Filtering my water - Part 2

My first attempts at filtering the algae out of the water failed so I bought a bunch of aquarium filtration material and a plastic container to build a "proper" filter. So far I have spent R350 (close to $30) including the new material trying to clear up my water. I am beginning to wonder if seeing my fish is worth it, or should I take it by faith that since there are no bodies floating around and no strange smells that all is well and the fish are doing fine?

Anyway onto the filter. I took the plastic container and drilled about 15 small holes in the bottom. I then placed the white almost wool like material in first. I cut it so that it would completely cover the bottom and the sides when it is in place. Next I cut a piece of the black large particle filter and placed it on top of the finer white material. The large particle filter collects all the food and manure and other large particles so they don't clog up the finer filter. The finer material is supposed to catch the algae and other tiny particles.

After running this all night I saw that the fine filter was clogged up with algae and the water was no longer running through the filter but was simply poring over the side of the plastic container. I tryed cleaning the finer filter but to no avail. Fortunately the pet shop does not sell this stuff in small pieces so I had plenty left over to cut another piece and re-assemble the filter before I left for work. On arriving back home I saw the filter was clogged again (this is not going to work). None the less I keep cleaning it and re-assembling it.

My bell siphon is also starting to give problems. At this point I would like to say that I can't understand why so many people are making a fuss about these devices, mine is extremely reliable and (almost) never gives problems. It is a simple device with no moving parts and this is the first time I am going to have to do some maintenance on it. I love my aquaponic bell siphon!

Just so you know I tried to add an extra filtration device around the outside sleeve of my siphon. Needless to say I was impatient (this is a first for me:)) and now my siphon is clogged with gravel and has moved out of position. I though it would be OK but I guess I was wrong (also a first for me:)). I will do a post on bell siphon maintenance soon.

- Grant

PS: I don't wan't to use an algaecide to clean the water because I don't know what the side effects will be on me and my children not to mention my fish.

Filtering my water

I am tired of not being able to see my fish. Half the point of aquaponics is enjoying the fish with your eyes not just your tastebuds. I know, I know the algae feeds the fish so that I don't have to, but the truth is I like feeding the fish.

So I loaded my wife and kids in the car and rushed off to the hardware store before closing time(they are open till 7pm). Needless to say they had not filters for a fishpond. 'We are not a pet shop'. Was all response I got.

So I bought a big sponge and a few other things and hacked together a makshift filter. Hopefully this works and I get to see my fish again.

- Grant

System schematic

Here is a quick schematic I did of the 3000 liter system I plan to build while I am on holiday. Basically it is 3 tanks for fish of different sizes, a large deep water 'grow bed' and a sump.

I chose this method because I only need one pump so hopefully I will save on electricity inputs to the system.

The plants will be planted in floating rafts and the system will have almost no gravel in it.

I am planning to grow lettuce, basil and chard on the rafts, but we will see since I am not sure how I will be doing the grow bed yet.

- Grant

Watering my corn from the rain barrel

Here is a short video update of my rain barrel and how I water my corn with the rain water I have collected.
Currently I am trying to source all the equipment I need for my 3000 liter system. I will post a schematic of what I plan to do soon.

- Grant

The 5 aquaponics water tests

I got a 5 in one test kit today (it was more cost effective than buying each test separately). Basically the five tests are :

1. PH normal
2. PH high
3. Ammonia
4. Nitrites
5. Nitrates

You need to do tests 1 and 3 daily in the beginning and then weekly as your system stabilises. Tests 4 and 5 will tell you 2 things: 

1. Do you have a bacteria colony. In the beginning you can do test 4 until you get some kind of reading and then test 5.
2. Do you have enough plans in your system to filter the water. This is mostly test 5 since your plants suck up the nitrates which can become poisonous to your fish. 

The nitrates are the reason you need to change out 10% of the water in your fish tank/pond about once a week. Since the plants suck up the nitrates with great enthusiasm in an aquaponics system you don't need to lose 10% of your water weekly. In an aquaculture system (fish without plants) you replace the equivalent of your entire systems water every 2 and a 1/2 months. In a coutry like South Africa where water is a precious resource we can't afford to waste water like that. So aquaponics is the ideal solution.

  

Anyway back to the tests. The ammonia is in my opinion the most important test since this will kill your fish first. Anything below Ammonia level of 1.0 is cool, anything from 2.0 and up is serious danger for your fish.

PH is also important especially in the beginning. Any sharp fluctuations could end up killing all or most of your fish. These are the important one and you should not neglect to do them at least once a week.

 

Besides between testing the water and feeding the fish, spending time with your system will tell you more than any test can. Just the smell of the system will tells you more than any test can. The more time you spend with your system the more you recognise the symptoms of a sick or unbalanced system. Anyway remember to have fun and get your kids involved.

 

- Grant

 

PS: Check out my video clips on YouTube about these tests.

Step 6 - Plant your seedlings

Once you have assembled your system and you have added your water and growmedium, you are ready to start cycling your system. Basically this comes down to running your system without fish for about a week until your bacterial collony is established. I like to start by planting a few plants at this time as well.

