Aquaponics on a small lake, help needed

[wizardking]

Hi guys.
I might bein over my head here so help will be greatly appreciated. Imvolountering at a farm in India and because I said i was interestedin aquaponics they apparently think im some sort of expert :)
Theyare trying to become fully self-sustaining and up until 2 years agothey fished the pond they have. They turned vegan and are looking totake advantage of the lake in another way. Since they ate the fishbefore im thinking the water is clean enough, at least by Indianstandards. It is a 2-2.5 acre pond, dividede into 2ponds connected by a narrow strip.
I have a few questions that ihope you can help me with.


Im going to run thewater through an HPLC to test for micro- and macronutrients, shouldtell us if it is even possible to grow anything on the lake or if itis a fully enclosed ecosystem. I have been looking around theinternet for a formula to calculate aprox amounts of plants able togrow based on the nutrients, but so far unsuccesful. I know thisdepends a lot on the type of plant as well, but any help will beappreciated. At the moment i dont even know what they want to plant.


Second I wasconsidering which setup to use. In a pond of this size a raft systemmight be viable (again, we will need the wateranalyzes before we cansay anything for sure). The problem with a raft system as far as ican tell is aeration of the water, since theres no pump and no drop.By placing the rafts in the narrower part of the pond we should beable to ensure a steadier stream of "fresh" water throughthe root system, at least thats my theory. Fins underneath the raftmight also help to "plow" the water and aerate it. A solarpowered airpump attached to the raft might also be viable. Any inputon this is greatly appreciated.


Fish eating the rootsmight be a problem, so my idea is to put a net both on top and bottomof the raft, thus preventing both birds and fish from going at them.A fine net on the bottom will also prevent waste from attaching tothe roots.


Looking forward to yourreplys and i will keep you update as I progress.

[Apollo]

Welcome wizardking, glad that you have joined us. May your journey bring you the knowledge that you seek, put a smile up on your face, create hours of pleasure to stimulate your mind, an a healthier life style for your heart...from Apollo__Phoenix, Arizona.

I would try a floating design similar to my floating duckweed raft that I use in my main tank. You could have it anchor off shore with a pull line to bring it to you. You could build a lighter version of that to place it over the top with bird netting. you might want to use bird netting on the bottom too.

I would think that if the fish can live in the water an are eatable, plants should do fine & will benefit both the fish & water quality.

Good Luck and Enjoy!

If you want to view my set up check out “Pipe Siphon by Apollo". Page 4 has pictures of my 'Floating Duck Weed Raft". This set up requires no electric and will adjust automatically to water height.

____________________________________
I HAVE NOT FAILED. I'VE JUST FOUND 10,000 WAYS THAT WON'T WORK. Thomas A Edison

[thechaossmurf]

what about adding a dam into the narrow connection between the 2 ponds ---that way you can use one as a control pond for lack of a better word I can think of ---then use the smaller of the 2 ponds as your fish pond in a very large aquaponics farm -----do a bunch of floating pools for lettuces and some flood and drains and some towers ---heck the possibilities are endless when ya have that much of a water source :)

my thinking on why to separate the 2 ponds is 2-fold ---they could leave the one side as a somewhat natural setting for animals ----plus if the farm-pond gets too outta whack of a ph ya can pump some from the natural pond to it --or vice versa

[wizardking]

Hey guys. I have actually switched to the iAV system instead. This should prove much more efficient when dealing with a pond where the nutrients are most likely tied up on the form of algae and other microgreens. Check http://iavs.info/ if you don't know the system. I didn't before i was proposed to me not long ago

[Moses]

hello guys, i wanna ask why cant i post new thread? since i got question that needed answer..
Sorry if posting here is inappropriate

[thechaossmurf]

i sure hope you weren't a sucker enuff to actually buy that b-s system ---its just an aquaponics system with a sand medium ---hell you can do tht yourself for almost free ----its just another scammer trying to shaft people outta money to provide them with something they can build thierselves for 5% of the cost

[Apollo]

That was my thought too, it seems like the sand would hold to much waste, in doing so would end up restricting the flow of water. Swimming pools use sand filters in a closed system under 20 to 45 pounds of water pressure. Even with clean pool water they need to be back flushed often, seems like a very short life system to me.

