105 Gallon System Update coming soon

I've been slowly working on my friend's 105 gallon system.  We have the canister filter installed and pumping water.  We have our media in the grow bed.  We have the bell siphon installed and working.

Unfortunately, we lost the color code chart for testing pH and other chemical levels, so we're waiting on a replacement chart to balance our water chemistry before starting fishless cycling.  Hopefully in the next week, or less, we'll receive our replacement color chart, and we'll be cycling.

On a side note, I received an Arduino as a gift from a Reddit gift exchange.  I'm learning to use it, and will ideally be able to set it up to monitor the system.  I know it can monitor water temperature.  I'm hoping I can also set up sensors to trigger supplemental lighting when it is a gloomy day.  I'm also wondering whether I can use pH sensors and other chemical sensors to monitor everything about my system.  I'd love to also build an automatic fish feeder, but that's down the line a bit.

Anyway, keep a look out in the next week or two for an update with pictures and video.

Advice on Aquaponics from a Hydroponics Expert

Recently, I spoke with a hydroponics expert, Dan Sypolt from Garden Indoors, a hydroponics store in Bristol, PA.  I had come to the store to buy 190 liters of expanded clay grow medium for the 105 gallon aquaponic system for my friend's apartment.  Instead of just selling me their product, Dan really helped me decide upon the best way to approach the system that I'm working on (I ended up not buying anything at that time).  He brought up some great points that I don't hear being discussed very often in aquaponic forums that I read.  His advice has led me to re-planning the system I'm building, and I think it will be a more robust system with this new design.

First, Dan suggested that typically, hydroponic systems are only flooded with water around 4 times during daylight hours.  My windowfarm had been trickling water 24/7 which over-watered my strawberries.  I have read many suggestions for a 15 minute flood, every hour.  Dan suggested that this was probably too much (at least from a conventional hydroponics perspective).  I'm going to start the new system with a 15 minute flood every 3 hours, and see how it works out.  The less pumping, the more energy saved on electricity.

You might be thinking that flooding the system every 3 hours will not provide a moist environment for the bacteria to grow in my media beds.  This leads me to Dan's second suggestion.  In the store, there were several hydroponic setups that were similar to my aquaponic setup, except that instead of having one large grow bed filled with media, the grow beds were holding potted plants, and the grow pots were filled with media.  This used a lot less media than filling the entire grow bed, which will save you money.  The grow bed is essentially acting like a flood table.  This allows you to move the plants around easily without disturbing the roots.  You can also remove plants easily, and it also makes the grow bed much easier to clean.  All the solid waste that builds up in the bottom of a grow bed can be a smelly pain in the butt to clean.  This isn't a problem with this setup.  You don't have to worry about media guards for your plumbing, because the grow media never touches the plumbing.  The flood table would look something like this:

Now, you may be thinking, "What about filtering the water? What about the bacteria?"  The grow bed in a flood and drain system typically acts as a filter for solid waste, as well as the location for bacteria growth, essential to aquaponics.  If the water is not being pumped into the grow media, than where is the bacteria growing, and how is the solid waste filtered.  For this, Dan suggested using a typical aquarium filter.  There are several filter types available. If you're using an aquarium, a hang-on-back filter is fairly inexpensive, but may be less reliable than other filters.

   

A canister filter is usually a little more expensive, but more durable.  I've chosen to use a Canister Filter for the 105 gallon system that I'm building (pictured below).

Another filter type that Dan mentioned was a Wet/Dry Trickle Filter.  This is like having a separate, smaller media bed specifically for growing bacteria.  It can be attached to an aquarium, but they seem very bulky.

The filter that Dan suggested would work best is a Fluidized Bed Filter.  These are highly efficient biological filters that have enormous bio-load capacities and take up very little space.  They are similar to a wet/dry trickle filter with extremely small media (typically sand), but air is pumped into the media causing it to flow around.  This flow causes the bacteria to be "bumped off" the sand grains, and more bacteria grows in its place.  Bacteria can adapt very rapidly to increases or decreases in bio-load.  With such a small media, the surface area is huge, allowing for an enormous amount of beneficial bacteria.  Here's a cool video to demonstrate how it works.

So, with all this in mind, I think this is a better way of designing a flood and drain aquaponic system.  The canister filter cost me about $100, but I'm saving at least $80 that I would have spent on expanded clay pellets.  I haven't researched the other options extensively to write about all the pros/cons of different filters, but the canister filter seemed durable and efficient.  As for the system design change overall, I think that the pros outweigh the cons.  What do you think?

Aquaponic Windowfarm update 17 May 2013

So the windowfarm was not looking too great this morning.  My air tubing got clogged with solid waste, and stopped pumping water.  The parsley looks sad.

The garlic is hanging in there.

On the bright side, the mushroom farm that I ordered from Back to the Roots has started to show mushroom pins.  I've grown edible mushrooms before, but I had some problems with the first kit from Back to the Roots, it just didn't grow.  The replacement, however, has started to grow, and we should have some full-size mushrooms in a few days.  I'm still a bit skeptical about their aquaponic kit.  I'm worried that the 3 gallon tank is not enough for a betta fish (recommendations are for a 5 gallon tank minimum for happy fish).  It is a nice concept, though.  I'm expecting to receive mine sometime in the upcoming months.

