Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

There are a lot of people on here saying it doesn't or wont work. They are wrong. It works. I set it up planted some seeds and within 2 days I had plants growing. In less than a week I was harvesting wheatgrass.

Its not a truly complete system. The air lift does not capture much fish waste so it has to be cleaned out every few weeks. But Ive had mine for a while. The PH is stable. Nitrates have been detectable since day one and only dropped once when I added water that contained chlorine. Ammonia slowly climbs so it has to be monitored. But when the Ammonia gets high use a small siphon to remove about a gallon of water along with the fish waste and de-chlorinated water back into the system.

Its a great educational toy at worst. (Can I call it a toy? I'ts fun to me.) At best it might grow some fresh herbs and lettuce for your family.

So when you say it works you mean that it doesn't but you don't kill the fish if you operate it the same way you would an aquarium?

An aquarium with insufficient filtration...

You have to monitor and adjust the chemical composition of a large system as well. The difference is changes happen faster because the tank is small. Ammonia build up a lot faster in a 3 gallon tank than a it does in 100 gallon tank.

Size doesn't matter. Ammonia should never build up, except for that very short period of time in the beginning of cycling.

A lot of complaining over nothing. In one week the ammonia only went up by about .5 ppm. Which could probably be corrected by decreasing the frequency of feeding.

If that is true then as you say no problem. but what you originally said was:



Your statement implies an ongoing problem and therefore a significant flaw in the system. Most BYAP systems after cycling have ammonia levels just at or below detection levels. For this one to not be able to achieve that implies that it is flawed.

Not to say that it is completely useless but I don't think I've seen any of these single unit desktop systems actually live up to what the seller promised. Either in terms of production or ease of operation.

What I don't like about the system is that it will just be landfill or space filler in a garage within 12 months for most people..

Someone will buy it or get it for a gift, grow something, kill something, then ditch it.

Yep I will have to agree with this.
I've seen too many of these gimmicky systems labeled as educational tools, etc. Although I will agree it is better than buying your kid an ipod, tv, or xbox, there are better ways to educate our young people and save plastic waste from the landfill. Table top systems will NOT be what puts aquaponics on the map. It will be commercially successful producers who are turning a profit, schools adding it to their curriculums, and more published research that does it.

And us eating our salad for two every day, and banging on about it to everyone who will listen

There is at least one high school that offers an aquaponics course in Western Australia. It is designed for Yr 11 students and is taught in a private school in the hills east of Perth; actually, not far from where several members of this forum live. I was keen on posting the end of year examination questions here but the teacher responsible asked me not to: apparently, some of his students access the forum and would thus gain an unfair advantage.

Umm since the year is over can you post them now.

Since study of past exams is a sensible part of an exam preparation schedule it wouldn't hurt for us to see them now would it?

I just had a naughty idea.

Forum members have to sit the exam and are not allowed to post on commercial topics until they have passed with a score of 80% or better.

Thought Burnsy was pretty close to the first teacher down our way to introduce students to BYAP.

I hope the exam setter has as much practical experience as he has and has a few HSM questions in there.

They were my thoughts, exactly, Stuart, and I sought the go ahead to post the exam questions on that basis. The answer was that so much work had gone into compiling the set of exam questions that it was intended to use the same ones next time around, ie this year.

The teacher who taught the course and set the exam has plenty of experience, especially on the technical side of things, eg use of ozone, biofiltration, UV clarifiers, etc. He has quite reasonable fish keeping experience (Silver Perch, Rainbow Trout, and Marron) but, from my observation, is not overly expert at the plant side of the equation.

Most importantly, however, he has the ability to inspire his students and that well and truly makes up for any minor deficiency in his fruit and vegetable growing knowledge, IMO.