PDA

View Full Version : Hello From Lake Erie(ish?)



Emmett
06-08-2010, 08:52 AM
Morning everyone! My name is Emmett, I'm a total newbie here. I was setting up a hydroponics system and then read a bit on aquaponics and realized it was easier and better so here I am.

I have two systems I want to set up. The first one is smaller and will be where I'm learnding the ins and outs of aquaponics. It is located in a small (7' tall 2' wide 3' deep) moisture resistant cabinet off my kitchen. Due to the space limitations, this will be only a 10 gallon system. Light is from a High Pressure Sodium and Metal Halide lights for 24 hour growth. I'd like to grow things like lettuce and a small tomato plant. We have some crazier things we'd like to try, like a small watermelon vine but that's for later.

It would be neat to put an edible fish in this system but I don't know what size tank a tilapia needs and don't know where I can get any so I'll be using guppies unless someone has a better suggestion. (coy?) I was going to use goldfish because I've heard they work well with aquaponics but then I heard they can be problematic.

The flood and drain system is going to be based on this guy's system (http://www.hydroponicsonline.com) that I'll be putting together. As for the FT, It's a 10 gal aquarium and. . . I don't know yet. The tank will have to pump into the GB and then drain back in. Other than that I'm open to suggestions.

The second system would be larger and in a greenhouse outside but still not huge. I'm thinking 100 gallons max. For that system I definitely want to use an edible fish. The greenhouse is attached to the house on the southern exposure and will be approx. 6' wide 4' deep and 12-15' tall. I know you're thinking "What kind of dimensions are those?" I have the GBs planned out so that they are stacked vertically up the wall and there will be a ladder to access them. I'm kinda the king of weird spaces. I'll probably make the tank out of concrete with some pond liner paint that I saw in the FAQ.

First I gotta build them though. I have a lot of the pieces parts for the small system and I have the glass for the greenhouse.

JCO
06-10-2010, 09:18 AM
Welcome to the show....pull up an easy chair, relax and stay awhile. New voices are always a welcome addition to our family..! Whatever questions you have on you mind, this is the place to get the answers :mrgreen:

davidstcldfl
06-10-2010, 09:59 AM
Hi Emmett.... :)

I used gold fish to cycle my system.....I've had good luck with them. They were just the cheap feeder ones. I lost a few, the first time I adjusted the PH too fast.
They will get big eventually....so will koi. I'm not really sure how fast they will grow. Always heard the size of the tank plays into that too....(?) Mine are about 4 times bigger then when I bought them. They are in a 160 gal tank.
Tilapia grow too fast...which is a good problem, when your raising them.

Good luck, which everway you go. Looking forward to some pictures... :D

Ironfish
06-11-2010, 11:10 AM
Hi Emmett,

Welcome. You are about 2 hrs away from me. Sounds like you are going to be very busy this summer.

Ironfish

Emmett
06-11-2010, 06:42 PM
Thanks all. I always get too wrapped up in a project to remember to take pictures. I'll have to try and remember this time.

davidstcldfl
06-12-2010, 03:05 AM
Stick your camera in your tool bag.....just keep it away from the PVC cement and primer, the cans 'always' seem to, only leak on good stuff... :D

Emmett
06-12-2010, 04:31 AM
I've been toying around with the idea of getting a time lapse camera so I could just sit it in a corner and let it go. Then everyone could see how fast I work! :lol:

davidstcldfl
06-12-2010, 05:12 AM
Actually, that would be pretty cool..... :D

I was 'that kid' in school that always wanted the teachers to run the old film projectors 'backwards' .......I always laughed when they did.

Kids now a days....with special effects, U-tube vids, photo shop and all that stuff..... would probably just roll their eyes, if you did that now.

Good Lord...am I getting old...?

