[{"content":"I was reading on an aquaponics forum about a guy that wanted to build a simple aquaponics system for less than $150.\nAs the day went on the question bugged me, because for a very small and limited system I spent about $250 learning how the basics of aquaponics works. I messed up everything, killed the plants, killed most of the fish, and had a few tomatoes that cost me about $35 each. I’ve learned quite a bit since then. As the day went on I thought about what it would take to get all of my family and friends with at least a basic system they could setup themselves, for cheap – yet still produce over 100 lbs of vegetables a year.\nMy thoughts are, if someone learns the basics, and then can see for themselves how easy and rewarding it is to grow several of their own plants, maybe we’ll have more aquaponics people, and more people who think about self sustainability. Here is one of the 3 systems that I came up with:\nFeatures\r#\r55 Gallons With only 55 gallons, you might be able to run (at max) 7 to 10 tilapia; however 2 to 3 would be a safer number. Direct sunlight on the tank will cause drastic heat swings and this will kill fish. There is no supplemental heat so if temperature goes below 55F I would lose all of the tilapia. Bluegill might be a better choice for my area as they have a wider tolerance range. pH changes will be more dramatic and fast than a 300+ gallon system, but definately manageable. You will need to refill evaporated and transpired water regularly. It’s not realistic to harvest so small number of fish because removing fish to eat would drastically change the plant fertilizer. I think goldfish would be a better solution for this small of a system. Grow bed capacity You have 2 grow beds that are deep enough to get a decent bacteria colony growing, and thus provide nutrients and bio filtration for your tank. 55 gallons will allow for a decent amount of grow beds, enough to make this worthwhile. 2 to 4 half cut shelves + several grow towers is easily doable from only 55 gallons. I estimate that if you fit 5 – 10 large plants in each cut barrel and put up 3 grow towers (4 pots each), you could grow a mixture of deep root and shallow root plants and have about 30-40 plants in this system. I don’t think size would allow you to add more, but that would depend on the types of plants you actually choose. There is a link to the aquaponics system with towers at the end of this article. Simplicity There are no valves, no solids filters, and only 1 pump listed. Everything is constant flow to reduce stress on your fish, and to eliminate the extra cost of making autosiphons. Without autosiphons, this limits the types of plants that can be grown, but only a little bit. The goal is a simple, foolproof, inexpensive system good for beginners that would require only the minimal maintenance (monthly pump cleaning). Continuous Flow There are several different methods of cycling water over the grow beds. One is called Continuous Flow (often CF). This method is the best for basic systems. A CF grow bed runs water continuously up to about 2 inches to 4 inches below the surface. This allows for high quantities of dissolved oxygen, and is said to cycle and mature a system faster than ebb and flow or draining with an autosiphon. Continuous flow does not require timers or siphons, the water is kept at the same level constantly, but is always draining too. One advantage of a CF aquaponics system is that the pump maintains the same level of water and a much slower change in temperature. Grow beds heat up in the sun, and if you have cool water on hot grow beds it flushes back hot water. This could stress the fish. The only disadvantage is that not all plants like continous flow (most do great though).\nCost of Materials\r#\rHere is a table of what I would build 55 gallon aquaponics system from:\n$7.50 $3.52 2 2×4 @ 10′ Untreated $16.20 $2.70 6 2×4 @ 8′ Untreated $40.00 $20.00 2 Food Grade Barrel $3.90 $0.39 10 3/4″ Elbow Sched 40 PVC $0.42 $0.42 1 3/4″ Tee Sched 40 PVC $4.36 $2.36 2 3/4″ Sched 40 PVC pipe $2.94 $1.47 2 3/4″ Sched 40 PVC Threaded + Slip Coupler Male $1.18 $0.59 2 3/4″ Sched 40 PVC Threaded + Slip Coupler Female $42.00 $42.00 1 150 GPH Pondmaster pump $16.00 $16.00 1 1/2″ to 1″ River Rock (must be safe/ph nuetral) $4.00 $4.00 1 1 Tube Silicone $29.98 $29.98 1 Half a box of Deck Mate Self tapping wood screws (2″) $6.98 $6.98 1 A small amount of PVC glue + primer $16.67 Govt Meddling Fee (Tax estimate) $192.14 Total Parts This does not account for a backup pump and you should really have one!