Aquaponic systems (let's experiment together!)

[Island_Dan]

So a friend if mine which I know personally wouldn't stop talking about aquaponics. Every time we hang out I hear about his great aquaponics plan. I went down the hydroponics/aeroponics road and are having great success growing chilli's this way so naturally aquaponics caught my interest relatively easy.

I bought the book Aquaponic Gardening by Sylvia Bernstein and read it cover to cover and after lurking an aquaponic site for a while and lurking in My friend's garage helping him assemble his system, I built my own system that may or may not work!!!

I know the dimensions are off for the Fish tank size as compared to grow bed size etc but this is just how I wanted to do it for now and I want to add some NFT rails later on to expand my grow area.

Anyway it is a 55 gallon drum fish tank which has a debris lift overflow into a 30 gallon sump which houses my 550GPH pump which I dialled back to the optimum output. It lifts the water 4 feet to the grow beds which I know is high but actually perfect for planting lettuce and broccoli without bending down. The water T's into a 30 gallon drum split in two to make two 15 gallon grow beds. This was going to be constant flow media beds but My friend dared me to put bell siphons in and I did. Each bed has a 1 1/4 inch stand pipe with a 2 inch bell over it. Stand pipes are 6 1/2 inches tall and Bells had to be 9 inches to induce the siphon and I had to vent them with a tube to get the siphon to stop each time. Without the vent tube I found that it did not cut the siphon off every time reliably.

So I have had it running since Saturday afternoon and yesterday being Easter, I haven't been able to buy any expanded clay to finish filling up the beds until today. I just used what I had leftover from my other hydroponic systems. Both media beds will be filled with the expanded clay and I plan to cycle the system with 4 feeder goldfish that I don't mind losing before stocking the system with 5-6 tilapia or perch fingerlings and maybe some crayfish at the bottom since my fish tank is so deep.

Wish me luck and I know this thread is useless without pictures so here they are!

 

[JJJessee]

Sweet setup you got going, Dan.
Would that setup work out side in the warm months do you think?
I'm on the verge of setting up my first system but don't have a greenhouse just yet.

 

[Island_Dan]

I got mine outside right now. It is under shade to help keep the tank temperatures down. I also have an aquarium heater in it right now since we still drop below freezing at night here in Nebraska. I don't have a greenhouse also and plan to stick it in a corner of the garage with a tank heater and a flourowing cfl over the grow area during winter months.

 

[Aji hombre]

I just started an aquaponics system as well. I'm on day 16 of fishless cycling and nitrites have just gone through the roof in the last couple of days and nitrates are climbing. I'm going to wait until nitrites subside before I start adding fish. I was going to cycle with fish, but then decided that I'd have better control over the levels if I just dosed with household ammonia instead.

 

[Island_Dan]

The cost of 4 feeder goldfish at $0.29 each was a lot cheaper than buying house hold ammonia. They sell nitrifying bacteria at pet stores to boost the systems also. It cost $9.99. I just went cycling with fish and I stuck an old filter from my bedroom aquarium in there to help populate the grow beds. Any pictures of your system Aji?

 

[Aji hombre]

Yeah it's about time for me to get some pics up. I also goosed the system with some sludge from an old aquarium. In my case I wanted the cycling to go as quickly as possible. I've got 14 loaches ready to go into the sump tank once the levels are checking out, but I didn't want to toss 'em in and wait to see if they died or not. I'm planning on catfish for my main tank. Hope I can get the fish in there soon.

Are you monitoring the chemistry in your system? pH is my biggest concern right now. The pepper seedlings aren't liking the pH 8.2, but that's actually a good level for establishing the bacteria. I'll adjust it down to under 7 once the cycling is done.

 

[Island_Dan]

I adjusted mine down from 9.1 to 7.4 just to get the bacteria going. My ammonia rose today to 2ppm with the 4 pond goldfish in there over the last 24 hours. Nitrites still at 0 and I am sure it will be that way for a while until the temps warm up a bit more. The low of 28 degrees tonight will definitely slow things down.

I am either going to do perch or tilapia. Have a source for the perch but still looking for tilapia fingerlings around here.

 

[Aji hombre]

My system. Two IBC totes (the fish tank in the foreground and the sawed-off tank between the two grow beds), plywood beds, one 264 gph pump, flood and drain.

Nitrites were still high today, but ammonia was almost down to nothing. I might dose again to make sure I don't lose my Nitrosomonas.

 

[millworkman]

That looks great Hombre. Is it brand new?

