hydro/aquaponic gardening

[Time to grow]

Carlyai,

 

Yes, I found one with an original label that previously had an edible product. I forget specifically what it was. I think it cost me around 500THB but my wife will remember better.

 

Just added another 50 Red Tilapia today but still have a pH issue that needs to be resolved

 

[carlyai]

'but still have a pH issue that needs to be resolved'
Can you bypass your DWC for a few days and see what the PH does? I think you have to rule out if it's the rocks or the concrete causing the PH problem.
I know when I built the pool that I had to paint the poured concrete walls to stop the calcium leaching out.
As you know I know very little...could it be a cheap fish food with a high calcium content?

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[Time to grow]

Carlyai, two great ideas that I hadn't considered. It won't be easy to bypass the DWC but I can probably figure out a way. The fish food is definitely the cheap variety. It comes in a clear plastic bag with no label of any description. The local fish store claims it's the only kind they have that's suitable for Tilapia but who knows whats in it. I have recently started growing mealworms to feed the fish and plan to start growing some duckweed as well. The fish seem to like the cheap pellets, but they weren't fighting over mealworms. I tried feeding them some chopped up purslane leaves but they weren't crazy about it and the leaves clogged up my plumbing. 

[notagain]

I know it sounds crazy but I have read about people feeding their fish with dry dog food as it has a high protein content and is a balanced mix of other nutrients.

[carlyai]

I know it sounds crazy but I have read about people feeding their fish with dry dog food as it has a high protein content and is a balanced mix of other nutrients.

I have no idea, but I think you need food that has a label that tells you what's in it, or someone else is using it in their aquponics system with no problems.
I read somewhere that the fish poo is larger with the cheap food and doesn't break down as well so less nuitrents.

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[CLW]

Have you looked into ordering fish feed? Online or old fashioned by phone?
I heard that stores often offer this service but don't rely on a specific date of delivery.

[Time to grow]

CLW, I guess I am going to have to do some more research on the topic. I previously assumed fish food was fish food and it was probably fine, albeit maybe not the most nutritious. Is it likely the fish food is actually contributing to a higher pH or does it come down to a nutritional concern? I have plans to feed the fish a healthier diet in the future but my primary concern at the moment is determining the cause and solution of an 8.7pH. I understand the cause is likely the river rock in my media beds but US$500+ for Hydroton is an expensive pill to swallow.

[rice555]

Hello All, you could look at Thai fancy fish magazines for info

on fish food suppliers, but will need the friend/wife to read the

adds.

rice555 

[CLW]

Hello All, you could look at Thai fancy fish magazines for info
on fish food suppliers, but will need the friend/wife to read the
adds.
rice555 

There is at least one magazine "Aqua business" or something like this plus surely more publications. There like a treasure if you're looking for suppliers in any particular branch of agriculture.

[notagain]

A little reading for you.

https://www.maximumyield.com/managing-ph-in-aquaponic-systems/2/1208

https://aquaponicsexposed.com/ph-levels-in-aquaponics/

https://worldwaterreserve.com/aquaponics/aquaponics-ph/

[notagain]

I would also think again about replacing the river rock with coco coir, its ph neutral and cheap. You could build support systems for your heavier plants to grow.

[carlyai]

@rice555 new place sorted?

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[CLW]

I would also think again about replacing the river rock with coco coir, its ph neutral and cheap. You could build support systems for your heavier plants to grow.

Yes for a run to waste system probably the most economic choice in Thailand.
But for a recirculating system as aquaponics I think you have to use inert materials.

[notagain]

https://globalaquaponics.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/demystifying-aquaponics-coir-vs-hydroton-in-the-system/

Many ways to run an aquaponics system.

https://aquaponics.com/methods-of-aquaponics/

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/guide-to-aquaponics/running-of-the-system/

 I think alot of the problem here is the system hasn't been run long enough to get a good balance, including bacteria buildup to help break down the nitrate-nitrite-ammonia components for survival of both plants and fish. I have seen people spend two months getting their water conditions and bacteria counts up before even adding any fish or plants. Again im not against aquaponics but its not as simple as it seems especially getting a long term successful production cycle going.

Edited March 19, 2019 by notagain
edit/addition

[Time to grow]

CLW & Rice555,

 

Thanks for the tips, I will look for those publications.

 

Notagain,

 

Thanks for all the info, I will be going through it as I can. Switching to coco coir is a pretty fundamental change that strikes me as fraught with problems. nevertheless, I will look into it and keep an open mind. In regards to cycling the system, most of the experts give it four to six weeks, occasionally longer and occasionally shorter. As I understand it, your looking for a spike in Ammonia and Nitrites to then level off near zero. That spike is clearly evident on the graphs I attached previously, leading me to assume the system was cycled. The ammonia and Nitrites have remained low leading me to believe the necessary bacteria are present and in sufficient numbers to support the fish safely. I would like to see the nitrates register a higher reading but as I understand it, that is for the plants. I am assuming the Nitrates will increase over time. Chemistry is not my strong point, I am not clear if these have anything to do with the pH. 

