Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

There's been a lot of good threads about maximizing fish and plant growth with AP. I'm keen to discuss maximizing the environmental sustainability. This would mean systems that, where possible, use renewable materials and minimize the use of plastics, electricity etc.

For media, I think coco coir is the most renewable, although it seems to be a bit wet for auto siphons. I thought of adding shells to improve drainage and buffer PH, however I think the shells send the PH too high.

I've also made an NFT system using 3" diameter bamboo. This particular bamboo grows very fast and is quite thin walled. I'm guessing my property has enough to maintain 50m - 100m of NFT channels.

Bamboo could have a lot of potential. Floating rafts could be easily made. There are also large bamboo baskets available cheaply, they are about 400mm deep. I was thinking of lining these with woven bamboo matting and using them as growbeds. This would mean building a simple platform over the fish tank and pumping water into them. The mat would not be watertight, but should drain slowly enough to act as flood and drain if a timer was used.

Pond liner is useful, as the amount of plastics isn't too great. If the land was sloping a CLIFT PIST system could be made where the sump, GBs and fish tank were all in ground using liner. This could also look great, with ponds at either end and plants growing in between.

There has been some discussion of Bamboo being toxic (and I'm not talking about treated stuff). I've never researched it - so it may be crap.

Hey Plachon just as a matter of interest where abouts do you live?
Within the nearest 200Klm would be fine!

Thailand.... close enough...

Thanks Rupe!

This is interesting, would be good to learn more. Bamboo shoots are widely eaten across Asia and it's been reported that some species contain arsenic (naturally occurring). I'm wondering if this is where the idea of bamboo being toxic came from? Keep in mind that there are over 1,000 species out there.

I've had some fish die, but that was in the early days.

I'm in Bangkok, Thailand, however I also have 1.5 acres outside of town. In the future we may see a lot of aquaponics over here, with much of it being low tech.

There is a method of organic rice farming that utilizes fish ponds above and below the rice field. Water from the ponds flows through the rice fields and is pumped back to the top pond. This irrigates and fertilizes the rice. The benefits to the farmer are an extra rice crop and fish, with the extra costs being the ponds and the pumping.

Another simple method is to plant bananas and other water loving plants on the sides of ponds. Everyday water is taken from the ponds and thrown over the plants, it then flows back.

The vegetable Kangknong can grow on water without support and is farmed in fish ponds.

I've heard that there is a lot being done in Bangladesh, however I don't know the details.

Does anybody have more ideas on sustainability?

I think this topic covers a wide range, include producing your own fish food, adding iron by using scrap metal and even the banana in the GB for potassium.

It's just such a big topic Plachon...there's a whole section in the forum:
viewforum.php?f=31

Thanks, that forum covers sustainable solutions in general, I was more interested in find the most sustainable AP system.

We use a lot of greens that are not harvested as fish food. Silverbeet and other plants get trimmed and feed back to the fish. The rest that is not eaten goes into the worm farm and then back into the system as fish food.

Alrighty,

I let a lot of algae grow on the walls of my fish tanks, the silver perch that are left alive are quite happy to graze all day. The dead perch go to the chooks, along with the excess greens. I get eggs.
Water from the roof of the shed goes into the main sump, this pretty much keeps up with water consumption in winter. In summer the water from the evaporative A/C goes into the sump. This will well and truley keep up.

Of all creatures, fish give by far the best ratio for weight of food to weight of meat, with chickens coming second and other animals a long way behind. Do you have to buy food for the chooks or does enough come from the scraps? You also get the manure for the garden. Do you get meat or just the eggs?

The more we do on our properties, the less fuel is spent buying stuff and delivering from the factory to the shop. There's also less plastics for packaging etc.

If prices of goods rose considerably, what type of things could a system do without or be replaced by something recycled or sustainable? Is it possible to have a system without electricity?

The chooks still get pellets when we need more eggs. Just eggs, cant eat the chooks

To run a system without electricity you'll need a pretty reliable sort of alternative power, most likely hydro running a water wheel.

There has been much discussion of how to develop a system without electricity. Basically, you need some other method of pumping.

If you happen to have a suitable slope on the site, you may be able to avoid building towers to hold water at height.

Ways to pump water without electricity are many. If you happened to have a spring or stream running down the side of that slope, you could probably have it power a pump for the system. If falling/moving water isn't near to hand, then wind power might be appropriate. A wind powered rope pump can be pretty low tech but will require a tower. Finally, if the header tank and sump tank can be made large enough, human or animal powered pumping or bucketing could be used to move water once or twice a day from sump tank up to header tank from where it can trickle through the system.

Probably the least "sustainable" methods would be the solar power or other alternative power sources feeding battery banks that would then power electric pumps and air pumps.

I also wonder about clay lining to seal ponds? While it might not be 100% watertight, it would be a cheap way to seal a large pond, GBs could also be sealed with clay.

I was thinking of a system for developing countries with a tropical climate. It would be CHIFT PIST built on a slope. Tanks, sump and GBs would all be sealed with clay. The media would be coco husks. To save energy the water would only flow through the beds once or twice a day.

Bamboo could be used for some plumbing and there would need to be some extra aeration for the fish.

If wind was available it could be used to pump, if not then maybe a pump could be developed that uses solar energy but doesn't rely on electricity.

I know similar systems are already being used to grow rice - the rice fields are in the middle, with ponds at either end. A diesel pump is used and besides extra rice crops, the farmers also get fish.