Aquaponics - Design & Technicalities.

For the design, I am keeping it as simple as possible.



The design looks simple enough and I am sure you are aware that putting the design on paper is simple but building it is whole lot of different story. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I would not have much obstacle when I start on it physically.

Now for the technicalities, I will be following most of the information from the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, Universiti of Hawaii at Manoa in the internet and whatever useful information I can get from any website.

The Maths
The 200 litres drum for the fish need some modification work because I will be lying it on the ground. The drum need to be cut along it's side so that there is an opening. After this modification, I would expect to at least contain 180litres of water.

According to most website, to have healthy fish, the total volume of the water need to be filtered every hour which means I have to have a pump capable to move at least 180litres per hour. My plan is a 400litres per hour pump, always more is better than not enough.

As for the grow bed, the containers should be flooded every 15~20 minutes and an automated draining system is needed. To ensure that the grow beds are flooded within 15~20 minutes, the pump must be able to top up 100 litres (Since the are 5 20litres grow bed - 5X20=100) during that time. Oops I think the pump capacity is just enough and I am not comfortable with that. 400 litres per hour pump will provide a volume of 100 litres theoretically in 15 minutes. So the pump must have a larger capacity, at 600 litres I guess.

To drain the water after flooding, I think I'll go with the bell siphon system because of it's efficiency instead of the loop siphon system. Frankly I have not really make up my mind yet ..... will see how it get along ya!!

OK the expected cost so far:
1 pc 200 litres Drum = $45
5 pcs 25 litres cans = $20
1 pc 600litres/hr submersible pump = ?
PVC pipes and fittings = ?

Aquaponics - A Visit to the Scrap Yard

Yesterday morning I made a visit to the scrap yard to dispose of my couple of months collection of recyclable scraps. It was a good trip and I am happy with the items they have that I can make use for the aquaponics.



The 1000 litres tank is superb and at $280 per piece, is OK with me. A new tank of approximately the same capacity made of fiber glass will set me back by $800 which I will never pay for it. With the $280 one I can cut about 1 foot off from the top and I'll get two open top tanks, one about 3 feet deep which I can use for the aquaculture while the other is about a foot deep which will be ideal for the hydroponics or veggies growth bed. The smaller 25 litres tanks at $4 would be great for additional veggie growth bed without eating a hole into the pocket.

There is a problem here because I do not have the transportation to transport the tank back to my home. To arrange for hire transportation would be a hassle and I do not wish to go through that. Then a bell rang in my mind that I should actually be looking at sizes that are more portable for me to move around by myself since I might have to change the location. Moreover there are many uncertainties so I guess a smaller set up would be safer.



These 200 litres tanks is just ideal and the price at $45 I think is a steal. I have a couple of these smaller size drums at home and they do not deteriorate in the sun, maybe super slowly. To transport these 200 litres drum is no problem for me.

For the grow beds to go with this 200 litres drums, I'll make use of the 25 litres containers, maybe 4 or 5 of them.

I guess this is the most ideal set up for start up and if the project works out to be really fun then I can easily expand it base on this set up. Now to the drawing board to work out the technicalities set up design with these available hardware.

Ham

Ham to me is a very delicious cured and cooked pork that is ready to be eaten. Chicken ham, turkey ham and whatever other ham is just nonsense. It was really difficult for me to enjoy ham in the past because of the extremely high unjustified cost so it is just look, salivate and bye bye.

I wanted to make ham earlier but was put off by the difficult and almost impossible curing process at home and in this hot tropical climate. I guess I was looking at the wrong site. Some of the sites mentioned that a curing chamber is a must to cure ham, guess they are making a different kind of ham. Anyway I was naive at making ham and all I know at that time is just to eat it.

Anyway December last year Home minister once again brought up the subject about making ham since I had success in making bacon and sausages. Hmmm....... bacon & eggs, sausages, ham also ..... wah!!! can have mat salleh breakfast almost every day huh!!! Yes, I was with Google soon enough clicking away on how to make ham. There were many sites on how to cook cured and raw ham until I came across this Making Ham At Home site. After reading through, I thought to myself that it is not as difficult as I had imagine. I guess I had been looking at the wrong place all this while.

Next is to look for the hardware required to do the job and guess what, yes they are already available and does not take up much space in the fridge. Ingredients were also already available except for the raw ham itself. Almost everything is already there and all it needed was just to put them together.

Five days later, we were enjoying the most delicious ever cooked ham for breakfast and it is really easy to do. If you ever thought of doing cooked ham at home, just do it!!

