Sub-Surface Aquaponics

[badflash]

The fastest growing water plant, besides Duckweed (that I know of) is Najas AKA Guppy Grass. It sucks nitrates and phosphates out of the water like a sponge and will double in volume every week given warm water and lots of light. I've grown it for years and feed the excess to my tilapia who really enjoy it. I've found that by having a few tanks in a common sump system growing Najas that water changes can be all but eliminated. This is quite handy in indoor recirculating systems when water conservation is an issue. The key is to constantly remove a large portion of the plant each week. The nutrients added by fish food need to be balanced by the removal of plants from the system.

I use this in my fry tanks and crayfish tanks. Najas is normally a big seller on aquabid too.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c70/badflash/crays/whites2.jpg

[JCO]

Cool looking DADS...! (I'm a pure country boy and regardless of what anyone ever calls them, theyll always be crawdads to me :mrgreen:) The look like ceramic pottery sitting there as white as ghost.

[badflash]

Those are albino P. allen iI was breeding them before I got bit by the tilapia/aquaponics bug. Now I just have the Marble crays and orange P. clarkii as I need bugs that can play nice together. Allen I are major cannibals and are really only good for pets.

[mpugh5@aol.com]

badflash, aquabid? do you have a link ? not quite up to speed on that. thanks

[badflash]

Aquabid is sort of like aquatic ebay. A great place to find stuff if you know what it is worth, or just have to have it. Folks get ratings just like ebay.

www.aquabid.com (http://www.aquabid.com)

[wolfracer]

Having seen my setup do you think the guppy grass would grow in the siphon sump? This is the one setting beneath the growbeds. It doesn't get alot of light, but I like the idea of an additional bio-filtering plant to help with cleaning the system. I don't think it would be wise to try and grow it in the sump with the pump, because it looks like it might clog up the pump.

[badflash]

You would need to put some daylight bulbs in it to get it to grow, but otherwise, no problem.

[mommyhen42]

I have the guppy grass along with cabomba, anacaris and water hyacinth growing in the outdoor ponds with the Tilapia. They love to eat the stuff and the fry find it a great place to hide, but I never thought to add it to the sumps.... hmm sounds like a great bio filter to me, just have to isolate the escape pump somehow so that the stuff doesn't clogg... hmm sounds like a good way to reuse some plastic container of some sort.... have to work on this one. Or, perhaps place a layer of wire and filter media between the pump and plants....hmmm heres to thinking out loud

[mommyhen42]

oh, I nearly forgot, I love the duckweed... I pull of about a pound every few days for the chickens and another pound or so to dehydrate in the sun to crumble for flake to feed in the winter when they can't have it fresh.

I also set out kitty litter tubs half full of water in a couple of places in my patio for the mosquitos to lay their eggs in, when they hatch I give it a few days for them to shed a couple of times and then drain the tubs through a large fry net... then I also sun dry these for fish food... why buy freeze dried bloodworms when it is easy to make your own??? After all bloodworms that they sell are mosquito larvae! They seem to prefer my pans over the ponds where the fish may eat them so it saves the ponds and I reduce the population of future mosquitos...