Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

O yes HP! You think fish eat pumpkin leaves. They are edible for us. More free food then..... Anyone ever tried?

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Chelle.

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. Ellen Parr

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident.
Arthur Schopenhauer

Not sure if anyone has seen these:
http://www.northcoastmarines.com/bioballs.htm

These could really throw the depth of growbeds off a bunch Might be good space savers for keeping the growbeds/biofilters to a minimum size. I'm doing a micro set-up and plan on using these.

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From the site

At $150 for just under 40 gallons, I'd question the inexpensive part.
I'd question the surface area claim too - smooth plastic vs rough rock, rock has pores and irregularities that plastic doesn't? I'm not sure though, the claim might be valid.
Rock also may release minerals for plant use.

Cyara,

Actually, I thought the pumpkins (which can run for meters) would suck more nitrates from the water than the equivalent bush-type squash, thus allowing you to remove lots of nitrates without needing as much area planted (ie: a deep/narrow growbed can work as well as a shallow/wide one for removing nutrients if it supports the same amt of plants.....roughly speaking)

I hadn't thought of pumpkin leaves as edible, but every day, as I harvest male squash flowers and use them to pollinate the females, I contemplate tossing the remains into the fish tank. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe I'll munch one myself, but the scent is not quite.....

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This has been a test life. It is only a test. If this had an actual life you would have been given instructions on where to go and what to do.

WARNING: I suffer from ideaphoria. This post may contain untested ideas, errors, and excessive enthusiasm.

Well I'll tell you how it goes. I'm still probably 2-3 months out from a fully cycled system, but I'll be sure to post what I've found out.

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...and need support / help look who is in the area and supporting Aquaponics in the Aquaponics Business Directory!
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If you need a cheap source of surface area for bacteria.. you could grow it
One rye grass plant can have a root area of over 4000 sqft after 4 months, or about equal to a 7ft x 7ft x 1ft deep gravel bed. You still need the gravel to deal with the solids though.

Yeah I plan on using gravel in the top 2 thirds of the containers, but the bottom third will be those bio-balls.

_________________
If you're in the US:
...and need support / help look who is in the area and supporting Aquaponics in the Aquaponics Business Directory!
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Pumpkin flowers are a delicacey,.....,you guy's throwing them away are VERY lucky my mother-in-law can't read English

Anyone want the Thai recipes???

Someone else on here noted that passion-fruit vines can pull huge amounts of nutrients out,,so those are another option.

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I call a Spade a Spade,,,you can turn it upside down and paint itred but it's still a Spade.

and pumpkin leaves used to make the cows go high at a certain time off year (memory from childhood), so if your fish act a little strange.

Excellent info, TCL
about the vermiculite castings and where to add them
Thanks

Frank

Yes! Please.....

_________________
Chelle.

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. Ellen Parr

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident.
Arthur Schopenhauer

yes please

isn't there a thread for recipes?

better to post them there, I think

Frank

NFT systems seem to contradict that
nitrification is all about surface and aeration, not about depth
TMHO depth is required mainly for stabilizing the heavier plants

frank

NFT systems in traditional hydroponics systems don't provide any real nitrification at all... the nutrient mixes are designed to provide the plant needs....

Those using NFT in aquaponic systems do so by pre-filtering solids... and usually incorporate the NFT component as an end point "polishing" of nutrient/nitrate loaded water...

Again as such, IMO, perform at best very minimal nitrification... and aren't intended to primarily do so.... depth of water and continuous relatively high flow wouldn't really dispose such system components to any degree of nitrification...

And the quantities of any media involved (if used) are miniscule in comparison to growbeds, bead filters etc....

High flow continous floating raft raceways (ala UVI) rely on the raft surface areas which are considerable and obviously perform a level of nitrification...

Continuous flow growbed systems haven't been found to perform as well as flood and drain, regardless of depth....

But, on the other hand trickle filters and fluid sand filters, all bead filters etc... all perform better with a degree of depth... albeit that the depth in such systems means a greater volume of filtration media... hence increased surface area as Frank suggests...

Yes... the 300mm depth is partially for plant support.... but probably also affects/helps with the breakdown of solids...

that is a wrong assumption and a misquote:
I suggest that with all bio filters only contact surface is all important and depth absolutely irrelevant, even counterproductive: water that has passed a first "healing" layer of media will be O2 depleted and thus impede the good functioning of below layers.

so a shallow biofilter will necessarily perform better than a deep one

frank