Aquaponics - A Step Forward

A walk around the house and applying what I know about gardening, I had decided the best location for the project. The location would be on the north east portion of my home and if it is not conducive I would have it moved to another location. I decided on this area because it would not be too hot on a real hot day and since I want to plant veggies like lettuce, romaines, leeks, strawberries ........... I guess the morning sun and the not too hot environment is preferred. 



The fish tank would be located where those old cooking pots are, I am using them to store earth and compost for potting. There is hardly any sunshine here so I do not have to deal with unwanted algae growth and I guess the fish will be more comfortable in cool environment.

The grow beds will be located under the windows where they will get the maximun amount of morning to noon sunshine. The plants that I have there now are scallion, sage, "sleeping" bay leaf and rosemary.

The set up have to be able to be moved if need be because the location might not be suitable and since this is my first time, I guess I had to go on with a comfortable size that I can handle. If all goes well, then there can always be the expansion program

Aquaponics - Decisions, decisions, decisions.........

After having done the research on aquaponics, I was surprised to find that there are many types of set up. I decided to go with the media base flood and drain design. There are still many alternative base on this design and I guess I’ll decide as I go along. I am aiming to do it at a minimum cost. Next is to find the best location to set up the system in my compound.  

Took a slow walk around my house today to decide where should I locate this aquaponics project. Never knew that it is so difficult to decide where would be a good spot.

My house is sitting on a almost rectangular piece of land facing south. The backyard is small after having the kitchen extended. From wall to fence is about 15feet and it gets sunshine almost the whole day. It would be great if I can make use of this space which is about 40 plus feet long but beyond the fence is a family of brainless, filthy, inconsiderate, @#$%&*$#@ thing. They use weed killers to kill the weeds along the fence with no consideration to the neighbours plants and had their dog jailed in a very small prison cell 24/7, not to mention their rubbish.....yucks!!!! So I guess the backyard is out of the question unless I want another unpleasant incident.

Looking from the front portion of the house, east is on the right and west on the left. The east side from the front side all along the front gate to the house is the drive way and thereafter is the car porch area which extend almost to the back of the house. Here I get about 3~4 hours of morning sunshine because of the close proximity of the neighbour on this side.

On the west side, the morning sun is shaded by my house and only the mid-day to evening sun is available here. Mid-day sun is scorching almost every sunny day and I used to have some potted plants there and they did not grow well due to the pots getting heated up. Hmmm.... if I can keep the temperature of the water in aquaponic cool maybe I can counter this problem.

The front yard, there is lots of space but lots of finance is required ..... sheds, plumbing and electrical wiring. Tough, tough, tough ..... need to decide soon so that I can start on the setup plans next.

The west side???????? 

Aquaponics - The First Step

When I first started organic veggie gardening some of the veggies that I wanted to grow were those that are not commonly planted in this part of the world because of the climate. My curiosity got the better part of me and I tried many ways trying to grow them here. When traditional method failed, I started to think of hydroponic.

Hydroponics is a subset of hydro-culture and is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil. The minerals nutrients are in the form of chemicals and I wanted a organic method where almost all my needs can be obtained easily around the house. Made lots of research on the internet and after some discussion with one of the member in the Garden Stew forum, I was introduced to Aquaponics.

Aquaponics is a system of aquaculture in which the waste produced by farmed fish or other aquatic creatures supplies the nutrients for plants grown hydroponically, which in turn purify the water. This is like a mini ecosystem and as long as there is a balance it should be great. Yes this is interesting and could be the solution for me to plant the temperate veggies that I wanted to plant. 

Having decided the next step is to get more information on this system and also to where to locate it in my compound.                

2011

A great shot by my son

2011, a brand new year and a new decade in the millenium. 2010 had been a great year for me and I am sure 2011 will be too! No sciatica, yummie braised pork leg, made bacon after wanting to for a couple of years, sausages .....also yummie!! Got my Intel i7 computer which is actual a project originally planned for this year. Original plan was a Intel i5 but with such great tempting price ......... it is now history. My princess is also now in the vicious economy eco-system full time, somewhere near the middle of the food chain. I harvested my very first luffa from my mini farm and also the sweetest of the sweetest sweet corn you can ever imagined. Yes 2010 was a great year.

I am looking forward to materialising my ideas for 2011 because the brain is already working overtime on some project for this year. The most interesting project I guess would be aquaponics and I am really excited about it. A project that is already on it's way is making cooked ham ........ a couple of days more and YUMMIE time!!!!!