Basic Aquaponics System

[abeliscain]

Very nice gracias

[kmori991]

Hello, I am an environmental science student in Alberta, Canada. I am applying for a grant to build and demonstrate aquaponic systems at local home and garden shows. I need to quote how much a project like this would cost, thus need your help by quoting how much one of your grow beads cost and can use that as a baseline. If you don't to post on Youtube e-mail me at kmori991@mymru.ca. Thank you!

[atomrocketcar]

thats not basic, use a timer and a pump, thats simple

timer goe off every 15 mins, and on every 15 mins, and so on, it can't over flow, because it's drawing from the fish tank, and it auto refill back up like em via gravity, win

but other wise good design, i like the ideal of using river rocks

i have an ideal of using bottle caps, to replace hydroton

[BigBearHuskyMusher]

I thought be height should be 10'-14". Yours looks like 6" or so. But your plants are thriving. Is the 12' height not necessary do you think?

[LiquidDnb4Ever]

how long do you have the pumps running? 15mins on 45 off?  this is the only part i dont get

[hargobindsingh2012]

Nice job

[minhakd]

What type of plant and animals are best for a Northwest temperature?

Have you compared your data with regular agriculture and aquaponic plant growth? If you had can you share it with me?

I also need to ask if you have compared the energy and water use comparing regular agriculture and aquaponics. If you had could you please share it with me? Can you make a profit out of aquaponics? How?

Have you thought of having a Community aquaponics project?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

Research further about your climate and its suitable plants and animals. Heating and chilling of water are always options, but it is normally more energy efficient to grow what is suited to your area. There are many studies that have been done and are being done on Aquaponics, many of which can be found with a search of google. There are also community Aquaponics projects popping up everywhere, have another search on google and see if there is one near you that you could get involved in.

[oliverjamescarr]

Can a system continously flow through a tank and a growbed without syphons? I dont unserstand what the syphons are for? Should there be a constant flow of water to the plants or have the bed filled upto the plants and cycle the water to provide nutrients? Do you know of any free online documentations i can print out and discuss with my step dad at looking at these systems and planing one for our family? We plan on using solar to power pumps so we may have to time the pumps.

[AquaponicsAustralia]

Aquaponics systems can run continuously, and you would not need the siphon. The height of the return drain would be the height that you want the water to reach in the grow beds. Do a search on google for Aquaponics, there are many great websites offering information on how to set up your own system.

[AquaponicsAustralia]

Aquaponics systems can run continuously, and you would not need the siphon. The height of the return drain would be the height that you want the water to reach in the grow beds. Do a search on google for Aquaponics, there are many great websites offering information on how to set up your own system.

[Vagabondeur]

@oliverjamescarr You can, but its better to have a flood and drain system for better results

[decooolest]

Eureka ! Your video has given me a great idea .. use aquaponics to breed ornamental fish for sale and profit. Makes a lot of sense.. also goldfish are good and hardy and big goldfish can make a decent profit. :)

[oliverjamescarr]

@decooolest the point really in a DIY home prospective is that you can grow plants and fish. So you can eat vegetables and fish that you have grown. However on a commercial view farmers use small fish in large numbers to provide nutrition to a large amount of plants. The fish dont really benefit from this system, you could just breed ornamental fish in a single tank.

[DJT77816]

Nice system, Check out my system on my channel.

[KEENY552]

ummmmm, i was not sure what the gold fish, im in a hardyzone 5-6. what do the fish do?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

The fish provide nutrients through their waste being converted by bacteria as plant available nutrients.

[jcwyatt1]

Where did you aquire the tubs and stands used for the plants?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

The stands and grow beds were purchased from a Hydroponics shop, and the tubs which hold the fish were bought from a hardware store.

[barronredneck]

This would be more informative if you were seen in the vid warring a bikini. You see we could see the results of all those nutrients going to work.

