Anyone Trying Aquaponics?

[Crossy]

This thread (now closed) in totally the wrong forum got me thinking http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Busop-You-t356557.html .

I've been looking at a small hydroponics system for the family for a while, but I'm worried that they lack the required level of responsibility / skill to maintain the nutrients in a reliable manner.

Sooo, how about Aquaponics (Google "portable farms aquaponics"). They already have a pond with Tilipia (and geese) swimming around and pooping in it so all that's required is a suitable growing area and a circulating pump. Of course nothing can be that simple

Anyone with fish actually using (and re-circulating) the waste water for plants? What ratio (area of plants to number of fish) works? How well do the plants do in the less than ideal nutrient concentrations?

I'm not looking at this as a commercial venture, but everyone like fresh fish and veggies, if we can increase the fish stock (there's no filter system at present) and grow some veggies as well (with of course a minimal financial investment) I and of course the little lady will be happy.

And, the veggies do count as 'organic'

Thoughts, experience?

[WatersEdge]

Fish water is not going to have the nutrient balance needed by plants.

There are plants with very aggressive roots, Water Hyacinth for example,

[WatersEdge]

Aquaponics in the closed loop sense you are talking is not simple or easy,

in my opinion not practical.

Something has to be added or concentrated for it to make sense,

and that boosts cost.

Fish Pond water does not have the nutrient balance or concentration needed by plants.

The Hydroponics folks can tell you exactly what that balance is,

it's a well defined formula to emulate good soil nutrients in water.

I'm confident a fish would not be comfortable in it.

Fish thrive in nice clean water,

plants want nutrient rich water.

In time past,

some of my very foul fish water may have been good plant water,

but I'm not proud of the fact,

and my fish didn't grow well in it.

There are plants with very aggressive roots,

Water Hyacinth and Morning Glory, for example,

which extract nutrients from pond water,

but that water isn't ideal fish water.

and there's no great market demand for those plants.

Even the migrant workers won't steal the stuff.

Fish will Thrive or Survive

in either good or bad water quality.

The difference is the viability of your fish farm.

Water good enough for plants is no good for fish.

Having said all that disappointing stuff,

Here is what I do on my farm.

Pump clean river water into a fish pond during the dry season,

with rainfall watershed during the rainy season.

Grow fish as intensively as oxygen level permits,

with a feed load far too heavy to maintain water quality

without heavy water replacement.

Then pump the fouled fish water out to the sprinklers,

and to the hog barn for washing the hog waste to the field as well.

My pond is situated beside the drainage path of a field and paddy watershed,

enabling me to divert any flow desired into the pond.

In time of modest rainfall,

all drain water flows into the pond.

Only during an especially heavy storm does any water flow past.

There is an exit line from the pond as well,

should I not be able to use available water on the farm.

I have level contour water retention trenches in the fields,

for three purposes.

1. Rain Catchment Runoff & Erosion Prevention

2. Hog waste labor minimal distribution the full length of the field

3. Soil Moisture Saturation

In this way, no water is dumped downstream to no purpose,

while no fertilizer value is lost.

There is a pump energy loss of course,

because I could have pumped river water to the sprinklers,

but this is recovered by the added intensity of the fish pond

This "Aquaponic" connection is not a closed loop,

only two associated systems.

I add far more fertilizer to the field crops

than is provided by the fish pond water.

I have three other ponds built on the highest ground of the farm,

so that their effluent runs to the field by gravity

requiring river water filling during dry season,

with excess runoff water from the low pond during rainy season.

Other fish farmers dump their pond effluent onto rice paddies below,

with impressive visible results on the rice,

but with the downside that excessive nitrogen on rice

without matching phosphorous and potassium

grows excessive rice plant size without grain.

Valuable crops have specific requirements for top yield.

The most effective combination is to move lots of water efficiently.

[Crossy]

This site http://www.aquaponicshq.com/ is worth a look. Plenty of people are making it work reasonably well, well enough to be worth a serious investigation.

