New Micro Farm System

[Oliver]

Its been some time since I have given an update as we have been hard at work re-configuring our whole system, including adding a new fish room, ripping out both the old fish room/grow room and the greenhouse to make way for our new system. The new fish room and grow room are 95% finished and the greenhouse is only about 50% finished but enough to grow plants.

As I mentioned in a previous post we are converting to a water based growing system with only a few media filled grow beds; my better half (Grace) wants them, I don't, so we get them. The grow room is all horizontal DWC in ducts Grace calls Duffy Ducts, with mostly T5s doing the growing. We had some left over LEDs so we are using them for the first 4 inches of growth before transplanting into the larger spaced ducts.

First are some pictures of the fish room we are now calling the "Engine Room" or "ER". Some things are not being shown as we have a patent in the works and don't want to show it until that is further along. That would mostly be the Bio-Filtration system. As can be seen in the picture looking directly into one of the fish tanks, the water is crystal clear. The chemistry is as good as it gets and we need to add more veggies as we increase the fish food towards its maximum. We currently have 75 fish at an average weight of 2 pounds. We know this because we weighed a sample of them as we moved them from the older system tanks. The largest one we weighed was 4 pounds 10 ounces.

You can click on any of these for a larger view.
http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/images/hosted/Fish%20Room%201.jpeg
This next one is a closeup of some fish. Mainly wanted to show how clear the water is.
http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/images/hosted/Tilapia%20in%20Tank%203-10-2014.jpeg
Here is the Grow Room one week after renovation, 24 February 2014
http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/images/hosted/Grow%20Room%202-24-2014-2.jpeg
http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/images/hosted/Grow%20Room%202-24-2014-1.jpeg
12 days later, 8 March 2014
http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/images/hosted/Grow%20Room%203-8-2014-5.jpeg
http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/images/hosted/Grow%20Room%203-8-2014-2.jpeg
http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/images/hosted/Grow%20Room%203-8-2014-3.jpeg
There are Nine 8-tube T5s covering 27 Ducts each with 6 holes. We rotate the timing on these lights so only 5 of them are lite at any one time in order to keep the heat to a manageable level. Each light is on for a total of 8 hours every 24 hours.

There are four 150 Watt fully adjustable LEDs covering 12 smaller ducts, each with 9 holes.

All the ducts are 4 feet in length.

The Greenhouse after renovation:
In addition, we have water plumbed to and from the greenhouse where we are doing vertical growing.
There we have an array of 7 vertical ducts each with 8 wide spaced holes, similar to the horizontal ducts in the grow room, except longer.
We have 4 of these arrays for a total of 224 positions currently full of Romaine lettuce which are just about ready for harvest after only a few weeks of growth.

Here is a picture taken two days ago of one of these arrays. Today, you cannot see the ducts for the leaves.
http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/images/hosted/Romaine%20in%20Vertical%20Duffy%20Duct%E2%84%A2%20 3-8-2014.jpeg
There are two of these arrays back-to-back setting over a 120 gallon sump tank. There are two sump tanks and two back-to-back arrays. The greenhouse has an East-West orientation and we have added additional diffuser plastic over the top of the almost clear polycarbonate windows.

Micro Farm
The above system is a proof-of-concept that we call a micro farm. It is fully scalable and we are currently tuning it and taking measurements as we adjust the food given to the fish. This will tell us how much food will grow how many plants. It will also tell us how to scale the various components in a larger system.

As we slowly increase the food we will start to push the filters, but we have already learned we don't have nearly enough plants for the nitrates we are generating. We have plans for this spring to add a hoop house with some more vertical growing systems in it in order to absorb the nitrates being generated. We will also be experimenting with growing tomatoes and peppers in water.

By knowing the total amount of fish weight and the exact amount of fish food we are giving the fish each day we know the percentage of food to fish weight. With that, the nitrate count and the square footage along with the number of plants, we have a metric for how many plants (leafy greens) we can grow with a given poundage of fish if fed at full daily dose of 1% to 1.5% of their body weight.

I don't want to turn this into a Commercial Aquaponics 101 so I will end here and await your comments.

Oliver

[dead_sled]

Very nice system! The water clarity is excellent. Will it stay this clear as you increase the feed rate?
The vertical array system is a great idea. Oliver, would you explain the purpose of the sump in the vertical arrays? Is it extra biofilter area? Is there a pump in there, or does it use gravity to return to the FT?

Thanks.

[Oliver]

The greenhouse is several feet lower on the property than the grow room and fish room and over 100 feet away. There are insulated pipes running underground between them and water is pumped both ways. The sump tanks are there as a supply of water for the vertical system and other systems yet to be installed in the greenhouse. The water is pumped from the sump tanks to the vertical system and is gravity flowed back into the sump tanks. Some water is also sent by the same pump system from the greenhouse to the fish room. Some water is pumped from the fish room to the greenhouse sump tanks. There are float valves in the sump tanks connected to the lines coming from the fish room to keep the level constant in the sump tanks. As water is pumped out of the sump tanks to the fish room and the level in the sump tanks starts to lower, the float valves allow water from the fish room to replace the pumped out water. That way there is a constant flow of water between the fish room and the greenhouse sump tanks keeping the water in the sump tanks refreshed with nutrient rich water.

