This what help me with my first grow (i didn't write this, its all copy&paste from what i pick up on the web )hope it helps you
"Most gardeners agree that a good hydroponic system will produce larger, heavier plants than a soil-based system. But with traditional salt fertilizers the grower must frequently drain and refill the reservoir, necessitating the disposal of water that is rich in nitrate and phosphate. While many gardeners, such as myself, use this runoff as a supplement to an outdoor organic garden, those who lack yards or sunshine must pour it down the drain. While this is quite literally a drop in the ocean of water pollution generated by the monocultures of industrial agriculture, it does still offend the sensibility of the environmentally minded and in any case nutrients are expensive. The recent trend towards topping off with a dilute nutrient solution, and completely changing the reservoir rarely if at all, is a logical step but one is still locked into purchasing expensive solutions of inexpensive salts, as well as running the risk of a cumulative disorder caused by differential nutrient uptake-- zinc toxicity for example. The solution (ha-ha) is a biology-based system that generates nutrient ions in situ and is reactive to induced imbalances. I speak, perhaps with unnecessary complexity, of aquaponics and as I am about to turn over half my garden to the fishies and the bugs, I'd like to ramble on a bit about what I'm going to do and why.
This is part of a larger redesign of the growroom. Here is the "control" side, which will run a standard GH solution with Dynagro Pro-Tekt added. It is essentially a 16-site bubbler with a common reservoir and one 8" airstone per plant. The pots are 10" square and 8" deep. One row is filled with Hydroton, one with perlite, one with perlite on top of hydroton, and one with a mix of perlite and hydroton. I am hoping the perlite shows well against the hydroton as it is much easier to procure and dispose. I changed to the large square pots to give the roots something to hold onto as well as make it easy to move individual plants in case of disease or to give a more even canopy. This garden will be completely from seed, as the fridge is overflowing with fresh little gene packets! For the past few months I have been infatuated with the yield, aroma, and high of Breeder Steve's Sweet Tooth #3 so I have procured and produced as many crosses as I could get my grubby little hands on: a c99/Ortega cross, a Bubblegum cross, plus a homemade hybrid made from a ST3 dood and a lovely Hawaiian Sativa x Cotton Candy female from Federation. Not using clones means that I will not be able to get meaningful data regarding yield, but hopefully the overall vigor and average yield per plant will give indications of the differences between hydro and aqua. The water level will be about 1" above the bottom of the pot to start, eventually to be lowered to about 1" below. Seeds are vegged in a modified cheapo-aero unit. Light for bloom comes from two 1k Hortilux in aircooled SunSystem hoods on a Light Rail 3.5. CO2 is kept above 1350 ppm by a digital Control Wizard controller, which also interfaces with a thermostat to turn on the exhaust fan at about 30C. The air is drawn through a snorkel-type duct going into the first light, which siphons the hottest (and therefore moistest) air from the top of the room, through both lights, and into the attic where a homemade Greenman-type ozone generator runs for 1 minute every 4 hours. This is not the most efficient means of CO2 enrichment, that would require running one duct circuit for the lights and another for the room. That means two fans, as well as a sizable intake hole for the lights that I cannot provide. Fortunately, we have gas heat and stove, both unvented, that make the ambient air between 800 and 2100 ppm. The Control Wizard measures this and makes up the difference from a bottle.
The true goal of this experiment is the creation of a circuit that is almost totally closed... I've recently discovered that I can take my roots and stems, compost them in a bin on the back porch with the rest of the kitchen waste, then take the worms from the bin, feed them to my fish, and then use the fishwater for the plants. I generate less trash destined for the landfill, spend less on pricey live foods, and have a constant supply of rich compost. Also it is difficult for me to safely move large volumes of used medium and roots in and out of my home-- especially in the middle of winter!
