SentencedToBurn's crayfish aquaponics

sirex · Feb 6, 2015

Hmmm. Keep up this growlog. This piques my interest.

moruga welder · Feb 7, 2015

agree with sirex , very interesting , please keep us updated :onfire:

PaulS · Feb 7, 2015

I too will look forward to following your progress

SentencedToBurn · Feb 13, 2015

Ive just put the base together, cut the barrel in half, mounted it up and hooked up the drainage plugs. Tomorrow will sort out the crayfish tanks underneath, plumb it up fill it up with water and let it run for a few weeks.

It seems that 50L worth of clayballs won't be enough so I'll get another bag or two before I put the plants in.

PaulG · Feb 13, 2015

That should make a great looking set-up and work like a charm.
Am interested to see how the crayfish thing works out.
Have you done that before?

SentencedToBurn · Feb 13, 2015

PaulG said:
That should make a great looking set-up and work like a charm.
Am interested to see how the crayfish thing works out.
Have you done that before?

Hey dude nope never aquaponics, this is a first one for me. But i've done a bit of research over the last month or so, I think I got the basics anyway. I've kept quite a bit of fish in the past, fresh/saltwater, cold/tropical etc so I'm not too far out of my comfort zone with the crayfish.

Have just plummed it up, will need to get a LOT more clayballs. probably another 100L will get it 3/4 full which should be enough I think. And also am cleaning out a freshwater aquarium so will chuck some of that water in there to speed up the process.

SentencedToBurn · Feb 14, 2015

I've changed the dripper pipes to a pair of aluminium tubes, this way I get complete coverage along the entire length of each growbed. Plus now they don't lay on top of the clayballs either and it looks a bit tidier too.

SentencedToBurn · Feb 18, 2015

After reading some more it looks like I should've used a bell siphon to regularly fill/drain the bed. I've looked at a bunch of videos and made my own from a couple of my daughter's drinking bottles. Although I think I might get some PVC pipe tomorrow and make it a bit larger. But despite it's size and 1/2" drainholes it seems to work very well.

The problem seems to be with the clay balls as they keep rising with water every time, perhaps that's why many aquaponics setups use gravel since it doesn't float. I'm thinking of getting some gravel and loading it on top of the clayballs to keep it all sitting flat.

Pinhigh · Feb 19, 2015

I went to a hydroponics shop here in Perth about an hour away on Monday and they had a few tanks with crayfish in them. Very cool setups. Their plants were loving it! I think most of them were drip fed though, not flood and drain. Maybe worth sending them an email or call if you get stuck?
http://www.hydroponicxpress.com.au

P.s. Flora nova seems to be working its magic! Applying a cap full per 9L every watering.

SentencedToBurn · Feb 19, 2015

Pinhigh said:
I went to a hydroponics shop here in Perth about an hour away on Monday and they had a few tanks with crayfish in them. Very cool setups. Their plants were loving it! I think most of them were drip fed though, not flood and drain. Maybe worth sending them an email or call if you get stuck?
http://www.hydroponicxpress.com.au

P.s. Flora nova seems to be working its magic! Applying a cap full per 9L every watering.

Hey yeah I'm still thinking whether to keep these siphons or just go back to drip feeding. Might email them see what they reckon. Glad the nutes are working well, they definitely worked mint for me dude.

SentencedToBurn · Feb 20, 2015

I've finally got the water pressure sorted (with the same pump still, didnt' even have to upgrade). And I got rid of the two small 52L tanks for crayfish and am now using a 55 gallon plastic drum with a 1/4 cut off the top.

Just need to get some more gravel for the bottom of the crayfish tank and maybe another 50L of clayballs and once the water pH and everything else gets to the right level I'll be going to get my crayfish and plugging the plants in.

chocolatescotchbonnet · Feb 20, 2015

SentencedToBurn said:
Hey guys

I'm about to put together my aquaponics (barrel-ponics) setup over the next couple of weeks. The setup is pretty small - 2 grow beds from a single 55 galon drum, and 2 50L crayfish enclosures (each one will only be filled to about 30L).

I'm using a small 600lph pump, 10-20mm clayballs as growing medium. Not sure how big of a water heater I'll need as the greenhouse is heated and will not drop below 15C (60F) - its hot as at the moment anyway so I'll sus that out once the temperature starts dropping.

Crayfish I'm using are NZ native freshwater crays (koura) http://www.clearwatercrayfish.co.nz/koura.html and these guys seem to be comfortable with pH anywhere from 5-7 so I'll set it at about 6 which seems to be pretty mint for a bunch of chinenses that I'm going to grow.

I'm planning to grow 2 plants per half-barrel so 4 plants all up. So far the plan is to grow: choc reaper, regular reaper, and the other two I'm not sure about. Definitely chinenses though.

I'm hoping to put this all together next weekend once I pick up the rest of the bits and pieces and will post an update. The crayfish won't be going in for a least two weeks after i left it running to make sure the water quality is spot on, etc. And the seedlings should be ready by mid-march hopefully.

I need a greenhouse, nice setup!

SentencedToBurn · Feb 20, 2015

Thanks man its only 6' by 8' but it seems to be enough to house quite a few plants. This winter I'm using 50L planter bags instead of buckets, so less plants but more growth hopefully. Plus the aquaponics part takes up half of the greenhouse lol, but its allright, hopefully it'll be worth it.

Yellowfin2na · Feb 20, 2015

Interesting. ....so how does this work nutrient wise? Do you add nutes to the crayfish reservoir or is the waste of the crayfish alone enough to feed the plants?

D3monic · Feb 20, 2015

Looking good, Place a state over from me was just advertising juvenile fw shrimp for aquaponics. They posted this adult pic. Pretty darn big mudbug.

SentencedToBurn · Feb 20, 2015

Yellowfin2na said:
Interesting. ....so how does this work nutrient wise? Do you add nutes to the crayfish reservoir or is the waste of the crayfish alone enough to feed the plants?

Yeah nah mate no extra nutes, just waste is all is used. Although I gotta keep checking the water often to make sure all levels are sweet, etc. but you can change their feed to control NPK a bit, so when its early growth you feed them one thing, flowering stage - something else etc.

Also after reading up a bit on this, I might need to get an extra filter pump to clear the water a bit because you need decent size plants to suck all the stuff out, so yeah it'll definitely be a learning exercise.

PaulS · Feb 21, 2015

Thanks for keeping this updated dude, I'm really enjoying following your progress.
It looks like your on the right track, have you done anything like this before or are you learning as you go along?

SentencedToBurn · Feb 21, 2015

PaulS said:
Thanks for keeping this updated dude, I'm really enjoying following your progress.
It looks like your on the right track, have you done anything like this before or are you learning as you go along?

Hey Paul thanks mate. Nope this is my first aquaponics setup so am learning as I'm going. Ive kept a bunch of different fish and crustaceans in different environments before, and have grown things before, but never at the same time like this so definitely heaps of things to learn.

PaulS · Feb 22, 2015

SentencedToBurn said:
Hey Paul thanks mate. Nope this is my first aquaponics setup so am learning as I'm going. Ive kept a bunch of different fish and crustaceans in different environments before, and have grown things before, but never at the same time like this so definitely heaps of things to learn.

Well you couldn't tell its your first attempt, everything looks pro!