I'm new here. Where do people talk about hydroponics/aquaponics?
Thanks,
Wade

We don't seem to have a Forum just for hydroponics and aquaponics but we can always have a discussion here or in All Things Gardening:

https://garden.org/forums/view...

I have dabbled in water culture so I will join the conversation, where ever you end up.

Thanks for the reply. I'm shocked! As big as this forum is and as popular as hydro/aqua ponics have become I thought I could finally learn a little by reading the forums. I guess I was wrong about that. I don't really know enough to start in on the subject.
Thanks,
Wade

I am going to ask for a transfer of this thread to the "All Things Gardening" Forum. @Australis or @Calif_Sue, can you transfer this thread please? In the meantime, here are some of my thoughts:

I don't know that there is all that much knowledge floating around the internet. I have to qualify that. The information out there makes it all very complicated and expensive. I got interested because my daughter build a temperate greenhouse and installed an aquaponic system. So I have learned from her, as she modifies and improves her system. And most of her information was gleaned from the local Head Shop.

My experience has been in my greenhouse. I added a built-in pond with 3 levels. The bottom level has a turtle and some goldfish. The top level, right now is a water poppy that has taken over. I wanted to try to grow some Cobra Lilies in it (cold moving water, sunny tops) but haven't found plants I can afford. I failed at seeds, I may try that again. The middle level is mostly Anthuriums. I had some water cress in there until about a week ago when I discovered it was full of bugs. I'll start again in the spring.

My daughter and I are both DIY types who don't have the big bucks to spend on a fancy system. My daughter found a 50 gallon food grade barrel, built heavy duty Baker's shelving over the top and installed a pond pump. The water is lifted to the top tank by the pond pump then feeds down thru' the tanks back to the barrel by way of raingutters.

My other water culture project is growing orchids in vases, jars and wine glasses full of water. And my other daughter is growing Indigo plants under lights in bins full of water with snails and a fish aquarium air pump.

I'm sure I won't use the right terms here with this discussion but I'll try and explain some of my interests.

I know a few people that grow commercially and the buss in the air right now is that the weather/climate has become so unpredictable and unstable that in the near future cropping will become very difficult to impossible if you can not control the temperature and the moisture. Of course, the alternative is to grow under cover as in greenhouses or tunnels.

This, along with knowing people out west and the difficulty of having ample water has guided my interest to hydroponics. I want to eventually set up a grow out tank for fish and pump that water up to a floating waterbed and allow that to feed a grow bed with the little clay balls and all in it. (See, I told you the terminology would be a problem!).

I've seen some videos where they added earthworms to this bed with the clay balls in it. I have also seen videos where they added crawfish to the beds. Knowing that crawfish feed on the scraps left over from fish etc, I thought of adding them to the floating bed which is in between the fish tank and plant bed. I can't find any info on doing this so thought I would start here. I do love a crawfish boil as I have spent time in the Gulf states. Just a little added pleasure from the "garden".

So does this trigger anyone's memory?
Wade

My version of hydroponics is to throw stuff into the water bare root and let it grow. I do this with lots of stuff. Sometimes its an experiment, sometimes its on purpose LOL. I have discovered some pretty amazing things that will grow in water which I would previously believed would rot.

Hi Wade,

I'm trying to visualize your vision and not succeeding. Would your setup be outside? What is the middle 'floating waterbed' for? Are you visualizing a floating raft with plants? Is it floating on your fish pond?

If its a raft, the pond water is like a giant saucer. You wouldn't be able to pull water out of the raft, you would have to pump it out of the pond itself into your grow bed. Then gravity feed to get the water back to the pond.

The worms will show up on their own. My pond systems, although inside my greenhouse, has snails and worms and I did not add them.

My daughter and I both use pea-gravel for our growing medium. The clay balls were expensive and they tended to float.

I live in the west and, although water is not wasted, its not in short supply. We all have water hours and days but that's no big deal. If you are going into hydroponics to save water, you will be disappointed. I have to add 2 or 3 inces of water everyday.

My ponds in the greenhouse also have snails, pond frogs, and I have green tree frogs and toads that have gotten in there. I keep some wildlife ponds outside and some container gardens, the dragonflies lay eggs in those that eat the mosquito larvae. I tried goldfish but the raccoons fish them out and eat them

I often have this problem with not expressing myself properly! Let me start again.

I will use an IBC tote for a tank for fish. I will pump water from that tank to a floating raft with "salad" type plants. That water will in turn flow by gravity to another grow bed with clay balls/ pea gravel, some type of medium where I will grow other vegetables that can withstand being indoors with a southern exposure.

I have seen people add earthworms to the grow medium. I have seen people replace the fish with crawfish. What I have not seen is people that keep the fish, but add crawfish to the floating raft system. They would feed on what is pumped up from the fish tank, helping filter the water and producing more nutrients before the water reaches the other grow bed.

The floating raft system would reproduce the habitat that crawfish have in the wild but I don't know if they would damage the plants growing in the raft. Crawfish are cannibalistic so some barriers would have to be in place to isolate them from each other to some degree so if they were to damage the roots of plants, the barriers to separate them could be altered to also protect the roots.

The only other thing I have thought of would be placing another floating raft system between the grow medium and the fish tank. That would be the water flowing out of the medium bed into a different floating raft box, then on to return to the fish tank. If crawfish could be in that box also, they would clean up any "stray" particles from the medium bed. Earthworms etc.

