Aquaponics

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Hey guys just thought I would introduce some of you to how I grow my chilli plants.

Basically Aquaponics is like hydroponics but no additives besides fish and fish food and the way it works is basically the fish produce waste, which as it breaks down ammonia is released which converts into nitrite then the good stuff nitrate. This process usually happens in the growing media however extra filtration can be added the capture waste and process it into nitrate elsewhere.

Now for a few pics :)

start of my setup sump tank
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grobeds
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gravel in
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freshly planted
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2 weeks later
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1 month mark
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Expansion
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1 1/2 months
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First chilli plant in my system went from a sickly twig in my garden to this in 1 month
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picture about a month and a bit ago plants been in the system for roughly 4 months
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nice habs on the picture hopeing they are the real deal
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Some more recent pictures to come :)
 
yep there are thousands of pods on the plant :) I was picking up to 190 chillis per week off it

here is the same plant picture taken just before only problem is the weather is really starting to cool down seeing its coming up to winter

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And does anyone know what chilli this is it was supposed to be a butch T which i obviously was dubbed

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And this one is a bed I cleaned out recently and it now has a thai birdseye in the middle and teo bhut jolokia plants either side, I think I'm going to have to construct a little greenhouse to try to get them along better through winter

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Thanks Chris,

I just also thought I would introduce you to a few of my fish :)

They are Jade Perch a native Australian fish only found in one river in Australia the Barcoo River, which amazingly has the highest omega 3 levels present in any fish, they grow to about plate size in 12 months :) these ones are about 8 months old

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Very nice! I having been trying to get into an aquaponics class here in the States for a few months now. Being nowhere close to clean body of water, I love the idea of having fresh fish that are not contaminated with industrial waste. That chili plant looks amazing!
 
Many folks use tilapia here in the US for their aquaponic systems. I did a small system for my little girls school project, grew kale though, neat project.

Your plants and fish look great.
 
Thanks guys

theghostpepperstore said:
Very nice! I having been trying to get into an aquaponics class here in the States for a few months now. Being nowhere close to clean body of water, I love the idea of having fresh fish that are not contaminated with industrial waste. That chili plant looks amazing!
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check out http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/Travis/IBCofAquaponics1.pdf its a free guide to ibc aquaponics lots and lots of info and the thing about aquaponics is its actually really simple once you learn the basics
 
Very cool, I reckon one with yabbies would be awesome too. Wish I had the room to do it, how much do you approximate that its worth to get started up? I'll have to see if the old man would ever think of doing something like that as he always try to keep a lot of bait yabbies for fishing anyway (could also cut out the middle man and just have fish). I'm new to brissy how bad does the winter go for growing for normal growing in pots? its my first winter up here and my first time growing chillies so just trying to gauge.
 
well you can usually pick up an ibc preferrably food grade for around $100 so you can start with one ibc as a tank or you can cut the top off and use it as a tank and growbed or you can buy 2 ibcs and use 1 as a fishtank and 3/4 of one for a growbed. So it could cost as little as $200 if you wanted to go on the cheap or as much as you likes.

Basically you need
tank, growbeds, 25mm hp pvc pipe, pump, and 20mm drainage gravel or you can buy those clay balls but they're a little more expensive.

fittings wise your usually looking at
25mm poly tank outlet fitting, which goes through the tank and tightens up creating a seal
25mm 90 elbows
25mm ball valves "control water flow"
25mm faucet socket
25mm valve socket
usually 19mm to 25mm adapter "to connect 25mm pvc pipe to pump but it really depends on the pump but a 19mm male thread is not uncommon on pond pumps"

I have redclaw in my sump tank at the moment not sure how many because they tend to fight a fair bit.

Winter time around brissy you see your chilli plants slow down a heap
 
Wildfire said:
well you can usually pick up an ibc preferrably food grade for around $100 so you can start with one ibc as a tank or you can cut the top off and use it as a tank and growbed or you can buy 2 ibcs and use 1 as a fishtank and 3/4 of one for a growbed. So it could cost as little as $200 if you wanted to go on the cheap or as much as you likes. Basically you need tank, growbeds, 25mm hp pvc pipe, pump, and 20mm drainage gravel or you can buy those clay balls but they're a little more expensive. fittings wise your usually looking at 25mm poly tank outlet fitting, which goes through the tank and tightens up creating a seal 25mm 90 elbows 25mm ball valves "control water flow" 25mm faucet socket 25mm valve socket usually 19mm to 25mm adapter "to connect 25mm pvc pipe to pump but it really depends on the pump but a 19mm male thread is not uncommon on pond pumps" I have redclaw in my sump tank at the moment not sure how many because they tend to fight a fair bit. Winter time around brissy you see your chilli plants slow down a heap
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Thanks for the info, that is some really cool stuff def going to look into this a lot harder see how my space requirements go if I stay in the place I'm in or move out.
Ah well on the slow down guess i just have a super headstart for next season.
 
last year i saw a thread with a small scale setup using yabbies (crawfish/cray fish). it wasnt a aquaponc system but just had a slow water exchange running through and watering his soil garden. i couldnt find it in a quick search..... but there is someone out here who knows a lot more about it.... If you can only find him :)

like i said it was a thread about his last seasons grow.
 
Just picked 389 chillis of the big plant took forever :)
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I've seen a few people use yabbies, I have a few in my sump tank which seem to be doing ok
 
Great setup bro, my mates dad has got a store bought aquaponics system which goes pretty good but no chillis in his garden :( Fark mate thats a heap of chillis to be pulling down.
 
bushwhackxj said:
last year i saw a thread with a small scale setup using yabbies (crawfish/cray fish). it wasnt a aquaponc system but just had a slow water exchange running through and watering his soil garden. i couldnt find it in a quick search..... but there is someone out here who knows a lot more about it.... If you can only find him :)

like i said it was a thread about his last seasons grow.
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yeah, it might have been me. I've still got a tub with crayfish (yabbies) going. I feed them with worms from my compost bins and draw water off for fruit trees (applied directly to soil) and for brewing aerated compost teas for my veggies. Def smaller scale than wildfire's setup which is incredible! my compliments!
 
Cheers for the compliment jeff :) its actually looking really sad atm i cut back the large chilli tree and planted a few more chillis 7 pot and a nagabon, i've also got some moruga seeds germinating so they will go in aswell but its coming into winter so it will be slow going for the next 3 months
 
If I remember correctly, in Brisbane there are fruit bats roosting by the river all winter. I'm guessing you can keep plants alive year-round in subtropical Queensland, no?
 
Hey Jeff yea plants survive all year round down here although during winter they slow down a lot and seedlings usually don't do so well. So I've decided one of my beds I'm going to convert into a little greenhouse for the winter to help the little ones along :)
 
Can't believe it's taken me this long to find this forum. I too have an aquaponics setup with chillis. I'm in Adelaide and have mine contained in a small greenhouse. Found it keeps the humidity high and where I am is windy so protects them. I have a red habenaro that I purchased as a seeding in October. It has produced over 600 Habs, would have produced more but I've had to keep cutting it back. I also now have 2 ghost chillis, one red and one orange. I got them at abit over a foot with little foliage about 2.5 months ago. Slow to take off but now on the second fruiting each one has over 100 pods. I had 30 barramundi but had an unfortunate incident with the air supply and kill them. Now have the original now jumbo gold fish and some rainbow trout. In my other system I created I have lettuce, basil, broccoli etc. It is a great way to grow anything, just by feeding fish and topping up the water every now and then. No bending over in the garden, no weeds, pure organic.
When I work out how to post a pic I will.
 
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