Aquaponics pond

[livebearer_breeder]

You've inspired me! Thanks SamH just wanted to double check, super cheap alternative to hydro grow media

[livebearer_breeder]

You may have already covered this somewhere, so if you have i am sorry, i am just curoius what your method is for the dry period? do you have a cut off or a flow switch?

[maxim_nz]

You may have already covered this somewhere, so if you have i am sorry, i am just curoius what your method is for the dry period? do you have a cut off or a flow switch?

gidday :-)

originally i used an overflow siphon (simple curved pipe) pump goes all the time to growbed.. now I have retrofitted a proper bell siphon into the growbed (tricky job in a established media with plants) I highly recommend Affnan's various blog articles on bell siphons. I read and re-read this before i set mine up.

http://affnan-aquaponics.blogspot.co.nz ... vised.html

The mint root has taken over quite a bit, so my grow bed does not flush right out as well as it should. But it's good enough for now. Still got strawberries fruiting at the moment.. Parsley enjoying the cooler weather also.

I'm glad people enjoy this thread. Working on a new plan right now. Need more space for aquaponics and more fish, having fresh plants to eat is such a pleasure. Cleared out a 6M x 3M space in the bush at back of section...I have literally been going just like this smilie. When I get something figured out I'll post some pictures.

:digH:

[maxim_nz]

A quick update after the winter quiet zone: Since last post, obtained free bath from next door neighbours bathroom renovations, and that became a sump which the main pond overflows into, I moved the pump into the sump/bath and placed two plastic pallets (also free) above the bath. 1 pallet has had the feet removed, so it became a pallet tray so to speak. What I have done for those who are unsure is, I've converted the basic setup I've been running into a CHOP2 system (Constant Height One Pump) that is fairly popular in Australian setups. So now I have a deep water culture bed, as well as clay media flood and drain growbed, strawberries in a milk jug on a dripper. I removed the old planter box above the pond and it can now showcase the goldfish nicely.

I also added another 20 goldfish to give it more nitrate output :gigl: possibly around 60 in there now.

Have tomatoes, strawberries, parsley, lettuce and (mint: on the side away from grow bed) not leaving it late this year, making the most of this mild winter and getting things ready early. Yes my avacado is also living. It's around 1M height and was transplanted into the new growbed along with the all the worms that were also in the growbed.

Can post some pics if interest from forum: just don't want to bore folks with gardening photos as plants are main benefit here. I do like my fish and unlike most aquaponic systems I find on youtube I don't hide the fish away in covered tanks.

[Caryl]

Pics definitely!!

[Dr A]

Did you grow the avo from a stone? If I recall correctly it probably won't fruit well/at all. Perhaps worth it just for kicks however.

[maxim_nz]

Did you grow the avo from a stone? If I recall correctly it probably won't fruit well/at all. Perhaps worth it just for kicks however.

yeah, grown from the stone which was simply placed in the growbed and ignored. When I read about avocado (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avocado) it appears to be tropical, grows to 20M in height and likes well aerated soils. I've hardly given it any special treatment, it's basically outdoors in Wellington at 200M elevation above sea level and gets zero direct sunlight over the winter months.. I would say it must be a Hass avocado as it has survived some very cold storms including that infamous snow where it was down to -7C here.

Done plenty of other well planned fish and garden experiments that failed, kinda cool :bggrn: that this one is defying what should not work and is now the largest plant in my aquaponics. Keeping it going just for kicks.

Will get some decent pictures of current setup next few days and share..

[Dr A]

Yeah, to clarify, even in ideal circumstances, any tree grown from an avo stone isn't likely to fruit well - similar to most commercial apple verities.

[maxim_nz]

Pics definitely!!

ok. Overall view of setup.

New bath and deep water culture is at top, long white pipe beside pond is cleaned water from sump (bath) into pond.

Closer view of deep water culture (basically plants on a polystyrene raft with roots directly in water). Adaptation is elevating the polystyrene with a air gap above the water, gives root oxygen without need of water bubblers most commonly done in these setups.

Strawberries cultivating on the raft (under view of roots) all the clean white roots are new growth in 1 month

[camtang]

Very COOOOL!!

[maxim_nz]

My small (hydroton) grow bed. Bell Siphon, flood and drain. Good view of avocado, parsley and new season tomatoes

Closer view of the bell siphon with cap removed.

Strawberries: Grown in milk bottles with dripper.

Left one if full of hydroton clay media and very well established, the two right ones are new setup using strawberries from the deep water tray and full of coconut fibre. These two are much lighter..

[maxim_nz]

FISH PICS :f77:

These guys are what makes the plants grow.

They always want food. Nice and friendly

The kids have nicknamed this big black male "batman" on account of big flowing black fins and the more prominent nostrils like bat ears..

[maxim_nz]

My goldfish powered tomatoes are now 2.4M high (17 Dec 2013)

Here's what they looked like on 14th Sept 2013

The deep water culture tub. Very easy to grow lettuces.. anyone could do this.

Bathtub and plants on left / pond on right. Bathtub acts as sump. All water goes back here

Experiment: moss scraped off concrete outside grows lush and deep

Fish.

I did have parsley growing in here also, but I planted it outside in a large tab where it gets more all round sunlight and feed it all the used ground coffee beans. They are now massive.

AQUAPONICS: This is purely just done for fun and learning how to grow the most I can in the smallest space with the least amount of water :-)

- I just got sick of cleaning filters and stumbled across this on the web. Filtration is achieved by settlement of solids into the bathtub and growbed. Worms and snails break these down. Water clarity is excellent.

