Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello, I am Larry an American in the Philippines. I have one tiny flood and drain and one small NFT system running now here in Manila. After a bad run trying to get auto siphons to work I gave up on them and built a small two bed system using flood and drain on a timer. I use "slow flood and slow drain" I mean my beds take 20 min to fill I keep the timer on for 40 min total, then it takes 20 min to drain and the pump kicks in 40 min after it kicked off. So 40 on and 40 off, I tried one hour on and two hour off but this is really the best for my system I run mine 24/7. (Your mileage may vary)
I used a 20 gal aquarium with 15 very small goldfish, a tiny pump and it took 2 months to cycle but once it did I had green beans and Tomatoes and I must have taken 10 kilos of fruit off them everyone was shocked. I used ½ inch PVC pipe on this system and I realize that is small but in over 6 months I only had one clog and I did not glue the drain side so cleaning was very easy. But next system I go big I see the dangers of using ½ PVC.
The second System is NFT with a Kids Swimming pool as the tank 400 gal. I use one small pump (a yard fountain pump) and a large plactic box that I use as a filter, PH buffer, and Trace Element holder, and to give the bacteria place to live I put a local copy of bio material . I used food grade everything. The NFT trays are PVC downspouts for rain gutters I just drilled the holes. They are food grade made to catch rainwater for underground tanks for drinking water. In the photos the bare tables for the NFT drawn spouts were not yet covered I did cover them with heavy Marine plywood to be 100% level to support to the down spouts. I then used wedges to get the proper drainage angle on both tables for NFT. (Took a while to get it right too.) The one into 4 pipes each with a ball valve was not the best I idea I ever had it has to stay exactly level to get flow to then valves but it has worked now for months but I would NOT do it that way again.
With the first system running it was easy to "kick start" (Harley reference) the second system. I put in some "junk plants" and 30 feeder gold fish and waited for the ammonia to start to climb, as the ammonia start to rise I took the good stuff (the bacteria) from the bottom of the beds of the small system and placed it in the NFT system filter, I did that once a week. Within 30 days the Nitrites and Nitrates were coming up and not long after that the Ammonia shot down to .5. Then I slowly brought the fish up to 60 small “feeder” gold fish. I will switch to Tilapia soon. But Gold fish are bullet proof to start a system. I never had a fish kill on either system but I did have to do partial changes in the first system for over two months till it started to mature. The second system started fast and is running strong after 6 months. I did do 4 partial water changes on the second system till the numbers all dropped. I check my system once a day and it is very stable because of the low fish number I believe.
I did have problems on the first small system listed below and how I fixed them:
1. Iron (lack of), I put clean iron bits in bottom of both grow beds and in a week much improvement in a month no more yellow plants.
2. Trace, I bought local rock dust trace elements and do a light dust on beds every two weeks (thanks S & S). I have to say the trace took ok looking plants and turned into super plants. It really makes a difference.
3. I had a PH problem in the first system but some crushed up sea shells mixed with crushed egg shells placed in the foot of an old panty hose worked as a buffer and my PH started to come down and in 4 weeks it was down and my ph sits on 7 all the time.
In the NFT system I put the trace, egg and Sea Shells in the foot of ladies stocking and placed them in the filter box from day one. I did have some trace elements leach out of the stocking at start up and the water did get a little muddy for two days and then cleared up. So by the end of the first month on the NFT I had great greens, strong growth, and good numbers for the most part. My fish numbers were low and last week I combined the two systems and so far all is well.
I built the greenhouse myself from local very cheap lumber; it is screened on the sides and plastic over chicken wire on a slanted but flat roof. A few months ago a Typhoon took most of the plastic but I had the plants and tanks covered. The next morning it only took me 2 hours to replace the plastic with ZERO fish loss or plant damage.
This addictive behavior I blame on everyone who help feed my Aquaponics habit. There is no 12 step program for us I am afraid.
I have to thank Backyard aquaponics, all the people who post here, answer questions, share their photos, and also Synaptoman he was very helpful with his blog and he even answered personal questions about my system. I don’t feel my systems are an exact copy of any one system but every bit of my two small systems were taken from what I learned mostly on this site, other sites, and talking directly to builders.
Some photos attached.
Any questions, comments good or bad please, please feel free to comment. I have more photos.

Panhead Larry

more photos

more photos

Glad to have you on board Larry... welcome... please keep us up to date with your progress...

And thanks for sharing the things that didn't work, or work out as well as expected.... they're just as important as the successes...

P.S ... what exactly are "Singkamas"???

Hi, thanks. That huge bulb is a root plant they eat here in the Philippines. It is sweet and had a rough texture. Everyone said it would not grow in "Water" but not only did it grow it double the size of the control plants I planted in my bed outside the greenhouse.