\nTower Version Parts Cost\r#\r$7.04 $3.52 2 2×4 @ 10′ Untreated $16.20 $2.70 6 2×4 @ 8′ Untreated $40.00 $20.00 2 Food Grade Barrel $6.24 $0.39 16 3/4″ Elbow Sched 40 PVC $0.84 $0.42 2 3/4″ Tee Sched 40 PVC $12.70 $2.36 5 3/4″ Sched 40 PVC pipe $8.82 $1.47 6 3/4″ Sched 40 PVC Threaded + Slip Coupler Male $3.54 $0.59 6 3/4″ Sched 40 PVC Threaded + Slip Coupler Female $139.00 $139.00 1 150 GPH Pondmaster pump (online cheaper) $16.00 $16.00 1 1/2″ to 1″ River Rock (must be safe/ph nuetral) $15.00 $15.00 1 1/2″ Plywood $30.00 $15.00 2 Plastic Trellis $10.50 $1.50 7 2″x2″ for the tower framework $9.00 $4.50 2 3/4″ PVC Slip valve $8.00 $8.00 1 4″ PVC pipe $4.50 $1.50 3 4″ end caps $4.00 $4.00 1 1 Tube Silicone $2.50 $2.50 1 Package of 2 small hinges for the door $3.50 $1.75 2 Slide latch for door top and bottom $29.98 $29.98 1 Half a box of Deck Mate Self tapping wood screws (2″) $6.98 $6.98 1 A small amount of PVC glue + primer $35.49 Govt Meddling Fee (Tax) $410.30 Total Parts This does not account for a backup pump and you should really have one!\nGoogle Sketchup\r#\rThis aquaponics system model was created in google sketchup, a free modeling software. Here is an animation showing you the details of the aquaponics system build.\nCertain things have been left out such as the exact dimensions, as they aren’t terribly important. However, it is important that the drain pipes drain the water and leave about 2 inches of dry media on the top. This is done by cutting the drain pipe 2″ below the surface. My diagram does not have it, but another large pipe with slits in it, surrounding the drain pipe would be a good idea to keep worms, and rocks out of your fish bed.\nAlso, you would want to use a cheese cloth/paint strainer type back or some other filter for the pump intake. I like to bury the pump in a small basket filled with gravel. This keeps fish out, but allows some solids to be sucked up.\nTower Version of the 55 Gallon Aquaponics System\r#\rThe towers add on about $45 in parts, but it provides the ability to add a shade cloth or greenhouse wrap. I also priced the tower version with at least 1 foam sheet as sun insulation ($14), 2 pieces of trellis ($30), 1 sheet of 1/2″ plywood ($16) a different pump ($80 online, $140 walk in), and the shadecloth and vinyl ($75+). The total came out to about $404 in parts (estimated) for the tower version with trellis addon. The tower version adds 12 strawberry towers but also a huge area to grow vine plants like tomatoes and cucumbers.\nSummary\r#\rHere are two designs that will work for beginners wanting to try out aquaponics without breaking the bank. Both systems can grow at least 30 plants, but possibly more. Everything is simple and maintenance free (clean pumps once a month, monitor water levels, fish activity, and pests). I think I’ll build the tower version as an isolation tank or for a few bluegill. It will fit on my back porch, next to the planned banana trees.\nExact Diagrams and measurements for 55 Gallon Aquaponics System\r#\rIf there is interest, I can provide a PDF with detailed cutting instructions, pump filter construction, parts list suppliers, cycling basics, and suggested plants. Please leave a comment if you would like me to make this?\nImages of First Prototype of 55 Gallon Aquaponics System\r#\rThese are pictures of a modified version that is about $363 in parts before the backup pump (add about $80 if you get it on online or $150ish if you pick it up in a store).\nI will probably change out the elbow for either an elbow with holes drilled in the top, or a “T” with the top open for better aeration. I also used zip ties to anchor these in place to prevent movement (and leaks) of these pipes.\nI added a little door with some cheap $2 hinges from lowes. The orange circles on the foam are roofing nail tops. I took the nail out and then used a screw that was just the right size to secure the foam to the door. This side will get hit with quite a bit of sun so I didn’t want radiant heat cooking the fish.\nYou can see the water level before we fill it with rocks. There is about 2 inch dry zone and a 2 inch moist zone before it hits the water line. Plants will send roots to where they need and this will protect the water from algae, evaporation and direct sun temperature changes.