Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Celery is one of our best performers here at the display centre, they just keep growing and growing.

A row like yours there would keep a family in celery all year if you just take off the outside stalks.

And your corn in very nice: many leaves are not striped (iron deficient) as all of mine are. Are you doing anything special to it? Vermi-tea?

I'd advise not trying to raise your water temp more than a few degC: it is far easier to keep water a few degrees cooler than a few degrees warmer than it would naturally stay. Evaporation becomes a real menace once you get it very warm unless humidity is high...

Darned nice system!

water temp in day +- 8-14 very cold.
plants treated with vermi tea

looks good....

I had some great celery last year, but have not been able to germinate it so far this year....

dont know why..... will keep trying

jT

G'day Francois!!

Thanks for all the help mate, your proposed system plan helped me to think in a new direction and I've come up with a design (largely based on yours) that i really like and think would be ideally suited to the situation in india!

the model shows the idea, all DWC grow beds, using swirl filter to get rid of main solids which are then dumped in the worm farms that run along the back wall, the area where fish tanks etc are located will be covered by a roof, to allow for rain water collection and to mount the solar system.........

what do you think....

hi i_ngsi
looks good
my personal feelling is that building any system is a learning curve
start and do as simple as posible and as your system grows you grow with the system.
work to the important parameters like water volume / growbed volume and growbed size
............ taking into account how many fish and vegy's you need to grow.
dam/growtrays/sumps/filters .........leave space for .......whatever..mods....if later required.

arround your dams and filters you need more space for when it comes to maintenance and harvesting your fish.big job and needs space
have dams next to wall and filters inbetween the dams and growtrays
your building should be able to open that side for the moving of fish
keep your dams on a level higher and use gravity.
water out of dam gravity into filters/growtrays/.........save on cost of elec
you only want to pump in cycles returning the water back to dam
not trying to show you wrong but from experience.....
just me thinking

growing with your system you find all the wrongs and by doing improvements as you go along you will get to the system that is good for you.
so keep simple always allow for improvements in your design if later it is required.


i think there will be people that dont agree with this way of doing things.
maybe extra cost but you will gain valuable experience allong the way.

making mistakes is what you learn from

the only true way is to find what you and your system can manage.

Me again hi to all
have not posted for a while but her goes.
my system i had to take down and that is what i have been buzy with over weekends.
i build the system all by myself and now i striped it down by myself.
all my fish i released in a farmers dam.
the farmers property is next to where my system was up and he came to the fence and i could pass the fish over the fence.(simplyfied moving the fish)

over weekends I striped everything down and today i removed the poles.
that was the last thing to come out and now the farmer will let me pass everything over the fence (shorcut/not far to carry the stuf) and with his trackter and trailer take it to where i can load into my trailer. This makes the moving a lot better.

Must have missed it Francois... why are you pulling your system down??

hi RupertofOz

More than one reason.

My system was not on my property and it was costing me
in travelling up and down twice per day.
The system was build as a pilot project/......so i allways knew it had to come down.
Then we are in a very bad drought and water was a problem.
each household 500l per day and if you use more...... you pay a lot more
and lastly me and the owner.......
that in short explaines why.
very sad

It's always a pain in the a#$e having to dismantle a system but the knowledge is the valuable thing and you can always apply it to a new system when the circumstances permit.

hi all
now that i have striped my system down i can say...
not a bad design for growtrays and most of my system.
my growtrays and duckweed dam all just rolled up into a small rolls.
easy to move and store.
all my pypeing can be re-used again.
nothing going to waste and easy to re-build.

Hey hey, haven't seen you in a bit francois, hope you doing ok.

Great work with making the system easy to move, a HUGE difference between your few rolls of liner and the big tanks everyone uses

hi all

i have been wanting to post the specks of my plastic liner.

i am not 100% percent sure but i bought the liner from Rino plastics.

2mm thick and it came in a 3mx30m roll.(hdpe i think)

http://www.rhinoplastics.co.za/

from catolog.(below)

Geomembranes (Dam Lining)
Applications
Mining - for prevention of contamination of the soil and underground water table
Tanks – Used as secondary lining for prevention of pollution in the case of leakage or chemical spill
Waterproofing of buildings and construction projects
Evaporation basins
Aquaculture - Water reservoirs for fish breading
Agriculture – Lining of dams for irrigation
Selection of Membranes


HDPE – this material offers the highest tensile strength, impact, tear and puncture resistance. It has very good ESCR (Environmental Stress Cracking Resistance) and the highest resistance to chemicals. Its disadvantage is its rigidity which makes handling and installation more difficult. HDPE is the preferred choice in landfills lining, insulation of chemical plants, roads, petrol stations etc. as well as in mining, due to its chemical resistance.


LDPE/LLDPE – These materials have good mechanical properties and are more flexible than HDPE so they can be handled easier. The new generation of LLDPEs such as metallocenes, match HDPE in strength while maintaining an excellent flexibility. They constitute, therefore, good alternatives where a very high chemical resistance is not essential.


EVA – This material has the highest flexibility of all polyolefin liners and is often preferred as replacement of PVC membranes. Its disadvantage is its low softening point, which makes it unsuitable for use in warm climates without covering. Various types of co-extruded EVA membranes are produced with Vinyl Acetate level between 9% and 18% (the higher the VA level the more elastic the membrane but the lower the softening point) as well as combinations of EVA with LDPE and VLDPE to take advantage of the useful properties of both materials.


FPP – Flexible polypropylene is a new polymer with an exceptional combination of characteristics : very good mechanical properties, excellent ESCR, flexibility superior to polyethylene, excellent weld ability and reparability, lighter weight per sq.m., very low coefficient of linear thermal expansion and higher friction coefficient permitting stabilization of soil at a steeper angle. These advantages make it an optimum choice for many

sorry better late than never

Good to see you still around Francois :]

hi abul
yes still around but
barely hanging by my fingertips
planning my next move.
me thinking
where when how and.....