Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi,

I'm an undergrad at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. We have
this program in the Yucatan Peninsula and I am here trying to think
of ways to apply permaculture concepts to traditional Mayan
agricultural systems.

There is a large irrigation reservoir left over from a Spanish
Colonial period plantation. Obviously, way cool.

They told me they want to use it for a swimming pool and for
irrigation. So we won't want to chlorinate it. It is pretty
big...something like 20m X 13m.

However, I wonder if frequent use of water for irrigation (not sure
how much yet, but it will need to be used at least 2-3 times a week
during the
dry season) would effect the equilibrium of the ecosystem in the
regeneration zone. I'm an anthropology major so any advice would be
greatly appreciated!

If this wouldn't work, I would want to think about using it just as a
natural swimming pool minus the irrigation. Here in the Yucatan, the
fact that the pools only need to be filled once is a major advantage,
because water is scarce. Pictures are attached; what would you do
with this? I didn't measure the volume yet but it's about 2m deep,
putting it somewhere around...well I dont know how to measure things.

So anyway, this thing needs to be a swimming pool but I want to make it something else too. What would you do with it?

Pictures:


<http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee227/feindel/DSC01660.jpg>


<http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee227/feindel/DSC01661.jpg>


<http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee227/feindel/DSC01675.jpg>

gracias,

Jenna

hey jenna, that tree might cause you some serious leak problems depending on where its roots have ended up

My housemate helps run a public pool. He said that the old
public baths in adelaide had no filtration or treatment. The price of
admission used to go down each day until the last couple of days of the week when it was free entry...at your own risk...then they changed the water out.

Yes Steem, this is why I want to use water plants to filter the pool.

I think that is not exactly what you guys are all into but I know you are all about water tanks and water ideas.

give it a few more hours most people are just getting home from work in australia................

I think that using it for irrigation would be good, as you would be "refreshing" the water (i assume it would be topped up after irrigation?)

Have a look in this thread:
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... sc&start=0
I've put some info here about swimming ponds. There's a bit of info on the internet about natural swimming ponds without using chlorine. I'm sure it would work with aquaponics, but my wife wont let me experiment on our swimming pool.

I'd be seriously worried about the integrity of the old walls. Especially with tree roots so close. Start by clearing out debris and seeing whether there's enough intact wall to work with.

Thanks for the link King Erik. Janet, these guys who own this pool rebuild 1000 year old Mayan ruins. They have already decided they're going to get this thing up and running as a pool, my job is to get them to make it an unfiltered one...

I want to have gardens near it too and you guys are doing really cool things with that but I am sort of intimidated by all the equipment, and I'm not a gardener or a farmer.

Un-filtered or un-chlorinated? I'll assume un-chlorinated.

If you can get a pump going, and can commandeer some of the shallower areas or the steps, I think you could set up a plant filter. Take a look here.
http://www.totalhabitat.com/P&P.html
They seem to filter the water through a shallow area with plants.

You could also have a look at my pond set up. It is really doing the same thing, but on a smaller basis. I don't know what happened to the first couple of pics, but the diagram and later pics are still there. Water is always very clear.
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... .php?t=734

I'm not sure how much this will apply to a swimming pool, but there has been a lot of work done with using plants in greywater recycling programs. The two that come to mind are water hyacinth and cattail reeds.

Water hyacinth is great for pulling out nitrates, and makes good hog food, too.

Check out this Jenna..... http://gen.ecovillage.org/iservices/pub ... 20PM38.pdf