Indoor aquaponics project

[thedigininja]

So I'm busy building a small, indoor, aquaponics system for my fresh herbs and to test how sustainable it really is.

I'm going to keep a complete progress log for future projects and I thought that I would post it here for anyone who may be interested or are looking at building one themselves. I'll post all my successes and failures and let you learn from my mistakes.

[APX808]

That's really cool, I think rah45 was thinking about it the other day.
Please share some pictures of your work.

[thedigininja]

So I started with an abandoned 27L fish tank, a 45mm deep plastic tray just big enough to cover the top of the tank and a variable 4w submersible pump.

[thedigininja]

I discovered that I had some run off on the underside of the tray that was spilling water outside of the tank so I sealed off the ends with some marine silicone and added a small "spout" from the drainage hole.

Added the gravel (apparently the bacteria that you're looking for in your system prefer a finer grain gravel), prepared tap water (that was treated with store bought water treatment to remove chlorine and heavy metals), a couple of plants (that apparently help the fish be more comfortable) and, of course, the fish.

If you know your goldfish you may realize that I made an error in the video by calling them Red Commorants (a large black aquatic bird) instead of Red Comets but regardless they remain sparkly orange nuggets that crap like champs.

[Kbop]

Very Cool 

[thedigininja]

I realized quite quickly that moving the grow bed every time that I needed access to the tank was going to be a pain in the ass so I moved the setup around a bit.  I pushed the tray back as far as I could and still keep the drainage spout inside the tank and then screwed and siliconed a wooden rod to either corner of the protruding end to keep it stable.  Now I have a good access gap to the tank for feeding and maintenance.

I was a bit worried about the grow medium either clogging or flushing down the drainage holes so I built a "break" on the lowest end with pebbles and marble shards to act as a buffer and added a few extra holes for drainage because the pump was actually filling the bed with water faster than it drained, very nearly leading to a wet living room.

I have also placed the pots that will ultimately be holding my plants to;
          A: Test to see how well it draws water up into the pots and
          B: Incorporate an additional filter to the system because until the beneficial bacteria takes hold there is a risk of the fish being poisoned by the ammonia in their waste.

The pots are filled with the same layers of pebbles, shards and gravel as the tray.  I suspect that I made a mistake by adding the pebbles because I believe that they will reduce the absorption ability of the gravel but I have about 4 weeks until the system is cycled so I'll figure it out by then.  I am considering incorporating fabric "wicks" in the pots to assist with absorption like one would use in a suspended grow tank.

Updates may be scarce for the next few weeks as I now need to wait for the system to cycle before I can go much further but I will keep you in the loop if I make any changes.

[thedigininja]

APX, I only saw your reply now.  Yeah, as you see, I'll be uploading photos, videos and written logs as I progress.

[graynomad]

Interesting, I have thoughts of doing similar so will be following your exploits.

If it works (and it should) I might even buy another shipping container just for use as a "garden".

[thedigininja]

So my concerns about the pebbles in the pots were unfounded. Barely 24 hours after introducing the pots into the system the gravel in all the pots are moist all the way through. 

I have replaced the gravel in 1 of the pots with expanded clay pellets to test those as well.

[thedigininja]

Okay so I will be posting test results of the water quality on weekly basis but I'm ecstatic so I had to share this immediately.  I have nitrates!  I did a second test to rule out a false positive but that 1 came out the same.  It is impossibly quick because by all accounts it should take a month to 6 weeks for the bacteria which converts the ammonia into nitrites and then nitrates to grow and do their thing but less than a week in I have trace levels of nitrates present in my system.

I have a theory as to why this happened and spoken to a fish guy who reckons that the theory holds water, so to speak.  It's 2 part.

1. I placed aquatic plants in my tank that came from an established system and I believe that there was bacteria present on these plants.

2. At some point during the night my pump shifted and got clogged by gravel which almost killed my fish but it also offered the perfect environment for waste to fester and bacteria to feed.

[rah45]

I'm loving this thread.

[thedigininja]

Im glad to hear, rah. I have to say that I'm also rather enjoying keeping this "log".

[thedigininja]

With the nitrate level rising I had to act quick and get some plants in place. 2 rocket (1 in gravel 1 in clay) 1  watercress 1 thyme 1 celery and 1 strawberry (in the name of science I thought I should include a fruit bearing plant) I will still be adding 1 chives and 1 basil.

[thedigininja]

Week 1 water test results.
Day 1 (fresh tank)
NO3 0mg/l
NO2 0mg/l
GH   0d
KH   0d
pH    6.4
Cl2.   0mg/l

Day 3
NO3.  0mg/l
NO2.  0mg/l
GH.     4-8d
KH.     3d
pH.      6.8
Cl2.     0mg/l

Day 5
NO3.   0-10mg/l
NO2.   0-1mg/l
GH.     0-4d
KH.      3d
pH.      6.8-7.2
Cl2.     0mg/l

Day 8 (Day 7 kind of slipped me by)
NO3.   0-10mg/l
NO2.   0-1mg/l
GH.     0-8d (I was unable to get a conclusive result)
KH.     3-6d
pH.     6.8-7.2
Cl2.     0mg/l

Nitrates and hardness are on the rise.  Good for the plants and still within safe levels for the fish.

[thedigininja]

Transplanting from soil to the inert grow medium was laborious.

You have to gently remove them from the pots and shake of any loose dirt.  To get the roots free you need to submerge the plants in a large tub/bucket of water (I used purified water enriched with my homemade plant food) and gently work the soil out, almost tickling the roots to get them loose.

Once you have the plants free you need to get them planted.  What I did was place a level of gravel and pebbles, put the roots in and gently top up the pot with layers of gravel.

