Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've been researching and planning an aquaponic system for my tiny backyard in the urban Jungle of Philadelphia, Pa. Yes it's the same city that sells cheese Steaks but requires everyone to speak english to purchase one. I can't decide what will work for me. I narrow down the possibility to an emergency/supplemental food production unit, instead of a Rion greenhouse hoisted on top of my leaky roof, with pumps recirculating water from the Fish tanks in the Year round heated basement, (maybe a later project). I think i'm going to go with a flood and drain system, with a hand pump, preferably wheely and barrel. The next question I had was with the growing medium and nutrient cycling. I came across this product: http://www.onedersave.com/index.htm
It seems to be manufactured volcanic rock with nitrifying Bacteria cultures, that also releases micro nutrients. Awesome! But are there naturally occuring rocks/Gravel that releases Iron,Potassium,and calcium, and nitrifying bacteria? Is it too Good to Be True??

Link didn't work for me. Probably too good to be true. Nitrifying bacteria are everywhere. Getting them to do what you want requires a little effort and the right combination of conditions.

Like the hand pump idea...good for emergencies but are you going to be available for constant flood and drain cycles regularly to keep the bacterias working happily and aerating your fish water?

Take the period off the end of the URL

Du-oh! Bio Block...yeah it's for real.

Link should work now. Bio block what a miracle!!! and it comes in Gravel!!!Every night should be good for a hand pump, i know it sounds risque! Flood and Drain in the mornings. Did that sound a little too risque?

There are natural sources of most of those things. Volcanic rock is a good source for a variety of trace elements and it has a good surface area for bacteria to colonize. Shells are a handy media for providing calcium and buffering pH (they will slowly dissolve.) Iron is only tricky in that the pH will affect it's availability but the pH needs to stay high enough to allow the bacteria to keep working. Potassium is probably the trickiest one.

The Bio Block looks like a great thing for a fancy aquarium but I have to say it doesn't look like the answer for an Aquaponic system. The blocks and Rocks might provide a little extra bacteria surface area in the tank but they won't help much as media for the plants. The pebbles might work as media in the grow beds but would anyone seriously pay $37 for a handfull of pebbles when you could get a yard of gravel for little more than that which would work as well given some time.

As to the hand pump and flood/drain schedule. Many of us use the movement of the water to help aerate the tank (without constant movement of water, one would need lots of air pumping.) If you were to have a very large amount of water/extra tank volume, perhaps you could hand pump into a tank up high that could gravity feed through the day into the grow bed and auto siphon into the tank providing water movement through the day. I don't know how workable such a set up would be though. Allowing the grow beds to completely dry out by only flooding/draining once per day will probably make it difficult to build up a good bio filter. Also, the fish produce waste all the time, not just once a day.

Such a once a day system might work with very low stocking density extra air pumping and a media that holds enough moisture to keep it from drying out completely in the interval between floods. I doubt that a large amount of plants or food would be produced from such a method but I could be wrong.

Thanks for the heads up! Information is always needed. I would have to reconsider the hand-pump logistics. Continous water movement, aeration, and fish waste are obstacles. I would need an extra tank atop to drain or drip water below to the grow beds. I would have to Hand pump most likely twice or three times daily. Could I possibly hand pump extra oxygen in? and hand pump fish wase out to be filtered in the top container? will it be too much hand pumping? I agree the Bio block is a bit fancy and pricey. I think it would make it easier to increase the success rate of an Aquponic system. Yes its no silver bullet, but its an exciting addition.

If you are trying to save money (energy) by using the hand pumping idea, you might be better off going for a small electric pump that can run continuously and working out some flout or auto siphon method to drain the grow beds. A small energy efficient pump might be able to take care of you at a reasonable cost (less than the extra tanks and holding capacity would probably cost.)

If you are looking for a disaster (no electricity exists anymore) method of pumping, then lights won't be working either so growing plants in the basement might be difficult.

Hand pump = Mad Max disaster relief of having to survive. /get yourself a pump I need to go to bed

I reckon you could get away with the manual pumping option if you have an ibc on a steel pallet, a decent chain hoist and someone at home part of the day.

Just hoist the ibc off the ground to fill the beds and lower it to drain back.
It`ll keep you fit too

Duh! every one knows that in a real mad max situation you would simply hot up your car, turn on the nitrous, ram some other dude with spikey hair off the road and cut out his 12V fuel pump to use in your AP before his car exploded.

The only pump to hand pump with: http://www.cashmans.com/index.php?page= ... 1&Itemid=4
See:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GN9KLd9X6ZE

10 Gallon in 30 seconds no problem.

I plan on using one of these with a pulley and a small motor to pump using solar power.

I kind of resemble that spikey hair dude this morning

Maybe double the system with an electric system on the same basis, big head tank filled up once a day. Then when you are there, switch the pump off and pump by hand but keep the safety of having an automated system.
The thing is to find a way of having a header tank big enough to do a few floods a day.
Or go for the irrigation system, drain fish tank to water plants and refill fish tank everyday.

does anybody in Western Australia...know where to get the Volcanic Rock Dust....

I think Ivan in perth has mentioned a few suppliers in West Perth....but I just can't seem to find the post All help is greatly appreciated