Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey there

I m currently building a small LEAP in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania, East Africa) - it s almost finished now.

Some data:
fish tank: 500l
solid filter: 200l
biofilter: 100l
biofilter material: net (my intention is also to try coconut fiber - so if someone is experienced with that, let me know how long that would last;))
grow bed: 2sqm DWC (about 600l)
pump: 1.5" airlifter (powered by an air compressor, 25W 12V DC; the compressor is intended to be used for a bigger system respectively for several small systems, that is why it is so oversized at the moment); I guess the system could be run with an airpump of about 3W. The 25W compressor is powered by a small solar system: 100W with a 50Ah Battery


fish: african catfish, tilapia, sweet water shrimps
stocking density: 15kg/1000l
plants: lettuce, water spinach, basil ...

If you are interested I d keep you updated. And of course, if you have any questions, I ll be happy to answer everything .

Greetings
Severin

Seviren

Welcome to the addiction.

I'll be very interesting to observe how little energy will be needed to operate your system..

Keep us posted please

Hi Severin,

Thought I'd pass on some information I just heard at a Cheetah Development meeting with Ray Menard.

It seems if people could get milk and potatoes it would go a long way in the fight against malnutrition. Maybe grow crops out of season?

So with that I would suggest you demonstrate how to raise potatoes in your AP system. Maybe look into including some kind of wicking bed concept in your system? Can you dig a trench and line it with plastic sheeting? Try not to use lumber in making a big box (helps reduce expenses)? How hot will your soil get?

Can you find native earthworms for your grow beds?

How is your supply/availability/dependability, of water and electricity? Blue barrels, IBC's?

No doubt you will need some type of shade. Also a plan to combat hot temperatures for fish and plants?

Good luck with your system and other efforts?

Bob

How are things going?

Thanks for asking Bob.

Things are going well - although I honestly did not care much about the system in the garden lately .
And I am not really happy with the plumbing work I did (it is not leaking,.. but the height of some pipe feed-throughs are not good).
Thanks for the hint with the wicking bed. I was also thinking of including this (plus shade netting etc.).

The learnings from the first system and all the information I got from the people I met here concerning Aquaponics/Aquaculture/Horticulture etc. show that it would probably be best to separate the two things from each other (talking of Dar now). E.g. use the water from a recirculating green water system in a separate loop to grow vegetables (either soil based, or recirculating with growing material like sand or gravel).
What do you think about that?

I m sure there are already some facilities like this somewhere out there?:)

Availability of electricity is ... lets say not reliable (at all).
We use the water from our tank (about 30,000l) which fills up during the rainy season. If it is not enough for the dry season ... we order (that means that a truck brings 10,000l for about 50 USD - water is a big business here!).

Blue barrels are available; 200l for 35USD, 100l for 20USD. IBC are not really worth the 75USD you pay for them (in my eyes), because the water tanks you can buy here (simtank, kiboko, polytank etc.) are of a lot better quality and cost about 80USD (for a 1000l tank).

I run the system completely by solar - to save energy I will include an intervall-timer, right now the battery capacity is not enough for the whole night.

hey Severin

Here is a wicking bed link you might be interested in;

http://www.waterright.com.au/adoption.html

Note the use of native materials.

Maybe an alternative for poor farmers and poor families?