Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi folks

I'm a Kiwi Aquaponics Addict I've been into it for coming up 3 years.

I managed to run a (small) controlled environment very well.

1 Kilo of fish (goldies) fed on average 7.5 grams dried food per day. This fed 1 sq metre of fruiting and leafy crop vegetables.

I had explosive plant growth and close to zero waste 1-2% (1-2 litres) of the total water volume removed each week and watered into container plants. Rootmass and excess vegetation is fed to worms. No solids were removed for 18 months. I did have in-system Aquatic worms. I'll go into this later, though I don't know much, I think Aquatic worms may be very relevant to minimal waste Aquaponics.

Anyway, this was run in my basement as I had no room elsewhere inside to be able to 'control' the environment. After using fans, dehumidifiers, physically digging in drainage in the basement and then round the house perimeter....

It got too hard to fight mildew and the more I moved air round the more my fish water and hard plumbed system design provided more humidity....

I was definately winning the war in many aspects, and much of my system was doing unique things, which we can discuss at length if you folk wish. But it was time to move on. So now we come to present day.

I am in the process of constructing (I have 3 walls already!) a 3.6 x 3.6 metre (internal measure) greenhouse for Aquaponics.

I will eventually have this built up to 12 sq metre foliage cover.

I wish to place my pond inside of my greenhouse to provide thermal stability however I have obvious concerns regarding humidity.

I utilise waterfall returns of water to provide free aeration off the pump and the resultant splashing is my concern. More gadgets (aerators) is not an option when I have the design to do without them.

I planned on two fans. Having one strategically placed by the water body is an option but that would then need to be a 3rd fan as the outlet in Summer should be high to remove the hottest air and keep the cooler flowing up. 3rd fan = another gadget...

I wonder if the size of my greenhouse will compensate for this humidity source. I was dealing with a 2 1/2 cubic metre space when all the problems occured. The Greenhouse will be approx 35 cubic metres space.

Another thing, have any Aquaponics growers tried scoria (lava rock) yet as a medium? If not, any reasons? Or just not tried it.

Hmm, what else. How much water would continuous flow 4 sq metres of bed hold when in circulation approx?

What a great forum i'm so glad I found it!

Welcome mate. I would be interested in hearing more about the aqua worms.

We had a discussion about scoria here at one stage. It looks to be a good option due to weight and surface area advantages. Problems are that scoria is mined only in 1 or 2 states here, so if you are outside those areas it is very expensive due to transport costs. I prices a cubic metre at about $300 from memory. One of the guys on the forum is using scoria - can't remember who.

I imagine that with more volcanic activity in NZ scoria would be pretty available and cheap.

Re: water usage in continuous flow - that would all depend upon how much pipework you had running between tank and bed and then from bed back to tank. It shouldn't take too long for water to flow through your gravel, so only a limited amount would be in the beds at any time.

Re: humidity - if this is going to be a prob for you - it will be for all of us too. Did your plants grow mildew etc. I'm hoping that a vent at top of greenhouse will help this - though in winter I would not want to be losing the heat through this, so would be closed. Would like to hear about your humidity experiences so can consider further.

G'day Aquaddict, Glad you've found the group...

In the systems I have, once they are established, then there is 0 waste. The system on my back verandah hasn't had solids removed from it since I built the system about 4-5 years ago, and there are hardly any solids on the bottom of the tank....

The water volume that will be in a continuos flow bed of 4 square metres will depend on a number of factors, and it will vary over time. How deep is the bed, is it just one large bed or numerous smaller ones and what particle size was the medium you were thinking of using. I found my continuous flow bed can hold more water when there is a mature crop in the bed and more roots to slow the flow of water through the gravel, I can end up with problems of water sitting on the gravel surfaceas the bed becomes totally flooded from roots slowing the draining of water...

It will be good to hear more about your systems and experiences.. And yes, what are those aqua worms....

This is great!

People to talk Aqua to who don't go

and then , , and to their mates.

That will come as I recall my aqua noobiness to you all

OK, enough smilies.

Veggie Boy. I think the worms deserve a post of their own in fish. I'll be putting what I can gather there shortly. With Earthbounds input that he too runs zero waste systems (and possibly many others among you), Aquatic worms are obviously not a key ingredient in keeping Aqua systems clean. However they may be helpful in micros, added genetic diversity both the worms themselves and bacteria they host and produce. To be continued... can't help myself!

