[Greengage]

Anyonw know anything about this subject seen it tried it as the Chick inn will be opening soon I need a new project

[JohnI]

Did some research on it a couple of years ago . . . neat stuff. To characterise it in a single clause; it adds various aquatic ecosystems to your layers of permaculture communities.

Here's a site: http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/


regards

John

[ponddigger]

hi a lot of people are building diy stystem out of ibc tanks.mal see video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYFM7J_TpTU

[Greengage]

It is not a simple as it seems and Probably will not work in Ireland, The Urban farm is running a course at the end of the month in Dublin but I will not attend as it takes more than fish poo to grow plants,It looks easy to build if you can get the bell siphon to work on a regular basis.
The Urban farm will be open to the Public in May I believe I think it is worth a visit.

[ponddigger]

hi here is the website fo urban farm.jack. http://www.urbanfarm.ie/aquaponics.html

[Greengage]

Ive seen it but its not that simple here is a post from a facebook friend in America who looked into it best reply Ive recieved so far.
In the survivalist greenhouse and also on doomsday preppers either worms or maggots were raised as fishfood if the fish in the tank are carniverous such as catfish or aquatic plants or carrot tops if herbaceous such as tilapia....and the plants did not survive on just the water from the filtered fish poo so they combined a manure tea consisting of 1 part each of rabbit poo, chicken poo, earthworm castings and wood ash for the potassium which were combined in a small quaker oat container filled to the top and then mixed with either well water or fish water in a 20 gallon can to within one inch from the top, they did not use rain water as it doesn't contain the miro nutrients that ground water does (manganese,boron,etc) This was vigorously stirred and then allowed to steep for several days until the solids had sunk to the bottom, the liqid was then carefully poured into cans and fresh war added to the container for a fresh batch, they found that they could get several batches of hydroponic fluid from one batch of organic material, all pH testing was between 6.0 and 7.0.... to correct pH when needed they used either white vinegar(acid) or baking soda(alkali-base) added in small increments....they found tht the organic hydroponic solution when tested side by side with commercial hydroponic solutions resulted in less wilting even when temperatures reached 104 degrees F.....the results of the experiment showed that any organically derived solution including pure aged chicken manure or earthworm casting.... other nutrients both mcro and micro are sufficient in either the water or organic materials to produce adequate growth....beans grown in pure fish tank water however were deficient in nitrogen.... I think the issue with survivalist greenhouse was that the fish ate far more earthworms when they raised the catfish and ilapie while herbaceous required a solar heating pump and the rv battery that they hooked it up to was not capable of being run continuously and burned out....as they had run out of money at that point and were at the time of the book not able to replace the battery they stopped their aquaponics experiments.... that said the book was written in 1975 and solar batteries have vastly reduced in price since then....whew hope that you got all that,

[ponddigger]

hi greengage. 1975 is a long time .do you think aquaphonics is a good idea.jack

[Greengage]

1975 is a long time ago and technology has improved but fish and plants are not in on the scheme, all still need to be fed, I dont think its practical in Ireland as the weather is too cold so you need to change the fish yearly maybe treat them as annuals, Growing fish in tanks is small scale fish farming so do they need antibotics or what do you do if you have a problem with lice like on the farms, As for the plants they still need NPK to grow and fish poo will not provide all this, also you need to control the chemistry of the soil, can you grow root crops as i would get fed up of lettuce and cress very quickly, what your trying to create is a controled ecosystem. My conclusions at the moment is that its best left to nature but i still liike the idea and would love to have a go but I think it may be too expensive at the moment and would not pay for itself or be sustainable in Ireland. Now thats only my opinion but am still interested to hear others views, if someone can crack it and put together a cost effective way i would be interested .