Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I don't really have a good way to support any shade over that part of the system which is the real problem.

interesting idea i have just been on holiday. before we lleft for our holiday we planted a vegetable patch near the overflow of our bioseptic tank. although it was in the soil i have no doub that the plant would still produced just as much grrowth if it was done in a growbed setup.

I don't know how a bioseptic tank works but I would be carefull of planting certain crops in such a place. Stuff like lettuce/spinach may actually be able to take e. coli up into the plant making any amount of washing useless and since lettuce is not cooked...... hence all the trouble with bagged lettuce and spinach planted in fields too soon after manure was used as fertilizer.

Plants that are always cooked before eaten should be ok as well as fruiting plants where the fruit is kept away from the efluent. I understand that tomatoes grow great in such conditions!

The safety measure I am using on the pee ponic system is that when the urine is bottled and stored for a period of time, the urea turnes into Ammonia with a high pH and disinfecting properties quite capable of killing off e coli. There are some more dangerous illnesses that might be able to survive such conditions but as it is my own urine and I'm not ill with those diseases, I'm not worried about passing them on to myself. If I do get sick, or have to take any antibiotics, I'll have to stop collecting the urine for a time. (The antibiotics would be bad for the bacteria doing the conversions in the system.)

TCL is there any off smells from the system?
I was thinking that such a setup in my office would do well. The only thing would be trying to explain what is growing the plants, might not go over so well.. LOL

If I stick my nose over the dosing bottle, I notice a bit of a urine smell. Having a somewhat more sealed fertilizer injector would probably take care of that. From the system itself, I can sometime detect a faint pond smell (like from the algae I think) but I don't find that objectionable.
I don't know how well it would work indoors but it all depends on the size of the system, the amount of dosing and the ventalation/humidity control in the office. Too much humidity causing mold problems indoors is the biggest thing to control. Keep the relative humidity below 50% and you should be good.

As far as how to explain it. It is hydroponics using your own home made secret formulation of nutrients. Just make sure no one else is around when you fill the fertilizer bottle.

The seedlings were better yesterday in the heat so I expect the drooping was as much do to transplant shock as the intense sun. Only one of the cucumber seedlings looks like it didn't make it.

I'm not doing the full battery of tests on this system every day anymore as I'm going to run out of test solution before the new kit arrives. I only did Nitrate yesterday (the diluted method) so my nitrate is somewhere between 200-300. I will probably start using water from this system to water some soil plants so that I can top up and dilute a little.

It was hot today but the seedlings up in the top tank were ok. Even most of the lettuce is still surviving the heat.

I haven't been doing as much testing on this system anymore as it seems pretty settled. I will still test occasionally but for the time being I'm still waiting for the new test kit to arrive. I don't want to run out while I am about to put fish in the big system.

I'm still dosing about 200 ml each day in the gurgle dripper and so far when I have tested, the ammonia and nitrite have been holding at 0. Nitrate is still rising so I am taking some water from this system for watering container plants every so often.

I did get a float top up valve hooked up for this system finally.

Not much to report on this system today/yesterday. Some of the plants continue to show signs of Iron def even after the addition of iron to the system. I fear it may be that certain plants really want a lower pH in order to get the particular nutrients they need. The lettuce is still doing well and the broccoli seems to have improved. Hopefully the Toms and Cucs will take over as the weather will shortly be too hot for the lettuce. The cucs are one of the ones I fear may not like the pH though.

I stuck a bit of mint in the system and if all else fails, it should work to suck down some nutrients.

3/22/08 7:30 pm
pH 7.6
Nitrite 0

I dosed only 100 ml today. Nitrates have been high and the big system needs some bigger doses until I get fish.

3/22/08 7:30 pm
pH 7.6
Nitrite 0

I dosed only 100 ml today. Nitrates have been high and the big system needs some bigger doses until I get fish.

Just a quick pic

Love the way stuff just grows

oh i thougt it was more like this nutrient collecting system

Duckaponics indeed

Imagine the fillets after growout !
Now , just a lid to keep the stock from escaping

That photo gives new meaning to Humaponics.