A few days in and so far no sign of transplant shock.

Unfortunately it was a bit difficult to record the process with a camera while being elbow deep in water and soil.

[Kbop]

I'm loving this!
I've used bubble gardens and drip pots but never anything this complicated. 
-
for growing hydroponic mesclun mix I put the seeds into a rock wool starter block.  Once germinated and rooted (in a tray with a 25% diluted hydroponic solution) they are moved into the grow out frame - a net pot with leca <a brand of expanded clay>.  works for me and very low attrition due to root damage.  I reuse the starter blocks several times over.  just let them dry out and clip any protruding veggie matter before re-use.
-
in ponds, I have put my pumps inside an old sock zip tied shut to keep sand and mud out of them.  I'm thinking it would work to keep grow media out of the pump.  I've heard of some people using a green scrubbie (like a scotch brite pad)  as a media filter.
-
That is very cool getting nitrates to develop so quickly.  the gravel should provide a lot of surface area for the bacteria to work. 

[thedigininja]

I actually had to go Google what on earth a bubble garden is haha.  This is my most complex gardening project so far. My cousin has been successfully farming aquaponically at the BOL for several months even supplying some nearby restaurants with all their herbs but he was just winging it and keeping no records. So I'm attempting to do this in a more scientific manner to gather Intel for a large scale project that we're considering.

I have some starter blocks on their way but I've been waiting forever because our postal service is pathetic.  Considered using cotton balls until they get here, I'll let you know how that works out. I'm familiar with leca, it's one of the only brands of clay pellets that's readily available here.

I like the sock idea. I've been worried about the pump clogging up.  I have also hooked my pump up to a UPS because we have rolling blackouts and 2 to 4.5 hours a day without a pump just isn't going to cut it.

[thedigininja]

It's recommended that you swap out 10-15% of the tank water with fresh water once a month.  With the rate that these little crap factories are going at it I decided to air on caution and do it today at day 9. I replaced with water from our filter which we use for our drinking water because it's as pure as one can get without boiling and loosing all the oxygen.

Plants are going strong.  Strawberry is sprouting new leaves. I lost about half of leaves on the Rocket in the gravel (all were younger leaves) but what remained seems content.

[Kbop]

I'm having a lot of fun reading your posts on this project.

I have some starter blocks on their way but I've been waiting forever because our postal service is pathetic.  Considered using cotton balls until they get here, I'll let you know how that works out. I'm familiar with leca, it's one of the only brands of clay pellets that's readily available here.

starter blocks;
before I decided to jump into the mesclun grower, I used to use scraps from a quilting project.  the batting material was scrap - so it was free.  the batting is spun polyester - photo at bottom.  it worked for germinating but wasn't deep enough for proper transplanting.  it didn't last for more than a single use - the growing plant would shred the material rather than grow through it.

please let us know how the cotton works out.

sorry about not annotating the bubble garden and leca.
bubble garden AKA bubbleponics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_water_culture

[rah45]

Just so you know Digi, I'm not the only one interested in how this project turns out. My father in law is quite an accomplished gardener, and he is somewhat skeptical about aquaponics. However, he is extremely interested and would very likely jump right into it if enough quality data was available supporting the success of aquaponics, from a source that I actually know. So you keeping such records may end up benefiting more than just these forum members.

By the way, where did you get your info in order to start this project?

[thedigininja]

That's awesome, rah.
The end game, apart from building our own full aquaponic farm, will be to supply community workshops with the details so that we can help under privileged communities be more self sufficient.

This project has been in the works for about 4 years. Starting with research and experimenting with hydroponics (initially just with chillies and certain medicinal plants). While we were busy with that we started researching aquaponics, what types of fish to use, other animals that can be introduced, caring for the fish etc. So really the info came from probably a hundred different sources from "complete idiots guide" to blogs and online gardening and fish enthusiast (those guys are weird) communities to actually going out to farmers and fish handlers. There's no one place that I can say THAT is where we got the bulk of our info.

[rah45]

Good to know. Thanks again for the input.

[thedigininja]

Something that I actually wanted to mention in the beginning of this thread is that I am in no way a successful farmer. When it comes to plants and pets I am essentially the angel of death. So if this does work then is all entirely on the system, it has nothing to do with any kind of innate ability on my part.

[graynomad]

That's good to know, so if you can get it to work we all can it seems

[thedigininja]

Indeed, gray.

Week 2 test results

Day 10
NO3 0-10mg/l
NO2 0-1mg/l
GH  4-8d
KH  3-6d
pH  6.8
Cl2 0

Day 12
NO3 25mg/l
NO2 1-5mg/l
GH  8d
KH  3-6d
pH  6.8-7.2
Cl2 0.8 (I cannot account for this chlorine spike but it was confirmed by repeated testing)

Day 15
NO3 50-100mg/l
NO2 5mg/l
GH  8d
KH  3d
Ph  6.8-7.2
Cl2 0(Back to normal)

As you can see nitrates, nitrites and general hardness are climbing steadily but unfortunately so is pH.

I've realized that will need to build a frame for the system to increase my grow area because the plants that I currently have aren't sufficient to absorb all the nutrients and keep the water fresh enough for the fish.  For now I believe that I will just need to maintain weekly water changes (replacing 10% with pure water) to control the levels until I expand the system.

I am getting ready to call time of death on the rocket in the gravel, it never recovered from the transplant(IMG17).
Everything else seems to be thriving(IMG15&16), the celery has grown 4cm since it's introduction.  I even have a new addition, 1 of the 3 basil seeds that I just dropped directly into a pot with some gravel has sprouted.