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magneta
03-09-2011, 05:37 PM
I want to create a small scale aquaponics system this summer- I'm still in the researching stage of this project. Here's what I have so far- any feedback will be appreciated.
General Specs:
2X 200L (black industrial barrel) fish tanks (300-350L filled with water altogether)
2X 200-500GPH pumpwith speed adjustment (best quality pump I can find on Ebay) to transfer the water to
2X 100L Gravel grow bedssituated below the reservoir. 20mm (3/4inch) gravel that I can find in a nearby riverbed. Gonna introduce earthworms in the mix after the system is in the process of cycling (gonna add a few plants, and cycle using seaweed extract)
1X 100L Floating Raft NFT grow bed situated below the gravel grow beds (the gravel grow beds will act as the bio filtration and sediment removal. Container slightly wider on top than bottom, so that the styrofoam raft with the plants will lower when water level in the NFT container drops, but only for a few inches, which after when the water level lowers further, the roots will be exposed to air.
*The water from the NFT grow bed will empty into the fish tank.*
2X 50-100GPH Timer pump (plus speed adjustment), a plastic divider and
2X 100L container for the duckweed growbed/automated duckweed feeder.
?X PVC Pipes with plastic taps to transport water and regulate its flow (and to make Bell siphon).
2X Water heater
10X All Male Vegetarian Tilapia. 5 in each tank. Duckweed is going to be the main diet, supplemented with vegetable scraps. I don't plan on harvesting the fish, and I want to give them a decent quality of life- which is why the low stocking ratios. I planned on raising goldfish, but they don't seem to be very hardy.
I plan on growing pennywort, lettuce, and chives on my NFT system (main emphasis on the Pennywort- killer ramen garnish), and tomatoes, eggplants, and some other stuff on the gravel growbeds.
Lighting Plants will be lit either by regular fluorescent tubes, or nifty DIY Red and Blue LED growlamps (saves a lot on electricity- dunno if the plants need the whole spectrum- I read a few reports stating that Red and Blue are the only colors in the spectrum required for plant growth and production of fruit- your thoughts?)

In short, this system will probably have a 500-550L capacity- which is said to not be very stable. But this system is going to be predominantly indoors- either in an unheated sun room in the summer, and the basement in the winter, thus addressing the temperature issue. Unstable pH however, may become a big problem.
Your thoughts?

keith_r
03-10-2011, 06:33 AM
i'm running a small system in my basement over the witner - 3 55 gallon fishtanks on the floor, 1 55gallon blue barrel cut in half for a pair of growbeds, and one "swirl filter" in a 5 gallon bucket, i have 29 fish 4" and under and 15 5" and bigger
i think you'll need to add some good quality fish feed to your plan as well, to provide a better all around diet, especially if you want them to have a good "quality of life"
i have 3 pairs of flourescent lights (t8's, 2 pairs of "cool" and 1 pair of "warm" bulbs) over the growbeds, lettuce, radishes, carrots, chives, oregano and sage all doing well

urbanfarmer
03-10-2011, 08:34 PM
Hello and welcome!

rfeiller
03-10-2011, 08:44 PM
welcome to the forum

magneta
03-10-2011, 08:58 PM
Interesting.
Anyhoos, I decided to go vermi- much easier to manage on a smaller volume. I'm going to post the plans on the other section of this forum, once I iron out the kinks.
Thanks for the insight though- I really appreciate it.

By the way, just for kicks, here was my plan for an automated duckweed feeding system. It would be cool if it works, and if not, I really want to know why.

JCO
03-10-2011, 09:02 PM
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 so pick a topic of your interest and start your own thread and Enjoy.

Please go to your profile and put in your city and state. There might be members close to you.:mrgreen:

keith_r
03-11-2011, 06:54 AM
cool plan for the duckweed feeder, should work ok, you may need to adjust the size of the "shield" to provide more or less feed....is that just "part" of your system? you'll need some kind of solids filtration if you aren't using media filled growbeds
and you'll still need to add a good quality food, duckweed won't provide all the good stuff the fish need

magneta
03-11-2011, 07:34 AM
cool plan for the duckweed feeder, should work ok, you may need to adjust the size of the "shield" to provide more or less feed....is that just "part" of your system? you'll need some kind of solids filtration if you aren't using media filled growbeds
and you'll still need to add a good quality food, duckweed won't provide all the good stuff the fish need

Yepps, changing the size of the plastic shield will regulate how much feed the fish get- this is especially important when there's a lot of duckweed in the growbeds.

This is just the 'duckweed feeder' component of the system. I was planning on having 3 growbeds- 2 gravel and 1 NFT (water is fed from the gravel growbeds). Solid filtration to the duckweed bed is not really necessary- not only is the water being filtered from the gravel growbeds, duckweeds have extremely small roots, and the solids that do make it to the duckweed tank will rarely reach the top.
I also plan on supplementing the tank with an automatic flake feeder (or just manually feed them- the duckweed will allow me to feed them less often- to the point that I do feeding and system maintenance all in one go.)

My biggest issue however, is the growbed to fish tank ratio- add too little fish, and you'll be lucky to grow anything. Too much, and you need a large tank- otherwise the fish may die. There's a lot of other fine tuning involved, mainly in terms of pH. I need something easy to maintain, which is why I'm going vermiponics.