Although you are able to start you plants from seed in an aquaponics system, I prefer to use seedings. This is where this start to get a bit wierd and seem to go against common sense. Nobody ever said this was going to be logical, just easy.

Get a bucket full of rain water or if you have good enough water(see step 5) then use tap water. Start by carefully removing your seedling from the tray. Wash the roots gently in the bucket of water to remove as much of the soil as possible without damaging the roots system too much(a little damage is inevitable).

Then dig a hole in your gravel(or grow medium of your choice). Place the seedling in the hole a gently cover the roots with your grow medium. This part just freaked me out the first time, I just could not get past the idea of planting plants in stones instead of soil.

Now that everything is set up you need to keep your plants alive until you have added the fish. I do this by adding liquid plant food called seagro. Be sure to use organi stuff only from now on or you could end up poisoning your fish or yourself. Check out this video clip to see how I do it. I also throw about a handful of fishfood into the system at this time. It will breakdown and begin to rot which will create amonia and this is just what your bacterial need to feed on so that they can establish themselves in your system.

You will want to keep testing the water over the next few days, when you start to see an increase in the level of nitrates in your system you know you are getting close to the time where you can add your fish.

- Grant

Step 5 - Water and PH

This one cost me dearly. Do yourself a favour an buy a good test kit before you start adding water to your system. You need to test the water BEFORE you add it. I could not figure out why my PH was 8.8 no matter what I did. I lost my 1st batch of 25 Tilapia fingerlings within hours of adding them to the system because of this. They came from a supplier whos water is PH6 and I added them to water which was PH8.8(my test kit does not test higher than this).

So after many hours of research on the net I found out that water has something called a buffering effect, and no amount of PH down or other similar product will change it. You see there are always chemical disolved in the water which you cant see with the naked eye which cause this buffering effect. So everything you do to change it only works for a short time before your water returns to what it was.

These PH flucuations are far more damaging to your fish than a constant high or low PH(within reason). I farm with Tilapia and they can handle PH ranges anything from PH5 to PH11(some sources say even more) as long as it is constant and there are no sudden changes in PH. You can add fish to a system that has a big difference in PH to where they come from, but you have to do it VERY slowly.

That is why it is important to test the water from your supply before you add it to the system. If you find your water is very high or low in ph you could try filtering it through a reverse osmosis filter. We have one of these for our drinking water and although it is slow I was able to keep my fish alive with it. You will need a lot of water so this is not ideal. Larger scale models are available but I found that they are too expensive.

The answer for me turned out to be rain water. Check out this clip on my rain water collector. Aquaponics reqires a lot of water to star up, anything from 100liters to 5000liters depending on your requirements. I needed 300liters for my systems so the rain water was ideal.

Testing the water is crucial in any aquaponics system but for me the 1st test is by far the most important of all.

- Grant

Step 4 - Grow Medium

It is time to choose the stuff you are going to grow your plants in or your grow medium. In aquaponics like hydroponics you need a good grow medium which has the following characteristic:

1. Is stable and does not break down over time.
2. Is readily available in case it needs to be replaced.
3. Provides good support for your plants.
4. Does not leach anything into the water, this is important because you could poison your fish and yourself, or play havoc with you PH.
5. Must be easy to work with.
6. Is affordable, this was number one on my list but I figure not everybody has this requirement so I put it lower down.

I chose 13mm gravel or crushed stone and I have never been sorry except for the very first time I added it to my system. This stuff needs to be washed repeatedly to get all the dirt off it. If like me you are impatient to get going you will not wash enough and you will end up with sediment buildup in your system which could well damage your pump or worse kill your fish. 

I have no idea what this sediment is or what affect it has on your system but I do know it sticks to everything like this photo shows.

The greyish stuff stuck to the PVC pipe is the sediment I am referring to. It sticks to just about anything, you can just imagine what it is going to do to your fishes gills. 

Anyway Backyard Aquaponics has a great magazine which I can recommend to anybody. In Issue 3 (trial by media) they discuss the pros and cons of 4 different grow media. They also have great looking kits for sale if you find yourself in Australia for a day :) 

- Grant

Great websites

Check out this site, they have a lot of PDF files which look pretty good to me.

- Grant

Step 3 - Pumps and things

So now it is time to continue building our "easy" aquaponics system.

You will need a good quality pump. Find a submersible pump that has at least a 1meter head (head is the maximum height that your pump can push water). I prefer a pump that has a 2 meter or more head. I just feel that way the pump does not have to work so hard (that is just my personal preference).

The flow rate of your pump is also important because too little and your bell siphon may have trouble starting and too much and it can’t stop. You can use a 22mm PVC pipe in the centre of you bell siphon instead of the 25mm if you have a pump with a low flow rate. I started with a 22mm piece because you can easily go bigger but it is a real pain to go smaller once you have a 25mm hole in the grow bed. It turns out the 25mm is better suited to my pump size.

You will also need plastic piping to get the water from your pump to your grow bed. I got mine from the building supplies shop that sold me the pump. I attached a piece of 22mm PVC pipe to the outlet end. This helps me to move it, the PVC pipe is nice and hard and I can just jam it into the grow bed without digging out any of the gravel. Check out the video clip here.