[murphyld66]

I used to grow and harvest plants in an aquarium that I had to help maintain healthy water for the fish and corals. This is a clever application of the same thing using freshwater fish as the nutrient source. The fish produce waste that breaks down into ammonia which the plants can use. Bacteria also breakdown some of the ammonia into nitrates and nitrites which the plants use as well. Some of the nitrites leave the water and enter the air but most are used by the plants. I admire your work

[AquaponicsAustralia]

Thanks for your comments, and you are right, that is exactly how it works.

[Celticninja011]

most expensive part? the huge ass green house

[AquaponicsAustralia]

The greenhouse is not an essential part of an Aquaponics system, they can be set up anywhere, even out in the open.

[TeslaGenius2]

hi, I'm interested very much in aquaponics

do you have any book to suggest, specially to find out

about ratio between fish and amount of crop

I have watched some videos but couldn't find

anything concrete on that subject yet.

[AquaponicsAustralia]

There are several books on Aquaponics available, we would suggest either "Aquaponics in Australia" or "Aquaponic Food Production".

[TeslaGenius2]

@AquaponicsAustralia

thank you for the tip!

[MyDadWorksAtMarcs]

what is that rock called to keep out build up in the top reservist? and where could i find one?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

The block to keep out the solids is a piece of foam, which is available from Aquarium shops, or you can even use a simple kitchen / car wash sponge. It is really just something that lets the water through but not the solids.

[goat20101]

ha what an extreme temperature change, we get from 0 to 100 usually its only 10 to 98 though. I am thinking Talapia would work better, you could even add fresh fish to the diet

[AquaponicsAustralia]

Tilapia would be great although us here in Australia are unable to use it due to fisheries restrictions. Tilapia is the most used fish in Aquaponics everywhere else in the world though.

[zacktube100]

I am making my 1st hydroponics system. My plants will be planted in rocks in net pots which will be in a pipe that I will flood & drain. Cutting holes in the pipe is difficult and I was wondering why I can't plant my plants in a tub of rocks (such as what you are doing) instead of individual pots in a pipe. I assumed the reason was algae because I was told not to use clear tubes because algae will develop in them. Do you have any algae or mold problems? Do you flood & drain the plant beds?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

You need to make sure that when you flood and drain, that the water is not exposed to the sunlight, i.e. the water level of flood comes below the level of the media. You are right in assuming that using clear grow beds or pipes allows algae to grow where sunlight hits them. Algae in itself is not a problem, it is just that the algae take some of the nutrients that should be getting used by the plants that you do want to grow.

[dwiggs77]

awesome system,thanks for sharing

[AquaponicsAustralia]

no problems.

[jonnycaliente17]

Very neat setup! Wondering if you have used traditional hydroponics before? (General Hydroponics ect) What is the difference in yield between traditional hydroponics and aquaponics? Thanks again for posting!

[AquaponicsAustralia]

We have used traditional Hydroponics before, but we have no statistics in relation to yield comparisons between Hydroponics and Aquaponics. 

[matrxmax]

In the aquaponics does the water continuously circulate?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

It depends on what type of system that you have, it can either be continuous flow or a flood and drain system.

[mplatnn]

@AquaponicsAustralia if i use continuous flow den how tall should my pipe be from the bottom of the grow bed? and how tall shld the gravel be from the bottom of grow bed?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

You want to make sure that when flooding the grow bed, whether it be in flood and drain or continuous systems, that the water does not get to see sunlight, i.e. the water level at its highest is below the level of the top of the media.

[johnlvs2run]

Awesome system, thanks for sharing.

What is the cost of feeding the fish, and what do you feed them??

[AquaponicsAustralia]

We feed the fish commercial fish feed as well as worms from our own worm compost system, but they also will eat live captured bugs etc. The cost will depend on what fish feed you use, as well as how many fish you have, but is relatively a minimal cost.

[YourGardenShow]

interesting project!

[shloky]

Awesome. It looks as though you have a greenhouse to house the system. Is this necessary in your experience?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

We do use a greenhouse for most of our systems, but it is not necessary for the Aquaponics system to work successfully.

[PhilipK100]

Could I do a really SMALL version of this as an experiment in Northern Ireland or does this only work in warm places like Australia?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

Absolutely. You may need a water heater depending on the type of fish you use.

