Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Welcome to join us at our NARDC Campaign:

1. Growing More Food Locally and Sustainably!
2. Empowering a Growing Generation!

One objective that guided all our experiments at Nanniode Aquaponics RDC is to strip Aquaponics of its complicated devices and to present it to the people of Kerala/India and the world as a cheap easy way of growing vegetables at their backyards without soil.

Here is our first video intro and update as on 22/09/2013. Do you have any questions, comments or suggestions for us? Greatly appreciated.

Regards,

vkn

Backyard aquaponics is about as simple as it can get... and doesn't really have any "complicated devices"...

As scale increases, then complexity can also increase to a degree... and commercial scale certainly involves more complexity.... and may involve more complicated devices...

Welcome by the way... from the video it looks like you've got things pretty well sorted...

Very nice garden Nanniode, I have been thinking about running plants in pvc pipe the way you have around your pond and have a few questions for you. It looks like you are using clear plastic cups to hold the media, and what type of glue do you seal the pipe to the potters? It looks like your pond is lined with some sort of waterproof membrane, and I was wondering what you did there as well:)

Looks good vkn,

I know you have a large body of water there, but in the warmer months what effect do the long runs of PVC pipe have on the water temp?... and the plant growth towards the end of those runs?

I Agree with Rupe, aquaponics is only as complicated as you want to make it... I promote the K.I.S.S. principle... none of my systems, or systems I've sold, have filters, timers, electronic controllers, sophisticated plumbing etc... just simple flood and drain systems using bell siphons and a pump that runs 24/7... you can't get any simpler and if you stock sensibly then mechanical filtration isn't required, except, as in your situation, where the system has an NFT or DWC component.

K.I.S.S...

Cheers.

Ive always said your a kissy kind of guy, Yabbies.

if you want a kiss Charlie all you have to do is ask...

Hello Rupert, thanks. we have just now started and long way to go.
I just hope no "complexities" would arise to our system.
Not happy with a few things with plants, working on those now. Will get some pictures some time today.

Regards, vkn

Thanks Mr. Damage. I am thinking of some kind of shade cloth for those summer 3 months during March/April/May here. Luckily we have big tall trees (Indian almond and jackfruit on east and Mango/Guava on the west sides of the pond) that gives shade to almost 6 hours during day time, so for hardly 2-3 hours plants and pond are under direct sunlight. We need to do something if sunlight gets worse, no plans other than that for the time being.

Plant growth looks okay towards the end. I will show you some pictures later today. We are doing it in batches, so cant really make out if something is growing more fast, or slow etc. Need to monitor closely on this point though.

Thanks for your comment.

Regards,

vkn

Friends,

Here is sharing with you a photo update taken in the morning.




We cleaned our bio-filter thoroughly today. Removed 2 big bucketful loads of black thick debris/bacteria. Can someone tell me how long it takes for the bacteria colonies to rebuild? I see them everywhere in the pond and grow beds.

Regards, vkn

Removing the gunk from your bio-filter wont impede your bacterial colony... it might actually assist it...

That is a beautiful setup you have there vkn.

Update:
We were on news report today - http://nanniodeaquaponics.blogspot.in/2 ... press.html

Newpaper: Chandrika
Date: 29/09/2011
Language: Malayalam
To enlarge, please click on the image

Hi Rupert,

Thanks for your input.

Was busy and could not reply. Just in 2 days the pond water is more clear and I could see bacteria re-colonizing on the media in the biofilter. I am happy about this activity. Cool, nothing to worry

Regards, vkn

Hi Cobus,

Yes, Aquaponics is cheap, easy, affordable, and beautiful. Thanks for your nice comment.

Regards, vkn

It is good to be on news...

Please have a look at here - http://nanniodeaquaponics.blogspot.in/, we were on 3 different newspapers.