 

Spending the last couple days draining and re-leveling my fish tanks after a significant (40% of volume) leak. I have been watching over the last couple of months as the fish tanks have been gradually settling in a non level direction. This caused the overflow pipe to be higher than the rim. Throw in some Purslane to feed the fish and allow it to clog up the solids lifting overflow, whalaa; you spill 40% of your water on the ground. It's all fixed level and pretty now but the water change has thrown off my trends. I plan to give it a few days to see where things settle out but initially, it looks like pH is heading up again.

[carlyai]

@Time to grow

Just going over my notes I made when I did the Aquaponics course with Robert and found the fish farm. As well as healthy fish they also sell the fish food.
Thipprapa 0819912340. (P'Charoen Farm). Maybe won't sell small quantities.

Also info about sick fish: If fish start to die because of parasites, take fish out and try this.

1. Salt. 1Kg/200L water for 2 days only.

2. Farmaldohide (can't spell). 1 cap/100L water. Dip fish in for the count of 4 then back in the water again.

3. Antibiotics. Amoxicilin/amoxil.

Sick fish should have been seperated from others.

More from my notes:

Type of fish food makes a big difference in water quality.

Need high protine fish food...32% protein.

Need floating fish feed.

Can use Maninga tree - from East Timor.

Ikg fish need 1.6 kg feed.

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[user343434]

Hi all,

 

going through this thread it seems that there are way more interested home growers than expected. 

During my winter break from offshore working I have rebuilt my first backyard system entirely according the demand and experiences made (mainly by my wife) 

The result is here to see in my photos:

 

1. The Pipes have been exchanged into deep-water grow beds suitable for rearing crayfish underneath the floating rafts as it has proven in trials by having rafts in the fish tanks that they will clip out any rotten roots and boosting the growth of veggies. Before going commercial we will try this in our test system again to assure that it really works and they are not rampaging the crop. All aeration hoses are now PE pipes because the bigger crays loved to eat the clear hoses or at least cut them into bits.

 

2. The ebb flood grow beds under our terrace had not enough light so we removed them and built 2 big ones outside for more sunlight.

 

3. The shady space where we removed the ebb flood buckets is now used to get 6 x 300 ltr Tanks for more brood stock. In the background are our new bigger filters with 500 micron buckets. Fish poop (our planned commercial system will produce ruff 100 Kg per day) is worth pure gold as a high grade fertilizer and creates a good side income. That my little wife get the heavy stainless filter buckets lifted I built a "davit crane" (here the seaman in me popped up ???? )

 

4. Too much air is when the fish blows out of the water. Hence the 2 membrane aeration pumps have been skipped and a Vortex Pump supplies all tanks filters and grow beds with sufficient air supply, before 4 ppm now 6-7 ppm DO in all spots.

The fishes starting eating way more than before.

 

5. The aquariums for berried females are scrapped and a breeding station of 8 buckets is integrated in the system which makes it easy to move the crayfishes without turning them into a shock because there is no change of the water quality. 

And many other features and appliances have been built in which I keep secret because of the investment and development time of many years. 

 

I hope you enjoy this update and carry on with info, do's and don't do's.. 

2 days after completion I had a call and went offshore again, that's called perfect timing..  

 

Cheers 

 

See Will

 

[carlyai]

Looks great....can't wait to see your set up.

You know many Leo beers have a way of coaxing out secrets from sea dogs.

What fish are you raising?

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[Time to grow]

Will,

 

Impressive system, I would love to come take a look some day. By the way, I am a merchant marine as well, who do you work for? If you don't mind me asking.

 

Tim

[user343434]

22 hours ago, carlyai said:

Looks great....can't wait to see your set up.

You know many Leo beers have a way of coaxing out secrets from sea dogs.

What fish are you raising?

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I am on a dry ship and Leo is a pretty magic word ???? in my momentary cut freedom and life style.

But what to do, the money must be earned to build our commercial system in a couple of years.

A Leo is 60 baht and I am not thinking how much we spent till now for both systems. 

Piling all rebuilds, upgrades, Labor and operational expenses together, I can assure we hit the 500k THB marker easy over the years. 

 

What fish we have:

The main target is red claw crayfish as I never experienced such a taste from any freshwater crustaceans.

They are easy beating the taste of bland overrated Lobsters and almost can keep up with King Crabs.  

But they just can't pee enough to fertilize our veggies when it comes to commercial thinking so we added 2 years ago also some Tilapia.

First the common ones as they are more robust than the red Tilapia but I see now already no problem to swap them for red Tilapia which are more demanding regarding oxygen and clean water.

 

Carlyai, we had contact before regarding the Mudbugs and I mentioned that we could swap from time to time some males/females to avoid inbreed. I reckon soon the time will be due to think about again. 

At the moment we BBQed all down to a minimum breeding stock for the system rebuild/upgrade, but since the crays got the new home a few females already carry berries again. 

