Aquaponics- the Dream build.

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DWC1000wHPS4x4x8

Member
My old university agricultural program had an aquaponics teaching lab.

Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics into a recirculating system.

Aquaculture is fish farming.

The big picture - a large reservoir that fish are grown intense density that through the bacterial nitrogen cycle enrichment creates an almost ideal fertilizer that is used to hydroponically grow plants In turn scrubbing the water clean and then recirculating fresh water back to the original fish tank reservoir.

The only input into the system is fish food and replacing evaporated water.

This is my retirement dream system. Thought this community may enjoy the concept and theory of it.

What do you guys think of the dream.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
DWC1000wHPS4x4x8 said:
My old university agricultural program had an aquaponics teaching lab.

Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics into a recirculating system.

Aquaculture is fish farming.

The big picture - a large reservoir that fish are grown intense density that through the bacterial nitrogen cycle enrichment creates an almost ideal fertilizer that is used to hydroponically grow plants In turn scrubbing the water clean and then recirculating fresh water back to the original fish tank reservoir.

The only input into the system is fish food and replacing evaporated water.

This is my retirement dream system. Thought this community may enjoy the concept and theory of it.

What do you guys think of the dream.
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I'd say it's time to stop dreaming and start building it!

I'm in the process of doing something similar, myself. I'm just not as far along yet.
 
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DWC1000wHPS4x4x8

Member
I think the way I would do it is with a 300 gallon fish tank into a flood and drain table sitting above the fish tank draining via auto siphon back into the tank and aerating as it falls so it would run the entire system on just a single pond pump.

I would grow strawberries and tomatoes and such on the flood and drain table in a small out door green house.

Then every week or so I would drain off 30 gallons of water from the system and use it for a stand alone stealth DWC grow indoors.

That would let me add a tiny bit of micro nutrients specific to our favorite plant so I could quality control the solution to the highest hydroponics standard with the macro nute base being self sustaining and organic.

I think the fish I would grow would be tilapia.
 
WeedFreak78

WeedFreak78

Well-Known Member
I've looked into tilapia, which is common for aquaponics, but i don't think they would be good in my climate. I think I'd do trout and catfish. I have a 100Gal fish tank sitting in my basement waiting to get set up for a small indoor nft rail for herbs, lettuce, etc. on my porch. If it works well I'd like to find a large, 300+gal+, tank to make a centerpiece in my house, but plumb it to feed all my indoor hydroponics...yeah i'm a dreamer.

Ideally, If I can ever get the right piece of property, I'd like to raise trout and catfish like i said, and do some type of aquaponics off it. Both for self sustainability and for profit, I think I could sell trout to quite a few local restaurants...I wonder if the state would buy them for stocking ponds..hmmm? But forget a 300gal tank, dig a small pond, or a good idea i saw, buy a used above ground pool and burying it 3/4 or so in the ground. The ground helps to regulate the water temps and keep it from totally freezing ( if that's even an issue where you are). Have gravel/sand/sediment filters made out of some kiddie pools. Add in some wind and solar and I'd be all set.
 
MikeGanja

MikeGanja

Well-Known Member
WeedFreak78 said:
I've looked into tilapia, which is common for aquaponics, but i don't think they would be good in my climate. I think I'd do trout and catfish. I have a 100Gal fish tank sitting in my basement waiting to get set up for a small indoor nft rail for herbs, lettuce, etc. on my porch. If it works well I'd like to find a large, 300+gal+, tank to make a centerpiece in my house, but plumb it to feed all my indoor hydroponics...yeah i'm a dreamer.

