hydro/aquaponic gardening

[Singhajon]

Bilio

Have attached a couple of files from UVI they may help you. As 

TTG says water chemistry is your first concern, its best to get it tested before splashing out on equipment.

 

UVI-Aquaponic-System-Materials-and-Budget.pdf UVIAquaponicSystem.pdf

[Bojan]

On 4/4/2019 at 2:08 AM, user343434 said:

7 ppm DO

 

[Time to grow]

Just wanted to post some of the latest photos of my aquaponics set up:

 

[carlyai]

About the IBC.

Per chance saw on another country forum that if you put the IBC in the ground, the dirt will collapse the plastic.

Anyone using the IBC as a sump tank and buried in the ground?

What did you do?

Sent from my SM-J700F using Tapatalk

[Time to grow]

On 7/29/2019 at 4:47 PM, carlyai said:

Anyone using the IBC as a sump tank and buried in the ground?

Look at the fourth picture down from the top in the previous post. If you look closely, you will see my IBC tote buried in a concrete tomb. If you kept it full all the time, you might get away without the concrete, but that defeats the purpose of a sump. I am not an engineer and I don't know the specifics of your installation but I would recommend some type of reinforcement.

[MikeN]

@Time to grow I noticed the photo of your seedlings and was wondering what media you use for them prior to transplanting into the aquaponics bed ?

[Time to grow]

6 hours ago, MikeN said:

was wondering what media you use

Mike, I am just using some locally available potting soil. Then transferring into foam cylinders in net pots. I am on the lookout for a better method. The small rubberized peat moss plugs look awesome but I suspect they are cost prohibitive here in Thailand.

[Smithson]

On 7/29/2019 at 4:47 PM, carlyai said:

Anyone using the IBC as a sump tank and buried in the ground?

What did you do?

 

I just buried mine, done it twice now, but we have clay soil which is probably a factor. If the water level gets too low they can pop out of the ground, placing heavy things on top can prevent this.

 

An alternative is 1,000 lt tanks that are tear shaped, which means not only is there soil on top of the tank to stop it popping out, but also the water sits really low, which should help with cooling.

[carlyai]

For anyone considering Barramundi (I haven't checked if there is a supplier in Thailand), Abington Aquacultute will send fingerlings to Thailand.

'Abington Aquaculture would like to introduce and welcome Nicola to our team, her role will be Domestic and International Sales and Marketing. Any enquiries can be sent to her at [email protected] or give her a call on +61467422798 and WhatsApp'.

I haven't ordered any yet, so this is just for information as another Aquaponics alternate to Tilapia.




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[CLW]

For anyone considering Barramundi (I haven't checked if there is a supplier in Thailand), Abington Aquacultute will send fingerlings to Thailand.

'Abington Aquaculture would like to introduce and welcome Nicola to our team, her role will be Domestic and International Sales and Marketing. Any enquiries can be sent to her at [email protected] or give her a call on +61467422798 and WhatsApp'.

I haven't ordered any yet, so this is just for information as another Aquaponics alternate to Tilapia.




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Barramundi, also known as Asian Sea bass or Pla Krapong in Thai is quite common fish here. I would say ranking third after Catfish and Tilapia.

Nam Sai Farms used to sell them besides their good strains of Tilapia.

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[lajame]

Hi,

Just wonder if dry fertilizer price at Lazada is acceptable compare to other sources. i.e: https://www.lazada.co.th/products/13-0-46-haifa-classic-25-i249403157-s384525459.html

 

Thank you!

[rice555]

Hello All, don't know where you at, I buy mine locally here in

Korat where I get all salts except Moly, Zn, Mn and solubor at

WESCO in BKK.  The Fe and Cu chelates I also get in Korat.

rice555

[recom273]

I’m keen to experiment with a cheap startup, I’m interested to see what others are using for their Aquaponics grow beds.
 

I found this guys video.

 

Where can I find something like his red tubs? I know they aren’t ideal and will break down over time, but I will look to build a better solution when I get a place or my own built, at the moment I’m just keen to experiment and grow some salad. 

[MikeN]

On 1/10/2020 at 11:00 AM, recom273 said:

I’m keen to experiment with a cheap startup, I’m interested to see what others are using for their Aquaponics grow beds.
 

I found this guys video.

 

Where can I find something like his red tubs? I know they aren’t ideal and will break down over time, but I will look to build a better solution when I get a place or my own built, at the moment I’m just keen to experiment and grow some salad. 

They are just ordinary plastic storage crates, probably about 55*40*20cms by comparing them to the concrete blocks. Get them from Big C, Tesco, homepro, or your local 20baht store, etc. They would be better if they were a bit deeper, so look around to see what's available.

Or Lazada have some small hydroponic kits which you could adapt to use to aquaponics.

