Aquaponics.

[dasboot]

Windhorse if I can help in any way,please just let me know

This is my system here in Chaing Rai.

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[dasboot]

Windhorse, just spoke to a very charming and helpful bloke at Wesco,they have EDDHA in stock,min order 10 kgs at 480 baht per kilo. Now this is ok for me as iam running 20,000 litres and I will be dosing weekly,but depending on the size of your system that's quite a lot of iron. Maybe if you want we could split the order,I want 10 kilos,you can add on what you want. I should be coming to Chaing Mai to pick up the potassium hydroxide,if we met I can let you have your order then. This plan depends on a couple of variables but is do able..

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[rice555]

Hello All, have you tried Haifa East Asia in BKK? 02-663-5979 &5980

rice555 www.haifa.com

[WatUp]

Your new system is working like a charm DB! I'm jealous

[dasboot]

Hi Watup,many thanks,the next stage has just started,iam going to at least double the grow bed area,plus I have an ideal for a tower system to free up grow bed space of lettuce,bok choy ans ome of the herbs. Because it's Aquaponics iam going to incorporate an open weave filter media,so they are performing to jobs at once,the new area is in the process of being levelled,so watch this space.

Many Thanks to all the poster for the help on tracking down the items required.

Now does anyone know how to seal concrete growbeds,seriously considering casting the beds,they can be the size I want then. I will start looking through places like homemart I think there is also a home pro in Chaing Rai,but if anyone here can save me the leg work,it will be most appreciated.

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[cdmtdm]

why not make your own potassium from charcoal ? 100% organic !!! as for your PH keeping it around 7 is ideal for AP system , if you are concerned about a lack of the minor nutrients from the fish waste , then beef up your fish stock, but you will need to counter the increase in fish solids waste.....what is your ph of the water supply to the system ?

[cdmtdm]

do you mean media grow beds ? or floating raft ?

[dasboot]

Hi cdmtdm,they will be grow beds,I need to increase my media beds so I can increase my stocking,I accurately measured the pond and settlement chambers yesterday,this came out at 14500 litres,a little less than my rough measurement before. So working on a conservative stocking of 1lb per 10 gallons and a min biological area of 25sq ft per lb,that works out at about 7750 sq ft of biological surface area,currently I have 1200, or 8 half barrels at 24cube ft. The pond at the moment is stocked to the growbed size,apart from a slight iron deficiency beginning to show in some plants it is running very well.

But on to the expansion,I need to increase my biological surface area as my on going improvements and growth. I now have a source of Potassium Hydroxide,just waiting for the phone call,I intend to run my PH closer to 6 to 6.4, I will regulate with calcium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide a fifty fifty mix of both.

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[WatUp]

You guys know a lot more than I do about aquaponics but will adding more fish and feeding them more food address the iron deficiency?

[dasboot]

Hi Watup.the only way to get iron into the system is for us to add it,there several types,,fe EDDHA, fe DTPA,and fe EDTA. The one we want is EDDHA,this is available right through the PH range from high 5 up to the 9s. We have to keep away from EDTA as its Toxix and not available to plants above ph 6.3.

Potassium and calcium are two other nutrients that we need to add to our system,the majority of the others can be supplied by the correct feeding ratio to growbed area.

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[cdmtdm]

how old is the system ? from my experience it will take at least 6 months for it to mature and have enough nutrients on hand , perhaps add some seasol it works well ..attached is a chart on PH and nutrient uptake ...

ps what media are you using in the grow beds ?

[dasboot]

Thanks for the chart,system construction started on the 21 st April,so it's still a baby,but as you can see from the pic a very very healthy baby. Media is river gravel,collected by my own fair hands from my local river,sh....t that was hard work,but at least I knew where it came from. Nutrient deficency for me at the moment is iron,hopefully that should be corrected soon,I have found a supplier of EDDHA ,should be arriving in the post soon.

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[dasboot]

Just worked out how to post pics,anyway latest of my system.

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[cdmtdm]

looks great , i would adjust the PH slowly first and see what happens , give it a few more months and it will become supercharged ....well done

[dasboot]

No with the PH,as the system is still new it has dropped to and is staying 7,everyday for the past week the same,I intend as nitrification steadily increases,the ph will drop as a result,with 14000 litres this should be gradual,once it gets to my desired level I will then take over regulating it with calcium and potassium hydroxide,these wont buffer but will hold my ph where I want it,once I worked out the amounts to dose.

Hopefully the iron should be arriving soon,that should help,there are signs of chlorosis in the leaves. Took this pic this morning.

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[dasboot]

Many thanks, Pakdee,rice555,both Potassium and the iron sourced,the iron arrives Wednesday next week, I have split the order with windhorse so I get the pleasure to meet him and collect the potassium at the same time.

This has got to be the best Forum for all information Thailand.

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[dasboot]

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=16235#p386647, If anyone is interested this is another Forum I use,I have been posting in here since I started building my system,bit of a history up to today. For anyone into Aquaponics,this is a good forum for information and help in all things.

Does anyone know how many are into Aquaponics here on farming in Thaivisa ?

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[WatUp]

Hi DB,

I'm looking fwd to getting a system running this year and would be eternally grateful if you could post the sources where you found this material. There is a pinned subject on the organic sub forum for aquaponics. I've been following you and Domani on the byap site. Great stuff but would be cool if we can use TV for sourcing stuff in Thailand. As soon as I get my act together I'd be happy to share what I can also.

[dasboot]

Hi Watup,I have a fair bit of information as PDFs on my iPad,can't get Internet here,so the computer is redundant. Anyway the PDFs are in kindle which won't let me move them anywhere else,so I have written a few of them down. This should keep you going for a while.

Aquaponic media bed sizing.

Fish tank shape and design.