I think it's important to remember that we're not necessarily looking at maximising yield by providing absolutely perfect growing conditions for either the plants or the fish (as we would if using hydroponics and aquaculture), but providing acceptable conditions for both and maximising use of available resources (particularly water) and by minimising waste and environmental issues such as run off.

This, if I understand correctly, would be in line with the Sufficiency Economy mandate.

I also understand that if grown without insecticides, aquaponic vegetables can also count as organic.

I also found another site that talks about growing weed (mainly hydroponics but touching on aquaponics), I'm not going to provide a link 'coz that would be against forum rules, but Google is your friend.

[rice555]

Hello Crossy, I think to get a system working right, it's a lot more work and knowledge

than using pond water to water a dirt garden. It's more involved than my mixing nutes with water and using a meter to check my EC level.

If it doesn't work out of the box here in LOS, you'll be flogging a dead horse.

rice555

[Crossy]

Hello Crossy, I think to get a system working right, it's a lot more work and knowledge

than using pond water to water a dirt garden. It's more involved than my mixing nutes with water and using a meter to check my EC level.

If it doesn't work out of the box here in LOS, you'll be flogging a dead horse.

Having done more research I tend to agree, and it's definitely NOT for my rural family.

It can certainly work, I may try it myself

[IsaanAussie]

I have seen a simple application here. A huge fish pond on which is grow that tiny leafed water plant. The pond is fertilised with pig wastes and the plants harvested daily and feed to the pigs. The cat fish are enormous.

That is zero energy dependant other than some plain hard work.

IA

[teletiger]

I think you are referring to duckweed. There were a few threads on it in the early days of TV. Amazing stuff. Very high protein. Under the right conditions, can double every 2 days, if memory serves me. Here's the (probably) definitive site for it.

http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/resources/documents/DW/Dw2.htm

Regards.

Edit: Some good aquaponic and hydroponic videos on Utube.

Edited August 13, 2010 by teletiger

[teletiger]

Aussie aquaponics. Good site.

http://www.ecofilms.com.au/#3

Regards.

Edit: 'And here's a Canadian in Thailand. Do we know him?

http://www.aquaponics.net.au/aqua1/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=85:aquaponics-in-thailand&catid=46:projects&Itemid=53

Edited August 13, 2010 by teletiger

[IsaanAussie]

TT,

Thanks for the links, interesting stuff.

Yesterday I purchased a sewage pump for the 6 septic tanks in the pig sty. I have a large pond in front of the pig sty which is just begging to have duckweed added. No excuses left just a need for the time to do it, and of course a source of duckweed to start. On the list of to dos along with other things. I used to live near a wat in suphan buri that had a lot of duckweed ponds and was alive with fish.

One day.

Isaanaussie

[jaideeguy]

This may be of interest to the OP......my post on 'converting my swimming pool to a fish farm in winter' on the 'swimming pool forum'.

After my failure, I did some research and found that it can be done [in theory] with a biological filtration pond several times the surface area of my swimming pool......a costly addition especially when the purpose of my experiment was to save money on electricity and chemicals.

I used to have some useful links that are now lost, but will try to find them again and post

[xen]

A couple other sites for other aquaculture info

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1705842.htm

and

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/

Seems to explain the systems quite simply .

[furyrider]

Crossy

I have also been looking at Aquaponics for over a year. I have payed for some literature and planes that gave me a lot less information than what I have found on line. The University of the virgin islands has a lot on line. From what I have been able to gather from all the research that there is a few formulas to follow with fish quantities and feed ratios to hydroponic area. As long as these ratios are followed you will have a balanced system on what ever size your needs are. http://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/getFactsheet/whichfactsheet/105/ This sight has a lot of the research data and the system that UVI uses for there research. It is also the system that I am getting ready to build sometime this spring. The area I am going to build on is in rice so I have to wait until harvest then back fill 1and a half rai. Not sure yet what materials to use yet. The rearing tanks I want to be fiberglass and the clarifier sump and bass addition tank all should be fiber glass. I think the filters could be cement with a poly lining. The beds are going to be DFT floating system. Not sure how I will build them yet I keep bouncing between block and poly lining or just buying something prefab.

