tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Aug 28, 2018 9:55:26 GMT 10
Does anyone have experience in small scale aquaponics? Wondering if it is possible to convert a koi pond and what it would involve.
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paranoia
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Email: para@ausprep.org
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Post by paranoia on Aug 28, 2018 19:24:06 GMT 10
While aquaponics is an amazing idea, it's really nothing special... All you need to do is run the pond water over the roots of a plant and you'll have a system.
I've been involved in systems that ponds 5000-8000L with a few growbeds - flood/draining in expanded clay down to systems that are fish tanks with a handful of goldfish feeding a 20L drum of media.
For something simple to get things started... you can do a floating raft system with lettuce or similar which can be as easy as cutting holes in a boogieboard and inserting rockwool, then sprinkling lettuce seeds on the wool. Just float this on top of the pond and you have an aquaponics system!
All pond systems go through the ammonia to nitrite to nitrate cycle... then you do a water change. The only difference in aquaponics is instead of removing the water, you remove the nitrates with plants.
There are some things like buffering PH with shells so it doesn't go too high, making sure your media you use is inert so you don't introduce anything that kills the fish... but most is normal pond management.
If you already have a functioning Koi pond, most of the work is done... the system will have cycled and you just need to introduce plants. You can either add a second pump that dumps the water into a grow bed, or buckets, or strawberry tower... then just drain back into the pond. Or you can divert the existing drain from the filter pump into such a bed.
Thing to remember is while everyone tries to 'design the perfect system' so it's all in balance... if things get out of hand you can just do a part water change to drop your nitrate levels the way you would in a normal pond. If your plants start to yellow off you either need more fish or less plants... if you're growing too much algae do a water change and/or add more plants.
Start with easy plants like lettuce and work up from there. Expanded clay, rockwool, pearlite... any inert medium is great. I'd start with expanded clay balls for simplicity.
I need to take one of the girls to the after hours doctor... will post more later.
Bell-siphons are your friend!
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Post by Peter on Aug 28, 2018 19:28:27 GMT 10
I've done aquaponics in a converted IBC, but as paranoia stated the principle can be applied over various different designs.
I hope to get back into it one day, but I'm not keen on the feed pellets I used. I'm hoping to find a food for the fish that I can grow myself. Shouldn't be hard, but so far it's #237 on the to-do list.
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Aug 28, 2018 19:38:37 GMT 10
I saw a display once - the fish food was soldier fly larvae that they bred in their compost. We had heaps of them in our compost at the time so I remember it. But I don’t remember what fish they had, if that was their only feed, etc. Could be something to investigate though.
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Aug 29, 2018 0:12:27 GMT 10
There are ways to jig up a soldier fly larvae breeder box where as soon as the larvae are large enough they can climb over a lip in the box and they slide into the water. This gives you a nice constant feed of protein into your pond. Another great way of producing food for your fish is duckweed. Very high in protein and you just need to keep a smaller bucket/tank to grow it in as it likes more stagnant, higher nutrient water. Given appropriate conditions, it will double in volume daily.  Much of what often goes into a compost in the way of vegetable scraps makes good fish food also. This is often the stuff that doesn't make good compost anyway so is a much better value add to feed it to fish. If you come across some good specials or know anyone that disposes of large amounts of old vegetables, you can prepare this in advance & freeze it for good savings in fish food. You'll need to obviously supplement with different amounts of protein depending on your species of fish. Most setups that produce food for consumption in Australia use Tilapia as they're pretty fast growing, omnivorous, can handle some cold over winter ect... You can have barra if it's warmer (you'll have to heat/keep a glasshouse if you want to keep them over winter in most places in Australia) or trout if you're somewhere cold. Anything outside that is only if you have fingerlings available in your area. |
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Jul 7, 2024 11:02:41 GMT 10
Jul 7, 2024 11:02:41 GMT 10