[wizardking]

So guys, either you did not understand the theory or did not bother. Whatever the reason I wil give you a summary.
First of all, that is not a commercial site selling you a system.
The iAVS is actually the grandfather of modern AP, and a lot of research shows that the efficiency is far greater. If you are interested, look it up.
Sand has a much greater surface area than lavarocks/gravel/whatever which results in a much higher conversion rate of nutrients. The setup is simpler with no need for siphon systems, which means a lot less problems. It is also much cheaper to set up since sand is relatively inexpensive.
There is more to it than just that, so if you are actually interested i can go into greater detail, but for now know that i have done extensive research, and it seems that if you are doing an oldschool AP system it seems you are wasting both money, time and energy.

[Aufin]

i sure hope you weren't a sucker enuff to actually buy that b-s system ---its just an aquaponics system with a sand medium ---hell you can do tht yourself for almost free ----its just another scammer trying to shaft people outta money to provide them with something they can build thierselves for 5% of the cost

Oh, really? Well tell me, how do you know so much about iAVs when I have yet to see anyone here posting anything about it other than pissing all over something they don't have any experience with.

[thechaossmurf]

well back when the link to it was posted I looked it over for a hour or 2 --if I remember right --honestly its been a while back ---but im pretty sure I found pricing info when I looked before

as for "pissing all over yadda yadda yadda " --cant speak for other people but I piss on anyone who instead of trying to at least show alternative ways to do something & only shows their own way --with a pricetag attached & commercialization of a technich ---I can understand wanting to make a buck but at the expence of misinformation is just decieptfull at best & usually its more than just deciept !---as many people in this world that nee dhelp with being able to at least know their foodstores are somewhat safe ---to prey upon poor people trying to get out from under their bills is FUCKING DOWNRIGHT EVIL AS HELL ! ! ! ---having said that , im not saying that the IAV's team is doing that intentionally ----also when I went there for an hour or so before typing this ---I no longer see pricing info on their site ---so if they aren't trying to sell something I must stand corrected in beliving them of profiteering upon the suffering of humanity --or I simply gave up before finding the sales-pitch this time :)

[Aufin]

Don't know where you were looking into iAVs, but there never has been anyone trying to sell anything associated to iAVs. Poke around ..... See for yourself. http://iavs.info/what-iavs-is/
And as to trying other things, I've been there. Gravel based F/D which worked ok initially till a year or so later when everything started going sideways. Had enough chasing filter issues, siphon issues, chemical testing, etc. Since I got my iAVs up and running I can't understand anyone wanting to stay on the dark side ..... guess some people need to take their blinders off and look around. But ...... make yourself happy. Makes no difference to me cause, ya see, I really don't give a rat's ass.

[thechaossmurf]

yep --as I mentioned I scrolled up to the other link & looked around a few hours b4 typing that post :) ---and I even mentioned I couldn't find anything about it being a sales thing nowdays ---as to whether it was b4 or not I cannot say for sure and honestly it was too long ago when I made my previous post --but I would never say bad word about anyone without reason ! --so if I typed that it was a salespitch I had my reasons

but I cannot find it now & honestly got tired & bored of looking for any sales type info -- and must agree it isn't a salespitch anymore (if it ever was)

[thechaossmurf]

ow heck aufin your down in polk county --sweet ---that's where im dreaming of buying land eventually ----any chance ya can post us some pics of your system ??? im always loving to look at peoples systems and learn more :) --I grew up in Bradenton and Sarasota and hunted polk county back in the days of my youth --heck we hunted almost everywhere hehehe got a lotta farm-clearing work lowering the hog counts :)

[Aufin]

Wanna see my setup? This will take you there. http://aquaponicsnation.com/forums/topic/9682-iavs-in-florida/?page=1. You can read all about my system and the problem I had. Plenty of other iAVs discussions there, too if anyone's interested.