I've always been fascinated with aquaponics. It is efficient, sustainable and easy to run. It uses much less water than traditional farming and genetically modified products and will allow us to see to the needs of food security at a faster rate than what a solution such as food waste management would. Food produced within aquaponic systems are rich in nutrients, and unlike genetic modification have no potential risks to the health of both the environment or those consuming the produce. Aquaponics is essentially the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics. When we look at combining the two, the negative aspects are turned into positives. The fish provide nutrients through their waste to the plants which in turn filter the fishy water.
Here is the setup I had back before I got my trailer (About 4-5 yrs ago)
A pump on a timer fills the beds and the bell siphon I made empties the beds into the sump tank below them. The flow of the water entering the beds must be strong enough to trigger the siphon. Once the water in the sump tank reaches a certain level it sets off a float switch which makes the water return to the main tank. The return of the water also provides oxygen to the fish. The growbeds were made using food grade IBC totes.
Just 2 months since seed and the plants are thriving! Cucumbers & tomatos is what's being grown here. Can't quite remember if there were others.
The species of fish I have here are tilapia. Many different species of fish can be grown in an aquaponic system, your species selection will depend on a number of factors but mostly temperature. For example tilapia cannot withstand cold and trout need it to be cold. Quite high stocking densities of fish can be grown in an aquaponic system.
Tomatos grown with love & fish poop! In the middle of winter ^_^
Turning an abandoned utility trailer into an aquaponics grow bed. This was a project made in hopes of having transportable plants.
Whilst I never got the chance to do many test runs with this the trials I did do presented a challenge triggering the bell siphon. If anyone were to replicate this project or build a growbed of this size (8' x 6') I would suggest downsizing the overall capacity of the bed by a couple feet so the siphon doesn't struggle. Though with more water pressure I feel like it may have worked. Both of these experiments unfortunately got cut short due to being forced to relocate.
I dream to one day have an aquaponic rainbow trout pond setup with a greenhouse. It appears to be in the community's plans so I hope to fulfill that dream soon and post about it.
I am a big fan of sushi! I've gotten pretty good at making it. My staple breakfast is sushi rice with eggs from the chickens. It's sooo good especially warm.
Thanks for viewing! I hope you found this interesting. If you have any questions about aquaponics I know a fair bit about it.
This is really cool and that sushi looks delicious! It's good to see a small-scale option like this for people like me who are new to aquaponics. It's always been on my to-do list and a project like this would be a great start before trying large scale aquaponics. I'll be referencing this for later. Thanks for sharing!
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Thanks It was a lot of fun! You can use an IBC tote as the fish tank as well, they are about the same amount of gallons as the tank I used. I had tried to do a version with a swimming pool but it didn't get very far. I can't wait to work on a large scale operation. My pleasure! ^_^
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This is something I have been toying with the idea of trying to get started. I have two HUGE rooms in my basement that would be perfect for this. Of course when I win the lottery, I plan on buy multiple acres of land and build a HUGE metal building to house a very large aquaponics system. lol.
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Basements are ideal in case of leaks or if you're like me and you forget you're filling the tank and it overflows haha. In my first setup I used pea gravel and whilst this is a cheap and effective choice for medium it's super heavy so if you ever have to move it going for the expanding clay pellets is much better. Right on! Awesome way to spend lottery winnings lol
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yes, it worked well for us when the kids (grown) didn't deal with the leaves on one side of the house for 2 years and they funneled all the water from the front yard through my basement, lol. We had a river, but didn't hurt the cement floor one tiny little bit, lol.
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I am excited to design the pond and make some fishy permacutlure happen~!
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Yeeeee!!! <33
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nice work! I hope to build a similar system one day.
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Thanks! It's a pretty fun and rewarding way to grow ^_^
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Hey @wisewoof. Do you power your system with solar energy? I also really like the concept behind aquaponics, yet I learned in my PDC last year, that they consume a lot of energy and hardware for the amount of food they produce. A well menaged no irrigation and no dig garden that has the right amount of sun/shade and a deep mulch bed is said to be way more energy efficient. I myself have no experiance with any of these, as I will be startting into veg-growing this spring.
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When I had that system I did not. I now have solar power though and that would be the plan for the future system. It depends on how the hardware is sourced (in my case I obtain almost everything secondhand or free) and if you have the advantage of grade to move water. Doesn't cost anything if it's going downhill. I think aquaponics is most ideal for people who need to conserve water/or eat a lot of fish. (You need some way to filter the fish water!) Or even people who run expensive filter units for hobbiest aquariums.
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Never thougth about that. Of course there are people who need to eat a lot of fish. And from my teenage aquarium time I remember the tons of muck that came out of the filter and went into the toilet... Growing vergies of that muck would have made a lot more sense.
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great job. My friend.@wisewoof. You made the trailer full of life.
You deserve a lot of respect.
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Thankyou! <3
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This puts my dinky little aquaponics setup to shame!
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Pshh not at all, I only got to run this for a few months before finding out I had to move. Your setup has received much love and clearly been an ongoing thing. I think it's beautiful! And I love how you give people an in depth follow up of how things are going! Great job ^_^
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