Ideally, If I can ever get the right piece of property, I'd like to raise trout and catfish like i said, and do some type of aquaponics off it. Both for self sustainability and for profit, I think I could sell trout to quite a few local restaurants...I wonder if the state would buy them for stocking ponds..hmmm? But forget a 300gal tank, dig a small pond, or a good idea i saw, buy a used above ground pool and burying it 3/4 or so in the ground. The ground helps to regulate the water temps and keep it from totally freezing ( if that's even an issue where you are). Have gravel/sand/sediment filters made out of some kiddie pools. Add in some wind and solar and I'd be all set.
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I have also looked into Tilapia for growing Cannabis in aquaponics. I couldn't find any information on the yield and quality of cannabis produced in a aquaponic systems. This is far beyond my knowledge but I assumed that it can be problematic to add extra calcium, magnesium and other nutrients during flowering. If anyone has information on this, please let me know. :)
 
ButchyBoy

ButchyBoy

Well-Known Member
Two summers ago I ran a 100 gallon pond with about 50 large gold fish in it below a flood and drain table using a bell siphon in our greenhouse. I grew tomato's, banana peppers and radish's in it. The bell siphon was way better than using a timer to control the pump.
The tomato plants and radish's got huge!!! The banana peppers grew pretty much the same as in the ground. The pond stayed crystal clear!

We are going to be putting in a pond (1200 gallons +) for our fish and turtle soon and am going to bury a pipe to supply the greenhouse with water from it. I am debating burying a return pipe also so I can set up another table. I need to do some testing to see if the bell siphon will work with pipe that is long and horizontal. It might not. I imagine an over sized pipe after the initial drop would work.

Mmmmmm... Fish poop peppers!!!! :clap:

As for adding extra to the water.... I never did but I wasn't growing cannabis in it.
 
AlphaPhase

AlphaPhase

Well-Known Member
I've been wanting to make an aaquaponics ssystem, too.. Maybe someday 8-) will be following for updates and to learn.
 
WeedFreak78

WeedFreak78

Well-Known Member
MikeGanja said:
This is far beyond my knowledge but I assumed that it can be problematic to add extra calcium, magnesium and other nutrients during flowering. If anyone has information on this, please let me know. :)
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ButchyBoy said:
As for adding extra to the water.... I never did but I wasn't growing cannabis in it.
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I would think someone would make a fertilizer that is fish safe, there are plenty of people running Koi ponds etc, with crazy vegetation in it. Personally, I would start looking into compost teas, organic composts, etc., and adding that to the system. Some of the synthetic ferts may be harmful to fish..IDK. There are a few YouTube videos of people growing cannabis off a fish tank in their house..
 
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DWC1000wHPS4x4x8

Member
Without a specific analysts of the micronutrients It's hard to tell but as far as additives go in ANY system Iknow it's really hard to mess up with worm tea. If I was using some great compost in a worm box and just using that I bet it would be fine. As far as adding back in micro nutes anyway.

The lab at school added in red compost worms directly to the flood and drain growing beds to help break down solid waste and speed the mineralization process (dissolving solid nutes into the water)

In my current idea the indoor DWC stealth grow would remain unchanged and disconnected from the aquaponics and the water used would not recirculate back into the system. So if I NEED to add in a drop of root builder or whatever then no big deal right?
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
DWC1000wHPS4x4x8 said:
Without a specific analysts of the micronutrients It's hard to tell but as far as additives go in ANY system Iknow it's really hard to mess up with worm tea. If I was using some great compost in a worm box and just using that I bet it would be fine. As far as adding back in micro nutes anyway.

The lab at school added in red compost worms directly to the flood and drain growing beds to help break down solid waste and speed the mineralization process (dissolving solid nutes into the water)

In my current idea the indoor DWC stealth grow would remain unchanged and disconnected from the aquaponics and the water used would not recirculate back into the system. So if I NEED to add in a drop of root builder or whatever then no big deal right?
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It's not really aquaponics if the flow of water is only one way. It would work, you'd just have to take on the job of cleaning the fish pond.
 
SnailPowered

SnailPowered

Well-Known Member
Hello, I found this forum looking for info about aquaponics and I saw this. I used to have a 150 gallon discus tank. If any of you are familiar with discus they are a rather delicate fish to care for in an aquarium. My aquarium had a homemade sump because my friend owned an aquarium store and had built and maintained over half a dozen sump systems around the city. I really enjoyed keeping fish but now I want to put the filter to use doing more than just filtering water. I am not sure about growing cannabis in an aquaponics setup but as far as setting it up to grow leafy greens like lettuce, basil, oregano and those types of things I know I can help a lot. When it comes to needing the calcium and other ingredients I have not found the answer to that yet.

