Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

knowmore: the humble title is to make your surprise bigger when u see that the thing is not so small Thank you for the kind words!

Ruperto: i'm not dissapointed, but the thing is the pump is 650 W and it runs for 12h/day i think. So that's at least 240kWh / month and that's around 20 Euro/month(240eur/year) and i would like to have that 20 euros covered with the veggies and fish. Specially if i want to sell or help others to build AP systems, i would like to know that they can get more from the system than is invested in. Else i'd rather see the fish swiming in the nature and me working with the soil, or should i say the soil working for me(sustainable farming - my first year of testing these prinicples)
Cos i've been playing enough all my life, i want to give something back!
Thank you for your encouragement too Ruperto, have a lovely day!

Having just got my latest power bill... with a 22% increase in tarrifs...

I can relate to what you're saying Molj.... indeed I'm having a complete rethink about my systems...not so much as to abandoning them... but how I can restructure them...

What prevents you from utilising a smaller pump... wattage wise?

a few things:
-the difference between height of FT and GBs is about 3m, so i need a lot of power to push all that water up

-too many GBs - a lot of line pressure losses, need a strong pump for the autosiphons being able to work in all GBs

so the obvious solution would be to use less GBs, but bigger ones with small outflow ( without repositioning the FTs)

the other-not so good- solution would be to put the FT in the greenhouse besides the GBs, and therefore loose the need for a stronger pump(could use the cheap submersible ones with low head presssure - less W) - BUT the summer temps are already killing me so FT in the GH is not a good option for me

the third soulution is to make partial water circulations, like pumping some of the water from the FT once a day to the GBs(and in return the FT would get the cleaned GB water) that would have a separate pump that would oxygenate the plant's roots through the day.

But all these solutions take a lot of work and material, the last one is the simplest solution to realize

A lot of problems, if i we head a more mild weather pattern here things would be easier, but this way it's problems all the way when you try it big and want it cheap

Looks good. Having soil that does not deplete is a wonderful thing!

As you said, efficiency is a big factor. Could you do better with larger pipe sizes, at least for part of the pumped section of the system?

Yes i can't wait the spring when i'll be planting my perma-garden!

I did try bigger pipes but there was not enough pressure to put the adequate flow out of the whole irrigation system.
Rupert gave me a good idea in which direction to try with his valve.

Zdarvo Molj! Read through your thread with great interest, I see you still post sometimes so hope you see this. I am just starting out in aquaponics but already looking ahead, am hoping to move to Slovenia in a couple of years, so am really interested in how successful you found it in your climate. Have you managed to keep the system working OK with the big temp swings between winter and summer? And keep trout all year? You know of any other aquaponists (is that a word?!?) in slo? Everyone seems to have their own veg patch in slo, is very different from the UK, people seem far more into self sufficiency, can imagine it being popular there but then, you have so much regular agriculture and space for growing, do people see a need to move from what they know?

I visited this place a couple of years ago, incredible, commercial size green house in Prekmurje using geothermal to heat it!
http://www.oceanorchids.si/en/index.php

Hey there Tricky,
my system works fine all year long, but not with trout, i have carps in my system, almost 3 years old now (really big ones). The main problem here is fingerlings availability. I can get trout easily, but anything else, including carps is a pain in the ass. That's why i'm sticking with them and don't harvest them (and the fact that i really didn't like the taste of carps when i tried one). The other problem is that i haven't been able to find a cheap source of growbed media that doesn't contain lime here, because all our rivers have limestone gravel. And since i have loads of lime in my system, it doesn't have the filitering capacity that i'd like. The only option seems to be hydroton which is expensive. The third problem is my system design: first it heats or cools the water too quickly(too much pipes, small growbeds), second, the conventional GH just sucks in our climate, gets too hot in summers, and too cold in winters. My long term plan is to redesign the system into an IBC one and reconstruct my GH into a solar one. Only then i'll start to mess with trout again.
The closest aquaponic enthusiast i've met was in Hungary zsazsa, he's on this forum, and he made a really good system with a solar GH and is running it his first year.
You'r right, people here have lot's of gardens of their own, but i see potential in big cities, where most of people buy veggies on markets and big supermarkets and are interested in natural grown food. If a wholesome system was offered, solar GH with a good AP system with a good price I think there's a potential to sell some systems. Me and my gf made a market study and quite a wide age range of people were willing to buy a system in a range of 100-1000EUR. But on the end i doubt i could make a living out of that, my vision is more in a farm that offers dirt grown eco veggies with addition of AP grown fish and veggies. A few systems could also be installed in universities as study cases (have talked to them and they'r interested).
So there's an increasing demand for healthy foods here and with a good market strategy things can happen yes.