Today the liner was laid for the aqua half, the biofilter installed and 50 little feeder goldfish were introduced. I chose to start with goldfish for several reasons, primarily because they are hard to kill. Goldfish can tolerate colder, dirtier water than tropical fish and are more resistant to disease as well. Goldfish also produce quite high levels of ammonia, up to 100 mg per kilo of body weight each day. Ammonia is a form of nitrogen that should be converted to nitrate by bacteria before being used by the plants. The primary function of the filter in the third picture is to sustain a thriving culture of these bacteria, which live on the rotating grey paper wheels. These bacteria require high levels of oxygen, near-neutral pH, and temperatures above 65F. The key to this system is to keep these bacteria happy. The filter provides the oxygen but the pH and temperature are up to the grower. The plants prefer a slightly acidic 5.8 or so but the bacteria like it about 7.5 and in fact will die below 6.0. I will compromise and keep it between 6.2 and 6.8. I use phosphoric acid for pH down as phosphate is more or less nontoxic to fish. To raise the pH, which is more frequently needed, I use regular GH pH up, which adds a bit of potassium to the mix and is perfectly safe.
Traditional aquarists shun anything containing phosphate, as it encourages algae growth, but for the aquaponicist it is a bonus as you can recruit a crack team of scavengers who like nothing more than nibbling fresh algae and breaking it down into available plant nutrients. Let’s meet some of them now…
These are my two plecostomuses, or plecos. They are armored catfish from the Amazon that are very hardy and quite cheap as well, about $3. They are not as cold-tolerant as goldies but will be fine down to about 65F, which is a bit cooler than optimum for hydro anyways. If you have a decent size tank, you can frequently pick up large orphan plecos for next to nothing at your local fish store (hereafter LFS.) They grow to about 18” within a few years, and a catfish that size can eat a LOT of algae. However do keep in mind that plecos need a chunk of driftwood to chew on; it is a source of fiber that aids digestion, and a constipated fish is an unhappy fish! These guys were both given to me, along with their delightfully improbable monikers of “Marcus” and “Dr. Krypto” … any resemblance to certain OG staffers is purely coincidental.
And here we have some corydoras catfish, also from the Amazon. These little guys are just so damn cute! They will be OK with a temperature of 70F, plus they are happy to pick through the detritus on the bottom to find their meals. I give mine algae wafers as well.
Let’s say you’ve decided to have a group of goldfish and a plecostomus for your little fertilizer factories. So how many are you going to need? There is no set answer for this question, rather you’ll have to read the health of the plants, and the fish, and decide how heavily you want to stock your tank. The rule of thumb for a standard tank is one inch of fish per gallon of water, so consider this the lower limit since you’ll have excellent nutrient removal with your plants. Hassan the anointed likes to overstock his tank and then wait for the population to stabilize naturally, in other words only the strong survive!
When selecting your goldfish, do not get the smallest feeder fish available. Although cheap at about 8 for a buck, they are often kept in unsanitary conditions and can be vectors for disease. Preferable is to spring for the 50-cent goldies that are a little bigger and generally sold with the idea that they will live longer than a couple of hours.
This is probably a good time to talk in a little more detail about the ammonia to nitrate conversion I mentioned earlier. Fishkeepers talk of this process as The Nitrogen Cycle and understanding it well is crucial to the health of your system. The essence of the Cycle is that nitrogen can exist in three forms in your tank: ammonia (NH3), nitrite (NO2-), and nitrate (NO3-). Ammonia is quite toxic to fish, nitrite slightly less so, and nitrate is essentially harmless. Incidentally ammonia is less toxic at slightly acidic pH, 6.8 and below, but since that is the upper limit of our desirable range anyways that is not so important.
Fish need a lot of protein in their diet and most fish foods are about 35% protein. Protein is composed of long strings of amino acids, so called for the inclusion of an amino (NH2-) group in their structure. After fish have digested the protein, those aminos are expelled into the water as ammonia. Here’s where it gets interesting: there is a class of bacteria, called nitrosomonas, that like nothing better than to chew up NH3 and poop out nitrite, or NO2-. Nitrite (note the ‘i’
is still toxic, but hold on! Nitrosomonas have cousins called nitrobactors that will gladly eat their friends’ waste and expel soft, gentle nitrate, or NO3-. Nitrate is not only nontoxic to fish (at reasonable levels) but it is also the form of nitrogen recommended for the healthiest plants.