[recom273]

15 hours ago, MikeN said:

They are just ordinary plastic storage crates, probably about 55*40*20cms by comparing them to the concrete blocks. Get them from Big C, Tesco, homepro, or your local 20baht store, etc. They would be better if they were a bit deeper, so look around to see what's available.

Or Lazada have some small hydroponic kits which you could adapt to use to aquaponics.

Thanks, I have never really seen them in these dimensions, they are usually the storage tubs, similarly to his fish reservoir. 
i thought they that something too high was a bit difficult to work on.

 

ETS: We have something that may suit in our plastic crate collection - which is better? 30 or 35cm deep. 

[Macthehat]

On 3/14/2017 at 8:49 AM, lajame said:

Hi @rice555,

 

I'm currently weighting and mixing my own nutes. I do it a bit small now, but researching first hand because I'm planning to scale.
Currently, I'm using about 100L of nutes per week. I'm planting leafy veggies, and willing to add fruity types, too.
For forwarder, it's easier as I already had one to forward from Thailand into Cambodia with any documents prepared.
My main concern is the nutes supplier if I'm going to scale because it's damn expensive here.
That's why I need to find a solution with this.

 

And, I also need lots of Nitric Acid for Ph Down, too. It'd be great if anyone could suggest.

Thank you!

https://s.lazada.co.th/s.06YGG

[DubleA]

So question.  Where do you get the supplies for aquaponics? These require fish and a pump system for moving  the water.  

This forum has almost everything but this information,  so it seems.  

[BritManToo]

On 1/25/2017 at 11:41 AM, Hereinthailand said:

Yes I have been quite pleased with higreen so far. If anyone needs ph or ec meters I would recommend aliexpress.com they are much cheaper than buying here, get some ph buffer powder too to calibrate your ph meter. The cheaper ones are not waterproof so I buy two of each to have a spare in case one dies.

I don't bother to calibrate my Ph pen, I just stick it in milk (Ph 6.6) and note the difference.

Currently it reads 7.2 in milk ...... so I just take 0.6 off all the readings.

[DubleA]

So question.  Where do you get the supplies for aquaponics? These require fish and a pump system for moving  the water.  

This forum has almost everything but this information,  so it seems.  As a repeat,  I state my case.  The question was where to find aquaponics systems...  I still don't know.  Cheers

[MikeN]

Pumps for an aquaponics system are available from aquarium specialists or places like Global house/Dohome, which is also where you could get the various pipes and fittings. Get some second hand IBCs and cut them in half for flood and drain media beds, or whole for the fish tanks, try Facebook marketplace or a local used drum seller. Clay pebble "poppers" media is available on lazada or at Global House.

I'm sure there would be somebody selling Tilapia fingerlings near you, where ever that might be.

 

[sirineou]

On 3/15/2020 at 8:11 AM, DubleA said:

So question.  Where do you get the supplies for aquaponics? These require fish and a pump system for moving  the water.  

This forum has almost everything but this information,  so it seems.  As a repeat,  I state my case.  The question was where to find aquaponics systems...  I still don't know.  Cheers

 

14 hours ago, MikeN said:

Pumps for an aquaponics system are available from aquarium specialists or places like Global house/Dohome, which is also where you could get the various pipes and fittings. Get some second hand IBCs and cut them in half for flood and drain media beds, or whole for the fish tanks, try Facebook marketplace or a local used drum seller. Clay pebble "poppers" media is available on lazada or at Global House.

I'm sure there would be somebody selling Tilapia fingerlings near you, where ever that might be.

 

If I might add, Many videos on the subject on Youtube, watch a few, get some ideas, settle on a game plan, then you will know what components you will need, as said all these components are readily available at different places. But Mostly you will need a pump (lazada ,or other places) an PVC pipes, fittings , and material for frames. (any DIY store)

Good luck

Post any ideas , I also have a small Koi pond and was thinking on a similar project, which is why I am following this thread. 

[stament]

On 3/19/2020 at 1:02 AM, MikeN said:

Pumps for an aquaponics system are available from aquarium specialists or places like Global house/Dohome, which is also where you could get the various pipes and fittings. Get some second hand IBCs and cut them in half for flood and drain media beds, or whole for the fish tanks, try Facebook marketplace or a local used drum seller. Clay pebble "poppers" media is available on lazada or at Global House.

I'm sure there would be somebody selling Tilapia fingerlings near you, where ever that might be.

 

Where can I get second hand IBCs in Chiang Mai, does anyone know?

 

Thanks

[Time to grow]

This post was initially written in another location as an answer to questions about my system. I have re-posted it here as it may be of use to others interested in Aquaponics.