I know the case of oceanorchids, but i really don't like their moto, it's a typical capitalist one, grow bigger and bigger and sell as much as you can. They import orchids from Netherlands's labs and grow them to the market size here. Though a really successful firm, my heart is closer to the permaculture princples and i want to make this world a better one not just fill my pockets with loads of cash and go from one credit to another one - words from their COO

I've been visiting a lot of permaculture workshops and meetings these years and there's a growing population and interest in it, most of them (us) are people with their own plots of land who want to take a different road from mineral ferts and pesticides, lots of ideas but things are moving slowly so there's still a lot of things to be done, which is a good thing in a way.

Currently i'm finishing my degree on aquaponics and when that's finished i'll present the results here and i'll move on when i'm over with this in the meanwhile i'm working on my sustainable gardens and trying to make a showcase of how things can be done in the natural way, starting with my family and close friends.

When you move to Slovenia you'r more then welcome to share your ideas and give a hand to help get us back to nature.

Have a good day and stop by anytime,

Matej

Wow, thanks for the detailed replay
I am surprised you have problems getting fingerlings but is good to be aware of, I don't mind carp but am not crazy about it taste wise. I only ever see it sold alot in the UK around xmas, as the Polish and some others like it and I see the Chinese buying it as well but not many others.

I was wondering about the growbed media and the amount of rock being limestone which is a problem, although makes for nice color rivers and caves!

I did think that temperature would be a major headache as you get such a swing between winter and summer, I think a passive/ solar greenhouse design would be the way to go, am already thinking ahead to that and the use of straw bale construction, not sure I have seen it used in Slo but it should be fine. Can see clearing snow off in the winter being a pain though. Am spending Xmas and New Year in Ptuj this year, so will see how bad the weather gets. Have been the last couple of years in feburary/ march for carnival and its definitely cold but some nice sunshine.

I plan to start an IBC system here in the UK in the new year when I move house and slowly build some experience with it and in the mean time, maybe try and set up my gf's parents or her grandparents with a small system in Slo, to see how they do. They currently dirt farm and sell at the market in Maribor but would be interested to see how they would get on with a small AP system.

Is interesting you think you found some market potential, I definitely could only see it being more popular in the built up areas but can imagine a balcony system being popular, people seem to expect and enjoy a much better quality of produce than we get in the UK.

Oh I agree with you about oceanorchids, just writing my doctorate up on sustainable business, so definitely agree with you on the preference to run a business that has a positive impact through its operation. Interesting you are getting to lots of permaculture workshops, have they been in Slo or have you been having to travel? Is it more popular in austria would you say?

Did you manage to do a whole degree on the subject or just you thesis? Is great that you managed to get some studies on it and plan to use it in the future though.

Have a nice day

Hey there people !

This morning i got some hope, i found a provider of Metaquarzite and i could get it fairly "cheap" 4 tons for 180€, since it's sandstone based rock and is acid resistant, i think that after 3 years of searching this could be it?

Maybe this year my AP will get greener!

Please post your comments, i want to have this double-checked,

Thank you!

Give us a link!

Seems very likely to work well. If you get a sample you could test it, but I would say probability is 99.9%...

http://www.vetisa.si/753/kvarcitni-prod ... ez-prevoza)

here's the link, thanks for the thumbs up so far hydro!

I have another dilemma, either to buy:
quarzite for 180€ which is:
-cheaper
-pain in the ass to wash(have to wash it before use and ~every 3 years as it gets full of goo), although could install some filters to bypass that problem
-lasts forever
-can't grow carrots and such

hydroton(expanded clay balls) 2000L for 420€:
-expensive
-lightweight material, easy to handle
-lasts(how long?)
-can grow everything

What do you suggest, i'm leaning more and more towards clay balls as they have many pros towards stones.
What are your experiences with durability of clay balls?

Thanks in advance!

Good to hear from ya Molj....

I've been using clay balls in some of my beds... including shovelling them out, moving and reinstalling into new beds.... for 6-7 years...

I've not found any degradation at all...

I use 2/3 andetzit + 1/3 hydroton. Its perfect, carrots (not all type) grow deep down into that heavy stone without problem.

Recomended! If quarczit has some limestone in it thats even better!