[finnomick1]

Aquaponics in the closed loop sense you are talking is not simple or easy,

in my opinion not practical.

Something has to be added or concentrated for it to make sense,

and that boosts cost.

Fish Pond water does not have the nutrient balance or concentration needed by plants.

The Hydroponics folks can tell you exactly what that balance is,

it's a well defined formula to emulate good soil nutrients in water.

I'm confident a fish would not be comfortable in it.

Fish thrive in nice clean water,

plants want nutrient rich water.

In time past,

some of my very foul fish water may have been good plant water,

but I'm not proud of the fact,

and my fish didn't grow well in it.

There are plants with very aggressive roots,

Water Hyacinth and Morning Glory, for example,

which extract nutrients from pond water,

but that water isn't ideal fish water.

and there's no great market demand for those plants.

Even the migrant workers won't steal the stuff.

Fish will Thrive or Survive

in either good or bad water quality.

The difference is the viability of your fish farm.

Water good enough for plants is no good for fish.

Having said all that disappointing stuff,

Here is what I do on my farm.

Pump clean river water into a fish pond during the dry season,

with rainfall watershed during the rainy season.

Grow fish as intensively as oxygen level permits,

with a feed load far too heavy to maintain water quality

without heavy water replacement.

Then pump the fouled fish water out to the sprinklers,

and to the hog barn for washing the hog waste to the field as well.

My pond is situated beside the drainage path of a field and paddy watershed,

enabling me to divert any flow desired into the pond.

In time of modest rainfall,

all drain water flows into the pond.

Only during an especially heavy storm does any water flow past.

There is an exit line from the pond as well,

should I not be able to use available water on the farm.

I have level contour water retention trenches in the fields,

for three purposes.

1. Rain Catchment Runoff & Erosion Prevention

2. Hog waste labor minimal distribution the full length of the field

3. Soil Moisture Saturation

In this way, no water is dumped downstream to no purpose,

while no fertilizer value is lost.

There is a pump energy loss of course,

because I could have pumped river water to the sprinklers,

but this is recovered by the added intensity of the fish pond

This "Aquaponic" connection is not a closed loop,

only two associated systems.

I add far more fertilizer to the field crops

than is provided by the fish pond water.

I have three other ponds built on the highest ground of the farm,

so that their effluent runs to the field by gravity

requiring river water filling during dry season,

with excess runoff water from the low pond during rainy season.

Other fish farmers dump their pond effluent onto rice paddies below,

with impressive visible results on the rice,

but with the downside that excessive nitrogen on rice

without matching phosphorous and potassium

grows excessive rice plant size without grain.

Valuable crops have specific requirements for top yield.

The most effective combination is to move lots of water efficiently.

If it's of any interest to you, every straw mushroom grower will snap your hands off to get a regular supply of water hyacinth. They are a vital ingredient in the growing media because of their ability to retain moisture in those root systems. We have 4 large fishponds with tilapia and pla duk which we grow from fingerlings and have water hyacinth growing in them all, but we regularly search the surrounding countryside for ponds with hyacinth. The owners of the ponds are usually only too happy to let us remove the hyacinth. We can't get our hands on enough of them.

[finnomick1]

Crossy

I have also been looking at Aquaponics for over a year. I have payed for some literature and planes that gave me a lot less information than what I have found on line. The University of the virgin islands has a lot on line. From what I have been able to gather from all the research that there is a few formulas to follow with fish quantities and feed ratios to hydroponic area. As long as these ratios are followed you will have a balanced system on what ever size your needs are. http://srac.tamu.edu...hfactsheet/105/ This sight has a lot of the research data and the system that UVI uses for there research. It is also the system that I am getting ready to build sometime this spring. The area I am going to build on is in rice so I have to wait until harvest then back fill 1and a half rai. Not sure yet what materials to use yet. The rearing tanks I want to be fiberglass and the clarifier sump and bass addition tank all should be fiber glass. I think the filters could be cement with a poly lining. The beds are going to be DFT floating system. Not sure how I will build them yet I keep bouncing between block and poly lining or just buying something prefab.