 

I am no expert but I can share what I have learned. I initially came across the idea of aquaponics on YouTube, quite by accident. Intrigued by the idea but lacking any kind of farming skills, it was a big leap of faith for me to just jump in. I read a couple books on aquaponics but they weren't of much use. Watching Youtube videos was probably the most instructive for me. Bigelow Brook Farms is one of the best on YouTube. He is very thoughtful with his designs and has some great instructional videos.

 

The pictures you saw were of our initial aquaponics build. It worked out better than expected and generates about 1000 THB a week in excess. It was never designed to be an income but more of a learning platform and a source of healthy organic food for my family. In terms of maintenance, it requires one full day a week and an average of about an hour a day on the other six days of the week for one person to maintain.

 

We are now building on the knowledge we have earned with a larger, more commercially oriented aquaponics design. This one will have two 2,000 liter fish tanks as the original one did but a larger filtration system and no media beds. It will have three deep water culture beds (DWC) instead with some 4,600 planting spots. We anticipate being able to harvest around 1,000 leafy greens such as Red Oak Lettuce, Pak-Choi, Ka-Na, every week. In a footprint of 6 by 25 meters.

 

I haven't kept close track of the building expenses but to the best of my memory we paid roughly:

43,000 THB for a local welder to fabricate a steel pipe screen-house structure

9,000 THB in rock for a base

8000 THB for two fish tanks

5000 THB for an IBC tote and some 55 gallon barrels

10000 THB in metal electrical conduit

10000 THB Polystyrene 

8000 THB for a roll of pond liner

2000 THB for a pump

10000 THB for 4,600 net pots

10000 THB for other misc. parts such as PVC tubing, PVC fittings, bulkhead fittings, and the like

 

I still have a few items to purchase like some air pumps and the screen to cover the screen-house but we will probably have 150,000 THB into the structure. The ongoing expenses are seeds, fish food, electricity and optional amendments such as iron chelate or soluble kelp. I am guessing roughly two to three thousand Baht a month in operating expenses.

 

I am leaving the door open to ultimately fit the system with solar power for resilience but that is down the road.

 

 

 

[Time to grow]

1 hour ago, stament said:

Thanks

The pictures of the original aquaponics structure are on page 13 of this thread. These pictures above are of the new aquaponics I am building. Yes, I use Tilapia and a few crawdads.

[insertcoins]

I would like to build a small NFT system to grow veggies for my household, but before I do I have two questions I have trouble finding the answers to:

1. Water temperatures. The past days I have kept a jug of water in the crawl space under my house where I intend to keep the tank. The temperature of the water in the jug has been fairly steady at 28-29C during the day. Once this water starts circulating through the NFT setup I am sure I can add another 1-2C degrees to that. Is this too hot to grow with? I am mostly looking to grow leafy greens in the system.

2. Rain and nutrient dilution. I will keep the system outside. I would rather not construct a roof/awning for it as it is unsightly and will cost more money. But would that give me problems with rain entering the system and potentially diluting the nutrients?

 

[carlyai]

16 hours ago, insertcoins said:

I would like to build a small NFT system to grow veggies for my household, but before I do I have two questions I have trouble finding the answers to:

1. Water temperatures. The past days I have kept a jug of water in the crawl space under my house where I intend to keep the tank. The temperature of the water in the jug has been fairly steady at 28-29C during the day. Once this water starts circulating through the NFT setup I am sure I can add another 1-2C degrees to that. Is this too hot to grow with? I am mostly looking to grow leafy greens in the system.

2. Rain and nutrient dilution. I will keep the system outside. I would rather not construct a roof/awning for it as it is unsightly and will cost more money. But would that give me problems with rain entering the system and potentially diluting the nutrients?

 

I can't give you data to support my post, but I have a micro irrigation sprinkler system and the timer/water valve switches on at 0300hrs and 1500hrs. At 1500 hr the timer is in direct sunlight and the initial water flowing thru the irrigation pipes is very hot, but hasn't seemed to have effected the plants.

I think you should try and keep rain out of your system. You really need a closed system to be able to control what goes on. If you have problems you're not going to know if it's from the rain or something else.

 

[carlyai]

On 5/21/2020 at 3:49 PM, Time to grow said:

This post was initially written in another location as an answer to questions about my system. I have re-posted it here as it may be of use to others interested in Aquaponics.

 

I am no expert but I can share what I have learned. I initially came across the idea of aquaponics on YouTube, quite by accident. Intrigued by the idea but lacking any kind of farming skills, it was a big leap of faith for me to just jump in. I read a couple books on aquaponics but they weren't of much use. Watching Youtube videos was probably the most instructive for me. Bigelow Brook Farms is one of the best on YouTube. He is very thoughtful with his designs and has some great instructional videos.

