Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

For my case, growth was superb in the beginning and it slowed down with plants showing signs of deficiencies. I am currently re-planning a new system, and was hopping to narrow down the causes of problems.

Regards

how many GBs and tanks do you have? Do you have more fish than plants?

I have read somewhere in this forum (forgot the link) that fish poop can attach itself in plant roots hindering the its growth, you may want to install a filter.

Hi Xynax,

There is a link to my system in my signature, if you are interested drop over for a look and comment. Although it is currently being sidelined.

I will post the link again.
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=15742

Regards

Hi curious!

I have read your thread, paste some resource links in there. I am not an expert though I'm new to AP after all but I can help you finding resources in websites.

Hey there,

Cebu based... Actually a little more southern in Oslob.

Have had 1 'pet' project with a DeepWaterCulture in some blue containers and now i'm running better improved autosiphon growbeds.

Don't know why you can't seem to find all the materials. (or i might be spoiled living in cebu)

Except for chelated iron i could find pretty much everything i need. (right stone for growbeds was kinda a b*AAATCH though, my o so happy pesos left me prematurely)

If you need help i can ship some for sure.



my old system Basically contained 2 blue containers. 1 chopped open (in the wrong way ) to run as DWC's and one as a fishtank. With a fairly ghetto 'filter'.. Gave amazing results though. Couldn't chop enough basil, basically ate basil everything for months. Was a good eye opener and learner. Had a lot of leaks and lots of problems but kept my cool and now have a newer setup. Will post pics later on the day

Xynax,

Haven't been on for a little. But I see in an earlier post you are thinking of growing duckweed to "replace" the commercial feed. Duckweed although a great supplement. Can never be used as a complete food source. Though it should be able to cut your feed costs by a third. One thing to watch with duckweed is it absorbs so much nutrients that you may start seeing nutrient deficiencies in your other plants. If you try to grow too much if it at a time. Also the whole thing about fish waste attaching to roots are for a DWC. That is why you always filter the water before your DWC beds.

Thanks floridafishin!

I started growing duckweed to compensate for the lack of plants in my grow beds and I have to much nitrate in the system way beyon 80ppm I think.

The media will filter the waste, makes sense!

Today I will be installing a net to provide shade to my grow beds.

Good luck

Nice!

Are your grow beds in direct sunlight?

What are the plants you are growing?

Yeah! definitely need more pictures!

The old system (as pictured) was in full sunshine. 6AM till 4PM it was in the heat of the dying sun.
It became so hot you could fry an egg on the tiles on the terrace above. Due to the deepwater i guess it kept it pretty cool


the current system, two autosiphoned growbeds.
Still in the full sun by the way. Planning to build a green house and expand to more tanks.. so a roof will follow someday
Basic schematics, the biggest plastic container I could find in the local market (guess inbetween 800 to 1000Liters). Digged them into the soil so to keep them cool and have the growbed at a good working height.
Pump is way too strong for only one growbed (planning to add more to the tank) so i have a overflow pipe running back as a spraybar




Basil, as big as my hand




Growbed one, named Chio. The older one of the sisters.
She currently holds, tomatoes, basil, cucumber, eggplant, spring onions(imported, not doing so well i have to say), italian mix salad lettuce, turmeric, sambong (eeuh non asian name?), passion fruit, bell peppers and green peppers




Growbed Tinay,
She currently holds, turmeric, italian mix lettuce, babyleaf lettuce, holy Basil (tulsi), Sambong, Bell peppers, Chinese waterspinach (kangkong)
Doing less good then the other, might be due to having less fish and a lack of gravel.




Already harvested the bigger peppers here's a baby




Both of them again






This was january 8... Pretty awesome growth so far.

https://vid.me/BpyW
Video of when i just put them running. This was December 28 I guess. (as you can see, didn't wash the gravel at all. The water was murky and ugly for 1 day and now it's crystal clear)

Nothing special, all of it was pretty much a MVP (minimum viable product), didn't have the money to setup a system. So instead of waiting for money to be available. I build it first and then figured out where to find the cash to keep my budget in check.

So far not much to complain, waiting for it too mature. Harvest some lettuce already, kangkong and been picking at my basil a lot.


Running the system from start, basically left it out for 2 weeks without fish.
Gave it a cap full of seaweed extract (you can find it locally, cebu made) every day.
Then after 2 and a half week added fish. Extreme spike in nitrates
Now it's slowed down, PH is around 6.8 and 6.4, Little ammonia (0.25/0.50) and no signs of nitrite/nitrates anymore but looking at the plants i guess they are the one eating it!
plain old tilapia in the tanks by the way

Nice growth! Specially the basils!

I really need to get my PH down (mine is currently 7.6 - 7. maybe that hinders the growth of my plants and I only have 2-3 hours of direct sunlight.

I started on the 3rd week of November and I only harvested basils so far.

I was expecting that there were aquaponic shops here in Davao I was too idealistic so I tried to find the next best thing.

How many liters are your tanks and how many tilapias by the way?

Drop your PH NOW!... but slowly, don't haste yourself. take it over a couple of days.|
PH seriously affects your plants, by now your system should have reached a certain maturity to almost have all the bacteria in abundance available.. your High ph just makes a 'nutrient lock-out' the goods may be in the water, they are just not available to the plants.

is there anyway you can improve your direct sunlight? Either by placing mirrors or white 'reflectors' to add a little more sunlight. Or maybe move the system.

Aquaponics is mostly hobbyist, but if you do some research there must be people in the area. So far in cebu there are only 2 people heavily promoting it. And they are very very in hobbyist status. There is a commercial grower around my corner that you can't even find online. But by looking and adding into the community i find more and more people who are growing, or trying to grow.

Tanks are ... uuuh... i guess 200/300 liters, haven't checked. It's the biggest black bucket i could find in my province market.
Tilapia's, uuuh... same guessing here. I just bought a sack downtown, they said it contained around 100 tilapias. I didn't count them. I was only praying they would survive the 3 hour busride.. Might be inbetween 25/50 per container (had some fish die on me)

The nitrates are off the roof in my system maybe the plants are not absorbing them efficiently because of high PH. I will try ta take it down next week, It just rained so my 1000L back up drum is now full and will replace my tank water with it and maybe mix some acid into it.

I have thought of redirecting sunlight but I don't know where to start, the gap where the sunlight goes through is narrow about 1 meter wide and 2 meters high.

I have a facebook page of my system and its been there for some time and shared between my friends, only 1 has bothered to ask me how to do it, not 1 has told me that they have a system.

Thanks for the advise!

Here is the facebook page by the way!

https://www.facebook.com/DavaoUrbanAquaponics

Exacto mundo! As long as the nitrates are not extremely high (constantly in the 160PPM's) there is nothing to worry about nitrates can't hurt your plants. You just need to have more plants in your system



Many succesfull people will tell you that doing the same thing as everyone else is not the way to go. You gotta run the road less travelled.
Don't try to convince others that this is the way to go. Show them the example and educate anyone who's interested and those who are will find you anyone. Those who aren't maybe aren't worth your time.
I can be very persuasive and enthusiastic about AP but still most people smile and nod their heads praising me, without having any feeling towards this being the future of your own life.

Everyone at this point in the AP-future is starting off something in it's babysteps, praise yourself for being a early adaptor of a new technology. It will someday become 'mainstream' and then you will have all the more experience.


(besides that, talk is worth a lot less then 'walk'.. In AP a abundant growing farm sells itself)
Set the example first, then try to convert others