Have you been able to source your fibreglass tanks yet ? I'm looking for the same but can't find any that are made here in Thailand although I did read somewhere on this forum that there is a market to the south-west of BKK where you can get the tanks a lot cheaper than at Chatuchak market. The other answer is to make your own tanks but trying to fine suppliers of grp matting and resin is just about as hard as finding tank manufacturers. I'd be interested in your comments.

[andycrosby]

We made something on the same lines grp and the resin is easy to find and they are very easy to make , stop at the places that sell car body kits and get you thai wife to have a word that is how we found our shop

hope it helps

[kikoman]

I was hopeful in having a system set up and running by years (2011) end , but the more I learned about the Aqua-phonics system the more it seemed not to meet my needs, as it would not be cost effective for me to implement as the number of fish involved in the system I planned would be too low, taking into consideration the set up cost.

So I decided at this point it was not in my best interest to try at this time.

Cheers:

[hopdafru]

Hi!

This thread has been going for a while and I'm wondering if there are any members currently experiencing with either backyard or commercial aquaponics? (there seems to be someone in KohTao who went commercial)

I'm currently looking at starting a 1000 litre “Constant Height One Pump” (CHOP) system + growbeds as a first phase before eventually building a commercial system based on UVI (mentioned above) but scaled at 25-50 percent its size.

It looks like at 25 percent scaling, the UVI system should generate 15k US$ net over a year (after expenses, using renewable electricity) growing essentially lettuce and Tilapia.

looking forward to hearing from TV members who are working with this, thanks!

[irrigator]

Some interesting stuff above and some a little mis-guided perhaps......Aquaponics is really simple and only requires a minimal amount of time each day to check on the pump(s) and clean the filter(s), however, it needs to be set up as an aquaponics system from the beginning.

About a year ago I built a 1.2m high, 4m dia tank out of blockwork ( 2 skins with a 100mm cavity that was filled with reinforced concrete), connected it to a 2m high x 1m dia clarifier (made from conc drainage rings) similar to the ones used by UVI, with a 100mm pvc pipe from under the centre of the fish tank. Water flows out of the top of the clarifier (at the same level as the water in the fish tank) into the grow bed. The grow bed is 9m x 4m x 0.25m high, concrete floor, blockwork walls, and filled with 20mm gravel from the local builders merchant. I have another foam filter that the water passes through just prior to it entering the grow bed.

At the side of the grow bed I installed a simple home made (from pvc pipe and fittings) bell siphon that discharges into another smaller concrete and blockwork tank ( 0.6m high x 3m dia ). Note, the bell siphon allows the grow bed to fill and then completely drain it in a continuous cycle.

In the drain tank there is a small 400 watt submersible pump that runs 24/7 discharging the water from the grow bed back into the fish tank (average cost per month about 600 baht, I think....). The return to the fish tank is suspended above the fish tank with holes in the pvc pipe that help provide aeration to the fish tank (I also have bubble aerators but am led to believe that these are not as efficient as disturbing the surface water with the water jets from the pumped return).

And it's as imple as that.....After you have the fish in the tank and have the system running it will take about 4-7 weeks for full nitrification to take place in the grow bed and then you can pretty much grow what you want.

Having said that, you will need to provide the fish with decent quality fish food (the stuff I use is for cat fish even though I have tilapia in the tank but the protein levels (30%) are higher than in what is locally available where I am).

On my first attempt I grew some tomatoes and some herbs. The herbs were perfect but the tomatoes did show some signs of nutrient deficiency, mainly iron and potassium but this can be rectified by adding small amounts of these chemicals without any affect on the fish.

