Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi I’m kind of new to the whole aquaponics and hydroponics thing I was wondering which one is better. My main concern is growing plants so I wouldn’t really be interested in harvesting fish but which system should I choose, can aquaponics grow plants as fast as a well setup hydro system? Any info and comparisons would be great.
thanks

Hey there Green, welcome to the forum..

Aquaponics has been found to grow plants faster than hydroponics.
Here's a link to an article about his findings http://www.aquaponicsjournal.com/articl ... perior.htm

And hey, you don't have to harvest your fish, you can just watch them grow larger and larger as they provide nutrients for your plants.

welcome green...
Aquaponics is a all natural approach to growing both fish and plants...
You can grow either ornamental fish and salad/veg... or grow food fish with ornamental plants... or both plants and fish ornamental... or both plants and fish for food... its all about what you are after.
What kinds of plants do you want to grow - for flowers or for food? if for food, what kind of food plants are you after?

welcome green.

An expansion on that article ( Dr Sav. spoke at a conference some of us went to) is that he found that AP grew quicker than Hydro, so he had the AP water anyalysed and made up the exact nutrient values the AP had with inorganic hydro chems for the hydro setup, and ran the comparison again.
AP still outgrew the hydro

Lets see what other benefits i can list...................

Fish are more fun for the kiddies to watch and feed than nute bottles are

No need to drain and renew nutrient solution when it is exhausted

Less water usage than Hydro due to the above

You get to spend hours here chatting with us

AP Rules! Green, get some nice ornamental koi or fancy goldfish to enjoy.

Root growth i substantially greater in aquaponics too. A little later I may be able to upload some comparison photos.

Hi i was wanting to grow mostly herbs chillies and other stuff like that, and also something that will grow real fast so i wont get impatient, gor the basic construction i was going to bury a old weely bin in the ground and then have the water pumped up into a series of pvc tubes up on the fence and have them all flow into each other and then back into the bottom what do you guys thing, will i get root rot? Will it work

The pict i no its real crappy but its a basic idea will it work?

looks fine to me Welcome Green

There is a similar system working right now , and it is working great! ( click HERE to view it and what has been said about it )

I would drop the pump lower into the wheelie bin so that it can attempt to remove some of the solids...

Hope you don't have rocks and clay for soil like we have here. That's a deep hole to dig. I'd never make it here!

Wasn't there an entry in the wheelie bin contest where the PVC pipe spiralled around like a Christmas tree? that might be fun, too.

in cairns here its all clay but its monsoon season so its all as soft as butter here at the moment, just one question with airating the water if i have the pvc tubes totally full with gravel do i need to airate it or just put some air stones in the bin, also the pvc would probably be around 10cm across would roots clog something that big and where i actually put the drainage pipe at the end of the tubes so i want the water to be trickling along the bottom of the pvc tube, or have it half flooded all the time and do i need a timer or can i just let it run, simplicity is the best

Green, read through AM's thread concerning his Peace students and what occurred when they were burying their IBC...

http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... php?t=1237

Granted a wheelie is perhaps a little stiffer than a stripped down IBC...
but still wonder whether or not you should brace the sides??

AM is probably just around the corner from you... it might be worth while getting in contact with him

green, just personal preference for me, but i'd NOT put any gravel in the PVC pipe, have a CLOSE read of steve and anges system to see that they have a 20L (approx) bucket filled with gravel being fed by the pump and then gravity feeding their 13m of PVC pipe, before returnng to the tank.

I'd be scared of cloging issues with gravel i the pipe.

You have no idea HOW close Rupert!!! ...

I drew up a sketch of the system on sketchup, a free bit of software off of the net... is this what you had/have in mind?

I would also avoid the gravel in the pipe - clogging is bound to happen and it will result in the loss of a lot of precious water