SnailPowered's Aquaponic Adventures

Here is the video that I used to base my bell siphon off of, but I added a Harbor Freight air hose connector in the cap with a plastic airsoft pellet as a seal. As the water comes up the BB s pushed aside to allow air out, then once a siphon starts it pulls the ball into the fitting, sealing it. They work well, though not as fancy as this guys'.

Nothing wrong with tomato info. That's all I really care to grow at this point in time.

IHalveKnownAim said:

A little less elegant but it still works..

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You know, this one is one of my favorites!

SnailPowered said:

Here is the video that I used to base my bell siphon off of, but I added a Harbor Freight air hose connector in the cap with a plastic airsoft pellet as a seal. As the water comes up the BB s pushed aside to allow air out, then once a siphon starts it pulls the ball into the fitting, sealing it. They work well, though not as fancy as this guys'.

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This guy seems really concerned about the time it takes to flood and drain but all that's gonna change once he gets some media in the beds. I'm sure he probably knows that by now.

He's got to know it by now lol. I pulled my bell siphon out and it had roots growing through it. They aren't through the drain but they were through all the holes.

Haha! I look forward to the day when I have roots reaching the bell siphon (I'm still in the process of getting up and running) ..On another note, I built one of these mini swirl filters using a small rubbermaid pitcher. Then I took it out because I wanted to add worms that would eat the fish waste. But then I read (in the comment section of some video that I can no longer locate) a very lengthy explanation regarding why adding worms to a smaller bed isn't such a good idea. So, I put the swirl filter back in. Anyway, here's the video in case someone out there decides to go this route.

LOVE IT! Thank you! A swirl filter is freaking genius! I was thinking about having one simply because I could collect the poo and throw it out in my lawn. I'm not sure if any of it actually makes it into my grow bed anyway, not much (if any) with the way I have mine setup is my guess.

I really think that if you had an aquarium with an overflow that pulled the water through the tank gravel, into a swirl filter, then into a filter like mine would be an EASY tank to maintain. I have dreams of hooking a tank up to a water line with a float for auto top off, and a drain for easy water changes.

SnailPowered said:

This isn't cannabis, though I hear that tomatoes and cannabis require the same sort of nutrients. Figured I would share it!

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Good stuff. I really wish I had the space to do some actual... non-weed agriculture. Would be awesome to have fresh herbs and veggies available, sick of going to safeway.

This PVC pipe is cut to 18" for measuring my light distance, but I figured it would give a good idea of the size. The plant is roughly 32" I would say.

This site needs a definitive aquaponics thread that contains all of the basic questions, answers and suggestions. I asked about creating a specific sub-forum (linked here) but the admins won't have it. Search results for 'aquaponics' tend to lead to short-lived ventures and general questions that don't always get the best answers. For now, this is the best thread that I can latch on to.

For those that are interested, PotentPonics' youtube channel (linked here) has a ton of very good info.

Yeah, the lack of information is why I wanted to share my experience. Most of what I found on forums was all people saying it doesn't work. Well, it looks like silverarm32 is still growing in his aquaponics and so far I have really enjoyed this method. I do enjoy not getting dirt under my nails when I work on the AP lol.

Maybe this thread will give birth to a better thread for explaining things. I'm thinking of building a two barrel system and documenting the entire thing. I think I could now that I could make a complete plan ahead of time.

Definitely. There seems to be more naysayers than people that are producing and posting with positive results. Speaking of positive results ... http://www.420magazine.com/forums/completed-journals/232101-sams-drz-aquaponics-mixed-strain-grow-journal-2014-a.html

I'm still very interested in aquaponics. I've been watching- for years, frankly- and I've been noodling on how things work in fish water with the aim of doing a more sustainable system.

Dumb question but organic amendments like Cal Mag and Maxi Crop can be added directly to the fish tank, if need be?

IHalveKnownAim said:

Dumb question but organic amendments like Cal Mag and Maxi Crop can be added directly to the fish tank, if need be?

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First, Cal-Mag isn't organic. Even if it's from organic sources, it's going to be strong for fish.

Second, Maxi-crop is also full of water soluble nutrients very likely to have an adverse impact on fish.

Feed the fish to feed your plants. That's the whole idea of aquaponics.

From what I've seen, some people's systems require the amendments. If I fall into that category, I'd like to have the amendments on hand rather than wait until I see a deficiency

In Amazon's Q+A section for Maxi Crop, people say that it can be used in AP with no issues.



This site lists it as one of the 5 best 100% organic fertilizers. http://www.farmxchange.org/fish-friendly-fertilizers/
http://www.farmxchange.org/fish-friendly-fertilizers/
Anyway, I'll hold off on the cal mag and will pursue other methods ..if it comes down to that.

I haven't put any ferts directly into my fish water, but I have put Happy Frog 5-5-5 fertilizer in a mound at the base of the plant and had no problems. It eventually turned was just a residue on the expanded ceramic. With the fish gravel on there I would even dig a well to expose the ceramic and fill it with fert if I thought I needed to.

I am very leery about putting anything into the water as a way of delivering it to the plants though. With my system I have a large amount of water with a small amount of fish, so you may be able to "microdose" the system...but I would be concerned trying it.

I'm not 100% sure how long it will take to harvest a couple more crops but I'm planning on keeping this going at least that long! My goal is to have an aquaponic system in a shipping container for my grow room with solar tubes for most of the light but a methane digester running a generator powering additional LED lights, for those cloudy days.

IHalveKnownAim said:

Definitely. There seems to be more naysayers than people that are producing and posting with positive results. Speaking of positive results ... http://www.420magazine.com/forums/completed-journals/232101-sams-drz-aquaponics-mixed-strain-grow-journal-2014-a.html

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This is a cool idea but you still have that soil layer where the bugs can live. My goal is to have the completely inert grow media that won't support bugs, yet delivers consistently frosty buds.

Very awesome stuff going on in here!

CannabisNerd said:

Very awesome stuff going on in here!

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Thanks 'Nerd! I appreciate that! This is fun for me, but I'm glad that some other people are taking interest and seeing that this is a viable way to grow our plants.

I got some LED glasses and because I was so impressed with the way these $12 things work I had to take a picture to share here.