Oliver

[dead_sled]

Wow, what a system! Thanks for the explanation.
How will the water clarity be affected by maximum feeding rate?

[Oliver]

How will the water clarity be affected by maximum feeding rate?
That is part of what we will find out. Unfortunately, that will have to wait for more plants, coming soon. The good news is that we have enough fish so we probably won't be over feeding them. We have a ways to go to get to the 1% per day number.

We have outside growing areas next to the greenhouse so we will be discharging some water there as soon as it gets a little warmer. This has been the warmest winter we have experienced since we moved here 7 years ago, as this is our 8th winter here. I am hoping that it does not carry over to this summer.

Oliver

[Billy Boy]

Wow! That is super cool.

What kind of fish are you raising?

[cgindiana]

What a fantastic looking system!! And ya for clear water!!! Keep us posted!!

[JeffS]

I feel so humble. Been at AP for about 9 months and still can't grow anything but fish.

[Apollo]

Everything looks awesome. Where do you keep your Nitrates and PH levels at?

[Oliver]

Everything looks awesome. Where do you keep your Nitrates and PH levels at?
Thanks. The pH is right at 7.3 and that is where I want to to stay.

The nitrates are over 80 ppm and I need to do a dilution test to bring them into a measurable range with the API test kit.

We have already cut back on the fish food as we harvested some of the Romaine in the greenhouse and delivered it to a local restaurant this morning along with a bunch of plants in the grow room we removed last Saturday. So now we have even fewer fully grown plants sucking up the nitrates. We replaced the harvested plants with some smaller ones that were waiting to go into the holes. But they take less nitrates than did the larger ones so the fish food reduction was and will be necessary until we can create more planting space.

At least we are getting an idea of how much fish food will grow how many plants once we achieve a balance between fish food and nitrates. From that we can calculate everything else.

Oliver

[Apollo]

"The nitrates are over 80 ppm and I need to do a dilution test to bring them into a measurable range with the API test kit."

Does this mean that you're going to do water exchange's to get you nitrates below 80 ppm? My test kit goes up to 140 ppm...is water exchanges better for the fish than reducing there food supply?

[Oliver]

Does this mean that you're going to do water exchange's to get you nitrates below 80 ppm? My test kit goes up to 140 ppm...is water exchanges better for the fish than reducing there food supply?
What I was referring to is that the API test kit does not give an accurate nitrate color representation once you get above 40 ppm. In order to place the nitrates in the color range of 40 ppm or below you need to dilute your test water with non-nitrate water and multiply the results by the dilution ratio. As an example, if you dilute the fish tank water in the test tube by a ratio of 4:1 with distilled water (4 parts total, 3 distilled, 1 FT water) then you would multiply the measured results by 4.

Once the nitrates reach a steady state equilibrium between the amount of food you are feeding the fish (that ultimately produces the nitrates) and the amount of nitrate uptake by the plants, reducing the fish food supply we eventually reduce the amount of nitrates in the water, assuming there are no other changes, like a change in the number of plants or their size. So, adjusting the amount of fish food over a given period of time is a good way to regulate your nitrate levels in your aquaponics system, if you have enough fish. Fish have a very wide feeding range.

This places the primary role of the fish as a nitrate producer rather than a food supply for humans. By changing water instead of adjusting the feeding rate and keeping it at maximum grow-out daily amount, you are giving the fish a primary role as a food supply to be later harvested. They can be both, but they have only one primary role; which can change over time like while cycling your system.

Adjusting the fish food supply is a good way to control your water chemistry while your plants are maturing, and even after. Doing a water exchange will also accomplish the same thing but that may not be a good or healthy environmental option. You can always dump some of the water onto an outdoor garden or other non-aquaponic plants to help with the use of the discarded water, but only if your nitrates are too high.

Oliver

[Apollo]

"You can always dump some of the water onto an outdoor garden or other non-aquaponic plants to help with the use of the discarded water, but only if your nitrates are too high"

So what is considered too high?

[Oliver]

"You can always dump some of the water onto an outdoor garden or other non-aquaponic plants to help with the use of the discarded water, but only if your nitrates are too high"

So what is considered too high?
Good question. It really depends on the fish you are raising. With Tilapia, my guess is that if you stay below 100 ppm then you are probably safe. As you push up above 150 ppm we have found that you start to kill fish. Again, we really don't know what that high number is due to the inaccuracy of the test kit. That is why we started doing the dilution test in order to get a more accurate Nitrate measurement when we have a high Nitrate count.

Oliver

[davidstcldfl]

Wow Oliver, what a nice set up... 8-) Very clean and professional looking!

