My Redneck Aquaponics System

[jackalope]

OK, I know I'm slow at getting pics up, so here's some that will kinda show how my system is designed ...... some of these were taken earlier, some later, when I killed almost everything, including my carp (goldfish) .....

First, the whole thing -- takes up about 2'x4' of floor space, but it goes up 11' in the air ;) the 1x2's with the dowels sticking through them, hanging down the sides are for the squash, cukes, and the watermelon to grow up on ..... they all turned out to be minis, so I didn't need to go to all the trouble of making them :(

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/Jackalope_album/aquaponics002.jpg

Next, some pics of the top level I'm actually planning to go one more level above this, as I perfect the system;

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/Jackalope_album/Picture014.jpg

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/Jackalope_album/Picture031.jpg

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/Jackalope_album/aquaponics011.jpg

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/Jackalope_album/aquaponics010.jpg

The drains coming from the upper level distribute the water through a manifold underneath the gravel, that I built to be sure that the water flows from the bottom of the grow-bed to the top, making sure that the water gets changed every cycle;

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/Jackalope_album/aquaponics006.jpg

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/Jackalope_album/Picture029.jpg

The grow-beds are on the lower level, just above the fish tank; this is the first grow-beds, with a bell siphon, but the 18" of gravel and water bulged the sides so much, I didn't trust it ...

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/Jackalope_album/Picture012.jpg

the Bell siphon;

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/Jackalope_album/Picture015.jpg

So I went to 6"deep sterilite grow-beds using no-holes siphons;

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/Jackalope_album/Picture026.jpg

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/Jackalope_album/Picture024.jpg

I had trouble with the no-holes siphon design, it had to be weighted down, wasn't stable, fell apart sometiimes, etc.

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/Jackalope_album/Picture028.jpg

So I designed a new one, all one piece, with a sturdier spreader bar .... works great! I will be doing away with the larger one when I harvest the first crop;

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/Jackalope_album/aquaponics008.jpg

And last of all, the fish tank :D;

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/Jackalope_album/Picture024.jpg

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/Jackalope_album/aquaponics008.jpg

If you look at the last pic closely, you can see the PVC hidey-holes for the crawdads ..... they are pretty fast, I had 10 full grown Guppies including two males ..... I have three females left and a few babies ....... at least the crawdads know how to get themselves fresh supper ;)
I've got a lot of plastic weeds in there now to give the guppies a place to hide so they can procreate and provide more ferts ;)

Now you've seen the 1st experimental system that I've built .... I got more plans, but my wallet just won't let me put those plans into practice ;) My apologies for the differences in the pics, these pics were taken at different times to replace some that didn't turn out, etc., so they're really out of order/sync ...... in that last pic, the second cup in on the left, is the lettuce, that was several weeks ago, and it hasn't got any bigger since!

[badflash]

Looks good, but needs more light. Add a few more fixtures. I use a bulb over each 12" of grow space 1 foot up.

[jackalope]

Looks good, but needs more light. Add a few more fixtures. I use a bulb over each 12" of grow space 1 foot up.

That won't happen here, our light bill just went up by 50% ..... the power company is punishing their customers, so we'll scream at the congress, so they can get their new coal-fired power plant approved :( I guess we'll just have to do without the lettuce. If I lower the lights the tomatoes won't get any light at all, the tops of the tomatoes are above the lights now ..... a lesson learned, don't grow different kinds of veggies on the same level, make them all the same!

[badflash]

You need to get outside. Make no sense to use artificial like on legal plants. Build that green house!

[jackalope]

You need to get outside. Make no sense to use artificial like on legal plants. Build that green house! That's another thing the wallet won't allow ...... on Social (IN)Security, you don't have a lot of options ;), and I live in a town of less than 100 folks, ..... not a lot of job opportunities here :( :(

[mpugh5@aol.com]

that appears to be somewhat the way i plan to go,but only using flood grow beds.just got the call to go back to work. maybe things will start happening with an income. :arrow: :?: 8-)

[wolfracer]

Thanks for the pics, I like your auto siphons! When I build more growbeds that is the design I am going to use. Maybe you need more crawdads or fish. Are you seeing Nitrates on your water test?I am thinking of trying to build a system like that above the current growbeds.