[Ira]

My goldfish powered tomatoes are now 2.4M high (17 Dec 2013)

You fraud. :slfg: But if that date's right...Can I borrow the camera you used to take a pic of some lottery tickets?

[maxim_nz]

My "indoor area" aquaponics has been voted an acceptable place by a member of the New Zealand Wildlife Community.

This frog has been living in the deep water bed that previously had the winter lettuce growing. It sunbathes on the black plastic edging, and will jump in when you go out to feed the goldfish, hang out the washing, get some tomatoes etc.

It's been here last 2 weeks, there are plenty of spiders and flies living around the system, so hope it hangs around a bit longer. No goldfish seem to the missing either.

[maxim_nz]

Update December 2014

(this is my continuing small scale aquaponics experiment. Done at altitude in cold, windy Wellington using recycled parts + goldfish, snails and worms)

-Changes over winter

I removed the small growbed and replaced with half a Coromandel Mussel Buoy (broken one off a farm, bit tricky getting this back to Wellington in sedan car) Nice and deep now for Tomato roots, needed another 100 litres of hydroton to top it up on top of existing media. There is a nice population of worms in the growbed also and freshwater snails in the sump. Both supplement the goldfish food.

Overview

Mussel Buoy sits on top of sump (bathtub)

End on view

I also replaced my somewhat fiddly deep water culture trough with 2 x hydroponics gulleys and I'm testing lettuces, chillies, strawberries, Onions, and odds and ends in. I got 7 x gullies = $15 off trademe :-)

ONION: doing good, hope to get some seed off it.

RED ROCOTO CHILLI

I have other seedlings if anyone wants one. They are a fabulous addition to a Lamb curry

LETTUCES:

Seems to me to be the BEST way at growing lettuces fast compared to soil garden, grow media or deep water culture. I place these guys in netpots with roots wrapped in coconut fibre, they are much better supported this way and don't get blown around in Wellington wind compared to the deep water culture. They just go nuts. We leave them growing and take leaves off as needed for salads.

FISH!

Doing good now, had a few deaths as I tried to get them back on a good food regime after winter, would be good to know how others do winter feeds and then get them back into condition and producing lots of waste, water clarity is fantastic and never any issue. I love sitting watching and feeding them. Most other aquaponics setup I see on youtube seem to hide them away :-(

SNAILS:

Nuisance, they seem to love destroying the sunflower seedlings at night :-(

OTHER CASUALTIES:

This poor guy fell into the (sump) bathtub and was long gone when I found him..

INDOOR WINTER TEST OF TOMATO

I took the last growing tomato plant inside in June 2014 and popped it into the tropical tank. In no time it completely outgrew the warm air space under the light, so I let it bush right out and I took 10 or more cuttings of it - cuttings are now back outside and flowering nicely...

WHAT TO DO NEXT:

Long term it need a solids filter, so will figure something out.. lots of examples on youtube.

[kiwiraka]

Very nice! :gpo2: I don't think I've seen this thread before

For feeding through winter you only really need to stop feeding when/if the temp drops below 6°C (ish) when the temp gets that low their digestive systems slow down and the food can rot inside them.

Now to start at the start and read the whole thread :cofn:

[maxim_nz]

Couple of quick picture updates at the start of the growing season..

Overview (wide angle) view of goldfish pond Goldfish Pond (Oct 2015)

Overview of the 2 x mussel bouys - 1 as a media growbed and other as deep water culture Growbeds

Goldfish: (underwater) picture of some of the big ones. Small white one you can see on left is typical shop sized fish for sale. big goldfish

All healthy, nice stable system at the moment. Have moved goldfish to a home made diet (cooked carrot, broccoli, rice, spinach) + bugs, snails etc. Doing well.

As well as the plants and Goldfish this eco-system comprises of worms, fresh water snails, fresh water shrimp (in the sump) the occasional frog and quite a few bugs, spiders

Nice to see a few other kiwis having fun with alternative gardening also :-)

[Adrienne]

Really good to see you are continuing to grow this way   Sometimes people try for a couple of years and give up, but hey why give up when its proving so successful.

At the Auckland Fiskkeepers stand at the Pet Expo this weekend there was an aquaponics set up - I thought it was quite ingenious - using the water from the goldfish tank which ran through the tube (attached to the side of the tank stand) with the plants in it, before getting to the cannister filter, which completed the filtering and returned it to the tank.  I don't think I have a clear photo of it though.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Adrienne

[maxim_nz]

Adrienne: sounds interesting, any photo would do if you have one..

Goldfish: This is now the 3nd day of spawning, they are laying eggs all through the mint, and with this many hungry goldfish around I bet most have been eaten, tried to save as many as I could and they can grow out in the deep water culture mussel bouy with tomatoes and lettuces. 20C yesterday in Wellington. I guess that triggered them..

 

[maxim_nz]

Just to counter the latest photos at the end of a goldfishes life, here is a photo at the start of some goldfishes lives..

A photo of the growing goldfish eggs in my deep water culture bed, there are probably more unfertile eggs than viable and growing ones. There are also noticibly richer (gold) coloured eggs than others. You can work out the eyes, and the main backbone.

While I was looking at these with a magnifying glass, one of the developing fry inside the egg did a flip.. so cool to see.

Now I figure out how to feed them in a few days time..

 

[hovmoller]

This thread is an inspiration!!

Thank you!.... one day... one day...