Tomatoes are good because they take about the same time (around 5 months) to grow from seed as fish do to reach a saleable weight (500-600gms). I also used the mono sex tilapia from Nam Sai Farms on a ratio of 25kg per cu m of water (mature fish weight). Some will say this is a little high but I have not seen any problems yet......

As to whether or not this is commercially viable, the jury is still out......I would need a lot more tanks and grow beds to make a basic living out of it and it is relatively expensive to set up. The set up described above cost me about THB 40,000 but the structures will last for donkeys and the only thing I envisage changing from time to time will be the electric pump.

Regards

[IsaanAussie]

Irrigator,

Where abouts are you. I am about start making Tilapia feed and need some guidance on formulation etc...Check the entry in Fish and Shrimp thread. There are five protein levels covering fry, fingerlings and a grow out for caged fish and two grow out ones for ponds. The real question is, is 30% protein enough?

Hopefully we should be running in a month and happy to supply samples.

By the way great description of your system

Isaanaussie

Edited June 13, 2012 by IsaanAussie

[ozzydom]

Irrigator, Can you confirm your figures as posted, I am having a problem with the 25 kg of mature fish per sq met.That is 80,000 Pla Nin to the Rai.

The industry norm is about 700gram per sq met in grow out ponds.I stretch the envelope a bit by growing 1.5 kg per sq met and have to do frequent part water changes plus run a 3hp aerator system at least 12 hours a day to keep mortality down and get reasonable growth rates.

If you can grow 25kg of Pla Nin per sq metre (50 x 500 gram) successfully then you have single handed solved the worlds food problems.and make me a rich man as it would increase my output to 13,000,000 baht minimum per annum. Thats right 13 million baht.

Edited June 13, 2012 by ozzydom

[hopdafru]

Some interesting stuff above and some a little mis-guided perhaps......Aquaponics is really simple and only requires a minimal amount of time each day to check on the pump(s) and clean the filter(s), however, it needs to be set up as an aquaponics system from the beginning.

About a year ago I built a 1.2m high, 4m dia tank out of blockwork ( 2 skins with a 100mm cavity that was filled with reinforced concrete), connected it to a 2m high x 1m dia clarifier (made from conc drainage rings) similar to the ones used by UVI, with a 100mm pvc pipe from under the centre of the fish tank. Water flows out of the top of the clarifier (at the same level as the water in the fish tank) into the grow bed. The grow bed is 9m x 4m x 0.25m high, concrete floor, blockwork walls, and filled with 20mm gravel from the local builders merchant. I have another foam filter that the water passes through just prior to it entering the grow bed.

At the side of the grow bed I installed a simple home made (from pvc pipe and fittings) bell siphon that discharges into another smaller concrete and blockwork tank ( 0.6m high x 3m dia ). Note, the bell siphon allows the grow bed to fill and then completely drain it in a continuous cycle.

In the drain tank there is a small 400 watt submersible pump that runs 24/7 discharging the water from the grow bed back into the fish tank (average cost per month about 600 baht, I think....). The return to the fish tank is suspended above the fish tank with holes in the pvc pipe that help provide aeration to the fish tank (I also have bubble aerators but am led to believe that these are not as efficient as disturbing the surface water with the water jets from the pumped return).

And it's as imple as that.....After you have the fish in the tank and have the system running it will take about 4-7 weeks for full nitrification to take place in the grow bed and then you can pretty much grow what you want.

Having said that, you will need to provide the fish with decent quality fish food (the stuff I use is for cat fish even though I have tilapia in the tank but the protein levels (30%) are higher than in what is locally available where I am).

On my first attempt I grew some tomatoes and some herbs. The herbs were perfect but the tomatoes did show some signs of nutrient deficiency, mainly iron and potassium but this can be rectified by adding small amounts of these chemicals without any affect on the fish.

Tomatoes are good because they take about the same time (around 5 months) to grow from seed as fish do to reach a saleable weight (500-600gms). I also used the mono sex tilapia from Nam Sai Farms on a ratio of 25kg per cu m of water (mature fish weight). Some will say this is a little high but I have not seen any problems yet......