\nAlthough the 2 sides that get the most sun exposure are wrapped in sytrofoam board and then 1/2″ plywood to protect the board, the 3rd side (this side) was wrapped in leftover parts. The intent is to keep drastic and quick temperature changes from happening so the fish are not as stressed. It can get 120F in the direct sun in Mesa, AZ – so I wanted to keep all direct sun off of the tank even though the 4 types of fish that will work for us here (tilapia, goldfish, crappie, catfish) can take up to 95F temps, I am sure there won’t be much dissolved oxygen at those temperatures. If we need to, I can add another 2×2 and then wrap the entire thing with a shade cloth spacer to keep direct sun off of the tank area.\nThe back and the tops near the door and grow beds are open to encourage ventilation and keep stale (hot) air from sitting on the system. I used some scraps and left overs to shade the tank from reflected heat from the house that is about 1.5 feet away, just in case.\nLesson learned: do not save the bungholes when cutting your growbeds. It’s just another place to leak. Instead, cut directly through where the bungholes would be. Water never reaches this high as they will be at the very top of the grow bed instead of down in the water like shown here. Ahhh… the price of education. I siliconed the inside after tightening it as best I could.\nThis is an interior view from the backside of the return and supply pipes.\nHere is a detailed shot of the pvc grow towers that will be used for strawberries.\nThis shows the trellis for the vine growths such as tomatoes and cucumbers. There are 3 grow towers out of a single 10 foot piece of 4″ PVC (about $8 a piece at lowes). It would not be difficult to add an entire wall of grow towers. My concern is that the exposed water will promote algae and rob the system of micro and macro nutrients. We’ll see.\nFinal Notes\r#\rA $125 IBC system as a base would almost add 2 to 3 times as much grow volume and the ability to have 30-50 tilapia, but only adds about $80 in cost) Tighten bungholes before you assemble everything else. Invest in a $15 bung tightener. Cut through bungholes instead of trying to use them and seal them Make sure everything is level Wet test everything before adding rocks Make sure and bend your PVC towers so they will drip inside. Take extra time here. Lowes gives a 10% military discount! Use bulkhead fittings instead of silicone and PVC male/female screw ons Wash your rocks thoroughly before adding to system Cut your drain pipes down to about 2″ and use a coupler on top of them so you can easily remove the top piece and cut/add pipe as needed to adjust your water level Make sure you have access to your towers if you wrap it in trellis ","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-systems/barrel-aquaponics/55-gallon-simple-aquaponics-system/","section":"Aquaponics Systems","summary":"I was reading on an aquaponics forum about a guy that wanted to build a simple aquaponics system for less than $150.\nAs the day went on the question bugged me, because for a very small and limited system I spent about $250 learning how the basics of aquaponics works. I messed up everything, killed the plants, killed most of the fish, and had a few tomatoes that cost me about $35 each. I’ve learned quite a bit since then. As the day went on I thought about what it would take to get all of my family and friends with at least a basic system they could setup themselves, for cheap – yet still produce over 100 lbs of vegetables a year.\n","title":"55 Gallon Simple Aquaponics System","type":"aquaponics-systems"},{"content":"Aquaponics System holds build notes, calculations and growing guides for backyard aquaponics. James Fraze LLC of Wylie, Texas publishes it.\nWhy this site exists\r#\rIf you learn the basics and see for yourself how easy and rewarding it is to grow your own plants, you may well keep going. That\u0026rsquo;s the idea here: more aquaponics people, and more people who think about self sustainability.\nWhat you\u0026rsquo;ll find here\r#\rAquaponics systems: plans, from a simple 55 gallon system to a 500 gallon one. Vocabulary: what the terms mean, and how to make a bell siphon. Fish: which fish suit a system, such as channel catfish and rainbow trout. Pumps: how to choose a pump, and how air lifts and geyser pumps work. Plants: seeds, herbs, vegetables and nutrient deficiencies. Calculations: tank volume, power and unit conversions. Have a question? Get in touch.