Do you understand what I am trying to tell you now? If so, are there reasons that this would not work? I plan on having this in a Florida room that will be heated by the southern exposure and by a hot tub in that room.

I have no idea what I may have left out so tell me if it isn't yet clear.
Thanks,
Wade

Gina, sounds like you have a nice setup! I would be doing this indoors so the raccoon problem you are having would not be a problem for me. I like the dragonfly idea but again, it just wouldn't work in my case. The Florida room is 28'x 7' with a sliding glass door on each end that will be adjusted to help heat/cool the house so no dragonflies!
Wade

I guess my biggest confusion right now is that a floating raft floats, or is somehow suspended, in water. Why wouldn't you use your fish tank for fish and floating rafts? My floating raft is a pot sitting on a brick that keeps the rim just under the water surface but you could also keep the rim above the water line.

You will have to keep the Crawdads away from the fish too.

I would guess a raft could also be used floating on top of the fish tank. I just hadn't thought of that. Thanks.

The main point is that I want to try and incorporate the crawfish into the system. I saw a video from Perdue that they are now growing crawfish from Australia in their system but have been unable to find any other info on just what and how they are doing it.
Wade

Crawdads are scavengers and will eat whatever they can find. I'm not sure you can keep one in any given spot but, as long as they're not hungry, they won't attack eachother. But your fish would be prime targets. You may have to choose one or the other (Crawdads or fish) or have two separate systems.

What kind of fish were you thinking of raising? I love Tilapia and they seem to be first choice for aquaponics systems but, their water needs to stay above 70F and I think they prefer warmer than that. That's why my daughter has koi - they can take the cold temps.

Crawdads, at least the local ones, need cold water. One of the problems is getting a hold of these exotic critters. There are laws forbidding sale and possession - in California you can't own a Tilipia and in Idaho, you can't own them without a permit. You would have to do some research on what you want to grow and what you can legally buy and possess.

As I am just starting out I will be using catfish because they can survive 'bout all my mistakes. Tilapia are too sensitive to temperature change. The Sultan Sea in Calif. is full of Tilapia free for the taking. https://www.google.com/search?...
The summer dieoff because of the high water temps makes the area uninhabitable.

There are a lot of Temperature/oxygen mistakes in aquaponics. As long as adequate oxygen is in the water, higher temps can be tolerated. by most species.
Wade

Don't you think its funny that the only counties were you can raise a Tilapia legally in CA are all in S. CA were they can actually live? I'm from N. CA - a Tilapia wouldn't last a day.

My daughter's first ever caught fish was a little catfish. She took it home and filled a 30 gallon plastic garbage can and added her little catfish. It eventually out-grew its home and we returned it to the river. So, yes, they can take any abuse/care, even that of a 5 year old.

The floating rafts are what is called a vegetative filter. I used to have one of these when I had an 8 x 8 indoor water lily pond in my Florida Room. I had aquarium grasses like cabomba and anacharis in the top of an open filter setup that was a decorative container filler with plastic bioballs and pea gravel for filtration and fostering beneficial tank bacteria. A hose attached to a pond pump took water from the pond up to the top of the container, it went down through the layers of media and exited through another hose that returned it to the pond.

Hello everyone! Hello Wade!

I am brand new but have been reading posts on this website for years (I've just never felt like talking). I have an aquaponics system that I have been growing in my temperate greenhouse for almost 4 years. I have kale and an ever-rotating variety of other crops in the bins and koi in the water tank. My bins are set up almost exactly like Gina's: the plants are fertilized and the water filtered by draining through pea gravel containing bacteria. It is a VERY stable system (I have never killed my koi and I am terrible at regular fish tanks.)

I was curious though: Wade, how many water bins are you thinking of having? In my experience, one big "pond" is more chemical and temperature stable than multiple smaller ones.

Hi Sumire! Thanks for joining the conversation.

To try to explain, I watched people figure out the lb fish = "x" gallons of space, = x square ft grow space. Well basically what came out was one ibc tote, cut one foot off the top and use as your "pea gravel" plant area, plus two floating raft beds will support 36 pounds of fish. I don't remember the size of the two floating raft Tanks or whatever the right name is.

In summary, one fish tank of approx 250 gallons, feeding one floating raft bed ( which I was wanting to add crawfish). That tank would drain into the top of the IBC(The aprox25 gallon pea gravel tank). That tank would drain into another floating raft bed that would drain back into the fish tank.

As I have said previously, I have seen people add worms to their pea gravel bed and I have seen people replace their fish with crawfish. I do not want to replace but rather to add them to the system, above in the first floating raft tank to feed off of fish waste and scraps that the fish did not consume. That's what they do in nature. This would further break down the waste before being filtered by the plants in the pea gravel bed.

I hope this all makes sense!

Are you saying you add fertilizer for your plants as well as use the waste from the fish? It would be interesting to know how you can determine what amount of fertilizer to add.
Wade

Sumire is saying the fish provide the fertilizer and the gravel acts as a filtration stystem.

@sumire, have you ever had to re-do a tub because of sludge buildup from all the fishy poo?

Friend that was a middle school teacher, used a 70 gallon tank with African Cichlids, pumped the water through a tube above the aquarium. The tube had holes which he placed plants, the plants filtered the water and the fish "fertilize" fed the plants.


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