As to whether or not this is commercially viable, the jury is still out......I would need a lot more tanks and grow beds to make a basic living out of it and it is relatively expensive to set up. The set up described above cost me about THB 40,000 but the structures will last for donkeys and the only thing I envisage changing from time to time will be the electric pump.

Regards

Irrigator, thanks for the detailed description of your system, I'm curious too as to where you are based... I'm in Vientiane.

I'm currently building a rectangular 1,400L fish tank (FT) out of concrete, setting up a double wall separated by foam with the hope that it will slow down temperature changes as I read Tilapia will suffer greatly / die from rapid temp changes (max 2C over 48 hours + temps vary 10-15C daily around here with concrete all around absorbing then emiting heat for several hours). I'll coat the inside of the FT with big white bathroom tiles to protect the water from the cement's action on PH.

Any thoughts? (Especially re. eventual toxicity of tile binding?)

The water will flow from the top of the tank (pickup at the bottom where the solids are) using gravity, and travel 7 meters to the grow bed(s) in the sunniest area of my 'yard', equiped with a siphon for the continuous drain cycle.

I'll use a slump/drain from witch I'll pump the water back to the FT. My pump is a sinkable chinese made 375 Watt 1500 L/hour (Note: the FT is 60cm above ground and 1+ meter high, any issue here? the water will be pumped 2 approx. meters high )

A few questions:

- do you see any big disadvantaged in the water travelling to the GB'S 7 meters away?

- can the bottom of the GB's will be at the same height as the bottom of the FT or should it be the slump/frain?

- should I use multiple grow beds or can I just make a big one (say about 4-5 sqm as to only use one siphon to save costs/work?)

- what crop too start with when cycling, approx how much time or event before adding fish?

- what best crops to plant around august/september in Issaan/ Laos?

- I'll be using Tilapia, any other species you would recommend? (I'd love to use trout in the winter... 2-3 months)

Any input much apreciated!

Chris

[hopdafru]

Irrigator, Can you confirm your figures as posted, I am having a problem with the 25 kg of mature fish per sq met.That is 80,000 Pla Nin to the Rai.

The industry norm is about 700gram per sq met in grow out ponds.I stretch the envelope a bit by growing 1.5 kg per sq met and have to do frequent part water changes plus run a 3hp aerator system at least 12 hours a day to keep mortality down and get reasonable growth rates.

If you can grow 25kg of Pla Nin per sq metre (50 x 500 gram) successfully then you have single handed solved the worlds food problems.and make me a rich man as it would increase my output to 13,000,000 baht minimum per annum. Thats right 13 million baht.

irrigator wrote 25kg per CUBIC meter / 1000 litres which sounds about right.

A figure i read recently was:

3kg of grown out fish per 100L of growbed media = 6 fish per 100L in the fish tank. which is about 20 percent more than irrigator and for a mature system. when starting or with a smaller GB, reduce the amount of fish

[grimleybob]

Irrigator, Can you confirm your figures as posted, I am having a problem with the 25 kg of mature fish per sq met.That is 80,000 Pla Nin to the Rai.

The industry norm is about 700gram per sq met in grow out ponds.I stretch the envelope a bit by growing 1.5 kg per sq met and have to do frequent part water changes plus run a 3hp aerator system at least 12 hours a day to keep mortality down and get reasonable growth rates.

If you can grow 25kg of Pla Nin per sq metre (50 x 500 gram) successfully then you have single handed solved the worlds food problems.and make me a rich man as it would increase my output to 13,000,000 baht minimum per annum. Thats right 13 million baht.