\n","date":"1 November 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/about/","section":"How to Build and Run a Backyard Aquaponics System","summary":"Aquaponics System holds build notes, calculations and growing guides for backyard aquaponics. James Fraze LLC of Wylie, Texas publishes it.\nWhy this site exists\r#\rIf you learn the basics and see for yourself how easy and rewarding it is to grow your own plants, you may well keep going. That’s the idea here: more aquaponics people, and more people who think about self sustainability.\n","title":"About","type":"page"},{"content":"Stuck on a build, or have a question about an article? Call or text 470-236-2870, or email james@aquaponics-system.com.\n","date":"1 November 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/contact/","section":"How to Build and Run a Backyard Aquaponics System","summary":"Stuck on a build, or have a question about an article? Call or text 470-236-2870, or email james@aquaponics-system.com.\n","title":"Contact","type":"page"},{"content":" My first aquaponics system cost about $250. I messed up everything, killed the plants, killed most of the fish, and the few tomatoes I got cost about $35 each. I\u0026rsquo;ve learned quite a bit since then, and it\u0026rsquo;s all here so your first system goes better than mine did.\nStart with the 55 gallon simple aquaponics system, one of three cheap systems I came up with so family and friends could set up their own. Then read how to make a bell siphon, the part that fills and drains a grow bed automatically, with tips for when it never starts or just trickles.\nEvery guide is listed below: fish, pumps, plants, nutrient problems, and the calculations for tank volume, power and unit conversions.\nAquaponics Basics (2) Aquaponics Basics The Reason for Aquaponics Aquaponics Calculations (8) Aquaponics Energy Costs Battery and Solar Calculations for Aquaponics Common Inches and Millimeter Conversions Convert Between Liters and Gallons Electrical Formula for Watts, Amps, Volts SQF Calculation of a Cylinder Water Volume Calculation Formula of a Cylinder Water Volume Calculation Formula of a Rectangle Aquaponics Construction Tips (1) PVC Irrigation Tips Aquaponics Laws (1) General Building Codes for Aquaponics Aquaponics Plants (14) Calcium Deficiency in Plants How to Germinate Seeds Indoor Grow Lights Lemon Balm Lower and Raise pH in Aquaponics System Magnesium Deficiency in Plants Nitrogen Deficiency in Plants Parsley Phosphorus Deficiency in Plants Potassium Deficiency in Plants Radishes Sulfur Deficiency in Plants USDA Hardiness Zone Which Crop is Most Valuable? Aquaponics Pumps (3) Geyser Pump How an Air Lift Works How to Choose a Good Aquaponics Pump Aquaponics Systems (2) 500 Gallon Aquaponics System 55 Gallon Simple Aquaponics System Aquaponics Vocabulary (4) Aquaponics Glossary: Aquaculture Aquaponics Glossary: Aquaponics System Black Soldier Fly Larvae How to Make a Bell Siphon Fish (3) Channel Catfish for Aquaponics How to Find Temperature Ranges for Aquaponics Rainbow Trout in Aquaponics Homesteading (1) Raising Rabbits for Meat Recipes (1) Chewy Banana Bars Recipe Timers and Autosiphons (1) Alternative Autosiphon Design ","date":"1 November 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/","section":"How to Build and Run a Backyard Aquaponics System","summary":" My first aquaponics system cost about $250. I messed up everything, killed the plants, killed most of the fish, and the few tomatoes I got cost about $35 each. I’ve learned quite a bit since then, and it’s all here so your first system goes better than mine did.\n","title":"How to Build and Run a Backyard Aquaponics System","type":"page"},{"content":"We want this site to be usable by everyone, including people who use a screen reader, navigate by keyboard only, or need low-vision support. Our target is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA.\nEvery page on this site is plain HTML. You can read all of it with JavaScript turned off; scripting is only used to enhance the site, never as the only way to reach information or to contact us.\nIf any part of this site is hard to use with your assistive technology, or you cannot reach us, please tell us through the contact page or call the number on that page and we will fix it.\nKnown limitations: some older articles show plans and diagrams as images, with a short description rather than every measurement in the text. If you need those details another way, tell us.