1

bcotton
07-02-2011, 07:08 AM
more

The whole Room

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4702&stc=1

The bottom shelf. The plants are more spread out than before.. 4-5 plants per tray, but they are still way too close together.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4703&stc=1

Jalapeno peppers are doing very well. I ended up getting 2 very large harvests and they were still going when i moved and had to cut them down. The tomatoes grew long but never filled out or bloomed. I blame the artificial light.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4704&stc=1

rfeiller
07-02-2011, 08:10 AM
beautiful! have you tried vertical side lighting?

davidstcldfl
07-02-2011, 02:03 PM
Very nice... :mrgreen:

ghostridergt
10-12-2012, 10:51 PM
Bcotton, I would love and I mean LOVE to see the continuation of this thread. How many tilapia did you wind up with in the 110 gallon setup? Extremely curious since I'm looking to replicate that size ft for the system I'm planning. Thanks

bcotton
10-15-2012, 07:19 AM
Ghostridergt,

There's no more updates to that system. It was my first system and I moved out of that apartment shortly after those last pictures were taken. I will see if i can dig up some pictures of my second system so you can see the progression of my learning and my aquaponics "style". The second system is in the back yard of a rent house so it was considerably bigger. I am also about to start a new thread of my current (third) system which is in a more permanent place since i bought a house. The system have progressively gotten bigger.

To answer your question i think i ended up with about 22-24 tilapia in that 100 gallon tank... That is definitely not the maximum load but it's a comfortable load for me.

Things i would change if i was rebuilding that system.
1) i would not put sand in the tank.. I thought it was necessary because i wanted to get the tilapia to reproduce... a substrate at the bottom of the tank is not necessary> Alls the sand did was absorb stinky waste and was an epic pain to move.
2) I try to design all of my systems using only 1 pump. It was difficult in that situation to use one pump because of the layout and space constraints but I am sure if i had thought it out better i could have limited to using 1 pump instead of 2 or 3.
3) I dont use hydroton anymore... it's just too expensive and there's not enough benefits to justify the money. I mostly use expanded shale now. Which is pea sized. I still use the hydroton that i already own in areas where the fish solids enter the grow bed. The larger hydroton lets the solids sink into the bed easier.
4) i wouldnt put a system of this size indoors in a house or apartment because the plants just give off too much humidity and damage the interior of the house.
5) in that system i used timers to turn my pumps on and off. I now subscribe to the line of thought that starting and stopping your pumps causes a disproportionate amount of wear and tear and i now try to design my systems where i can leave the pump on 24/7.
6) i prefer pumping from a sump to the fish tank and overflowing the fish tank into the grow beds. grow beds drain to sump. I believe people call it CHOPS.

Rev.holymeow
10-17-2012, 05:27 PM
i know this may be old but I found this video on youtube about how to get the siphon to stop right maybe this will help...

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