[6699pantera]

how do you control the ph in the water

[AquaponicsAustralia]

The pH is balanced using either a potassium base or calcium base product, depending on whether the system is asid or alkaline.

[sshhh12]

what do you feed the fish?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

We feed the fish commercial fish food, as well as any bugs that we can collect. They also love eating worms.

[boxa888]

@AquaponicsAustralia soo do you think you could also use fish that people eat as a nutrient maker? wow i am soo impressed by this, i was checking out hydroponics but this seems even better than hydroponics, is there any way to feed the fish without having to manually feed them, almost like an enclosed ecosystem?? is there water plants or some type of natural prey that you can introduce?? awesome

[AquaponicsAustralia]

You can definitely use fish that are edible, we use the goldfish as they are hardy for these smaller systems, and do not need anywhere near as much care as the edible species. As for the fish feed question, there are systems which will capture live food, e.g bugs, and drop them into your fish tank, yet this style of fish feeding is hard to judge how much they have eaten. Growing water plants in the system takes away the nutrients that you want to go to the vegetables / herbs etc in your system.

[Abnormalized]

How deep are the plant beds? Would you consider planting perennials or do you think aquaponics is only suited for annuals? I saw a video of another Aussie aquaponics guy named Geoff with worms in his plant beds to consume the buildup of solids - is that something you've tried?

Sorry for so many questions - I'm just so curious ;-)

[AquaponicsAustralia]

The plant beds are around 19cm deep. We plant both annuals and perrenials, we have an apple tree in one of our systems, and have had it there for several years. We also have worms within the grow beds, a few were added originally and have multiplied.

[Abnormalized]

@AquaponicsAustralia

Cool! I keep hearing how aquaponics may not be suited for nutrient-demanding plants, but most of the videos I watch show many different fruiting plants. How is the production and quality of fruit on the apple tree? You mentioned feeding the fish worms. Do you gather worms directly from the beds? I'm wondering how often you could do that sustainably.

Thanks for this information. I'd love to make a small commercial set-up and sell to organic supermarkets!

[AquaponicsAustralia]

If you want to grow nutrient demanding plants, you have to make sure that you have enough fish to provide the nutrients. Our apple tree is good, we have had a couple of apples off it this year, so hopefully next year will be its year to fruit fully. We feed the fish worms from our worm compost farm, the worms in the beds are best left to do their job in the beds.

[Abnormalized]

@AquaponicsAustralia

One more question ;)

How big is your system? How much fish does it produce annually?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

We have several different systems, all of different sizes, our main aim is to produce plants off these systems, the fish are used as the nutrient providers.

[ikillalot]

How many times a day do the pumps come on ?And for how long ?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

These system pumps work for approx 15 minutes every hour.

[adrahaxxen]

could you use turtles instead of fish or as well as fish?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

From our understanding, turtles do not like to be in water with many other turtles, therefore it may be hard to get the nutrient level up enough for the plants. Try asking on the Aquaponics forums to see if anybody has used turtles in their systems, and what the results were.

[keytoothed]

It seems like if you could one right, you could built a hundred. The vegetables would be of such high quality, you could try to sell them to restaurants. Fresh, organic, and full of flavor.

[NARCOPOLO76]

sounds like you have a good business idea!!!

[VanSneiwder]

Great system, im starting on my own, but i would like to have a fish/water litre and plant area ratio, so that i could do some calculations before starting :) i want balance

[AquaponicsAustralia]

There is no perfect ratio so to speak, it is mostly based on the feed input of the fish, generally there is around 10 - 30kg of fish per 1000 litres of water.

[VanSneiwder]

hmmm thanks, now i have to experiment some things, maybe there's no documentation but is there any ratio for area of plants on bed (i know i can vary a lot depending of the species used)

many thanks in advance :)

[500JonesDavy]

@VanSneiwder check murray hallams balance.

[adrianvb45]

where did u get the trays from?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

The trays were purchased from a hydroponics supplier, most have similar trays available.

[Dave7689]

cool, i like the strainer they use when they pump the water.

