Aquaponics 4: Fancy plans gets siliconed...

Hello all,
So now the time has come to turn my free growbed (AKA plastic milktray-thingie) into a true grow bed:

As the thing is smaller than I would have preferred and I want to increase the little amount of water I can send through the constant flood-system I decided to get sneaky... Also because I like to complicate things. A lot.

So I silicone "glued" three pieces of Acryl plastic into it to form a small maze. This should (...) force the water through as much os the Leca Grow medium as possible. Oh, and using Aquarium safe silicone, always.

Proof of concept. Well sort of. The water ran much to fast through so I decided to close tha gaps and drill smalle holes for the water. Really wish I had done this more carefully. I think this will come back to haunt me...

 Also I found out (with only a few liters of water on the floor) that I would need to plug up those holes for the hands at each end. Again I really wish I had done a better job at this. And here you can see what type of stuff you find within hands reach when needing something to weigh down pesky things :-).

Oh well, its only a test and its not like the water will ruin anything, right? Right?

Cost so far: 8$ for the silicone as my old stash had dried out (why does it always do that. Argh!).

For those not yet privy to the fascinating world of Aquaponics here is what information Wikipedia provides:

Aquaponicsis a sustainable food production system that combines a traditional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. In aquaculture, effluents accumulate in the water, increasing toxicity for the fish. This water is led to a hydroponic system where the by-products from the aquaculture are filtered out by the plants as vital nutrients, after which the cleansed water is recirculated back to the animals. The term aquaponics is a portmanteau of the terms aquaculture and hydroponic.
Aquaponic systems vary in size from small indoor or outdoor units to large commercial units, using the same technology. The systems usually contain fresh water, but salt water systems are plausible depending on the type of aquatic animal and which plants. Aquaponic science may still be considered to be at an early stage, relative to other sciences.

Basicly, this translates into let the fish shit, let the plants grow on the shit and clean the water, and then eat all the plants yourself... more or less....

All the best,
Kasper

Aquaponics 3: Washing Growmedium ... Gah!

Hello all,
As I will need to keep the grwobed as light as possible, I decided to use Leca pellets (produced by http://www.leca.com/). These are very light, looks like beneficial bacteria would love to live in them and my father-in-law has easy access to them so I could get a free bag from him. As a side not, I once dug, filled and carted out 257 wheelbarrows of dirt from below his house and then filled the same number of wheelbarrows full of leca pellets back in. The once full of Leca were so much more fun than those heavy dirt filled wheelbarrows! So I guess he owed me a favour .-).
Anyways, my trusty assistant decided washing half a bag would be fun so we made a mess of the bathroom and had a lot of fun.

The result was a large portion of somewhat clean Leca nuts - they didn't dirty the water anymore so we decided to have some coffee and coco :-).
I had been nervous that the nuts wouldn't stay put once the water came flowing through but a quick test run showed that they are just heavy enough to keep each other from floating around.


For those not yet privy to the fascinating world of Aquaponics here is what information Wikipedia provides:

Aquaponicsis a sustainable food production system that combines a traditional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. In aquaculture, effluents accumulate in the water, increasing toxicity for the fish. This water is led to a hydroponic system where the by-products from the aquaculture are filtered out by the plants as vital nutrients, after which the cleansed water is recirculated back to the animals. The term aquaponics is a portmanteau of the terms aquaculture and hydroponic.
Aquaponic systems vary in size from small indoor or outdoor units to large commercial units, using the same technology. The systems usually contain fresh water, but salt water systems are plausible depending on the type of aquatic animal and which plants. Aquaponic science may still be considered to be at an early stage, relative to other sciences.

Basicly, this translates into let the fish shit, let the plants grow on the shit and clean the water, and then eat all the plants yourself... more or less....

All the best,
Kasper

Aquaponics 2 - Apartment Aquaponics?

Hello all,
So my 'cheap-ass' Aquaponic system will not only have to be made from scratch but will also have to fit into a window sill, on top of an existing aquarium. "Impossible," I hear you say? Nonsense :-).

 This is the 54l (14 gallons) test-tank that will form the basis of the system. As you can see I've begun building a heavy duty frame to take the weight of the growbed from the aquarium. I think these are called two by fours or something, they were found a month ago in the trash... five unused lenghts of timber, just thrown away. Blows my mind. Anyways they will provide the frame while the box below (also found in nearby trash) will be the (first?) grow bed.

 Isn't it pretty? I think its an old milk tray or something similar. It will work fine. I hope?

 More construction going on...

 Test fitting the growbed on top of the frame. Looks good, doesn't it?
And small. I already want a larger system. Maybe next year, once I've persuaded the wife that this thing works. No one really belive I'll be able to pull this through.
Wish me luck!

Total cost so far: 0$
For those not yet privy to the fascinating world of Aquaponics here is what information Wikipedia provides:

Aquaponicsis a sustainable food production system that combines a traditional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. In aquaculture, effluents accumulate in the water, increasing toxicity for the fish. This water is led to a hydroponic system where the by-products from the aquaculture are filtered out by the plants as vital nutrients, after which the cleansed water is recirculated back to the animals. The term aquaponics is a portmanteau of the terms aquaculture and hydroponic.
Aquaponic systems vary in size from small indoor or outdoor units to large commercial units, using the same technology. The systems usually contain fresh water, but salt water systems are plausible depending on the type of aquatic animal and which plants. Aquaponic science may still be considered to be at an early stage, relative to other sciences.

All the best,
Kasper