I think I did OK for a first timer. Glad to be here.
Larry

What, like a tuber... sweet potato, yam, taro... sort of thing??

Thanks for your questions about that tuber the locals call Sinkamas. I had to look it up to see what it really is all about. It is very common here in the Philippines locals eat the Tuber raw or cooked like potatoes. I eat it raw after I skin it. The locals eat the bean too but as you read below the seeds contain a poison.
But I did not know the leaves and seeds were poison. The powdered seeds are used to stun fish here in small slow moving streams. Stun fish??

http://www.bpi.da.gov.ph/Publications/m ... nkamas.htm Is a very interesting site as is http://stuartxchange.com/Sinkamas.html

My tiny flood and drain system was just a test system to me. I grew one snap been plant, 3 toms, even garlic just to see what would grow and everything I planted seemed to do really well. When a friend ask me if I had ever eaten Sinkamas I said yes and he gave me three. I ate two and planted the 3rd in my tiny flood and drain system. It was golf ball size when I planted it. In just a month I had two huge vines climbing strings and the leaves and seed pods grew over 3 meters along the top of my greenhouse in 4 months before I took it out and we ate it.

Shocked to find the leaves and seed pods to be such a strong poison when dried and crushed. I wonder if it was safe to grow in a poly culture like Aquaponics? But my fish seemed fine and they grew and are still healthy so I guess it was ok to grow in Aquaponics.

But I don't think I will risk growing a plant with poison leaves and seeds in my systems again. But I still love to eat them and I have about 30 growing outside in my dirt garden. I will take a quick Google of any and all plants I think about growing in my Aquaponics here in the Philippines.

Thanks that was a great question and I am glad you asked. :

Well done Larry. Your systems look great. Congratulations.

Thank you Synaptoman, coming from you that makes me feel great. I am expanding and learning. You were a great help thanks again.
Larry

Congrats! Looks very good.

Hey Larry, it's a fine looking system. Can't wait to see what you do next.

Can you describe how you connect the downspouts together, prevent leaks etc. in the NFT part? Or did you keep it to single-lengths only...
How would you divide the flow if you were starting over, what did you learn from doing it this way with ball valves etc?

Rick

Thanks everyone,

Rick,
Thank you, Ok the NFT system has a small pump in the kids pool and that pump has a large foam filter on the intake that keeps solids out of the systems trays. It is a great filter and I just clean it every day about an after I feed in the Morning. There is a T just after the pump and after the T both 1/2 pipes have a ball valve so I can control both flows. One side runs to a large filter above the Pool with my trace, Media, Ground up Seashell and egg shells and that drains by gravity back into the Pool.

The other ½ PVC goes along the downspouts and up into that 4 headed monster and into the ball valves. As long as the 4 ball valves are level it is not hard to adjust to the flow for each tray. I just had to get it level and tie it down. About leaks everything on the preasure sided is glued and I never had a leak on a glued joint.

Good question on How I would change it? This system runs perfect so I cannot say it is a bad design. The cups in the rain gutters work great but I think the floating or holes in the foam work much better and would be faster to plant and harvest on a commercial system so my next system won’t have cups in trays.

I saw an NFT system posted on Synaptoman's site (not his system) and they were using plastic roofing on a table with a nice big tank at the head of the table, above the NFT and one or two tanks below. I can buy that plastic (food safe) roofing here in Manila. So I would put a ball valve out of the big tank for each tray above the NFT and let gravity take care of it, then pump with a float switch or gravity back to the tank.

My next larger NFT system I plan to have the fish tank in the ground in a building next to my larger greenhouse. The reasons for this is it is very cheap for me to have a hole dug, lined with blocks, cemented, re-bar re-enforced, and use a Local "made to fit" liner here in Manila. Reason two is we have earth quakes and I think an in Ground tank is more stable. Three is it would let me use free gravity to run everything back to the in ground fish tank. Four, I like the idea of using 100% of the greenhouse for the just the Plants and I can control the temp and conditions in the Fish house and Greenhouse as needed.

I had great fun building both systems and both are still pumping out food faster then we can eat it. I still have the feeder goldfish (fat and happy) but next week I will switch to tilapia so we can eat them, The numbers on the now combined system are perfect and seem to stay that way. I do have two backup pumps and one back up air pump made up and read to change. I also have an alarm on a float switch in the Kids pool hooked to a very large bell that will wake the dead in case of low water level. I have a nasty old Generator, Gas power that came with the house and the pumps are on that too.

Thanks again to everyone. Larry

Might make harvesting the fish easier

Hi Simo

That really made laugh out loud!

Larry

search"Pachyrrhizus jicamas", one of the Andean Root Plants, did try Jicama not in AP with lousy result, the roots were splitting,
Thanks for that, Larry, and welcome, will try it again, in AP this time, next year, may be too late now.