Day 2 of set up. Complete footprint of the system. Making sure it will fit in the greenhouse footprint of 12 x 20 ft. Media bed return. Air pump to fish tank and raft beds 4 air stones. Can't have too much pumped oxygen!
Mags, what are you doing for iron replacement? I've read a bunch of stuff saying to stay away from the Chelated EDTA, while the EDDHA turns your water red like the Nile in Ten Commandments, and while DTPA may work the best it's the most expensive ($20/#?)
Also, are you doing batch vegetables? The University of Virgin Island studies said that while the difference in harvest between batch and staggered wasn't large at all, batch crops (all planted/harvested at the same time) led to spikes and valleys in nutrients that could affect the plants. I'm going to try a staggered system when I get back, but I'm not doing it for commercial (yet?) but rather for having fresh stuff every night to eat/give away.
Actually I'm using dtpa. This is the canister label. But I'm also supplementing with maxi crop liquid seaweed with potassium. They are both safe for fish and a little goes a long way.
I am doing the same thing. Each raft bed will have a different variety, staggered each week for each row. I should have a harvest of 6 heads per week perpetually.
That's almost exactly the setup I'm looking at. Did you get both at your local feed store, or did you have to order online?
The other thing I'm tossing around for fish food ideas is the combined black-soldier-fly-larvae (BSFL) coordinated with red worms as a small-scale composting treatment. The one problem so far seems to be that BSFL operate at a higher temp than the worms' optimal ones. But if one can figure out a way to have the post-BSFL compost dropped to another chamber where worms are (without drowning the worms in the liquid material from the BSFL), you can end up turning your kitchen and garden scraps into BSF grubs for fish food (~40% protein, 30% fat), worms for food for fish (or sales to composters) and really good compost (if you're trying for any pots/trees/outdoor gardening), because the stuff BSFL can handle (specifically, meat/dairy/bones) and not handle (cellulosic trash) are almost the exact opposites of worms.
Brian, I was really looking into getting mussels. I haven't found a supplier that sells them. Do you have any suggestions?
I use the red worm composted already; but the media grow beds will have a lbs of red worms each. They will act as a filter and the siphon system won't drown them.
I haven't looked to buy them yet. It might be worth talking to a seafood restaurant in their area, and see who their suppliers are. I know that there are folks in Tampa who do the freshwater prawn cultures, but I'll look around and let you know.
Well the greenhouse is up and the system has been put together. Just added the cycling additives and should be up in operation in two weeks.
Can you explain the beginning-to-end process, Mags? I'm struggling a bit trying to figure out what the heck you're doing...
The goal of an aquaponic system is cycling the edible fish and plants. Basically the fish will produce waste. That waste cycles through the grow beds and rafts. The plants use the nitrogen produced by the ammonia from the fish waste and grows. There is no need for fertilizer and you can grow usually 2-3 times faster than conventional gardening. If you look at the pictures, the middle tank is the fish tank. All the fish live there and if they spawn; the fishlings that survive make their way to that tank on the bottom of the two tanks next to the fish tank. The water is pumped from this tank up to the high "media beds" with gravel. They have a siphon system that fills and drains that system. That drains into the raft beds; that have floating grow rafts. These rafts will grow leafy produce. They fill until the last raft bed hits a return that's plumbed back into the "sump"; which was the tank I told you on the bottom of the two media beds. All recycles back into the tanks.
Normally when you bury a body in your back yard with a bag of lime it will take about 6 mos for it to dissolve. Mags process should get that down to 5-6 weeks.