There are products that claim to have these bacteria in a jar but I have not had success with them. You MUST have a healthy bacterial culture before you fully stock your tank, otherwise NH3 will quickly rise to toxic levels and suffocate your fish. The gills function as both the lungs and kidneys of the fish so it is imperative that they see mostly clean water. The most common method of cycling a tank is to start out with one or two fish, then waiting about 14 days, then adding more stock. Even then you may not be able to immediately fully stock the tank as the biological filtration could be overwhelmed, but once the culture is established it will grow quickly to fill your needs and you should be able to fully stock the tank within another week or so. There is a shortcut around this process, called Fishless Cycling, that basically consists of setting up the tank, then adding a teaspoon of common clear cleaning ammonia every day until the tank has cycled.
“But Shipperke”, you ask, “how will I know when the tank has cycled?” The answer, my friend, is that you will need to invest $20 or so in some diagnostic tools that will allow you to accurately measure the ammonia and nitrate levels in your tank. Even if the only fish you allow in your house comes breaded in a paper box, these tests will allow you to ensure that your plants always have an adequate supply of this crucial nutrient. With some plants the need for N is greater than for all the other nutrients put together, so it will behoove you to ensure that there is always at least 50 ppm, and preferably 100 ppm, present in your solution. Many books, websites, and fish professionals claim that nitrate should be kept below 30 ppm but this is unnecessary. 100 ppm is absolutely safe for any species of fish, as long as ammonia and nitrate are kept at zero by the biofilter. Here’s two professional opinions on the matter: I know two fish store owners, one sells highly inbred exotic fish that start at $100 and he tells me that pH and ammonia are the only factors to worry about, and nitrate doesn‘t matter in a freshwater system. The guy at the other store sells fish in the five to twenty dollar range-- but lots of test kits and filters and stuff-- and he swears that you need to keep the nitrate under 50 to keep the fish healthy.
There are two types of tests, strips and liquids. Strips are OK but they degrade over time. The liquid tests are a little more expensive and are generally regarded as more accurate and reliable. Also, many fish stores will do these tests for free, or for a modest fee. So when you add your first fish, you will see NH3 levels rise for a few days, then level off and start to decrease. This indicates that nitrosomonas are establishing and producing NO2-. You can test for NO2- but unless you are in a big hurry it is unnecessary. Once NO2- levels start to rise, you should see a similar pattern as nitrobactors become established and begin producing nitrate. At this point the bacteria will begin reproducing at an exponential rate, assuming that your filter has plenty of surface area and oxygenation, and ammonia and nitrite will soon drop to zero as nitrate accumulates.
I cannot overstate the importance of biological filtration. Do yourself a favor and check out a couple of these sites, they have figures and charts that explain better than I can in words:
http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html
http://www.aquariumfish.net/informa...ration.htm#top2
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/cycling2.htm
(Even if you are down with the Cycle, all three of these sites kick major fishkeeping boo-tay…
Oh yeah, always let water sit out overnight before using, or add a dechlorinating agent. One more tidbit before moving on, during the conversion of NH3 to NO3- those leftover hydrogens must go into the solution. This acidifies the mix by a bit, as pH measures free hydrogen, which is why you will frequently need to raise pH but very rarely to lower it.
(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Due to a collection of circumstances this experiment was terminated prematurely. So, instead of being a comprehensive review with yield data and meticulously recorded smoke tests of perfectly cured flowers, we're gonna have to go with more of an overview. However! Watch this space for more details...)
Months later... what was I saying? Oh yes, biofiltration. You need it. Let's look at what I learned from this go-round so that you can avoid the same mistakes I made:
1) You gotta know when to hold 'em, and know when to fold 'em.
