Hola Hackers, anybody here have an interest or experience with designing, building and operating an aquaponics system? I would like to build a living wall herb and veggie garden in my studio to mitigate the excessive nitrates being produced by my overstocked goldfish tank. I am regularly changing water @80 ppm of nitrates which I am giving to my window sill plants who are happier than pigs in sh*t, (the basil has exploded and we can’t eat it fast enough to keep up with growth).
I would like to utilize a single pump to power the system and rely on bell jar valves and gravity to manage circulation.
My wife had a great aquaponics system going which we let collapse a wile
back and she’ll be rebuilding this spring/summer. Her last system was how
you describe, lots of homemade bell siphons to make a flood-and-dump style
loop. it worked great. What are you looking for? Any specific
questions I could pass on?
I’ve talked to her before about recording her new build process and doing a
talk at the space once we get it organized into a slideshow or something
presentable. I’ll see when she plans to start and maybe we can get that
going. I know she used goldfish which looking for some tilapia fry but
had a very hard time finding the tilapia and stuck with the goldies. Hers
is out on our balcony, so kinda outside, kinda not? We’re talking about
the new one being somehow integrated in/through a window so she can tie the
inside cichlid tank into the system too, somehow, but we’re not sure how
that is going to work quite yet. For a growing medium I know she used some
clay balls, but she is using something different this time since those
tended to float. It worked great for some plants but others it would just
bury and crush them.
I’m researching the PH values for various substrates as well the optimum PH for the fish. Goldfish like 7.5, and from what I glean most plants and soils are acidic. Some of the mediums perlite and vermiculite have neutral PH with vermiculite having a buffering effect that perlite doesn’t. I am wondering if the system without soil would be or could be maintained slightly basic or if this is futile. Maybe this is why Tilapia are the most widely used, they probably like acidic water. Your cichlids love acidic water and are probably great candidates for aquaponics if they are not intended to be a crop, but rather just an engine for nutrients.
Hey I’ve found lots of interesting info from http://forum.openag.media.mit.edu/
for lots of people building food computers and sharing lots of good knowledge about Hydroponics systems in general.
I also found this book which has quite a lot of good info on different systems and the biology behind it all and still keeps it easy to understand.