- Grant

Disaster strikes again

Everybody you talk to in aquaponics will tell you to have a backup plan for when your pump fails. Everybody like myelf thinks they will get to it when they have the time or the money, and end up forgetting about it.

Well last night my submersible pump failed, the scary part is that one of the divisions of our company sells online backups for your data. Here I was, 8pm in the evening, failed pump in hand and all the stores are closed. I don't even know anybody who could lend me a spare pump.

I can't tell you how thankful I am for the 50 bucks I spent on a small air pump and an air stone. That was the only thing keeping my fish alive. I had to fill the growbed by hand and leave if full for a few hours before draining it through the syphon on my way to bed.

So almost first thing this morning I was at the hardware store to purchase a new pump. I spent about 35 minute just reading the lables(a habit I got from my wife when she buys food - or just about anything) on each type of pump. Finally I came across a box that was help together by sellotape and was priced ar 80 bucks and when they rang it up at the till it was only 70 bucks. I told them it was cheeper than the shelf price and they said because it was the last one it was priced to sell.

It turns out that this water fountain(pump with fountain atachments) was missing the foytain parts but was basically brand new. I installed the pump and after a few minor adjustments it was up and running and all is well again. Anyway you can check out thevideo clips here.

- Grant
ps I did not forget about the diy guide. I will post the next steps soon, but you can bet I will be mentioning the backup pump in the equipment list

Brain wave

Check out www.sfgsa.co.za, this is Square foot gardening South Africa. A thought just hit me while I was looking at the planting guide. Why don't I apply the principles of square foot gardening in combination with aquaponics?

I am probably going to build a new system this weekend so that I can show you how to make a bell siphon to drain the grow bed. So when I plant this system I am going to do it the square foot gardening way. Let's see how it turns out.

- Grant

Mud pie mischief

We had a mini disaster today. Lizzy phone me at work to tell me the boys (Connor and Liam) had removed the outlet of the submersible pump on my aquaponics system and were using it to make mud with the sand in front of the tank. Here are a few video clips of the carnage and how I managed to save the fish I have left.

- Grant

Step 2 - Video update

Hi everybody,

I have just found the videos I made when I did my own tank, I have uploaded them to YouTube and have created link on the steps listed in Step 2.

- Grant

My chicken coop

Check out the chicken coop I build a few months ago. This was an afternoon project once I had the plans drawn out correctly and got the lumber and mesh.

- Grant

Step 2 - End product

This is what your tank should look like once you have made all the cuts in the right places and reassembled the pieces. Note that this tank still needs to be washed out and I forgot to replace the black corner supports before I replaced the tank(I did it later after washing out the tank.

This gives me around 700 liters of possible fish pond and a 200 liter growbed. You are supposed to match tank water to growbed size by no less than 1 to 1, this setup is just over 3 to 1. Later I would find out why you need to size these correctly.

Anyway, on with the build.... Notice the white PVC pipe around the top edge of the fish pond, that is 50mm PVC which provides support for the growbed since I cut the steel frame in such a way that I was left with 4 steel pipes sticking up on each side. It also looks better and the angle grinder leaves a bit of a sharp edge on the steel which I wanted to protect myself and my kids from.

More and more I am learning that farming is not a quick Saturday afternoon job. With aquaponics you need patients because things just take time. Plants grow slowly and so do the bacteria you will need(which by the way you can buy commercially but there is a lot of evidence that it does not help at all).

- Grant

Step 2 - update

So we were unable to prepare my friend's tank due to bad weather. I will update photos as soon as I can.

- Grant

Step 2 - Preparing you IBC(my water tank) for fish

Follow these easy aquaponic steps :)

1. Get a nice big screwdriver
2. Unscrew these 4 screws
3. Remove the plastic tank
4. Get a small angle grinder
5. Cut the steel frame here
6. Replace the plastic tank
7. Get a permanent marker
8. Use the frame to mark the tank
9. Remove the tank
10. Join the dots and cut the tank
11. Now carefully wash the entire tank inside

I am preparing a tank for a friend of mine this weekend. I will update this post with photos check back on Monday.

- Grant

Getting started - Step 1

The first thing you need is something to put your fish in. I chose to
use this IBC that we had hooked up to our gutter for rainwater
collection.
You can use anything you have handy as long as it will not leak or
poison the water. This tank was got from a freind and it was used to
store a food grade, water soluble substance( don't ask me what it was ).
- Grant

How easy is it?

When I started out researching aquaponics I got a lot of opinions from many different people telling me how hard or how simple it is to get started. Being an opinionated person myself, and given that it looked pretty easy, I started telling others just how simple it was.

My wife(the beautiful woman who has to live with my opinions 24/7) gently encouraged me to build one since I was quite obviously an expert on the matter.

Thus began the journey to prove that aquaponics is easy.

- Grant

PS

My latest advice to anybody dealing with opinionated aquaponocists(a new word is born) like myself is the following:

1. Don't take any advice from them unless they have done it themselves.
2. Double check anything they have told you.
3. Don't argue with them you are wasting your breath.