(Part 2) Top products from r/aquaponics

They're selling you a blackbox education package and some weirdo modular farm for $2500. You have no idea what you're getting in either. All I can tell you is this:

A 200 sq ft system (including everything) cannot feed 8 people. 1,100 lbs of vegetables and 400 lbs of tilapia won't feed 8 people, and that's what they claim their system makes. Average people eat 4.5-5 lbs of food in a day on average, meaning 1652-1825 lbs per year per human. A system that produces 1500 lbs won't even feed one person, but they say it right there:

>This one module will feed 8 people FOREVER

That's a lie. Even on their inflated estimates of how much food they produce, that's an outright lie.

Another thing I know: This system does not include fish tanks. Fish tanks are the most expensive part of every build I've ever done, and this system asks that you provide your own. This system does not include filtering tanks, either, which will run you another good bit of change. Potentially most importantly, This system does not include fish. Food-fish are hard to source, and you'll have to source your own.

And to add insult to injury, this system does not include grow medium or PVC. You are paying over a thousand dollars a unit at the the lowest prices (which you can only get at huge volumes, over 50 units) for grow beds, a patented water pump, two air pumps (for no reason, one air pump works just as well), two air stones, tubing, a patented electrical panel, worm castings, mineral dust, and a list of all the other shit you'll have to buy.

Let's price this out:

• Grow Beds - they're not using box beds, they appear in the pictures to be using black pvc sheeting, like for ponds. 250 ft sq - $150
  
• Water Pump - Dr Nate from Bright Agrotech says moving all of your system volume once every two hours is okay. if you have an 8 inch deep grow bed filled to 2 inches below the top of the medium in a medium that takes 60% of the space in the container that would be roughly 320 gallons, so you need to move roughly 160 gallons an hour, and you'll probably want to move them three feet up. So using Pondmaster pumps (a pretty solid brand I see in heavy use) you'd use the Pondmaster mag Drive 3 - $65
  
• Air pumps - fuck it, use whatever. If it won't kill aquarium fish, it won't kill aquaponic fish This looks like insane overkill, let's buy two, then add air tubing and a fistful of junctions and Four of these air stones and call it a day (I measured NOTHING and I don't regret it, everything I picked was probably insane overkill) for a grand total of $125 for the air setup.
  
• A patented electrical panel? We'll use a surge protector. $10 if we're fancy here.
  
• A pound of worm castings - $6
  
• Two pounds of Azomite Mineral Dust - $12
  
  And the grand total is: $368 for everything they offer, minus the list of other things you'll have to buy.
  
  Hope that list is worth $600+ in your mind.
  
  Seriously though, just go watch all of Bright Agrotech's videos five or seven times apiece to get the science and then read here to figure out what kind of system you want. I just spent fifteen minutes and saved you over a thousand dollars setting up your system. Imagine what you can do in a couple hours.

I built a small system 2 years ago and pretty much never stopped reading since then. What you're seeing here is me trying to slowly condition the water of my new system to make the best possible nutrient solution.

SRAC 454 (from the sidebar) is a great overview of how a standard raft system is designed and operated. Just remember that hydroponics and aquaculture have been around for a long time and knowing aquaponics means knowing those components. Books like Hydroponic Food Production will spell out exactly what it takes to make plants thrive. It even goes into basic stoichiometry and water chemistry to calculate nutrient concentrations.

Alex Veidel has been doing research and experiments with non-manure-based compost in aquaponics. He did a talk on it at the Aquaponics Fest, and is writing an article in Aquaponics Survival Communities this month on possible issues with compost.

I know that inoculations have become quite popular in hydroponics as of late. This might be partly because they've realized that aquaponics systems actually grow faster once they're mature, and that this must have something to do with bacterial or fungal nutrient uptake improvements.

Human knowledge in this area is severely lacking. We know so little about how microbial communities influence plant growth, we might as well be cave-men scratching drawings on a cave wall. For a good read on this topic, check out Teaming With Microbes.

Vlad Jovanovic at Aquaponics Source Forum might have some ideas for you.

Here's the easiest: Rapid Rooters by General Hydroponics. Get their $23 tray with plugs. There's some additive in the little seed plugs -- 99% success rate with seeds. I think Clonex also makes a version that's good. I just put my tray on my kitchen counter, no dome, then you can pop the seedlings with plugs right into your system. Check out the reviews: Amazon

That's awesome! This is the mppt I bought
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075XHCT5K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_WkSxDb1DYWR70

But you can get away with something cheaper it's just less efficient like this
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MVZ777D/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_cmSxDbVT7JSZ4

Then you just need a 12v pump and a 12v battery

I had to use an inverter because I was too lazy to buy a 12v pump
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KJ1DN6F/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_NoSxDbYYFW55Q

Oh and you'll need cable
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01D7VBKQG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_qnSxDbFFHQHFY

Let me know if you have questions!