2) Many aquariums will tell you to add Kosher salt to your tank at the rate of maybe 1/2 tsp. per gallon with every water change. They may say that it helps the fish's immune system, or that it provides necessary electrolytes, or that fish such as guppies and mollies absolutely must have it. This is false, as far as I can tell the internet has been the prime vector for this misinformation being propagated throughout the community. There is a lesson to be learned here. Two actually, if you count the realization that just a little bit of sodium in a hydro system will lock out potassium uptake and put quite a bit of osmotic stress on the roots. I had stopped salting my tank when I started the experiment, but there was enough residual sodium in the tank to give me problems. If you look at some of the pictures you will see leaves that are both light green and curled under, indicating both nutrient deficiency and salt excess. I later discovered that the fish food was also a prime source of sodium, as it is made from oceanic fish such as smelt or herring. Switching to more live foods, such as earthworms and crickets, helped solve this problem and made the fish quite happy. Also, changing out about 10% of the water each week keeps things from getting out of whack,
3) Tropical temperatures don’t work for a constant drip or DWC type system. 76F is just too warm for Cannabis roots. 10k told me this repeatedly but I had to learn the hard way. My next system will be goldies and plecos, maybe some snails and cories but no cichlids. (Note: I later discovered that most South American cichlids do just fine at 72F, which also keeps the roots happy.)
4) Removing solid waste from the system is not necessary and may induce deficiencies, especially of micronutrients that are more likely to be expelled as feces than as urine. It was a pleasant surprise to find that I could just let the poop rot and the plants would suck it up immediately, as I could spend less time cleaning and less money on supplemental fertilizers. Again, we come back to the biofilter: you have to have enough bacteria to break down the little bits of poo as they float around in the water.
5) Moving pH more than 0.3 at a time kills fish. Adding water that is 5 or 6 degrees colder than the existing water can make fish sick.
6) Carbon filtration will clear water quickly but can also remove precious micronutrients from the mix. Use if necessary, but only for a day or two at a time.
7) Giving fish plenty of broken pots, driftwood, etc. as hiding places can virtually eliminate aggressive behavior such as fin-nipping, which can easily lead to infection and death.
If a fish gets sick just pull it. Don't wait for it to get better, don't try to medicate, just put it out of its misery. Put it in a glass and add a couple of Alka-Seltzer tablets-- the CO2 will quickly and painlessly put them under.
9) Using GH at 1/8 the recommended rate will add micros, buffer the pH, and help out with P and K. I used Lucas' 0-8-16 scheme as my reference, which works out to 1 mL of Micro and 2 mL of Bloom per gallon.
So in spite of both sodium and an inconvenient relocation I did manage to fill a couple of stash jars with some very nice, but slightly airy nuggets. The smoke after just a quick drying period was very nice, surprisingly smooth for uncured bud and with lovely organic flavor. After a month in glass, however, the subtleties and true quality of the buds really shone. Sam's Skunk#1 x South African sativa had very complex earthy, leathery flavors that have nothing in common with the fruity scents that dominate today's market, and Dutch Passion's Hawaiian Haze gave a delicious minty bouquet that only proper curing could bring to the forefront. Tick's C99 backcrosses smelt of pineapple with hints of Grapefruit (presumably from the LUI parent), my Trainwreck hybrids centered on the lemony scent of the mother with variation along pine and hashy flavors from the indica father, and the White Label Double Gum... frankly sucked but I had been warned by both BOG and The Penguin so whaddya gonna do? So let's take it out with a final lesson learned:
10) You can search the Web, you can read the books, but when it comes down to it knowledgeable OG'ers are THE best source of information you can find. And don't you forget it!and if you're really interested, here's some notes about how to pick your fishies:
"The first thing a new aquaponicist must consider is the choice of fish. You must decide whether you want to run a cool or warm aquarium, as this will determine the species that will thrive in your little ecosystem. Cool aquariums are in general less maintenance as the fish are more tolerant of poor water conditions and cool water inherently holds more oxygen and promotes slower bacterial growth. If you choose this route, your only temperature concern is keeping the water above 65F, not a problem in the vast majority of gardens and easily remedied with a small heater if you are working in an igloo. We'll call this goldieponics as goldfish are the most common choice for cool water. Other species include swordtails, mollies, and platies-- all of which are livebearers (link to o.s. livebearers), an important point if you want to raise feeders for another tank or just have a constant supply of new fish. The plecostomus (link), an armored catfish indigenous to the Amazon can also thrive at low temperatures, and every tank needs a pleco! They gobble algae constantly, grow quickly, and are quite cheap. We'll talk more about plecostomi later as they are one of my personal favorites. I have four altogether, and they love to gnaw on yam, cantaloupe, and cucumber in addition to keeping algae down. (link to algae)
But if you want to start as cheaply as possible, and have the hardiest fish, goldies are where it's at. Goldfish are members of the carp family and can tolerate high ammonia and nitrite levels, wide pH swings, and low dissolved oxygen concentrations (more on those later…
that would kill anything else. A little note on buying goldies-- you want to stay away from the feeders, even for feeding your fish, as they are bred and raised in filthy conditions that often lead to disease outbreaks. The goldfish might be able to fend off a particular infection, but they can easily be a vector for pathogens that can contaminate an otherwise pristine tank. If you want live food, and you do for the best tasting buds, the best solution is to raise them yourself in a small aquarium, say 10 gallons, without any decoration and equipped with a simple $4 sponge filter.
