Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Everyone

I've been lurking around this fantastic Aquaponics site for a couple of months now and finally joined up to the forum as I have an idea developing in my mind. I have three horses which a) are great creators of unsurmountable amounts of manure keeping my worms fat and b) great consumers of fodder, which in turn leads to c) a very empty purse. I have three horses on 2.5 acres so I am constantly supplement feeding. Living in the Lockyer Valley does not help as the soil on our place is pretty poor and has no nutrients left in it.

I need something whereby I can grow fodder for my horses relatively inexpensively. I came accross a hydroponics(?) system which produces barley grass ready for feeding within 6 days, greatly increasing the amount of usable feed for the horses. It's amazing how much barley grain moves through their digestive system undigested . Great idea, great system, but way too expensive for my very very limited budget ... remember I have horses .

I was thinking us trying something using aquaponics, which has the added bonus of me being able to revive my other hobby... fish keeping. Hubby likes that idea very much and is already dreaming of catching yellow belly in our dam .

As I want to grow barley grass I can't really use any growing medium for roots and was thinking of using trays into which I sow the barley grain, water it using a flood and drain system and harvest a 'slab' of barley grass when about 10cm high. With progressive sowing I should then be able to harvest slabs of barley grass for feeding out every day after only 1 week. OK maybe I am dreaming, but every great idea starts somewhere .

I have an old, still working pool pump and filter at my disposal, I will need 18 grow trays (need to be about cat litter tray size ... need to keep it managable weight wise as 1kg barley yields 6kg of grass). I think they could be housed in a bigger tray to allow water to move past the roots from underneath. Dreaming?

My worm farm will feed the fish, the fish will feed the barley grass, the barley grass will feed the horses and their manure will feed the worms... a prefect cycle ... at least in theory.

Cheers

Hi Stubby, welcome to our madness.
There was a pic of someone sprouting wheatgrass in teired racks.... hmmm, wait for Rupert to show up, he'll know where it is

Or use the search function and go exploring

Wow that was quick, I only just posted ... awesome B)

Hi Jaymie, thank you . Well, the chooks are looking at eviction already as soon as my chicken tractor arrives, then I have an area to set up the aquaponics system. Hubby just rolls his eyes but the prospect of perch ending up in the dam for him to fish is getting him on my side. .

Wouldn't call it madness... I love the idea of aquaponics. It makes soooo much sense to me.

Cheers

Petra

You're not dreaming Stubby.... that's exactly what the hydroponic fodder sheds do....

And (IMO)... there's no reason why you couldn't do it with AP system water rather than hydro nutrients...

Here's a couple of pics....





And a few links to wet your appetite...

http://hydroponics.com.au/php/viewtopic.php?t=38
http://www.hydroponics.com.au/php/viewtopic.php?t=73
http://www.hydroponics.com.au/php/viewtopic.php?t=6
http://www.hydrocentre.com.au/fodder/questions.htm
http://www.hydrocentre.com.au/fodder/hy ... 0Doyle.htm
http://www.shedfedsystems.com.au/
http://www.shedfedsystems.com.au/ShedFedBrochure.pdf
http://www.foddersolutions.org/
http://www.foddersolutions.org/testimonials.htm
http://www.melandapark.com.au/fodder.html
http://www.country-wide.co.nz/article/9999.html
http://qcl.farmonline.com.au/files/48/2 ... fodder.pdf

told ya

I thought that a grow medium was a big part of AP to help with the filtering and also bacteria growth but then I suppose a lot of trays should filter but what about the good bacteria?

It would probably require pre-filtering of solids... ala NFT Nocky.....

So an AP system with a couple of growbeds then pumped through a fodder shed...

Might as well grow a few veges for yourself.... figure the horses aren't for consumption...

If you are taking water out of the FT to grow the fodder you may not need a lot of bacteria. I'd use a drum as a bio-filter and with the constant top up's there may not be a need for as much bacteria as a normal AP system.

Also if you look into BSFL (Black Soldier Flies) they could be used to get rid of the horse manure and the BSFL can be used to feed your fish. You can still feed the worms on the left over from the flies.

would make a nice, neat self sustaining system Duff...

I need a pony.

In my system with very little GB area I have a 20lt home Bio Filter in tank with pump sitting on top, to me it seems to take out to much of the solids and nutrients as veggies are sad but tank test results are perfect a little high PH at 8.2 but this is suitable to the Native fish etc I have growing in tank

Thank you for the links Rupert.

I've been doing some research in regards to the fodder systems. Looked at the fodder wheel, the shed and also the system fodder solutions has. I was able to check out their system at Equitana this year and had a chat with Tony. I had decided to go with that system as they offer a small unit, but after doing some calculations... the dollars are just not there and the small unit won't give me enough fodder for my 3 hungry steeds.

The fodder shed seems to be a better option and if I can build it myself using Aquaponics that would be ... I hope... a lot more cost effective. All I really want to spend money on... other then the cost of the initial set up... is the grain and electricity.

Hehe... I am not asking much am I?

The forum is a wealth of information, so I am sure I will come up with an idea. One of those is to use the old pool filter and instead of having that wool/foam stuff in there fill it up with all kinds of different sized pebbles to give beneficial bacteria something to cling to.

I used to have aquarium fish (cichlids) and hope that my experience will help me in setting up a system and not kill too many fish in the process . I used to run a barrel filter with it rather than an undergravel filter... think that could be the equivalent of the sump? Then from there through the grow beds and then back into the fish tank?

Also those Black Soldier Fly larvae have me intrigued. I never heard of them before. I will have to do loads of reading still.

Cheers

Stubby, have you thought about expanding the system to grow more than just the grass?
I believe that horses like other things too, carrots, apples, etc.
If you grow some other vegetables, any that you don't eat, can go to the horses. I am sure they would appreciate something different every now and then.

Hi SMF,

the barley grass is only the start of the madness. If all goes well I am also planing to grow some fodder trees (Tagasaste) for the horses. I have also a whole basket full of vegie seeds that are begging me to be sown.

I will have to start a new thread soon as my system is slowly taking shape... well at least in my mind. Have to put it onto paper and then get cracking with the building, ehem... be very very nice to hubby to get cracking with the building . I just remind him about the perch in the dam... it'll be the carrot on a stick for him

Cheers

Hi All,

ooh I have been away for a long time it seems. I am still in the 'development' stages of my aquaponics system. I have finally evicted the chooks from the lean to hen house, and am getting ready to take out the chook poo for the paddocks and level the ground. I am going to put crusher dust down and then put some concrete pavers over it to give me a solid base.

I found a site that has a 'plan' on how to build your own fodder shed but it invovles hand watering and I am way to lazy to do that every day, so I am trying to work out a way to avoid that slog, even if it only takes an hour a day. So I am looking around now for suitable containers to hold water and fish.

I am going to run 12 trays for the fodder which will be sitting on shelves and am thinkig of somehow installing a misters to 'water' the seeds, and catch the run-off in a sump tank... and then eventually from there back into a fishtank... I think I have to have another close look at some of the setups to help me with the concept. I want to grow vegies as well so really need to get my layout right.

Any pointers and links would be greatly appreciated

Cheers