[jackalope]

Thanks for the pics, I like your auto siphons! When I build more growbeds that is the design I am going to use. Maybe you need more crawdads or fish. Are you seeing Nitrates on your water test?I am thinking of trying to build a system like that above the current growbeds.

Yeah, I'm planning on more fish, and I'm raising some Marmorkrebs which, according to badflash's posts, will breed well and have lots of babies when they get to size.

The thing I like about the "bottle system" is that it isn't a lot of weight .... I'll make some changes, of course, the drain will go at the opposite end of the grow-beds, rather than right next to the incoming water ...... I've found that the auto-siphon for the "bottle system" clogs up with algae/fish waste/whatever, so it no longer gurgles, but the plants seem to still get plenty of the ferts/oxygen for growth (the upper system is growing faster than the lower now), so I'll be installing a flexible, cleanable, clear hose, rather than rigid PVC. I'm planning on extending the one I have to almost double, and then I will build another for the top rack which will be about 22 cups as well. As I said above, ....lesson learned, I will be growing all of the same size veggie on each level .... lettuce on one level, squash or beans on another, and tomatoes or peppers on another. I realize that this kind of ties my hands on what all I can grow, but if I grow the more expensive or more used veggies, that will cut grocery costs a lot ;) I've got some other ideas too, but I'm not ready to try to put them into practice ..........

[jackalope]

I like your auto siphons! When I build more growbeds that is the design I am going to use.

I'll try to put together some pics of how I made it, as well as some pics of how I made the bell siphon, so that if someone wants to make one similar, it will be easier if they have no plumbing experience. Since I was a jack-of-all-trades (and master-of-none), it wasn't difficult to figure out these things, but some of our members may not have had the same work experiences ...... we're all here to help each other ;)

[jackalope]

I no longer recommend the "gurgler" system! Somewhere back a couple of months ago, [b]JeffW[b] warned me about the roots clogging up the pipes, but I thought I had a handle on that ....... I'll try to post a couple of pics tonite of the tomato roots that were in the pipe and plugged it up so bad that the bottles ran over and spilled water all over everything ........ Don't waste your time and money making one of those systems unless you just like throwing money away ;). maybe if I would have used 3" or 4" pipe, it wouldn't have clogged, but the 1" was too small for growing tomatoes :o :!: .



The worst prob was the roots plugging the pipe as they filled out. I am still trying some ideas
out to solve that one. I like the way Sheryl did her setup and wonder if that is they way to
go using cups in an NFT system. Clik ;) (http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/showthread.php?56-Finally-up-and-running!)

Here's the pic of the tomato roots laying/lieing/sitting/setting (depending on which part of the world you're from :lol: :lol: ) on my worm bin:

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/Jackalope_album/aquaponics003.jpg

[badflash]

No matter what system you design, be sure it is easy to clean out clogs any place in the system. The system will eventially clog up. You can bet on it.

[jackalope]

Well, here it is the end of November and all that stuff has been taken down and scrapped. I had to abandon the aquaponics stuff for the Winter anyways, and the "gurgler" system crapped out on me so onward and upward! For the Winter, I am just doing totally Aquaculture. I've got two 30 gallon FTs going right now, I'm having trouble finding stainless steel drain for the fiberglass bath tub .... I'm thinking of just using bulkhead fittings instead. That will give me about a 65 gallon grow tank. I'm also planning to put the 50 gallon rubbermaid back into service to get more tank space. I'm having a little problem with my 30's because I can't keep up with the fish and their waste like I could when I was hooked up to the aquaponics growbeds.

My water is pretty cloudy in the tall tank .... I've been doing 30% changeouts every day (I dump the old water on the compost, where it becomes a block of ice before long), but by the next morning, it's just as cloudy as it was the day before ..... these things sure poop a lot!

It's funny, I did a 30% change-out in the long tank and it cleared up right away and it's got more fish, and they are twice as big as in the tall tank, and it hasn't clouded up in two or three days, but the tall tank won't get clear :( :(. I can only do 30% change-outs at a time because I heat the water in a spare aquarium that I have that I will be using for a fry tank if ever I get some fry. I've got another spare aquarium, but I'm short on heaters.

