Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

No mwdesign. My sump and FT are partially buried and lined with insulation and a wooden frame, but heat entering from the GBs is the main problem. The system is now about 6 months old and and plant growth is still sub-optimal because of high pH, but is gradually improving. Unfortunately this means more scoria in GBs is exposed to direct sunlight and heating, so I have been using the mist spray and damp covering for evaporative cooling. This has kept temps around 23-24C even when night temps are around 30.
Because I am using a stand alone solar/12V system, refrigeration is something that would require a lot more outlay and messing about, so providing that the evaporative cooling copes, I will stick with that. (I haven't needed to add any more ice and found it took an awful lot to make minimal change in temp.)

PS: Our hot weather is rarely humid as the North wind brings hot, dry air in from the central Australian desert meaning evap cooling can work well. Don't know how it would go in Puerto Rico though as I imagine humidity would be pretty high there.

Hi,

Yes probably when the water temp rises again in a few month the root rot problems will be stronger...

I'm not using any chiller because it's too expensive and too energy consuming. But maybe i'll try to limit the heat but adding fans in front of running water (in the sumps).

Also, what i've noticed is that trichoderma powder diluted in the system water doesn't seem to be very efficient.
But something that seems to work much better is watering the very young seedlings with a trichoderma solution.

Hi,

2020 update : System has been converted to hydroponics.
Way too much problems with aquaponics in general (pathogens, plant deficiencies, need to clean growbeds too often) and the tropical climate doesn't help.
I've been trying to do things right for 5 years, and my conclusion is : forget about aquaponics which looks like a good idea on paper but isn't in real life.
Another advice : Don't listen to everything aquaponic promoting people say, because many misinformations are repeated over and over

pretty against the grain comment for the forum haha, but interesting nonetheless...

perhaps its ultimately true that culturing fish for their metabolic waste is an inneficient, complex and problematic approach to fertizing plants in hydroponics.

However, perhaps its also true that the fertilization of crops is a beneficial use of waste from recirculating aquaculture systems?

If its true that it only really makes sense as a remediation of RAS wastes, then the culturing of the fish in RAS has to be an efficient and sustainable practice in the first place, which it is only in a limited way in certain environmental and market contexts.

its not necessarily that environmentally sustainable on a hobby level either, if you're overfeeding your fish so everything grows as qiuickly as possible you're essentially using fish-meal to grow vegetables - not sustainable.

but if your production is feed-efficient and your feed is low impact then thats a different story.

From a comercial perpective I imagine split loop systems a surely the way to go if its going to work at all; you can treat pests, add fertilizer, adjust pH etc on the plants without worrying about the fish. But farming fish in RAS and farming veg hydroponically would both have to be profitable enterprises in their own right for it to be a better idea than doing either of the two on its own.

Those are my thoughts anyway....