\nLast reviewed: 2026-11-01\n","date":"8 August 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/accessibility/","section":"How to Build and Run a Backyard Aquaponics System","summary":"We want this site to be usable by everyone, including people who use a screen reader, navigate by keyboard only, or need low-vision support. Our target is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA.\n","title":"Accessibility","type":"page"},{"content":"Aquaponics System does not use tracking or advertising cookies.\nThe only thing stored on your device is an optional light/dark appearance preference, kept in your browser\u0026rsquo;s local storage so the site remembers your choice. It contains no personal information and is never sent to a server. Clearing your browser storage removes it.\nIf this site ever adds advertising or a consent tool, we will update this page and the privacy policy before it goes live.\n","date":"8 August 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cookie-policy/","section":"How to Build and Run a Backyard Aquaponics System","summary":"Aquaponics System does not use tracking or advertising cookies.\nThe only thing stored on your device is an optional light/dark appearance preference, kept in your browser’s local storage so the site remembers your choice. It contains no personal information and is never sent to a server. Clearing your browser storage removes it.\n","title":"Cookie Policy","type":"page"},{"content":" Short version: Aquaponics System collects the minimum needed to answer your message and run the site. We do not sell or rent your information. The longer version is below.\nLast updated: 2026-11-01\nWhat we collect, and why\r#\rSite analytics. This site runs no analytics script and sets no tracking cookies, so there is no cookie-consent banner. When you tap our phone number, the site records the page you were on, where on the page the number sat, the number itself, and the time. Nothing about you is recorded with it: no IP address, no cookie, and nothing that identifies your device. We use the count to learn which pages lead to calls.\nContact form. If you use the contact page, we collect the name, email, phone, and message you send, plus the IP address of the submission (for spam protection). It is stored in a database we control and emailed to us so we can reply. 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Your browser may store a small preference locally on your device (for example, light or dark appearance); it stays on your device and is not used to track you across the web.\nWho controls your data, and how to reach us\r#\rThe data controller is James Fraze LLC, the registered entity behind this site.\nQuestions about privacy, or a request to see or delete your data: use the contact page. Our mailing address is 2042 Quail Run Rd, Wylie, TX 75098.\nChanges\r#\rWe may update this policy from time to time; the \u0026ldquo;Last updated\u0026rdquo; date above shows when it last changed.\n","date":"8 August 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/privacy-policy/","section":"How to Build and Run a Backyard Aquaponics System","summary":" Short version: Aquaponics System collects the minimum needed to answer your message and run the site. We do not sell or rent your information. The longer version is below.\n","title":"Privacy Policy","type":"page"},{"content":"By using this site you agree to these terms.\nThis site is operated by James Fraze LLC, and \u0026ldquo;we\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;us\u0026rdquo; below mean that entity.\nThe information on this site is provided free, \u0026ldquo;as is,\u0026rdquo; with no warranty of accuracy or fitness for any purpose. It is general guidance, not a substitute for advice from a licensed professional or for your local building, electrical and food codes. Prices, costs and product details described here may change without notice. Content is for personal, non-commercial use. Trademarks and brand names mentioned remain the property of their respective owners. We may update or remove content at any time. ","date":"8 August 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/terms-of-service/","section":"How to Build and Run a Backyard Aquaponics System","summary":"By using this site you agree to these terms.\nThis site is operated by James Fraze LLC, and “we” and “us” below mean that entity.