300 gal. Aquaponic System - update
- Thread starter mrgrackle
- Start date
Does the fish waste actually provide everything the plant needs? Aren't the 3 major plant nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus (or is it phosphate) and potassium (N-P-K)? Do you have to make sure that the food you feed your fish contains potassium? Also what do you do about the iron your plant may need?
You got it right, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium.
Nitrogen is in obviously present.
Phosphorus can come from different things you feed the fish.. I want to use black soldier flies.. dried they're 1.5% phosphorus and should end up in the plants after the fish are done with it.
Potassium also comes from fish food. Some people put pieces of banana's in their grow beds. I'm somewhat sceptical of this method, but apparently it works and probably what I'll try if I notice potassium deficiences.
Another thing that can be done with live food is feed it what you want to get into your fish and plants. My girlfriend and I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, the left overs go in the worm bins, fish eat the worms, worms poo in the water, cycle is complete. Some people have fruit eating fish and they just feed the fish fruit with the nutrients they want in the system. Some people use a product called Seasol which is a liquid seaweed/fish fertilizer.
Iron is the biggest nutrient problem in an aquaponics system. Most people supplement with Iron Chelate, it's what I do.
The only thing I've ever added to my system is food and iron chelate.
Nitrogen is in obviously present.
Phosphorus can come from different things you feed the fish.. I want to use black soldier flies.. dried they're 1.5% phosphorus and should end up in the plants after the fish are done with it.
Potassium also comes from fish food. Some people put pieces of banana's in their grow beds. I'm somewhat sceptical of this method, but apparently it works and probably what I'll try if I notice potassium deficiences.
Another thing that can be done with live food is feed it what you want to get into your fish and plants. My girlfriend and I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, the left overs go in the worm bins, fish eat the worms, worms poo in the water, cycle is complete. Some people have fruit eating fish and they just feed the fish fruit with the nutrients they want in the system. Some people use a product called Seasol which is a liquid seaweed/fish fertilizer.
Iron is the biggest nutrient problem in an aquaponics system. Most people supplement with Iron Chelate, it's what I do.
The only thing I've ever added to my system is food and iron chelate.
nice to see this.... I too am into sustainable practices. Plus if you raise your own fish you wont have to worry about eating dirty pollution ridden fish form everywhere else.... I like to eat fish but its hard now-a-days........
Great setup!!!!!! Ive been wanting to do something similar to this for a while. But I live in Northern WI. Right now Im running all my tanks filtration through the basement. I want to run it through a hydroponics set-up. I just have to decide if I want to use 55 gal. plastic drums or possibly gutters for the hydroponics. Keep us posted with plenty of pictures!!!!!!!!!!!
I was trying to take some pictures of the fish the other day... I left the camera outside and it rained... It's drying out now before I dare try and turn it back one /sigh
Daveolejnik - if you use gutters are you going to fill them with some sort of grow media? People grow plants in gutters without gravel or medium in there, just styrofoam floating on the water, but this doesn't do anything to break down solids. If you do gutters and fill them with gravel it would break the particles down but it's hard to make sure that all the medium gets equally dosed with nutrient rich water. You could do a combination of barrels and gutters... have the barrels filled with gravel, they get filled with water and once it reaches the high water point on the barrels have it drain into the gutters then back into the fish tank. I think people call the gutter systems NTF (nutrient film technology). Let me know what you do Dave!
Daveolejnik - if you use gutters are you going to fill them with some sort of grow media? People grow plants in gutters without gravel or medium in there, just styrofoam floating on the water, but this doesn't do anything to break down solids. If you do gutters and fill them with gravel it would break the particles down but it's hard to make sure that all the medium gets equally dosed with nutrient rich water. You could do a combination of barrels and gutters... have the barrels filled with gravel, they get filled with water and once it reaches the high water point on the barrels have it drain into the gutters then back into the fish tank. I think people call the gutter systems NTF (nutrient film technology). Let me know what you do Dave!
Very nice project. I admire your industriousness. I'm sure you had a lot a fun thinking thorough this and planning the various components.
the grow beds are the filter. filtering the water futher would just take nutrients from my grow beds. don't have enough to go around as it is!