 

[Island_Dan]

Awesome hombre!! Here comes the questions!!!

How are your flood and drains controlled? Pump is timed or are you using auto siphons? And what is your grow media? Expanded shale?

 

[Aji hombre]

Millworkman: Yeah. glad there are no fish in there with the water chemistry the way it is. The pepper seedlings are in total nute lockout with pH 8.2!

Island Dan: autosiphon. and just like you I've got one bed with 3/4" gravel and one with red lava rock!
One more edit: I turn the pump off at night and drain the beds. Plants don't seem to mind.

 

[Island_Dan]

That is where your problems may be stemming from Aji. Your pump should be on 24/7. Nitrosomona and nitrobacter bacteria require an oxygen rich water environment to survive. You are depending on the media in your grow bed to house these bacteria to allow the break down of ammonia to nitrate. The bacteria thrive in a flood and drain environment where they get wet and oxygenated much the same way the plants love it. By turning the pumps off, you are removing the water from the beds at night and this may either be killing the bacteria or seriously hampering their growth rate. Right now you are probably depending on the nitrogen cycle bacteria that is living in your sump and fish tank to do all the work.
Is there any reason why you turn the pump off at night?

 

[Aji hombre]

noise mostly. Also, the aquaponics guru Affnan seems to do okay with pumps off at night, and my media is not drying out at all between 10 pm and 6 am. Keep in mind that Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter are not aquatic bacteria but rather soil bacteria. Nitrospira is aquatic, but the jury is still out on whether it's Nitrobacter or Nitrospira (or both) that is doing the nitrite to nitrate conversion in AP systems. I doubt even Nitrospira would be damaged by a few hours in a wet biofilm rather than submerged.

Given that I got to a nitrite spike at day 16, I'd say that's right on schedule if not ahead of schedule! My problem for now is pH, but I'm waiting until after the cycling is complete to move on that. The bacteria seem to prefer higher pH levels for establishment.

 

[Island_Dan]

Your right it is nitrospira and not nitrobacter. Are you part of the backyard aquaponics forum?

 

[Aji hombre]

naw, I've lurked there but it seems everyone there is an Aussie speaking some strange language that vaguely resembles English . Heh.

I've joined one of the other fora--theaquaponicsource.com (this is the one Sylvia Bernstein started)

 

[Island_Dan]

I think I am a member on that one also. Have you read her book?

Anyway latest update, I haven't tested the water for 2 days now. Just letting it do its thing. I did do a 4 gallon water change on my home aquarium and I put RO water into the aquarium and added the 4 gallons of old aquarium water into the AP system so tomorrow afternoon I will do a water test and see how things are progressing.

I started my cycling procedure on March 31st.

On a brighter note, I finished my water filtrating station! It comprises of a GE Reverse Osmosis system which I built a carry around housing for. The inlet pipe goes straight onto any garden hose faucet. The RO water then T's between the storage tank and the 30 gallon barrel which has a float valve. The waste water which is dechlorinated by the pre filter goes into the 2 linked 55 gallon barrels. I calculated that I get about 90 gallons of waste water for every 30 gallons of RO water made. I decided to keep the waste water for my AP system as they advise against using RO water since the RO process takes too much out of the water for AP. The RO water is used for my hydroponic and aeroponic systems. The waste water is also used for watering my potted plants.

Water going into the system is 343 PPM and 8.9 PH. RO water coming out is 9 ppm and 7.4 ph and waste water coming out is 365 ppm and 7.4 PH. The drop in Ph between the inlet water and waste water along with a chlorine tests shows that the waste water is dechlorinated.

 

[Aji hombre]

that's way cool, Dan. Now I've got to figure out a way to plumb my kitchen RO system to send waste water to an outdoor vessel! Right now it's just going right down the drain.

 

[Island_Dan]

Yeah it's ridiculous how much water they waste!! For every gallon of RO water made, it produces 3-4 gallons of waste. The newest systems have a booster pump that pumps the waste water back into the hot water line so nothing is discarded.

 

[Aji hombre]

Hey Dan,
you got an update for us?

 

[Island_Dan]

I will post one next week. The system is at home cycling still. I am back in St. Lucia for a week and will be back to my peppers and aquaponics on Wednesday. I did get 15 yellow perch that my friend is storing in his aquaponic system until I get back. So when I get to Nebraska they will go into the system and start growing big so that I can eat them!!

What fish are you going to stick into yours? Also I think I will rename this thread so it can be a place for both of us to post updates and anyone else who wants to share their aquaponic experience.