Fish to plant ratio.

Media beds and design.

Water chemistry.

Solids filtration.

These six are free PDF downloads from Wilson lennard phd.if you google the name,it will take you to them.

http://www.uvi.edu/sites/uvi/Publications/UVIAquaponicSystem.pdf

When you use that link it will take you to Rakocys uvi Aquaponics, there is an absolute wealth of information here.

The byap site has a wealth of knowledge,some good PDFs there as well,plus you post your questions.

It would be good to have a source of Aquaponics Thai style here on TV and if I can help anyone with anything AP I am only to willing to do so.

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[WatUp]

Hi DB,

Ya I read a lot of that stuff but what I meant is if you could share where in Thailand you found the chelated iron, etc...

I'll probably go the ibc route and will also share my sourcing details for that type of stuff.

Thanks

[dasboot]

Ok, well I have got to be honest it was the guys here that found it for me,all I had to do was phone them. It was Wesco for the EDDHA and for the Potassium hydroxide,rice555 posted a picture for a company in bkk, who have a place in Chaing Mai,who had Potassium when we phoned them. Wesco posted have to collect from Chaing Mai, Calcium Hydroxide is freely available.

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[dasboot]

Phone number for Wesco for an order is 029324973, I do apologise I can not find the Chaing Mai number,but there is a pic in this thread for the bkk company,if you call they will give you the Chaing Mai number.

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[WatUp]

Thanks DB!

Sorry I guess my reading comprehension is falling a bit, I hadn't realized wesco came through with the iron. Your system going to go nuts now!

[David48]

Hi Watup,I have a fair bit of information as PDFs on my iPad,can't get Internet here,so the computer is redundant. <snip>

I'm really enjoying reading this thread ...

I looked a few links mentioned in the above post ... some interesting reading.

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[dasboot]

[quote name="David48" post=

I'm really enjoying reading this thread ...

I looked a few links mentioned in the above post ... some interesting reading.

.

Hi David48,it was roughly this time last year you kindly assisted me and gave me a copy of your sponsor letter,enabling my wife to get her visa for the first time,eternally grateful.

Anyway, Aquaponics combined with freshwater prawns,could be an interesting project. I am lucky enough to have a prawn farm within. 5 minute walk,they have recently had problems and have drained several ponds,turning them over to Rice,but the main large ponds are still active. The neighbouring ponds are all still up and running,it makes a pleasant walk on an evening walking through the ponds,mountains in the distance and a chance to get a beer in there restaurant on the way back

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[David48]

Hi there dasboot ... I had forgotten about that ... great outcome ... ... happy to help.

I hope your wife enjoyed her holiday.

Six seeks (there about) and I'll be back in Thailand and on the Farm.

I have followed through with all the links on this thread, but none seem to address what I hope to achieve one day on the Farm.

Most of the Aquaponics I read involve a symbiotic relationship between the fish stock, whose waste is filtered and converted from, with the help of a bacteria (somewhere in the flow chart) convert nitrites (NO2-) to nitrates (NO3-).

This conversion happens about the time the solid particulate matter is filtered out, if I'm not wrong?

The solid waste can then be beneficial in the composting process etc.

The plants then soak up the good nitrates in the water and, if the chemicial balance is right, grow as a healthy specimen and return relatively clean water back into the pond.

Thus the cycle starts again.

Close enough ... ?

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[David48]

... but that is really not of interest to me at the Farm (for the moment).

The Farm has really large ponds between 1 - 6 Rai.

They grow a Prawn/Shrimp cycle every 3 months and harvest the Fish every 9 months.

They feed a pelletised food to the Fish, the fish create waste and this filters down to the Prawns.

The cash flow generated from the Prawn Harvest buys the Fish Food. The profit comes when the fish are harvested.

What I'd dearly love is to introduce a 3rd crop which could generate income ... some sort of lettuce etc which also could be sold.

So, most of the existing technology revolves around this, now famous system which I'm sure you are all aware of.

But this doesn't help me ... it's high tech and old school ... and an excellent system BTW ... just not one we are going to see at the Farm in the next decade.

It's the Fish-waste-vegetable-fish-waste-vegetable cycle played ad-infinitum. And it relies on filtering out the solid waste.

So, what I wish to achieve is the following ...

fish-waste-prawns-vegetables-fish-waste-prawns-vegetables ...

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[David48]

So what is closest to the system that I wish to see?

and the sister clip ...

Here you have the beneficial bacterial which can bind to the large surface area if the raft and can assist with the conversion of the waste to a product which the plants can utilise.

What I really would like to see is a large scale model which employs the raft idea but combines both the fish and the prawns into the cycle.

Now I understand the rule of thumb of 1m² pond surface area to 3m² green garden ... but that won't be achieved at the Farm also for another decade ... and only then when maybe vertical gardens are employed.

But if the nitrites (NO2-) load can be reduced then a higher density, in theory, can be achieved with the Pla Nin stocking rate and thus the Farm Model has an increased efficiency and thus higher profit.

But &lt;deleted&gt; does a Falang with fancy ideas know ...

So gentlemen, if in your physical travels or finding on the net discover a system which uses, on a commercial scale a combination of Fish, Prawns and Vegetables and preferably a raft system please let me know and the fountain of beer runith over for you ...

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Edited June 25, 2013 by David48

[dasboot]

David it is practically impossible to use natural ponds for Aquaponics,the amount of solids in suspension rules it out,unless a complicated settlement arrangement was employed.

But I will think on it,this is such a good challenge,much better than just staring at the box.....

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[dasboot]

Not quite Aquaponics but a link as I want to use Comfery as a foliar feed for my system. I ordered seeds from Thompson and Morgan in the UK, 11 day delivery pretty slick if you ask me. This is recommendable service.

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