 

The pictures you saw were of our initial aquaponics build. It worked out better than expected and generates about 1000 THB a week in excess. It was never designed to be an income but more of a learning platform and a source of healthy organic food for my family. In terms of maintenance, it requires one full day a week and an average of about an hour a day on the other six days of the week for one person to maintain.

 

We are now building on the knowledge we have earned with a larger, more commercially oriented aquaponics design. This one will have two 2,000 liter fish tanks as the original one did but a larger filtration system and no media beds. It will have three deep water culture beds (DWC) instead with some 4,600 planting spots. We anticipate being able to harvest around 1,000 leafy greens such as Red Oak Lettuce, Pak-Choi, Ka-Na, every week. In a footprint of 6 by 25 meters.

 

I haven't kept close track of the building expenses but to the best of my memory we paid roughly:

43,000 THB for a local welder to fabricate a steel pipe screen-house structure

9,000 THB in rock for a base

8000 THB for two fish tanks

5000 THB for an IBC tote and some 55 gallon barrels

10000 THB in metal electrical conduit

10000 THB Polystyrene 

8000 THB for a roll of pond liner

2000 THB for a pump

10000 THB for 4,600 net pots

10000 THB for other misc. parts such as PVC tubing, PVC fittings, bulkhead fittings, and the like

 

I still have a few items to purchase like some air pumps and the screen to cover the screen-house but we will probably have 150,000 THB into the structure. The ongoing expenses are seeds, fish food, electricity and optional amendments such as iron chelate or soluble kelp. I am guessing roughly two to three thousand Baht a month in operating expenses.

 

I am leaving the door open to ultimately fit the system with solar power for resilience but that is down the road.

 

 

 

Hullo again and looks great. I can't remember, but did you fabricate the windows in the fish tanks yourself? I was talked out of windows as too difficult and leak.

Can you give me more details of your sump tank? Looks like you built a cement tank with those airrated blocks that you put the IBC tot in. What's with the black plastic covering the IBC TOT and the other tank inside the Tot. Can't wait to see your setup. Nice work. ????

[Time to grow]

1 hour ago, carlyai said:

did you fabricate the windows in the fish tanks yourself?

Yes, I ordered a couple pieces of Polycarbonate from Techi Polymers Co., Ltd. in Bangkok, cut the holes in the tanks, drilled the screw holes and bedded the windows with Polyurethane calking. They will never leak.

 

1 hour ago, carlyai said:

Can you give me more details of your sump tank? Looks like you built a cement tank with those airrated blocks that you put the IBC tot in. What's with the black plastic covering the IBC TOT and the other tank inside the Tot.

 

I dug the hole, poured a floor. built up the walls with normal concrete blocks, poured more reinforced concrete in the void between the block walls and the walls of the hole. 

 

The IBC tote is painted black on the top to stop sunlight from supporting algae. Additionally, I used air blocks to raise the height of the IBC tote a few inches to match the height of the DWC beds. I will also make a shelf for the pump with the air blocks.

 

Just got all three of the DWC's skinned out and filled with water to test. I need to plumb the DWC drains into the sump, plumb the pump, and finish the electric before I have water circulating. Hopefully in the next few days. The wife is working on getting the screen to cover the screen house structure but that will be a week or more before we are ready to cover it. I am anxious to get water circulating because it has to circulate for a few weeks before we add fish and plants.

[Time to grow]

2 hours ago, carlyai said:

I would like to build a small NFT system

Aquaponics or hydroponics? The rain helps to top off evaporation from my aquaponics system (photos on page 13 of this thread) with no concern for dilution. It may be different for hydroponics, I don't know.

 

The heat has definitely slowed down production in the last month or two but leafy greens still grow, albeit less robustly.

[carlyai]

47 minutes ago, Time to grow said:

Yes, I ordered a couple pieces of Polycarbonate from Techi Polymers Co., Ltd. in Bangkok, cut the holes in the tanks, drilled the screw holes and bedded the windows with Polyurethane calking. They will never leak.

 

 

I dug the hole, poured a floor. built up the walls with normal concrete blocks, poured more reinforced concrete in the void between the block walls and the walls of the hole. 

 

The IBC tote is painted black on the top to stop sunlight from supporting algae. Additionally, I used air blocks to raise the height of the IBC tote a few inches to match the height of the DWC beds. I will also make a shelf for the pump with the air blocks.

 

Just got all three of the DWC's skinned out and filled with water to test. I need to plumb the DWC drains into the sump, plumb the pump, and finish the electric before I have water circulating. Hopefully in the next few days. The wife is working on getting the screen to cover the screen house structure but that will be a week or more before we are ready to cover it. I am anxious to get water circulating because it has to circulate for a few weeks before we add fish and plants.

Thanks for the idea of extra room in the sump for the pumps. Will make a concrete enclosure like yours. ????