Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

HI!

I've come to Dhaka, Bangladesh in the hope of building up an aquaponics system. My mother is from Bangladesh which means, quite luckily, I have some help here, and a little bit of land to build the system upon.

My aim primarily is to design a system which can be easily replicated - that is, made up of easily obtainable local components - this is crucial in Bangladesh as there just isn't the same material available here as we're used to in the west. DIY also is non-existent.
To that end, I'm using half a barrel as the fish tank, and several smaller drums (30 litres) as plant beds. Each of these drums will have its own flood and drain system.

My design plan is to have 4 drums on one side of the tank, and 4 drums on the opposite side - (arranging them in a right angle is also possible)

Right now, I'm deliberating over two things:
1) what could I use as a stand to hold the drums up?
2) what kind of growing medium could I use? I've seen a lot of broken up bricks around, and I think after rinsing the red run off, being porous as it is would be a benefit - any suggestions otherwise would be appppreciated.


Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Lucien

Welcome Lucien!

Sometimes bricks will leech a white substance... not sure what it is. If I recall correctly, it is alkaline and may affect the pH of your system.

If you have them available, cinder blocks could probably make a decent stand. I have scrap lumber holding mine up, but that will eventually have to be replaced because of rot/termites.

lime

Thanks for the advice, I've been on the look-out for different growing mediums, but bricks are certainly the most easily available.
I didn't bring any water testing kits from London, as I assumed (wrongly as it turned out) that I'd be able to find some out here, so I'll assume the water is alkaline - I'll have to find some litmus paper somewhere.
I'd been hoping to find some tilapia here, and it's available, just not right now (Eid, the big Muslim holiday has just been, as well as my set up being pretty small, people generally only want to sell a large amount of fingerlings at a time) but I'm on a tight schedule (visa runs out soon) so I think I may have to make do with Climbing Perch - locally called Koi. I wasn't particularly keen on them at first, as they're not as appealing for me as tilapia are, but it seems I may have to be make do with them, as they're very cheap and very hardy.

The system is being cycled as we speak. Here is what it looked like a couple of days ago, it's been cleaned and tidied up since.

Thanks for the advice so far, any further suggestions? Are there any particular kinds of plants that could possibly act as an alkaline sink?

Thanks,

Lucien

Very interesting ideas! What kind of plastic are those containers made out of?

Yes it is Nonprofit Organization Management industry.. which have 1001-5000 employees Dhaka, Bangladesh...!

What you talking about Shayan...

A little suspicious of this account Mods.... look at the other recent posts...

Some more pictures are here. http://www.forumpakistan.com/picture-gallery-f76.html