On Humidity. I want to and so have decided to go with running an internal pond. Why?

Decisions... Thermal stability in Winter at this stage seems harder and more expensive to deal with than powdery mildew control in Summer.

Powdery mildew is being effectively controlled in many crops using skim milk. It killed off a good 90% of the mildew when I tried two applications mist sprayed at 10% solution.

Another reasoning for internal pond is the increased volume of space to water surface ratio. This will produce less humidity than I was seeing.

And because I saw what a problem this sort of thing could be I placed good drainage all round the greenhouse site before construction. There will be no seepage or rising damp like I saw in my basement.

Plus I can locate airflow as I choose with an emphasis not to stir things up in that corner.

So fingers crossed unless someone has a vital point I'm missing, it's an internal water body for thermal stability.

earthbound. Zero waste, fantastic! So it's not a figment of my imagination. Some of the figures I started getting when the bio-filtration really kicked in were amazing. And growth like the photos in your garden very soon after I stopped removing solids.

For the beds. There will be beds plus other things so Ive added up medium etc. The medium will be scoria. Yes it is cheap here I've yet to get a price but will get LOTS and use it on top of drainage coils around the site as well.
The medium size would be the average same as the clay balls you are using but lopsided like scoria is. I think they are similarly porous.

I estimate 1 cubic metre of this medium. in total sytem.
Plus 18 metres 20 mm water outline
10 metres 13 mm outline
12 metres 10 mm drilled with 4 mm holes for spray outline (and what is a good frequency and pattern for drilling)
10 metres 65mm passive returns.

The pump will push 4000 litres per hour to the head required.

This system size to feed an eventual 8 - 9 sq metres on the back wall (going vertical for part of it to see how it goes with lettuce and try get bang for your buck greenhousing) Plus 3-4 sq metres split into two beds. I was going to put a bed directly above the pond but the corner it is in recieves the least sun so has been dedicated to aesthetics.

I'm rather loving this stage of it, actually building the greenhouse etc but cashflow is a problem for the rest of the system requirements.

I figure the best way to stabilise water temperatures is put it in the ground and the cheapest way to make a pond is dig a hole and line it. So I'll just put a slope on the bottom and pull water out of the deep end and return it to the shallow. Approx 2 metres x 850 x 600 deep house for fish.

Still not decided on a breed of fish our options are limited in regards to the species I see here.

Bit tied up on all of this stuff at present but how could I not return to a topic on worms eventually

If my girl wasn't in London she'd have left me by now.

A few of us our planning to build greenhouses. Would be good to hear more about your design and the materials you are using!

PS - You are not a newby here, having already run a successful system you are more experienced that almost all of us

Welcome Aquaddict,

I'm glad you're here, now i on't have to feel i'm the only one that writes a page for a single post

Sounds like you have some serious experince to share with us. Please when you have a minute tell us about the aqua worms, might be a good food source for the system.

Steve

I like the hole in the ground idea Welcome to the forum. Are you from the north or south island

aqua worms... do the fish eat them at all... I would like to know more please

hey there AA,
just got here. this place looks pretty cool, gonna like it here.

thanks for the invite!

RM

Hey you're welcome RM. These people have zero waste! I'm home!

Thank you folks for the welcome. I've put a thread in on my greenhouse and will continue to update and edit as i recall things so you may avoid my mistakes.

And I may recreate it with less drama.

I just shifted half a cubic metre of dirt walking a few feet with each spade load due to building ahead of myself...

I WILL get to worms, but requires research to give them a decent write-up and I've a few things on.

I'm a North Islander monya. Waikato country boy now in Auckland.

And Steve, yes, one page answers are good. But sometimes it is neccessary to reply with two or three.

I hope you built your entire system using your swiss army knife, and I wish to see the thread too. I know who you really are, that stargate suit doesn't fool me!

LOL, took me a couple of seconds..........yes, with a swiss army knife. And i sealed a drum of sulphuric acid with a chocolate bar and disarmed a nuclear war head with a paper clip. Play theme music now

I would have said "ahh, thats who you are talking about" sooner, but it took me a while to realise how you were refering to...

the chocolate bar and the paperclip were in the very first episode

Thta is going WAY back - I was still in school back then...

yeh, i only watched some of the later episodes as a kid. But i downloaded.......did i say that? I meant borrowed from the video store........the very first episode for a laugh