Feeders cost about $1 a dozen but you'll be better off buying common goldfish, a.k.a. comets, for 50 cents or a buck each. There are also an incredible variety of inbred fancy goldfish, thanks to Asian fish keepers who have been breeding them for thousands of years, and if your tank will be on display you'll probably want to consider these.
The other path is a warm or tropical aquarium. This gives you a much broader range of fish to keep, and the temperatures of 72-82F are still workable for the plants. However you will need better filtration, more oxygenation, and in general will need to worry a little more about the water quality. To my mind, this is a small price to pay to be able to keep beautiful, interesting fish such as silver dollars, corydoras catfish, gouramis, tetras, rasboras, loaches, as well as a wide variety of South American cichlids. A class of fish not well suited to aquaponics (for cannabis at least) is the African cichlids. The Africans are some of the prettiest freshwater fish but they need a pH that is quite high (8.0-9.0) to show their colors to the best of their ability. These fish will live, and possibly thrive, in a neutral to slightly acidic tank but their colors will be dull and they are expensive. African cichlids also tend to be aggressive and are best kept on their own.
I have chosen to stick with Amazonian species for my setup as the Amazon is slightly acidic and contains substances such as humic acid, and fulvic acid that are beneficial to plants also. These acids act to keep micronutrients like copper, zinc, and iron in the solution instead of precipitating out into worthless muck. Replicating this environment, either through the use of a product such as Kent Blackwater extract or a homemade compost tea, will keep your fish in top condition as well as provide micros naturally without the need for synthetic chelating agents such as EDTA. Be aware, however, that these acids will tint the water a light yellow-brown color. If this is unacceptable you will need to run some sort of activated carbon filtration and probably add micronutrients more frequently, as the carbon will remove them from the mix. My bins are not on display (yet!) so I don't mind the tint, and even if they were in the living room I think it would the slight discoloration would be well worth it to keep the fish happy and maintain a natural, organic environment.
Here are some examples of suitable South American species:
Silver dollars: I have a pair of these, gifted to me by a friend who was moving. Silver dollars grow to be about 5" and are commonly referred to as "poor man's discus" for their flat, round shapes and silvery skins, accented with red around the face. An herbivorous cousin to the piranha, silver dollars are peaceful fish best kept in small groups. They will eat algae wafers, flakes for vegetarian fish, or fresh plants such as lettuce.
Convict cichlids: These black and white striped cichlids are among the easiest tropical fish to breed. Just give them a small clay flowerpot for a cave, and they will give you hundreds of fry! They grow to about 6" and are rather aggressive, so if you want to keep them with peaceful species make sure your tank is big enough and provide plenty of rocks or other decoration to create territories and hiding places. They will eat anything but I prefer to feed mine bloodworms, mosquito larvae raised on a blood diet.
Firemouth cichlids: So named for the blood-red gills they display when threatened, these fish are generally light blue with some black spots. Size and care are similar to convicts.
Oscars, a.k.a. velvet cichlids: These very popular fish are a great choice if you have the space for their adult 12" size. Oscars will eat anything, and I mean anything! Mine get bloodworms as well as cichlid pellets, but I have fed them chicken, salmon, and beef heart. These are smart fish with excellent vision and hearing. Mine will come to the surface when I enter the grow room, but they run and hide if anyone else enters. They will literally eat out of your hand, but watch those teeth! They will devour anything smaller than themselves so choose your tank mates carefully. (move rest to feeding page) My favorite Oscar feed is earthworms, plucked from the backyard compost and rinsed in fresh water. They love the live food and, when I compost my roots, stems, and male plants, completes the food chain and keeps waste to a bare minimum. Earthworms are also great as you can feed them based on what the plants need. For example to provide potassium you could compost several kilos of overripe bananas and voila-- High-K worms! If possible make friends with a local grocer who will give you produce past its prime.