Yes, of course...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0002YTQUO/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

I have a large number of these in service in my garden and outdoor hydroponic tomato setup. Cheap. Standard garden hose threading.

CHEERS

pH is super important. Basically, if it gets too high plants can't uptake crucial nutrients even though they're present in the water. Most plants that you can grow aquaponically struggle to thrive at around 7.4 and higher. Some, like strawberries, won't grow much above 7.0. Goldfish and algae are much more forgiving about pH - they have no problem up to 8.0+.

The nitrification cycle will naturally lower the pH over time, but if the grow media you're using contains limestone, it will dissolve and raise the pH faster than nitrification can bring it down. Additionally, your city water may have a high pH that you need to balance when topping up water. I use hydrochloric acid from the local hardware store to pH balance my top up water. It's about $8 for 32 oz, and it goes a very long way.

Most people use the API test kits for pH (consensus seems to be that the strips aren't very accurate). There's a low range kit and a high range kit, you'll probably need both. You can also just go for the full test kit. Most fish stores will have these kits as well.

you can use lemon juice, vinegar, etc., those are very short term so you are better off using a product like ph up/down.

www.amazon.com/Extech-407510-Dissolved-Oxygen-Meter/dp/B00023RVOI has good reviews, although I have no idea why there is such a huge differences in prices.

I will say that is the cheapest meter I've seen. Why not just get testing kits? If you test DO once a week you can get ~100 tests for ~100$ and that's nearly two years of testing. You really need testing kits anyways to validate and correct your meters, as they do tend to need recalibration every few months or so.

The yellow book. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0971264627

Excellent reference for aqauculture, and includes a specific chapter on aquaponics written by Rakocy.

Rakocy and Lennard were supposed to have come out with a book on aquaponics in 2013, so were Timmons and Ebeling. Not a clue on when or if we will ever be seeing those texts. Seems like a lot of public research has stalled regarding aquaponics.

Ecology of the Planted Aquarium:... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0967377366?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Best most accurate thing I've ever read about aquarium keeping.

if you monitor the water temp and chemistry close enough to keep your fish happy, your worms will do just fine. they don't care for high pH though. if you want to breed worms for the purpose of harvesting them, I'd suggest vermicomposting.
http://monroe.ifas.ufl.edu/pdf/Hort/Composting/Worms_Eat_My_Garbage.PDF
http://www.amazon.com/Worms-Eat-My-Garbage-Composting/dp/0977804518

Many plants hyper-accumulate specific nutrients. For example, comfrey accumulates calcium, magnesium, iron, and silica. Specific plants accumulate (fix) nitrogen (legumes). Others scavange phosphorous (dandelion or fennel). Whatever your nutrient deficiency, you can find a plant that accumulates that particular nutrient.

Table 6-2 (dynamic nutrient accumulators) from this book may be useful to you.

"When you buy this book now for $900.00 and sell it back later for a $1.00 Amazon.com Gift Card,
it could cost you as little as $899.00." Bet there's a line for that.

Check out the book Tuning into Nature by Dr. Philip Callahan, may be helpful.

This may be something worth looking into.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1604692065?cache=16deecde5dcee98386fe864cd778457f&pi=SY200_QL40&qid=1405176619&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1

In my mind this is better cleaner and cheaper than anything you can make with PVC,
https://www.amazon.com/Botanicare-Ebb-Flow-Fitting-Extensions/dp/B0002738JQ

Short one is your inlet long one is your overflow pipe.

Hi, I run a website (aquaponicsinparadise.com) and I'd have to recommend you design your system so the water never runs out(google CHIFT-PIST).

If there is no water, the pump with burn out. If you dont need to pump alot of water, consider an air lift.

Also, always buy a water pump that is bigger then what you need (so you can expand later, unless you are short on space and are never going to expand - you can always use a diverter to dump excess water)

Shameless plug: The Laguna 900 (http://astore.amazon.com/aquapoinparad-20/detail/B000HASBHC) is a good one to go with if your water gets very dirty, it can handle small solids.

Update 2: I just noticed my pump was barely working and found it was clogged with all kinds of gunk (although I had cleaned it the day before). Do any of you think that the the temporary reduction in DO from the pump not functioning for a day could be enough to kill one of my fish, even though I have supplemental O2? The fish has cloudy eyes if that is any indication.

• I am using this pump Tetra Whisper 300
  
  I have the pump working again and will continue monitoring.