Aquaponics build

[crsublette]

At the end of the day, my plants will tell me if anything is wrong.
I think the fish will be easier to keep healthy.

I was procrastanating to elaborate on this statement, but I do mostly agree with it, that is sometimes we can only react when the plants or fish will tell us if anything is wrong.

One thing I learned quick from farming is that... If action is only taken once symptoms appear, then it might be too late to fix to the problem and so by then just trying to reduce the impact. To avoid this, we do soil and nutrient preparations.

Aquaponic or any type of gardening is no different. With soil bound gardening, the faith is put into the recipe of soil, compost, fertilizer, etc. This approach can be taken with a wicking grow bed in an aquaponic system, but the typical aquaponic system use different sterile or nutrient deficient mediums such as hydroton or gravel or water or zero medium.

My point is... The best we can do is to use a good, well rounded, recipe. Fish waste only fullfills the nitrogen ingredient, with other minor traces of other elements, of the fertilizer blend. This is why worms are often used in the growbeds, that are also fed other scraps. Also, algae reduces this nitrogen ingredient.

Plants can be quite efficient and do their best with what they are provided so they will, even with nutrient deficiencies, still yield something, but they won't thrive and yield anywhere near to what they are designed to provide us.

 

[MitchM]

After keeping corals for a number of years, and endless water testing, I got to a point where I could observe the condition of the corals and pretty much predict what the water tests would say. The water tests would only confirm what I expected.
I knew what I was adding, and I knew what the corals were consuming.
Every now and then there might have been a bad batch of salt I used, or something else out of the ordinary, so I would observe the corals change in appearance first.
You really need to use both methods. Plus common sense.
I'm expecting aquaponics to be similar. It is, after all, a glorified algae scrubber for the aquarium.

 

[Waterbug]

Yes, but isn't a little confirmation every once in awhile a nice feeling?

 

[MitchM]

Yes, but then sometimes it's followed by the thought "why am I wasting these chemicals?" - when I get the result I expected,
Then again, sometimes when I find things are off, it's "thank goodness I tested!"

I installed the valves tonight and am running the bell siphons one at a time until I have the media installed. Those siphons are pretty cool to watch (for the first time).

 

[crsublette]

I would also suggest that common sense indicate proper product selection and application. So, it would not be wise to go crazy with fertilizer all at once in one particular stage of a plant's life cycle or not wise to never add supplementals.

Not for sure, or I am unaware of, what type of well rounded nutrient testing there would be in our small scale vegetable/fruit production context. On the farm, when plant growth reaches a particular maturity, then plant samples are sent to a labratory to be tested that then tells me exact deficiencies and product application, but I think this might not be applicable to our context, unless maybe producing on a massive scale for profit. Without proper plant testing, we are essentially reactively analyzing plant reactions to deficiencies and then guessing as to the deficiency's cause, solution measurement, and product selection.

I was simply sharing options available to possibly address the unavoidable deficiencies in an aquaponic system if the grow medium used is already sterile and/or deficient. This is why I am really liking wicking grow beds in combination with a very loose composition of soil mix, such as one example created by the Earthan Group. It is unfortunate, since it is an opportunity lost, that many wicking grow bed designs out there utilize sterilized or nutrient deficient mediums.

 

[crsublette]

Another idea for ya, just tossing this out there for ya.

Along with the nutrient supplement due to a proper very loose soil mix medium, a properly built wicking bed really allows crops to thrive in an open recirculating aquaponics system such as tall crops that need to anchor its height (such as sweet corn) or other crops where the fruit grows in the medium (such as radishes, potatoes, carrots, etc).

Personally, I think it would be a fun experiment to have one particular plant, such as lettuce, to grow in 3 grow beds (raft, ebb/flow, and wicking) and then compare the harvest result. Then, do the same thing with tomatoes. From what I understand, particular plants such as lettuce, spinach, etc, grow best in a raft and ebb/flow since these leafy green type vegetables where the greens are harvested are the crops that are primarily a big consumer of nitrogen.

One paritcular fellow I enjoy following is Murray Hallam (website, Practical Aquaponics). He is a very informational fella.

Here is a video Mr. Hallam has done talking about how wicking beds should be constructed.

[video]

 

[Waterbug]

Those siphons are pretty cool to watch (for the first time).

Apparently they are mesmerizing given the number of videos on YouTube that mainly just show bell siphons. Many times it's the last video a builder posts. So maybe the whole purpose of aquaponics is to run a bell siphon for awhile? Kind of like the reason to have a Koi Pond is to have a bunch of cool filters. Without the Koi it would seem odd.

 

[HTH]

Apparently they are mesmerizing given the number of videos on YouTube that mainly just show bell siphons. Many times it's the last video a builder posts. So maybe the whole purpose of aquaponics is to run a bell siphon for awhile? Kind of like the reason to have a Koi Pond is to have a bunch of cool filters. Without the Koi it would seem odd.

If I have to explain this one it will make me feel very old.

 

[MitchM]

Yeah, I wasn't going to post a video of them...they're not THAT interesting, ha,ha. I don't know how to post a video anyways....

Thanks Charles for the wicking beds information. I was wondering how growing root vegetables would work.
However, my wife is already giving me a bit of a "raised eyebrow" look with how much real estate I'm taking up in the greenhouse with this system. I'm hoping that once something green grows, that's not aquarium algae, that she'll maybe be on side with adding a wicking bed.
My experience with watering dirt based plants from the bottom though is that eventually minerals start to accumulate on the surface, showing up as a white crusty deposit. I'll have to look for more information on that.

 

[MitchM]

... So, it would not be wise to go crazy with fertilizer all at once in one particular stage of a plant's life cycle or not wise to never add supplementals.....

Agreed.
I'm not sure how long it will take to build up sufficient nutrients so I can start plants in this.
I'm going to be looking for information on whether or not it's a good idea to add any fertilizer soon. However, I don't want to create the perfect conditions for an algae bloom either.

 

[HTH]

If you have plants started elsewhere I would add plants to the system as the system will support them. If you get a few too many plants wait for it to catch up then add more sort of thing.

 

[MitchM]

If I had to do it over again, I would tie in the three bottom sumps with 2" pipe, not the 1" I used.
The bell siphons drain the media beds quite quickly, and the equalization between the 3 sumps does not keep up.
It hasn't overflowed, (it's come close) but it just means that I will need to pay closer attention to the final water level.

 

[HTH]

You could put a bit of restriction in the line from the siphon to the sump. Just slow it down a bit. Would not be enough to change how the system worked.

 

[MitchM]

I don't think that would work, Howard. The siphon needs the power of the water rushing down the pipe in order to pull the air down, out of the upper chamber, thereby triggering the siphon to start.
At this point, I'm draining about 40 gallons out of the 50 gallon media beds. Once the media is in, the amount to be drained will be only 20 gallons.
I'm not too worried about it.

 

[HTH]

, I'm draining about 40 gallons out of the 50 gallon media beds. Once the media is in, the amount to be drained will be only 20 gallons.
I'm not too worried about it.

LOL so it was a never mind