In his post he says cu M not sq M. In actual fact, according to Aussie researchers figures of up to 400 Tilapia (Average size 570g 120 days from fingerlings fed on floating soya based food) per CU Metre are not uncommon if the conditions are right. One thing he has got wrong is the size/volume of the grow-bed. The whole point of Aquaponics is that you balance the flow of water so that the suspended solids and toxins are converted into nutrient rich plant food. The grow-beds must be double the volume of the fish tanks ie a 4 metre x 1metre deep tank is 12.7 cu M of water therefore the raised growbeds need to be 2 x 20 metres x 2metres wide x 300mm deep. You pump the dirty water using a submersible 200 litre per min pump on to the beds which act as o bio-filter, the clean water then feeds by gravity back into the fish.Lettuce and coriander will grow in 30 t0 40 days. The more plants you get in, the better the system will run.

You mention about feeding the world. Over the last few years the United Nations have been setting units in Africa to educate and promote this system.

OZZY With all your experience you should give it a go. It's never too late for an old dog to learn new tricks. A plot of 40m x 40m and you could harvest 2000kilo per month + a truck load of lettuce/coriander/spring onions. If you PM me you can have the plans for free.

Bob ( another old dog @63+)

[hopdafru]

OZZY With all your experience you should give it a go. It's never too late for an old dog to learn new tricks. A plot of 40m x 40m and you could harvest 2000kilo per month + a truck load of lettuce/coriander/spring onions. If you PM me you can have the plans for free.

Bob ( another old dog @63+)

Hi Grimleybob,

I'd love to have a look at your plans if you don't mind sending them over!

Thanks

[irrigator]

Irrigator, Can you confirm your figures as posted, I am having a problem with the 25 kg of mature fish per sq met.That is 80,000 Pla Nin to the Rai.

The industry norm is about 700gram per sq met in grow out ponds.I stretch the envelope a bit by growing 1.5 kg per sq met and have to do frequent part water changes plus run a 3hp aerator system at least 12 hours a day to keep mortality down and get reasonable growth rates.

If you can grow 25kg of Pla Nin per sq metre (50 x 500 gram) successfully then you have single handed solved the worlds food problems.and make me a rich man as it would increase my output to 13,000,000 baht minimum per annum. Thats right 13 million baht.

In his post he says cu M not sq M. In actual fact, according to Aussie researchers figures of up to 400 Tilapia (Average size 570g 120 days from fingerlings fed on floating soya based food) per CU Metre are not uncommon if the conditions are right. One thing he has got wrong is the size/volume of the grow-bed. The whole point of Aquaponics is that you balance the flow of water so that the suspended solids and toxins are converted into nutrient rich plant food. The grow-beds must be double the volume of the fish tanks ie a 4 metre x 1metre deep tank is 12.7 cu M of water therefore the raised growbeds need to be 2 x 20 metres x 2metres wide x 300mm deep. You pump the dirty water using a submersible 200 litre per min pump on to the beds which act as o bio-filter, the clean water then feeds by gravity back into the fish.Lettuce and coriander will grow in 30 t0 40 days. The more plants you get in, the better the system will run.

You mention about feeding the world. Over the last few years the United Nations have been setting units in Africa to educate and promote this system.

OZZY With all your experience you should give it a go. It's never too late for an old dog to learn new tricks. A plot of 40m x 40m and you could harvest 2000kilo per month + a truck load of lettuce/coriander/spring onions. If you PM me you can have the plans for free.

Bob ( another old dog @63+)

Grimley, old chap,

I assume that you are using aquaponics on your farm and if so I do not want to question your numbers on size of grow bed..........I am sure that you understand that there is a big difference in grow bed area between leafy plants and fruit bearing plants.....nevertheless, I would like to see how you come up with your numbers.

To answer hopdafru,

1. There is no problem for the water to travel 7m provided you have run it thru a clarifier first.

2. I have my grow bed at the same level as the bottom of the FT (approx) but it is not essential. As long as you can get gravity flow from the clarifier to the GB then it is OK.

3. For grow beds, work with what is best for you. You can grow mutiple crops in a given bed...........I sized my bed based on the maximum potential output from the FT.