The above are mid-water fish, meaning that they are active and swim around a lot. You'll also want some bottom feeders to keep your tank clean. These guys will hoover up uneaten food, algae, and general detritus. Snails can also work for this but you need to think about how much copper is in the water. Plants need copper as a micronutrient, but it can be toxic to fish if you overdose and is fatal to invertebrates, such as snails, at very low dosage. I killed my first snail when I added GH micro to the tank at 1 mL/ liter-- one-tenth the recommended rate. Most good bottom feeders are members of the enormous catfish family. Here's some examples:
Corydoras catfish: There are more than 175 known species of corydoras, or cory cats, but many similar species can only be told apart by the trained eye and all are fairly alike. Growing to an adult length of 3-4", cories have armored plates instead of scales, short rotund bodies, and a high, spiny dorsal fin that locks into place to make eating one an unpleasant experience. Cories are sociable fish and should be kept in group of three or more. However, these do not need to be the the same sort of cory, as they are related so closely that different species can form a family unit. For example in my tank I have one albino, one Corydoras Davidsandsi, one C. schwartzii, and one marble cory. They hang out in the corner during the day, then as soon as the light goes out they scavenge the gravel with their short little whiskers. Corydoras are fairly sensitive to temperature and pH, so be sure to keep the water in the 6.5-7.2 range and the temperature in the mid to high 70's. If you have more than 6 cories, known as a shoal, you may be able to induce them to breed in your tank. Cories breed in the Spring-- how do they know when it's spring, you ask? Primarily by the temperature of the water, and also its cleanliness. The runoff from snowmelt into the rivers is cold and clear, so if you want your cories to spawn you should do one or more large water changes with water that is several degrees cooler than your tank. "
More info==
A bit on how it all works
Fishes wastes are converted by beneficial bacteria into bio-available nutrients for the plants. The plants become part of the filtration process and in conjunction with high bacterial populations form the most impressive water filter I have seen attached to an Aquarium.
My 40-45 gallon (fluctuates) system deals daily with continuous quantities of raw fish waste without the need to change water. In conventional Aquariums water changes can be as high as 30% a week.
So one function of Aquaponics could also be described as, and this may be important for organic hydro as we go further into this journey -
Water Based Composting.
It's all to do with the bacteria.
Fish food can be converted to plant food without having any fish in the tank. Of course, it takes longer, or if it could be broken down in the same time, would require more bacteria.
Now I don't profess to know this for certain, but very strongly suspect - Organic nutes could be easily handled by the right populations of the same bacteria in a water based system. ie: DWC.
Back to the beautiful garden I found.
Aquaponics can EXPLODE! - Here's some wee veggies that were planted
Posts: n/a
I have been growing Aquaponics for over 2 years now. Some of my grows were awesome in that they showed real promise. Some were
Aqua weed, well, despite so many hardships, Aquaponic weed is what's kept me going for so long in the pursuit of a decent system to grow some Phat organic buds.
To go into all the trials and errors here would be too depressing, too misguided, and too long.
So let's look at why the above garden system is kicking ass instead.
Light - So much of it he has a shade beating it off. Got to love that sun when it's there.
Medium - This is what houses the beneficial bacteria that are so, well, beneficial! He has those beds filled with what looks to be expanded clay, a popular Aquaponic medium and what I use in conjunction with Aquarium gravel in my system. (I do not recommend Aquarium gravel unless you like me already have it in place and it's too much PITA to move, more on why later)
Bacteria - Because he has lots of grow medium to house them.
Aeration - Water is aerated as it trickles through the grow beds and again as it is returned to the fish.
Water Circulation - Stagnant water is unhealthy water. Take a look at a swamp compared to a mountain stream. Much of the difference seen in water quality is due to the waters movement. The garden is a continuous flow. Scientists have proven Aquaponic continuous flow to consistently be 20% more effective than ebb and flow.
