300 gal. Aquaponic System - update

mrgrackle

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 3, 2007
92
0
0
austin, tx
I posted about this in the past but I figured I'd give you all an update... well, that plus you folks seem to be the only ones that care. My friends just look at me and go ... 'great.'



So, I've built something called an aquaponics system. It's the merger of aquaculture and hydroponics. I raise fish and use their waste to grow plants, which in turn remove the waste from the water and send it back to the fish nice and clean. This gives organic vegetables and fish with minimal water and energy usage. In the forground you see the 300 gallon stock tank. There's a 900 gph pump sending water up the 1/2 inch pipe and into the water manifold at the top of the picture. There are 7 ball valves. one of them is for draining water from the system and onto the garden if there's some need for that. The others each feed into their own gravel filled half barrel with acts as a hydroponic grow bed. The grow beds are the blue half barrels in the middle of the picture, you can only really see 3 of them. There's a siphon in the middle of each bed so that once the barrels are full of water the siphon kicks in and drains the water back into the stock tank. You can see the two drain pipes coming back into the tank.

300 gal. stock tank with 10 bluegill (1-2"), 1 spotted bass (3") and 2 crawfish.





1 x 25 gal. bed planted with peas (100%)
1 x 25 gal. bed planted with spinach (75%) and carrots (25%)
1 x 25 gal. bed planted with chard (100%)

you can't really see the spinach, carrots or chard in the picture because they're just sprouting.

3 x 25 gal. bed empty - these beds aren't removing nitrogen but they are converting the ammonia & nitrite to nitrate, which is less harmfull for the fish. These beds will get planted with I get more lbs. of fish per gallon. Right now I don't think I have enough nutrients from 11 fish to feed all 6 barrels full of plants.



I turned one of the empty grow beds into a solar heater. I'm not sure if it actually helps much, but the idea is that the sun heats up the lava rock, the glass keeps the heat trapped inside and the water that's raising and lowering inside gets heated up. I plan on building a better one.

Here are some water quality numbers. This is after 2 months of the system up and running. I don't think the system has completely cycled and once it has the nitrite will also go to a trace level. I've never done any water changes. Only topped off from evaporation.

water temp 12.5 C / 55 F
ammonia < .25mg (under the lowest color on chart)
nitrite .5mg
nitrate <.25mg (under the lowest color on chart)
oxygen 5.0 ppm (at 13:30, since this will fluctuate due to algae respiration depending on time of day)
 

frasertheking

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Feb 17, 2007
1,142
3
68
scotland
wow love it , keep us updated as the growing season goes on . id like to hear the changes in nitrates and ammonia over the growing season :headbang2
 

Fish Eat Fish

Piranha
MFK Member
Sep 24, 2007
1,917
48
81
Mankato
gotta love to nature.
 

ambition420

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 14, 2008
30
0
6
owatonna,minnesota
That is amazing. I am excited to see how your project grows through the seasons.
 
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