I really need to expand to a 300 gallon stock tank, but everything is on hold until I get the MH remodeled so we can move out of the saloon. Then I've got to build a wall or two in the saloon where we have a concrete floor, and then I can put the stock tank and all the aquariums in there because the wood floor won't take all the weight I'm going to be putting on it ;)

I'm just wondering if I can get away with putting styrofoam insulation under the 300 gallon stock tank, that will be over 2500 lbs on the styro ..... otherwise, I'll have to build an insulated platform under it which puts off the project that much longer. That floor gets ice cold during the winter here, stuff will freeze on it if left over night .... trust me, it will (voice of experience) ........ I saw a thing on the internet somewheres where a guy glued styro to a smaller stock tank for his animals, but I'm concerned about the weight crushing the styro on one side or the other and causing the FT to list like a sinking battleship. Any ideas?

[stucco]

Howdy jackalope, I don’t know much, but I know the styro will hold the weight. As long as you have the weight dispersed evenly. In this pic[background] I have a pallet and a half of tile and travertine [it’s ridiculously heavy] on styro on top of corrugated storm panels. The styro is holding up to the weight just fine ;) .good luck with the build and the cold, stucco I typed this before coffee, edited it during coffee and edited it again after coffee :roll:

[badflash]

I used to have a 6' kiddie pool 2' deep in my basement. I put styro under it and bubble wrap around it to hold the heat. After 2 years I took it down and the styo was perfect. If there are sharp points or edges, they will crush, but once it hits a flat surface it will hold.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c70/badflash/snails/pool.jpg

The pool was $15 and lasted 2 years before it started getting pin hole leaks around the waterbed heaters.

[jackalope]

Howdy jackalope, I don’t know much, but I know the styro will hold the weight. As long as you have the weight dispersed evenly.

Thanks stucco and badflash, I'll get some of the dense styro then (like that pink stuff in badflash's pic) ..... I didn't't think that beadboard would hold up tho, unless you guys think so ..... it's much cheaper, I guess when I said styro, I should have said beadboard styro .....

A question for badflash:



http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c70/badflash/snails/pool.jpg

I gotta ask, is that your famous (or infamous ;) ) DIY filter in the kiddie pool? That would be great if it is internal rather than external in a pool that big ;)

[badflash]

That was the 1.0 version. I hadn't discovered beads yet. That had a pond filter in the pool for particulate removal and a ball filter in the tower for a bio-filter. I was raising prawns and Endlers, so the bio-load was much lower.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c70/badflash/prawn/rosenbergiis.jpg

My bead filter system is essential for tilapia. No reason it wouldn't work to put the bead filter on top of the ball filter. That is what I'm doing with my tilapia breeder setup, only it is in a sump rather than in a pool.

[catfish]

Do you still raise prawns?

How hard is it to do this, that seems like a neat thing to raise?

Thanks

[badflash]

I don't recommend them in an aquaponics system. Out of 1000 fry I ended up with 1 male and 200 females. In a pool the males kill each other off until there is only 1. I no longer keep them. Red Claw crays are looking like a much better fit.

[catfish]

I don't recommend them in an aquaponics system. Out of 1000 fry I ended up with 1 male and 200 females. In a pool the males kill each other off until there is only 1. I no longer keep them. Red Claw crays are looking like a much better fit.


Do you raise them now?

If so how large do they get and are they good to eat?

[badflash]

Yes, delicious, but not economical and I no longer raise them. The male (of which there can be only 1 in a pool) will be a body of over 12" in a couple of years. Females max out at around 5". You need a true pond to dedicate to them. They will eat everything in the tank with them too.

[catfish]

Yes, delicious, but not economical and I no longer raise them. The male (of which there can be only 1 in a pool) will be a body of over 12" in a couple of years. Females max out at around 5". You need a true pond to dedicate to them. They will eat everything in the tank with them too.


I was talking about the Red Claws do you raise them now and are they worth eating?

[badflash]

I would not have gotten that from this thread. We were talking about prawns. So as not to totally de-rail this thread I will answer in the red claw post.