On the horz ducts....what is the depth of water in them..?...and the flow rate through them..?
On the vert ducts, I noticed you removed what appears to be a plug/clean out. Is this where the water drains from the vert ducts..?

Once again, 'very impressive’ :mrgreen:
Thanks for sharing the tip on nitrate testing.. ;)

[Oliver]

On the horz ducts....what is the depth of water in them..?...and the flow rate through them..?
On the vert ducts, I noticed you removed what appears to be a plug/clean out. Is this where the water drains from the vert ducts..?

David, thank you for the compliments.

The horizontal ducts are 5 inches square on the outside, a little less on the inside. There is a 3 inch high (adjustable) riser on the drain end connected to a bulkhead on the bottom of the duct. The bulkhead has an outside protrusion designed as a barbed fitting. That protrusion sits in a hole in a 4 inch drain-back pipe that runs along the edge of the table just below the end of the ducts. This helps position the ducts on the drain end. The water enters on the opposite end of the duct through another bulkhead fitting on the bottom as well, with no riser inside. In future designs the input to the ducts will be through Uniseals.

We have yet to measure the flow rates on the horizontal ducts but plan to do so soon. The water feeding the manifold for the whole horizontal system is adjustable. Each vertical two back-to-back arrays has a single manifold up high and water flow adjustment to it. The flow in both horizontal and vertical ducts, to the individual duct, is balanced out by the ratio of the size of the feeder tube to the size of the feeder manifold. The duct feeder tubes offer some resistance to flow thereby balancing out the flow to each duct.

The drains on the vertical are the same bulkhead fitting as the horizontal, except they are located on the end cap with no internal riser. They also sit in holes in the drain pipe for location. The horizontal ducts are DWC and the vertical ducts are NFT. The service caps on the vertical ducts are missing because the hole is slightly too small for the caps and needs to be enlarged in order for them to fit properly. It has given us an opportunity to observe the water flow and root growth as well as any root interference with the vertical duct drain, which hasn't been a problem.

Oliver

[Apollo]

Oliver, thanks for the new information on Nitrate's...how high is too high. It answered one of my most asked questions and is the best answer as to why my fish were dying.

Your statement on trying to determine where the level was once it exceeded 40 ppm was right on...mine were pushing 200 ppm. I did it your way "if you dilute the fish tank water in the test tube by a ratio of 4:1 with distilled water (4 parts total, 3 distilled, 1 FT water) then you would multiply the measured results by 4." to find out what my Nitrate level was at.

Now let me ask you this, I just took my FT water and add 2 drop instead of 10 drops to test the water. That's 20% testing solution into the FT water, than multiplied the reading by 5 to bring it back up to the 100% range. It seems to me that the read out is the same...which was way too high. I backed off on fish food and started doing water exchanges to get my Nitrate level back down to around 100 ppm.

I also think that the high Nitrate level had a negative affect on my plants.

[Oliver]

Now let me ask you this, I just took my FT water and add 2 drop instead of 10 drops to test the water. That's 20% testing solution into the FT water, than multiplied the reading by 5 to bring it back up to the 100% range. It seems to me that the read out is the same...
That might work. You can do it both ways and see if you get the same results.

My guess is that for the color to be right you would need to use the full count on the drops.

Let us know your results.

Oliver

[Aloha Don]

Great thread Oliver.
Thanks for sharing
Any updates that we can learn from?

[topz]

Oliver how is the system doing haven't seen any new posts in almost a year

[davidstcldfl]

Oliver how is the system doing haven't seen any new posts in almost a year
Yes...how's it going Oliver ?

[bvandine]

Oliver, thanks for the new information on Nitrate's...how high is too high. It answered one of my most asked questions and is the best answer as to why my fish were dying.

Your statement on trying to determine where the level was once it exceeded 40 ppm was right on...mine were pushing 200 ppm. I did it your way "if you dilute the fish tank water in the test tube by a ratio of 4:1 with distilled water (4 parts total, 3 distilled, 1 FT water) then you would multiply the measured results by 4." to find out what my Nitrate level was at.

Now let me ask you this, I just took my FT water and add 2 drop instead of 10 drops to test the water. That's 20% testing solution into the FT water, than multiplied the reading by 5 to bring it back up to the 100% range. It seems to me that the read out is the same...which was way too high. I backed off on fish food and started doing water exchanges to get my Nitrate level back down to around 100 ppm.

I also think that the high Nitrate level had a negative affect on my plants.

Apollo, how did this adjustment to the nitrate test work for you? After the water and food adjustments, did your plants start doing better?

[jvision]

I think Apollo quit the forum....

[Jason]

I think Apollo quit the forum....

I do belive that jason is correct. Apollo was was unhappy with the changes I made when I took over the community and left. It is a shame but it does happen. Maybe if you drop him a Pm he might respond to you privately as from his previous posts he has always been more then willing to share his knowledge.

Jason