what is an easy way to creat a aquaponics system?
Image by Milkwooders
Setting up an aquaponics system for Alexandria Park Community Center:
milkwood.net/2011/03/21/diy-urban-bathtub-aquaponics-system/
Question by Tedrick: what is an easy way to creat a aquaponics system?
i am very interested in making and aquaponics system
Can you help? Leave your own answer in the comments!
One Response to what is an easy way to creat a aquaponics system?
Leave a Reply
Get a fish tank of some sort, a small water pump, some tubing, and a shallow tray that will hold a mix of sand, gravel and water.
FIll the tray with the mix of sand and gravel (80% gravel, 20%sand) and mount it where it will get lots of sunlight or below a grow light. Rig the pump so that it pulls water from near the bottom of the fish tank. Run the tubing to one end of the tray. Run a return tube or drain from teh tray back to above the surface of the fish tank- make sure the return water splashes and lands on the opposite side of the tank from the suction side of the pump. This will circulate the water for the fish.
When the system has been running for 48 hours, either add a bacterial starter kit-
If you don’t have a bacterial starter kit, here’s how you establish a good colony-
put in 1% or one fish (whichever is greater) of the total number of fish you intend to keep, and, without feeding it for 4 days, let it swim around in the tank to start a bacterial colony in the gravel and in the tank. The gravel in the tray must be wet all the time- it’s OK if the surface of the gravel is dry, but you need to run water into the tray at least twice an hour, or 100% of the time. This will keep the bacteria healthy on the surface of the gravel.
Finally, after 5 days, you can add more fish. Feed them very lightly for 2-3 days. After that, start a normal feeding schedule. A day or two before you add more fish, you start the first feeding- very lightly, just once a day. Now you can add plants to the gravel biofilter. I suggest growing basil in soil for 10-days- 2 weeks before you start the system. Plant the basil in a root media like biocubes, something to give the roots a solid start point. Before you give the fish their first full feeding, you should have a nice colony of basil in the gravel.
Feed the fish as much as they’ll eat in less than a minute- Do not overfeed the fish, and don’t let there be any extra food in the tank. Don’t dump the food in- spread it out so everyone eats, and start off with light feeding to get your bacterial colony really established.
It takes patience and practice, but you can house up to a pound of fish flesh per gallon of water with a really healthy biofilter. Make sure you have a large enough biofilter, too- the gravel should be washed peagravel- and the water flow in the tray should be slow enough not to wash out the plants!
Good luck!
benthic_man
September 30, 2011 at 6:24 pm