Is anyone actually building a system? Share some pics!

I'm moving in the next couple of months so until I buy a house where I'm moving to I won't be setting up a system myself sadly.
 
ButchyBoy

ButchyBoy

Well-Known Member
WeedFreak78 said:
I would think someone would make a fertilizer that is fish safe, there are plenty of people running Koi ponds etc, with crazy vegetation in it. Personally, I would start looking into compost teas, organic composts, etc., and adding that to the system. Some of the synthetic ferts may be harmful to fish..IDK. There are a few YouTube videos of people growing cannabis off a fish tank in their house..
Click to expand...

I can tell you this.. The tomato plants grew great! Had great color and production right up to the time I pulled them due to winter. They are similar to our plants of choice.

I did toss some worms in there thinking they would turn to mush but they were still going strong when I cleaned it out and larger. You would be surprised as to how much good stuff will build up in the medium you are growing in as it is filtering the water. I made sure to pull water from the bottom of the pond where the sediment settled.

It took a small amount of adjusting to get the water to fill and drain quickly so the roots don't get soggy and rot. I used a 850 gph pool pump on all the time in conjunction with a bell siphon. Once the bell siphon is set, it will drain a large table in seconds!
 
SnailPowered

SnailPowered

Well-Known Member
This video is very long and boring but I really like the setup at the end. I used this as the basis for what I want to build as soon as I move.


Here is an illustration of how I would set up my system. Feel free to ask questions.

These are videos from a guy that does what I want to do!

 

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SnailPowered

SnailPowered

Well-Known Member
DWC, I looked on CL and found those 55 gallon barrels for $10 each in Seattle. I'm not sure where you are located but they're similarly priced in El Paso, TX as well. You could also do smaller barrelsm I saw 35g barrels as well. Just search for "food grade" on CL!
 
Bhookus

Bhookus

Member
I am currently setting up an Aquaponics system of approximately 600+gallons. It consists of a 220g planted aquarium, a 2x3 flood and drain table, 2x 140 sumps, and 7x 30g water softener tanks. The flood and drain table is for leafy greens and initial clones. The 30g tanks will have two plants each and 5 will have cob lighting on a light rail with a Scrog of 144"x 40". This will be the main MJ grow area. Pics and more info to come.
 
Voidling

Voidling

Well-Known Member
Search aquaponics on this forum, there was a person making one.

I know about tilapia and raft culture. University of the Virgin Islands started a lot of the research on this particular set up.

For leafy greens it is recommended to feed 60 grams of fish food per day per meter square of raft. For heavy feeders such as fruiting plants of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers then it goes up to 100 grams per square meter. Asst these numbers there is too much nitrogen but is the only way to get other nutrients high enough to supply the plant needs.

I'm not a fan of media beds for several reasons. It allows for anaerobic build up in the beds. The cost to support the weight up off the ground, maybe not as big of a deal on small scale. Probably a few others but my choice is troughs of water on the ground.
 
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DWC1000wHPS4x4x8

Member
I can see what your saying about the potential for deoxygenated dead spots in a flood and drain bed. Especially a big deep square with 90 digree corners. And in general terms I don't think of soil less media as a pure form of hydroponics at all really.

BUT it's the only system of aquaponics I can think of that would naturally alow for the mineralization process of solid and simi solid waste to further break down and disolve into a liquid solution without vacuuming out the tank like an aquarium.

And if you did vacuum out the solids that didn't liquefy or have some mechanism for mineralization you would loose all that excelent fertilizer.

While i may use water samples from a well established system to enrich an indoor independent grow i would NEVER use aquaponics in my front yard to grow herb.
 
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DWC1000wHPS4x4x8

Member
Snail- once i looked at your set up i read about a really cool barrel system being manufactured by a charity organization and set up all over Africa! It uses 3X 55 gallon drums And a tiny solar power pump.

The first barrel is the fish tank. Is positioned at the very bottom laid on its side with the pump in it.

The second is a sump tank for aeration and gravity feeds into the fish tank.

The last barrel is cut in half lengthwise and acts as two media grow beds for vegetables and auto siphons down to the sump tank.

Super cool stuff man.
 
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