Aquaponics update - 11/27/10

11/27/10 - 6 days later ... The sprouts have come up! (I added the eggplant to the cinder bin about 5 days ago, on 11/22/10). Check out how big the cayenne chili and kale got!

cinder - 11/27/10 hydroton - 11/27/10

I transplanted some starts six days before, on 11/21/10. The plants are from KTA (curly parsley, purple kale, fennel); vegetables I started myself (Swiss chard, mizuna); and a couple basil starts that the guy at Ohana Greenhouse gave me. I planted the chili and larger purple kale a few days earlier. I also sowed some mesclun, mizuna, and Swiss chard seeds in the hopes they'll start and sustain themselves on their own. But really, it's jus' cuz I'm really lazy. Check out the pics above to see what the bins look like 6 days later!

cinder - 11/21/10 hydroton - 11/21/10

Aquaponics! Getting there!

I'm so excited to get the media into the bins today! The two black tubs are my biofilters, which will accept the water directly from the fish tank. One is filled with 3 bags of black cinder and the other is filled with a 50-liter bag of hydroton. It could probably use another 10 liters tho'. Before filling the tubs, I sifted the black cinder with a screen of 0.25 inch hardware cloth and washed it. I just washed the hydroton.

So, generally, my setup operates in two integrated parts, in theory:

Part I, Ebb and Flow: Water runs from fish tank via 500 GPH water pump => 2 biofilter grow beds => through bell siphon (CTAHR-style) => sump => overflow returns to fish tank.

Part II: Continuous Flow: Water runs from sump via 250 GPH water pump => 2 white floating rafts grow beds => overflow from grow beds returns to sump => overflow from sump returns to fish tank. Note: the fish tank is not shown. It's located in the slightly sunken basement, behind the brown laths of the house.

Goodness, I really hope this works.