Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I was wondering if anyone here has looked into setting up an off grid aquaponics in a country with no reliable electricity as a source of food for a village?
If so could you please give me some pointers on how you went about it? My church supports a South Sudan village and I would love to be able to do something really constructive to help them
Thank you.

All you really need is solar panels large enough to supply enough power to run whatever pump you decide to use. So you need to decide how big of a system you are going to make first to help choose what pump you need then determine how much solar power you need.

Do you have any experience with aquaponics yet or are you just starting to look in to it? That will help us point you in the right direction.

Both my systems, and my house are off-grid, it works just fine if you have enough PV and battery, and a back-up generator in case of extended cloudy weather.

I've some experience and am just starting a new system at home using the natural slope of our ground.
However in the South Sudan in Africa there is a real food shortage and civil war issues currently. I was wondering if there was a way of doing a very low tech system so it is less likely to be a target for damage. Simpler the better. Pumps, batteries and larger scale PV could be targeted.
Could beds be more wicking, but not sure on circulating water through filtration bed or aeration in such a system.

Wicking beds would be better than nothing just due to the fact that they still use less water than typical dirt gardens... I'm not sure the water situation in Sudan, but I would think using less water anyplace is a good thing. Plus with wicking beds you still get the benefit of whatever soil you use to make the beds... so if the soil isn't good for growing then adding new top soil / potting soil / compost etc. to make the bed will make them grow much better than trying to grow in crappy soil.


There are systems which use air pumps instead of water pumps to move the water around. Might be able to use less electricity that way to use smaller PV panels that wouldn't be as noticeable.

The hard part is that probably no matter what you do it's going to be a target in a war torn country because the opposition is either going to want it for themselves or destroy it so others can't have it... so I'm not sure what you can do to negate that... I guess the goal would be to make something as cheaply as possible so it's easily replaceable if something does happen to it.

There is a thread on here regarding iAVS (integrated aqua vegeculture system... http://iavs.info/ ) I have not looked in to it enough to know how it is really different from aquaponics, but if you look up that thread on here the original poster has more info on it, but when I asked what the difference was I'm not sure I quite saw a difference... it is toted as being for developing countries, and I believe the OP was in costa rica with an off grid type of system.

If you can get some plastic sheeting and a pipe of some sort you could dig a meter wide x 0.4 m deep "D" shaped trough in the ground with it's length preferably level if not sloping slightly down hill. Lay the plastic in the trough taping joins and make the ends and edges come to the surface.
Cut or drill small holes (3-5 mm x 1 every 40 mm) in the bottom half of the pipe, deburr and lay holes down in the middle of the trough on the plastic. Place a vertical (stand) pipe at each end of the horizontal pipe with holes at the bottom so you can see and measure the depth of the water. The better the connection to the horizontal pipe the quicker the transfer of water.
Get some old clothing and lay over the pipe a couple of layers thick about 300 mm wide. Use some straw or dead (seedless) grass and place over the cloth 10 mm thick.
If lacking good top soils mix the dug out dirt with manure, sand and compost. Back fill the trough to about 3-350 mm deep.
Cover the grow bed surface with mulch or straw to help retain moisture before planting out.
Fill each stand pipe with water every day until the water level stablizes at 50-75 mm deep.

You'd then have a solar powered, water conserving wicking bed that could be hidden, not be stolen or totally destroyed and extendable.

Edensreturn.com offers an off grid Pop Up Aquaponics kit. The kit includes everything needed for off grid food production. The kit produces 6,500 pounds of organic food every year for up to 40 years. The kit is portable and can be installed anywhere without the need for tools. It can also be taken apart and moved to a different locations as needed. It is very easy to learn and comes with complete instructions. The domes could also be used for shelter if needed. The off grid package will power all the equipment and will leave a small surplus for other needs. The domes are able to collect and store water but if you are needing to transport water to the dome I could add at least 10 five gallon buckets to the kit so the village would be able to do so easily. I would need to add at least 2 shovels to the kit so the fish pond could be dug, for mixing soil, and for filling all the fabric pots. The only inputs I would not be able to do internationally at the moment are the red African compost worms and the fingerlings which could easily be sourced locally. I would also recommend at least two off road dollies to be added to the kit, this would make transporting the solar panels, battery bank, and other heavy equipment a lot easier to location. If you have any questions about Pop-Up Aquaponics visit edensreturn.com.

Wow yeah I have lots of questions about your systems. So you can produce 3 ton of fish and veggies every year from a 25 foot dome with no inputs into the system. All using duckweed and earthworms grown within the dome? 350kg of fish every year for 40 years with no inputs? Just dig a hole in the ground, fill it with water and stick a few buckets around it.

It's people like you that give aquaponics a bad name, cherry picking figures and cobbling them together in a complete fantasy. Wow... Just wow at the ordasity of such claims...

So, simple question... How do you take over 3 ton out of the dome each year when nothing goes into it? Where does it come from? Some magic?

$30,000 a year.. $290 an hour working from home? What has everyone been doing wrong all these years with their systems?

10-fold return on investment in a single year, you say? Sounds reasonable to me.

$30,240 / $290 per hour = 104.275862 hours... I only have to work 104.275862 hours to make $30,240? That is 104 hours 16 minutes and 33 seconds... Sign me up! That is a little over 13 days based on an 8 hour work day... I think I'll work an entire month so I can make over 60K this year and I can quit my full time job and have 11 months to dilly dally.

I wonder what the cost of shoves is? Going rates at 1200.00/spade? :joke: rough terrain dollies (1500.00 each)?

Adam

I'll buy 2 for about 12 grand total then only work 4 hours a day to make 60 grand from home.. oh bugger.. I don't have a home.. lol

Ya both are slackers, I'll take four! It is time my boys start paying their way.

EB, perfect solution for those extended stays in the Bush when talking to your IT friends overseas with all the inbound traffic soon to be coming......

Adam

You are putting your boys to work, and we're the slackers???? Hows that work?

I thought that EB must have been on vacation again the other day because I couldn't connect for half a day... things are going to get worse if EB has 11 1/2 months off and only works 13 days a year for 4 hours a day... (or is that already the work schedule... hmm?) =)