[haynesmachine]

Great system !!! well done.

[StuLuminos]

Hi, I have a couple of questions,

1) Are fish obligatory - and can you eat them?

2) How much water does this use?

Thanks

[AquaponicsAustralia]

The fish are needed if the system is going to be run as an Aquaponics system. Most fish can be eaten, it will depend on the species of fish used whether they are a good eating fish or not. The water use is by evaporation and transpiration, very minimal water use, most water is cycled and kept within the system.

[mountfujiave]

how do you prevent the float from activating when the sump pump starts and water level in the fish tank drops temporarily til lthe water returns several minutes later? Thanks for the video. Very nice.

[AquaponicsAustralia]

The level of the float valve is below the lowest level that the tank water drops to when it is pumping into the grow beds.

[gmorl]

very creative! I've always used fish tank water to water my house plants

[VanSneiwder]

thanks for the vid, im using this as inspiration for my school project, im just wondering is the water all ways flowing?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

These systems are on timers running 15 minutes every hour, but can be run continuously.

[davelovestash]

great system - have you ever put earthworms in your system to help remove solids - we put them in our systems and have not had to clean our media in 3 years!

[AquaponicsAustralia]

Yes we have put worms in some of the grow beds, the worms seem to love the moist conditions, and help to add to the system's nutrient base.

[YouMockMe]

What is the cost of maintaining the system? Realistically you need to feed the fish and add nutrients.

Thanks for any information you can provide.

[AquaponicsAustralia]

Yes you are right, you will need to either purchase or produce fish feed, and there will be some purchases of balancing nutrients such as iron, calcium etc.

[YouMockMe]

But what is the cost of this? Realistically you need to feed the fish and add nutrient, so what is the relative cost ratio?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

Fish will eat anywhere from 1% to 5% of their body weight a day, factors like type of fish, climate, time of year, and water temperature will change how much fish eat. The cost of the fish feed will also change depending on whether it is bought in bulk or not.

[FLIPWILSON1]

Could you be a little more specific on your siphon, PLEASE?

This would be of great help to me. Thank you.

[cyberspy034]

Amazing, genius!

[penguinistas]

Nice video, thank you. I assume that you feed the fish and their waste products feed the plants (or am I wrong)? What then do you feed the fish? Fish food from a store sounds like it could get expensive so perhaps you raise some sort of bugs for them eat like grubs, worms or maggots?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

You are right, the fish need to be fed for them to produce wastes. Fish feed can either be bought commercially or you can raise your own feed (bugs etc) or grow duckweed (a water plant suitable as fish feed supplement).

[the11rhino22]

How does the syphon work?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

Without going into too much detail, the syphon works by allowing the water to rise to a certain point, once it has reached this point the water is automatically sucked (syphoned) out of the grow bed.

[NOSMOJEFF]

Great video--thanks for sharing what you have done. This proves that it does not have to be complicated.

[knowmore09]

Fantastic video. Clear and concise. Can you tell me the size of the fish tank and how much water does it hold? How many fish does it hold? What is the length and the width of the grow bed? Do you pump the water into the grow beds 24 hrs a day or do you give it a break? If I was using Nile Tilapia in such a system how many fish would I need to put into the tank? Thanks in advance!

[AquaponicsAustralia]

The tank is 200 litres, grow bed is 1m x 2m, water is pumped periodically, the amount of fish depends on the amount of plants you will be growing.

[knowmore09]

Thanks. Currently how many fish and plants are you holding? and what is the cycle time (off for how long/ on for how long) and capacity of the pump?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

We have anywhere from 10 to 40 fish in these systems currently, and grow a variety of plants. Cycle time is 15 minutes on every hour,but can be changed depending on weather conditions.

[greenfrog140]

anything else can be used? one person used pea gravel.. any other material can be used? how did you get the idea of using river pebbles? thanks!

[AquaponicsAustralia]

Any kind of rocks / pebbles can be used as well as expanded clay balls, just make sure that they have not been used for any purpose that has used chemicals.

[livnthadream25]

Your video is cool.

What do the effects of the goldfish do to the plants? I find that interesting.

