Eddie's AP system with soil and hydroton as media

[eddiemigue]

Hello all. I have been reading this forum for quite a while, and wanted to share my system with you, but since this is my first post, I might as well say a bit about myself. I am in Rockland County, NY, just NW of NYC in USDA zone 7a. My passion has become growing quality, nutritious food for my family, and started this in 2010 with a few egg laying hens and a small garden in an urban lot. Since then, I have continually expanded my growing space, learned more and more about gardening, extended my growing season with hoop houses, and tried my hand at AP. Future plans include some fruit trees, more edible perennials, BSF and red worm composters, and rabbit and/or quail.

I started my first AP proof of concept system last year in a 35 Gal FT with goldish and a DWC tank to F&D bed. I am now on my second system (taking lessons learned) which is centered around a 150 Gal tilapia tank, with two GB's (currently) with continous sub-surface flow, one with hydroton, and the other with a soil mix over a few inches of hydroton. The system also has a radial flow solids filter (with matala filter in a weir-like setup), and a moving bed bio-filter/sump. Once I figure out how to post pic's, I'll share these and welcome any comments/advice.

[eddiemigue]

Here are some pic's.
[attachment=1:fkwd1h91]Aquaponics.GIF[/attachment:fkwd1h91]
System layout
[attachment=0:fkwd1h91]20130424_200007.jpg[/attachment:fkwd1h91]
Overall system

[keith_r]

nice!
any pics/details on your filters?

[eddiemigue]

Thanks Keith. Here you go...
[attachment=1:uiocr42g]20130405_231517.jpg[/attachment:uiocr42g]
Radial flow solids filter
[attachment=0:uiocr42g]20130405_231456.jpg[/attachment:uiocr42g]
Moving bed bio-filter/sump with K-1 kaldness media

[JCO]

Welcome to the forum. Everything looks great...keep the photos coming.

[eddiemigue]

Thanks JCO, will do. We fanatics need an outlet to share with like-minded folks; most folks that I know think that what I am doing is pretty cool, but they don't want to hear me go on and on about the wonderful world of bacteria and their role in our food production.

Also, I expect to reach out to you in some time for an order of those nice scuds. The system has been running since early March with plants on a fishless cycle, and I introduced the tilapia fingerlings about a week ago. How long do you think before the system has enough organic materials to support a scud population? Note that I am removing solids.

[JCO]

I think about another month should be sufficient. How big are the Tilapia and how much and how often do you feed them? They are little pigs when it comes to food and can really dirty up a system quite fast. The will also usually mature at about 3 1/2 months of age and start breeding.

I took the Scuds off the order site because I have been out of town so much here recently and with me gone, there is no one to ship them. Let me know when you are ready and I will let you know an approx ship date.

[eddiemigue]

They are about 1.5" and I feed them twice a day as much add they'll eat in a few minutes. I'll reach out to you in another month or so and we'll see what works for you.

[JCO]

I await your word

[eddiemigue]

So it looks like I'm going to have to reduce my feed rate and add a bunch more plants soon. Nitrates have been consistently in the 100-120 range and today my nitrites just ticked up to 1.0 from 0.25 over the last few weeks. I plan to add some NFT tubes and a DWC tank. Anyone know if strawberries do well in NFT?