Nutrition - The system is well stocked with fish that are fed a varied diet. Nutrients are constantly being made available to the grow beds through the recirculation of the water volume. Fish wastes are constantly added and processed.
Variety Of Planting - Tough one for a grow room. A variety of species provides pest and disease buffers. Perhaps an indica, several crosses, sativa, some industrial hemp for some rope to tie the damn buds up!
Ventilation - That great outdoors thing again.
I've likely missed something vital. that smoke was niice with two i's.
Yes, I did.
Continuous Cropping - Nutrient uptake levels are balanced out by having plants in varying stages of growth. Additionally this helps avoid too large a harvest at once and resultant imbalances beyond systems buffering capacity (disaster!)
Now that we've seen that mans beautiful garden could someone please airbrush my plants where the thrip and other plagues infested upon me have been.
Some history.
Other than Mother Nature’s natural aquatic eco systems,
aquaponics first appeared at least 1,500 years ago in China. One entrepreneur got tired of dragging feed out to the ducks, the finfish and the catfish. He stacked the ducks in cages above the finfish and moved the catfish downstream from the finfish. Now when he fed the ducks their droppings and uneaten food fell into the water with the finfish. The finfish ate and “processed it.” The wastes from the finfish flowed downstream and sank to the bottom, giving food to the catfish which are natural bottom feeders and scavengers. The processed feed and anything that the catfish missed was channeled out to the fields to feed the rice crop.
He fed once and harvested four times. The only drawback was that it was outdoors, so it got cold. Everything froze up for 5 months of the year. The theory was good but the execution left a little to be desired.
The Inca’s of Peru practiced a different style of aquaponics before the Conquistadors arrived. They dug oval ponds near their mountain dwellings, leaving an island in the center. After the ponds filled, they added fish. Geese flew in, harvested their meals from the water and relaxed on the island. Their droppings and fish scraps quickly turned the island into a super rich, high quality garden. Now not only did the Inca’s have the geese doing the fertilizer work, they also had fresh fish readily at hand and a moat around each garden to keep out hungry prowlers. Plus the mini pond/island system created a local micro-climate that stayed a little warmer than the surrounding mountains, giving extra days of harvest every year. The production from the Inca aquaponic systems
fed more people per square mile than any type of farming to this day, in that same type of high arid land.
Stoner ramble time.
Another technology that's cropped up recently, and is common in poorer economic countries is bio-digestors. Bio-digestors process almost any bio-mass (organic waste). They perform many interesting functions I will get to their relevance to Aquaponics shortly.
Biodigestors will get for example pig manure, cow manure or plant waste and...
- Reduce pathogens
- Reduce greenhouse gases
- Provide free power (gas)
- Provide Fertiliser
- Reduce ground and water pollution
- and more
A bio-digestor is a multi-faceted benefit. Ecologically sound. Good quantities of clean burning gas (profitability has been proven in several large agricultural farms) and quality organically available fertiliser. Plus by-products of ammonia and sulphur dioxide that can be readily sold to industry.
The fertiliser content, or solids, that come out once 'treated' in a biodigestor can be further treated utilising a shallow pond system.
The first pond is green water - algae, single celled algae that bloom and boom on this organic content.
A portion of this algae is regularly flushed into the second pond. Plankton. These feed on the algae and bloom and boom themselves providing regular servings of fresh protein feed.
A portion of this is then flushed into a fish pond at regular intervals....
You get what I'm saying!!?
You can get organic manure, any system waste from your Aqua ponds, all your plants roots and stems and crappy foliage, throw it into a biodigestor and pond system and create
Gas = Free Heating and Lighting for your Greenhouse
Fishfood = Free quality protein fishfood, which as we know we can turn into veggies and fruit.
If you are a farmer, greenhouse operator, or plan to be either, I highly recommend learning more on Aquaponics and Digestors with pond systems you will outstrip your competitors profits handily.
Turn shit into 3 additional incomes/benefits.
Here are some pic. from 26day of flowering.
O i forgot to say just now is when the fish cycle is done . the P.H = 6.4 nh3nh4 = 0mg/l no2= 0mg/l 