[greenfrog140]

i noticed there is no sand for the plants. We dont need sand or mud to plant the plants? instead you used sea stones? where do i get them from?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

We have used river pebbles for these systems which can be found at any landscape supplier.

[gierkep]

well it would still be much more helpful if you could pick general plotting points such as say ex: ag 7 zone, feeding talalpia duckweed, (hell i dont know even what to suggest for plants), (no idea what you mean by balanced). I think people who do green sciences tend for forget this is a numbers society so they show pictures of solar panels made of beer cans but dont give you any real numbers as to heat output.

[AquaponicsAustralia]

Sorry that we cannot be more specific but it really does depend on many factors as mentioned earlier. By balanced we mean that the system needs to have the right ratio of grow beds to fish tank, and then there are the ratios of fish food to plant uptake of nutrients. We are not scientists, and have made this video of an example of what we have done, and what is working for us.

[gierkep]

you mean live on nothing but herbs? i guess a better question how many calories a day can one system grow

[gierkep]

how many people can you sustain with this setup

[theblackhen]

I think your system is great! We have a basic aquaponics barrel system but I think it's too complicated and I need to simplify the way the water flows through. Then I'm going to get a license to have edible fish. Thanks.

[muffdriver69]

If you use river pebbles, isn't the pebbles hard for plants to grow? I never knew plants can grow on hard rock pebbles, let alone clay, since I believe they are very hard to grab nutrients from them. I agree with the goldfish, I seen Australia have very fluctuating climate. Like 4 seasons in a day in Melbourne.

[AquaponicsAustralia]

The river pebbles do not provide the plants with nutrients, the nutrients are provided by the fish waste converted into plant available form in the water.

[muffdriver69]

But I was wondering if the bed is too deep, the nutrients won't reach the roots through the river pebbles as the river pebbles may not be porous enough to absorb water and nutrients with it. How do you subscribe to this? Thanks.

[cymurai52]

hello why didnt you use fishes that will be for consumption. thanks

[AquaponicsAustralia]

This system is a basic style with minimal filtration and circulation, therefore we have used hardy fish which will survive the extremes of weather that we experience. Native Australian fish are not hardy and need much more care and attention than goldfish. We do have native edible fish in other systems that are better set up with filtration and circulation.

[lezebre2007]

Very interresting. I have some question though: How many goldfish do you need for a given area?

Is the water running in a closed circuit? (except the constant intake in case of heat?)

Many thanks.

[AquaponicsAustralia]

The amount of fish can vary greatly depending on many factors including plants used, climate and type of fish used. Yes the water is circulating in a closed system, apart from top-ups from water loss from evaporation and transpiration.

[qin02]

is the air pump necessary? shouldnt the water be airated when it flows back from the medium to the fish tank?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

The water is aerated as it falls back into the fish tank, although there is really no way to measure how much aeration is occurring. Using an aerator ensures that enough oxygen is entering the water to keep the fish happy.

[readallen]

what do you feed the fish, I HAVE SEEN SOME SYSTEMS THAT INCORPORATE A POOL TO GROW DUCK WEED TO FEED THE FISH

[AquaponicsAustralia]

We feed the fish a combination of commercial fish pellets, as well as home made food from duckweed, which is grown in a separate pond to the Aquaponics system.

[hopeitshappy]

use worms and grow the worms from food waste :)

[freerangechicken26]

Do you know if anybody has ever combined Aqua with Aero?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

There are systems using the fish production of Aquaponics combined with Aeroponics, although the filtration systems needs to be highly effective, as there cannot be any particles in the water when spraying the water. These particles clog up the sprayers, reducing or even stopping their flow, and will need regular cleaning.

[danielj1252]

Do you eat the fish?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

We do not eat the Goldfish, although some people do.

[lostorfound19]

it looks like its an eb and flow is that right?

[AquaponicsAustralia]

Absolutely right.

[mdf072]

excellent & informative. thanks.

[Timbak123456789]

Nice and simple. Thanks for sharing. Do you have to cool the water during the summer months to keep the fish and plants happy?