Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello all

It is Oscar from Datca Turkey it is my first time here.

I have a question about building aquaponic farm.


When i bought this place i found there are alotof fresh water in the land and i have build a 500m2 lake for watering garden and fishing the lake about 2-4 m deep. Water feed by ground and well water so water is well oxygenated.

First 1-2 years lake water was crystal clear but later lake fludded by seaweeds from bothom to the top.


So for get rid of the seaweed, I have introduced some carps and mullets they have cleaned seaweed. Fishes are growed, Now there are about kilo each, i dont know the exact number of the fish. And there are tons of baby fish in the lake.

Then lake water turn to green gray. I went agriculture department an engineer inspected to lake and said there are so much organic matter in the lake that doesnt consumed by anything and they suspend in the water.


My question is if i can build a aquaponic system from this lake water if i can succesfully grow vegetables?

Thanks for all ansvers.

Ps. English is not my first language so sorry about it.

500m2 - small? You better post some photos. Everyone is going to want to see it.



Simple answer would be yes.

Pictures of the lake it is about 500m2

Fish from lake and colour of the water

Wow, great looking setup

Just thinking if i can manage to make aquaponic with this lake water. First I would like to try FTS system with combined with media bed then if succesfull i want to do some rafting ( DWC)

Any suggestion

You mean pumping water from the lake up into a media bed system and then having it drain back into the lake? - that will work. You could either pump the water on a timer or continuously. If your goal is also to get rid of the algae you may have to play with the size of the setup. I'm guessing that to rid the lake of algae it would be about a tenth the size of the lake but I don't know for sure. Pond plants (like water lilies, water hyacinths, etc.) can also help but they can quickly use up excess nutrients and get out of control so you'd have to find a balance with your AP setup.

You could add the media beds in different ways - they could be raised beds or they could be more of a bog filter setup or sort of a cross between the two. Probably easiest to harvest out of raised beds but might look better as a bog filter.

you probabaly cannot use all the nutrients from AP alone - so go for it as it will work fine but you will need an "in-pond" solution as well. Providing a lot of splash with a fountain in the pond will help with oxygenation (one on a raft can be moved around).

Scotty suggestion about water plants and a bog filter are sound.
Be prepared to take a lot of vegetation out as it grows so you don't end up with decay-cycle (from dead plant matter) issues.
Can be composted etc quite easily.

You are growing carp - if you like raising these then maybe look at something like grass carp.
that will enable you to have quite a bit of pond plants.

this is quite a good article > https://www.noble.org/news/publications ... rass-carp/

Absolutely gorgeous place.

Would love a 'small' pond like that but in my area it would probably either dry out and/or become salty. Very nice.

Ok my take on this.

(1)Initially the lake was clear
(2) An outbreak of seaweed (I read that as algae)
(3)Fish that fed on algae were introduced.
(4) The lake turned turbid, I would suggest organic and inorganic matter small enough to remain in suspension.
(5) No filter feeder fish in the lake to reduce suspended organic matter.

Now to the decision, feed fish and grow vegies or harvest fish (large) and grow algae?

Personally I would create a bog filter to take out the really small shit, section a part of the lake suspended fine nets to grow algae (to feed the fish) ie grow release the algae. Harvest fish when they get big enough.

Although it is difficult to see it appears the palms are already putting roots into the lake, these will grow and provide cover breeding areas for the fish (and take out nutrients).

Just my opinion

It is current plan start with small system.

Can i use this one for swirl filter. It is less then 70$ usd.

Update

Update2