Aquaponic Windowfarm Update 6 May 2013

Our windowfarm is having some ups and downs. The strawberries are growing and starting to turn red.

I planted some garlic and its sprouting.

The rosemary is great.

The parsley is great.

The basil isn't growing. Any suggestions on what I should try to replace it with?

I'm going to finally finish the plumbing for Pogo's 105 gallon system this week. By next weekend we should have it filled with media and water. We'll start fishless cycling, and hopefully be growing soon!

Windowfarm Update 3

The Basil doesn't seem to be doing too well.

The Parsley is thriving!

I've cut the rosemary a few times for tasty recipes.  It's still growing strong.

The strawberries are coming along, and we even have a few small berries.

Berries!

However, I'm afraid that I may be overwatering the strawberry plant.  The leaves are turning yellow and brown, which may be a sign of overwatering.  I'm planning on getting a timer to stagger the water flow.

I planted some spare garlic that I didn't use for dinner!  It's sprouted and is doing well.

Our Venus Fly traps are open.

Parsley is doing well, lavender is not.

Meow!

Beautiful Aquaponic Systems

One thing that's important for many potential aquaponic systems is beauty.  People don't necessarily want something in their yard or home that looks like a science project.  Here are some really beautiful systems.  I'm hoping to use these as inspiration for my future projects.

Pros and Cons of Different System Types

Commercial Aquaponics

I've been trying to compare the pros and cons of different types of aquaponic systems recently.  Right now, I'm working on constructing a 105 gallon setup at my friend's apartment.  We're making a simple flood and drain system, with a 50 gallon grow bed.  Filling that grow bed will require almost 200 Liters of expanded clay or some other media.  All that media is going to double the cost of our system.  We were thinking about alternative methods, such as expanded shale or even something like legos (but we don't have nearly 50 Gallons of legos).  The cost of buying a grow media for a large grow bed is so high, that it really got me thinking about alternative systems.  Here's a list of pros and cons of various aquaponic systems.  If you know anything that I haven't listed, please leave a comment and I'll add it to my list and credit you.

Media Bed Systems

Chift Pist, Simple Flood and Drain (Ebb and Flow), Constant Flood (Continuous Flow)

Pros

· Self Cleaning - The grow media filters out the fish waste
· A media bed performs three (3) filtering functions:

    · mechanical (solids removal)

    · mineralization (solids breakdown and return to the water) 

    · bio-filtration

· Media provides better plant support and is more closely related to traditional soil gardening because there is a media to plant into

Cons

· Expensive growing media

A Typical Media Bed

Chift Pist

Pros

· Pump is in sump tank away from fish and wastes

· Water level in fish tank remains constant

· Great if you have a tall fish tank

· Larger water volume because of sump

Cons

· Extra equipment required (sump tank)

· Must have tall fish tank or stand

· Can take up larger footprint

Chift Pist system

Simple Flood and Drain / Ebb and Flow

Pros

· The grow bed can be separated from the fish reservoir

· Simple design - Only two major system components - lower cost

· It is easy to understand and learn

· Great if you have a tall fish tank

Cons

· Requires a timer or bell syphon
· Pump is in fish tank, exposed to fish and waste

· Water level in tank fluctuates a little

Simple Flood and Drain system

Constant Flood / Continuous Flow

Pros

· Same as the Simple Flood and Drain, except when you remove the timer, the system is constantly flooding

Cons

· Pump is in fish tank

· Plant roots can become waterlogged, and areas of the grow bed can become stagnant and anaerobic as the flow of fresh water through the bed moves around any blockages

Constant Flood system

Deep Water Culture (DWC)

Pros

· Resistant against water temperature and pH fluctuations

· Excellent root development due to easy access to oxygen

· There is plenty of surface area for the beneficial bacteria to grow

· Very good for lettuces and leafy vegetables – used extensively by commercial farmers

Cons

· Requires additional filtration to remove solids

· Large plants such as tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. can be difficult, if not impossible, to support

Deep Water Culture system

Nutrient Film Technique (NFT)

Pros

· Both components (fish and plants) may be decoupled from each other whenever required and can/do operate independently of each other if required.  I believe this is important in a commercial situation because it allows fish or plant production to continue when and if there are any problems with the other component

Cons

· Water susceptible to temperature fluctuations
· Requires additional filtration to remove solids
· Roots that die and detach from plants can cause blockages in water flow

· NFT is only really suitable for certain types of plants, generally leafy green vegetables, larger plants will have root systems that are too big and invasive, or they become too heavy for the lightweight growing gutters

Nutrient Film Technique system

Sources:

• http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/guide-to-aquaponics/running-system/
• http://myownaquaponics.com/home-2/get-started/
• http://aquaponicgardening.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Aquaponic-Gardening-Rules-of-Thumb.pdf
• http://affnan-aquaponics.blogspot.com/2010/12/conceptual-3d-rendering-of-aquaponics.html
• http://www.kijanigrows.com/
• http://globalaquaponics.wordpress.com/tag/commercial-aquaponics/
• http://aquaponicsusa.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/watch-our-humble-seed-lettuce-thrive/
• Comments on reddit that corrected my mistakes:  http://redd.it/1d18i8