JCO
06-12-2010, 06:25 AM
If we all posted pictures of ourselves, I'm sure you would realize we are all getting old..... :shock: :o Say, how about a new topic....FACE IT..! Each member could post an up to the minute photo of their self and then edit that post each year and put an up-to-date photo beside the one from the previous year..."Photo Time Line" record keeping. Participation not required naturally, but encouraged...otherwise...you'd not be one of the guys or gals as the case may be. :mrgreen:

"WHAT SAY YOU MERRY MEN OF SHERWOOD (DIY Aquaponics)YEA or NEA?"

davidstcldfl
06-12-2010, 06:48 AM
The 'truth' hurts !.... :lol:

JCO
06-12-2010, 08:35 AM
Was that a YEA or a NEA? :mrgreen:

Emmett
06-15-2010, 12:23 PM
I'm a bit shy of putting my picture online. Makes me nervous.

pniedzwiecki
06-15-2010, 10:48 PM
Hello Emmett,

Good luck with your project. I am just getting started myself. So far, I find that it is every bit as enjoyable as I envisioned it would be. And I don’t even have fish in my tank yet! Hopefully you will find it enjoyable as well.

After reading your opening post I wanted to make sure that yourself and others new to aquaponics are under no illusions.

In your first post you commented, “I was setting up a hydroponics system and then read a bit on aquaponics and realized it was easier and better so here I am.”

Once we understand that aquaponics is a combination of hydroponics and aquaculture we can then realize that the whole (aquaponics) couldn’t possibly be simpler than either of its parts. Once you combine them, there are somewhat delicate balances that have to be achieved and then maintained, that may not otherwise be necessary if you were just doing one or the other. I would also like to point out that hydroponics and aquaculture are both viable on their own without aquaponics.

Just wondering to myself if any of that really makes sense?

anyway, I don’t want to discourage anyone but at the same time I wouldn’t want anyone to get the wrong impression only to find that aquaponics is way more than they bargained for.

Again, good luck.

Thanks.

Emmett
06-16-2010, 03:59 AM
I understand what you're saying but aquaponics is easier in my eyes because it does not require the purchase of grow mixes etc. Those have to be balanced delicately also and they have to be replenished constantly. It's a constant cost and constant effort.

As evidence that aquaponics is easier I would point to the DIYers here and also the ones all over the internet that set up a fish tank and a little gravel bed and start growing. You can't easily do that with hydroponics. Maybe in a big city you can just go down to the hydroponics store but for me that requires 45 minutes of travel. I can get fish five minutes away.

Really if you rase fish in a fish tank it isn't that hard. You might have some bumps initially but once it's up and running you're usually good. This fish tank just has a biological filter. The biological filter tends to be the finicky part. If you've noticed people here might loose a fish or two and some have lost a whole tank but not often. It's the plants that can be tough to keep happy which is even more true in hydroponics.

Emmett
06-16-2010, 08:19 PM
I've been picking up materials.

So far I have (for the indoor system)
The cabinet built.
A High Pressure Sodium and a Metal Halide light (each provides different wavelengths of light that are important for different growth stages)
PVC Pipe for transporting water around
metal wire shelves to suspend the GB over the FT.
A 10 gal FT
A heater if needed
An airstone and air pump.
A few 2 liter soda bottles

I need to get
A pump
A few more 2 liter soda bottles (it's weird calling it soda, we call it pop here).
Two exterior grade round electrical boxes to mount the lights on, just to keep them water resistant.
Fish (still trying to figure out what to use, Crayfish? nah I don't want to eat those.)
GB media, I'll prolly go with pea gravel.
Time (my constant enemy)

jackalope
06-17-2010, 01:09 AM
Welcome Emmett, somehow I missed welcoming you to the forum .... at my age I tend to miss some days too, but that's another story! It sounds like you've got a pretty good start, I like Guppies for a small system, as Goldies require more water volume per fish (according to those on the Goldie forums), those folks thought I was terrible when I told them that I was going to eat the fish when they got large enough!

Guppies are hard to kill, and tend to reproduce quickly and often, so I would get 3 or 4 fancy males and about twice as many feeder females, and let them go at it! You can possibly sell the male offspring for 30 to 50 cents each to local pet shops as they get old enough to identify, to help defray some of your costs if you live in or near a large city, and when you get your Tilapia tank going, you can feed any extras to the Tilapia ... they go crazy for them!

Emmett
06-17-2010, 04:47 AM
Hi, thanks! It would be really cool to be able to have at least one edible in the FT. I'm not big on crayfish or clams though. I'd lean toward crayfish, but my son is allergic to shellfish.

Maybe I could justify it more if I used the guppies to feed the eating fish when I get the bigger system built. I'd be pretty happy with that.