[carlyai]

@See Will

Yes I remember we were in friendly contact before but I forgot the details.

I'll keep in contact and should have my system set up towards the end of the year. Gotta go away for a few months but will keep an eye on this TV posts.

Again your setup looks great.

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[carlyai]

Bought my IBC container and thinking where to locate it.

Think I'll move my 4 growth beds to one side and bury the IBC container (sump water drain tank), somewhere in the middle of the greenhouse.

If I turn the growth beds 90 degrees I should have enough room for another 4 on the other side of the greenhouse, and another 2 1000 L fish tanks.

Any thoughts?

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[Singhajon]

Hi

Anyone wanting a non fussy plant to throw in the grow bed, you don't need media, try "Pak Bung" the fish will eat it so will the family.

Jon

[Singhajon]

On 5/11/2019 at 2:22 AM, carlyai said:

Bought my IBC container and thinking where to locate it.

Think I'll move my 4 growth beds to one side and bury the IBC container (sump water drain tank), somewhere in the middle of the greenhouse.

If I turn the growth beds 90 degrees I should have enough room for another 4 on the other side of the greenhouse, and another 2 1000 L fish tanks.

Any thoughts?

Sent from my SM-J700F using Tapatalk
 

Maybe draw the design in plan, see how much room you've got, it looks tight

[simon43]

I'm interested in starting a small-scale hydroponics system, perhaps to grow products that are sought after by the local high-end hotels and restaurants.

 

Chefs in these types of business have to prepare a range of international dishes.  I'm sure that it can be difficult and expensive to source some of the necessary ingredients.  Seems to me that a locally-grown source of that fruit, veg or herb could prove financially worthwhile, if there is enough demand for it.  (I recall a guy in Pattaya who raised goats and made goats milk cheese, which was in high demand by the local hotel restaurants).

 

I wonder what sort of products these hotels are unable to source locally....

[myjawe]

On 6/17/2019 at 8:53 AM, simon43 said:

I'm interested in starting a small-scale hydroponics system, perhaps to grow products that are sought after by the local high-end hotels and restaurants.

 

Chefs in these types of business have to prepare a range of international dishes.  I'm sure that it can be difficult and expensive to source some of the necessary ingredients.  Seems to me that a locally-grown source of that fruit, veg or herb could prove financially worthwhile, if there is enough demand for it.  (I recall a guy in Pattaya who raised goats and made goats milk cheese, which was in high demand by the local hotel restaurants).

 

I wonder what sort of products these hotels are unable to source locally....

 

In Thailand, in Laos, in Cambodia or in Andorra ?!

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeN]

On 6/22/2019 at 10:29 AM, myjawe said:

 

In Thailand, in Laos, in Cambodia or in Andorra ?!

 

 

 

 

 

Or perhaps even in Myanmar, as per his location ?

 But as to the subject matter, it seems to me it’s a bit of the old chicken and egg conundrum, or the cart and the horse. If the food is already on the menu they must already have a reliable and reasonably economical supply of herbs and vegetables. If the chefs cannot get them the dishes won’t be on the menu so no market for you unless you can convince them that you will be a cheap and reliable supplier, and that the new dishes will be popular and sell.

[Bilio]

Hello all, I have read the entire thread and found it to be very interesting. I'm looking into setting up an aquaponic system in Cambodia (around Phnom Penh).

 

On the facility side of things I am well suited as I have a technical hydraulic background and have good building/plumbing experience having done some major DIY building renovations as a hobby. I'm much weaker on the farming side of things as I have little experience of plants or fish. So lots of learning needed.

 

I'm starting right from scratch with few resources around here apparently. So any pointers or guidance from your more experienced guys would be gratefully received. My rough plan is to just get a smallish system started so I can learn lessons as I go. Then make a big system if it goes ok. Could do with getting something running asap just because the nitrogen cycle will take ages.

 

My first priority is to decide on location. I have various parcels of land I can use but each will require some effort on getting water power. My other option is to put a small system in beside the house in town but I'm not sure if there is enough direct sunlight for plants to grow. Can anyone offer any advice on sunlight and growing? I notice in pictures that people seem to actually be putting barriers between the sun and their plants.

 

Also any local lads than can give info on local aquaponic suppliers that would be great. I can see there's a place called Kannika farm that sells AP supplies so I plan to pay them a visit.

[Time to grow]

Bilio,

 

I am no expert and barely in a position to offer advice but I have built a small aquaponics system here in Nakhon Sawan, Thailand. The biggest problems I am having are dealing with the pH of the water and the heat. The pH of the water source at your location is important and a method of dealing with the tropical heat is crucial as well. Two items that should figure prominently in your planning.

[CLW]

Another thing where they have absolutely no idea in this country.

Tomato and besides Kale in NFT. Ridiculous.

Misting sprayers in an open nethouse.

The drop not even reach to surface and carried away by wind and the running fans. That's surely going to work...

And this place wants to be the #1 Agriculture university in Thailand.