4. I started by just throwing in some tomato seeds and some coriander seeds .They do not need a lot of nutrients to get going and as the FT matures then so does the crop. You do have to allow a little time for the GB to nitrificate, which is important but after that go for it.

That all said.....I am based just outside Mahasarakam and would welcome any visitors. We do have an a/c guest room with private bathroom........ as long as you drink lots of beer...........

Cheers.....

[David48]

From a Business Plan perspective, what is the plan for the plants grown?

What plants are being grown?

Are then for home consumption?

Or off to the Market?

Or, are the vegetables grown just a side benefit and you see the Fish as the 'Cash Crop' ?

Thanks in Advance for the answers ...

[David48]

Irrigator,

Where abouts are you. I am about start making Tilapia feed and need some guidance on formulation etc...Check the entry in Fish and Shrimp thread. There are five protein levels covering fry, fingerlings and a grow out for caged fish and two grow out ones for ponds. The real question is, is 30% protein enough?

Hopefully we should be running in a month and happy to supply samples.

By the way great description of your system

Isaanaussie

The direct link to Isaanaussie's posts is here

[hopdafru]

just came across this pump, sounds cool...

http://www.freshbynature.com.au/

any thoughts?

Irrigator, thanks for your reply, will get back to you after I get some sleep!

[ozzydom]

Irrigator, Can you confirm your figures as posted, I am having a problem with the 25 kg of mature fish per sq met.That is 80,000 Pla Nin to the Rai.

The industry norm is about 700gram per sq met in grow out ponds.I stretch the envelope a bit by growing 1.5 kg per sq met and have to do frequent part water changes plus run a 3hp aerator system at least 12 hours a day to keep mortality down and get reasonable growth rates.

If you can grow 25kg of Pla Nin per sq metre (50 x 500 gram) successfully then you have single handed solved the worlds food problems.and make me a rich man as it would increase my output to 13,000,000 baht minimum per annum. Thats right 13 million baht.

In his post he says cu M not sq M. In actual fact, according to Aussie researchers figures of up to 400 Tilapia (Average size 570g 120 days from fingerlings fed on floating soya based food) per CU Metre are not uncommon if the conditions are right. One thing he has got wrong is the size/volume of the grow-bed. The whole point of Aquaponics is that you balance the flow of water so that the suspended solids and toxins are converted into nutrient rich plant food. The grow-beds must be double the volume of the fish tanks ie a 4 metre x 1metre deep tank is 12.7 cu M of water therefore the raised growbeds need to be 2 x 20 metres x 2metres wide x 300mm deep. You pump the dirty water using a submersible 200 litre per min pump on to the beds which act as o bio-filter, the clean water then feeds by gravity back into the fish.Lettuce and coriander will grow in 30 t0 40 days. The more plants you get in, the better the system will run.

You mention about feeding the world. Over the last few years the United Nations have been setting units in Africa to educate and promote this system.

OZZY With all your experience you should give it a go. It's never too late for an old dog to learn new tricks. A plot of 40m x 40m and you could harvest 2000kilo per month + a truck load of lettuce/coriander/spring onions. If you PM me you can have the plans for free.

Bob ( another old dog @63+)

Bob ,I purposely refer to sq met as this is the usual reference in Tilapia farming, this is because water depth in ponds or cages rarely is deeper than 1 metre and surface area is the important area in oxygen replenishment.

If I have questions regarding irrigators 25 kg of fish per sq (cub) metre I most certainly have bigger questions of the claims of 228 kg per sq (cub)metre.

I have read some of these claims (but as yet uncorroborated in real life) and found most of them made by somebody trying to sell their equipment or system.

It does not take a Rhodes Scholar to realise that in a world with a shortage of fish protein, if one were indeed able to grow 228 kg of Tilapia in a cubic metre of water in 4 months all other forms of fish farming would become redundant and we would all be very wealthy.

the extension of those figures is 684kg per cub metre or 55k baht per cub metre per annum. or 8.8 million baht per rai per annum.

Edited June 14, 2012 by ozzydom