Aquaponics Hungary

molj

awsome work zsazsa! My next project is definetly a passive GH, thanks to you man.

About media in your GBs, i have riverbed gravel(10-20mm) and it's ok. But it has some disadvantages.
- Since it's lime-based gravel(mine is) it raises your pH a lot(which is good in the long term because u don't need to add CaCO if u use rainwater), but really sucks from the start because few plants like pH above 7.5(even pH 7 sucks in terms of hydroponics) and they struggle a lot to survive.
- it's a real pain in the ass weight-wise, you need strong stands and your back hurts from handling it in the start + it's harder to germinate seeds in it and harder to put in seedlings
- growing patatoes or carrots(or any kind of root veggies) is out of the question(at least in my gravel, maybe in smaller it would be possible)
- flooding cycles need to be more often, since it doesn't retain water
- difficult to clean it from root leftovers
- does reflect sunlight if u have white gravel, good for summer, not so good for winter time

I will try in one of my GB to use hydroton just in the upper 10-15 cm layer and see how that works, because hydroton is so so much easier to handle and roots love it and with riverbed gravel underneath supplying water with lime is a win win situation in theory. Will report after i test this.

May the winds blow into your sails

zsazsa

Just sent you an email on ordering the fish!

zsazsa

Here are the componets of my reverstone:

quartz SiO2 93%
albit NaAlSi3O8 5%
muscovite KAl2(Si3Al)(OH,F)2 1%

I think it wont harm the ph. Right?

Available sizes: 8-16 mm / 16-22mm / 16-32mm
Which to chose?

zsazsa

I got a question from grriiff on youtube about the tour (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPIISo4ucvw)

Quote:

How will you drain it if you get lots of rain or have a grow bed malfunction or something

Flooding - worts case scenarios: (We have talked about this earlier but lets go deeper in detail now.)

- Ground water level is not high enough to brake in. I have also insulated the basement against ground water, but im sure its not perfect.

- Water from heavy raining wont jump the doorstep (more than 10mm-s in a few hours is not likely here), even if it happens, it cant get into the system. And I can pump it out to the dirt garden.

- Growbed mallfunction (overflowing, or broken pipe)
In this case the system operates untill the water level in the sumps drop below the minimum level required by the pump. In this case I'll have 100-200l of water of water on the floor. Quantity depends on how much water would stay in the other growbeds. This quantity would make less than 1cm of water on the floor. It cant get back to the system, I would leave that on the floor, to leak away. This case the fishtank stays full and aired.

- Sump mallfunction (sump leak or sump connecting pipe broken)
In this case I have max 700l of water on the floor thats 3 cms of water. But as its very unlikely that all the 9 siphons brake withing a few minutes before the pump stops operating. The potential value of water out is around ~400 liters thats 2 cms of water on the floor. This case the fishtank stays full and aired.

- Fish tank broken on the bottom
In this case all the water is out on the floor. This means 2500l of water equals ~12cms. Water wont jump the doorstep, but I would need a pump to fertelize the dirt garden with te water.

molj

As far as my chemical knowledge goes you should have pretty much an inert substrate there, there might be some reactions with Al and K in your medium, but since the concentrations are so low you should be fine. I would choose the 8-16mm gravel (be sure to have a good distribution of water over the GB else the gravel gets full of poo quickly on the inflow places, OR use a prefilter for solids(stockings or fine mesh on the inflow), OR lots of worms)

An idea how to keep surface water out of the GH, catch the rain from the GH into gutters and drain it away and make an embankment around the GH against surface water.

My two cents

zsazsa

Update after a busy week!

We are getting close! The neighbor is excited too, he googled aquaponics and talked about what he found for an hour.

The family started collecting egg shells, its an important thing, and they take it serious.

I have decided about the growing media, found the sources, made the bargain.
Its gona be 2/3 gravel (andezit) and 1/3 hydroton (Liapor).

I have bought the policarbonate and its accessories, wanted to put tham on but I need someone to help as the size of the table are to big (2,1m x 2,5m) to handle it alone.

I got 10x2m-s of 32mm pipes, as a gift. Grandpa is the sponsor again, it was incurable. He bought tham for the last house renovation, but they where too much.

I have bought the IBC tanks.

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They are used, there was some kind of glue in tham. They refused to tell exactly what was that but it seems it was glue for wood, and they told me that its water based, so I can wash it out.

In deed I have cleaned 4 of tham, I made the fishtank and 6 gb-s. The last 3 to go will be 3gb-s & 3 sumps.

The fishtank is inside, so now I can close the big hole, and finish the building.

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An other busy weak is ahead:
- finish the building
- put on galzing
- buy garvel and hydroton
- make stands for the gb-s
- buy pipes

:wave1:

Food&Fish

I wouldent close the hole till you bring the ibc cage back in cos they dont work without there cage

iammr.bill

+1
Can you make a door that looks like part of the wall? Plan for the worse, hope for the best.

Good deal on those IBC tanks. :thumbleft:

zsazsa

cage
Yes I know I need a cage, and I will put it in. Its not in becaues Im exchangeing cage with an other tank - I havent unfold that one yet - as that cage is in a better shape. The best barell + the best cage + the best plate will make one fishtank.

I will cut the other cages to support the bgs against benig over.

Here are two more fotos of testing the layout and the heights.

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File comment: temporarly stands for testing where, bricks, chairs, and ladders

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zsazsa

Tanks are clean. :thumbright:

I put tham all inside to see the layout in real life.

the layout:

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the design:

As you can see there is an extra (#3) sump, up against the fishtank.

That sump with the growbed over it can be separated from the system and with its own little pump they can work isolated (quarantine).

Normally they are part of the system, but in case (fish illness, new fish introduction) I need it, i will close it out and start the little pump. That growbed will get the most salt, I need salt tolerant plants there. What do you recommend? Comments are welcome!

iammr.bill

How much actual elbow room will you have in the aisle?

zsazsa

iammr.bill wrote:

How much actual elbow room will you have in the aisle?

Elbow room? Dont know it should be ~70 cms. It seemed just enough. Its a very compact layout because I wanted to make the most out of the limited space of the GH. Horizontaly its full, but I have a lot of head room to go vertical.

I cut the cages to slices, Im half deaf after 4 hours of working with the grinder.

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File comment: Thats whats left from the ibc-s.

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earthbound

Great work...... :headbang:

Coming along very nicely.

gnash06

+1

Isn't grinding/cutting great fun :roll:

iammr.bill

Quote:

Elbow room? Dont know it should be ~70 cms. It seemed just enough. Its a very compact layout because I wanted to make the most out of the limited space of the GH. Horizontaly its full, but I have a lot of head room to go vertical.

Wait until the growth of the plants hangs out the sides of the growbeds, and we'll revisit that elbow room statement. :think:

Definitely like the passive GH idea. :thumbleft:

Backyard Aquaponics
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