\nThe information on this site is provided free, “as is,” with no warranty of accuracy or fitness for any purpose. It is general guidance, not a substitute for advice from a licensed professional or for your local building, electrical and food codes. Prices, costs and product details described here may change without notice. Content is for personal, non-commercial use. Trademarks and brand names mentioned remain the property of their respective owners. We may update or remove content at any time. ","title":"Terms of Service","type":"page"},{"content":"These are the plans and design for the 4th version of the aquaponics system that we’ve made. It’s amazing how much is learned by simply creating aquaponics systems and testing them out.\n500 Gallon Aquaponics System Flow Diagram 500 Gallon Aquaponics System 3d View\nWhat is Aquaponics\r#\rBasically, it’s a fish tank that lets you harvest the fish, and uses vegetables to clean up the tank.\nPump water to the fish Aerate, circulate, separate solids water falls by gravity to the plants plants clean it, grow healthy, and return it to sump Fresh organic fish and veggies grown year round in a small area, with 85% less water than normal farming.\nHow this Aquaponics System Works\r#\rA. Solar hot water heater (thermo siphon design). CPVC pipes on a 4×8 sheet of plywood, clear plastic (or glass) lid to trap the heat. Thermodynamics principles lets me put cold water in, and it will rise as hot water to the output. This needs about 2.5 gallons per minute flow. Too fast and it doesn’t work as intended, too slow and it will literally melt down. Heating water is about $100 a month if you use other methods. This cost about $150 to build. I could pump it through underground pipes to heat the entire greenhouse if needed, or to a rabbit hutch, etc. It’s hot water, about 180F (regulated by how fast water goes through it). I may need a way to mix it back with cold water before it hits the tanks. I might also need a separate pump instead of a valve to control pressure. If I were in too cold of a climate this wouldn’t work the same and I’d need additional heat.\nB. Bypass valves for solar hot water heater in warm months. I can close the in/out and open the bypass and water will not go through the heater at all. Fish and plants need certain temperatures to reproduce, grow fast, fight disease, and keep metabolism up (eat and poop). Without these elements, the system grows slower or things die.\nC. Backpressure valve for sump aerator. I have a large pump (2000 gallons per hour) in the sump. But I only need to pump about 500 gallons per hour for the purging of the tanks and bringining in clean water. I redirect the backpressure by adjusting this valve. Now my pump can just pump full time, which is better for it. turning a pump on and off reduces it’s life. Also, this backpressure is used to really blast air into the water. Traditional air stones only last a few months. Instead of buying new ones, I did this to aerate the water. Saves electricity, manufacturing, breakable parts, etc. If I need to, I can also spray this water into the air and let it fall further. this would allow me to cool the water. I don’t think this will be an issue, but it’s a simple modification to allow this. I’ll have a series of 1/4″ holes on a horizontal pipe to shoot jets all over into the sump and make sure there isn’t a solids build up. This aquaponics system design also allows me to regulate the speed at which the grow beds fill by limiting how much water goes into the system.\nD. Sump pump on a float. 250 gallon tank of clean water, little to no solids. Gravity and cut off switch combined keep sump from overflowing or burning up. It won’t pump out more than it can take in if I adjust things properly and monitor it daily.\nE. Sump pump aerator. Backpressure from the valve above allows some water to continue and some water to go through an aerator back into the sump. This makes it easy to use a larger pump and aerates water for fish before it even gets to them. It is hard to have too much oxygen in the water. All of these aerators help to off gas toxins too.\nF. Drain back from grow beds should be clean as it is filtered many times, at least clean enough for fish to live in. Venturi process injects air for additional aeration with zero maintenance and pumps, using gravity to aerate water instead.\nH. Bell siphon, one per grow bed. All of them drain back to sump tank (EDF area). A bell siphon is a device that autsiphons water out to the bottom once it reaches the top. No mechanical parts/motors, just physics and gravity. By using this I can flood beds and then drain them out repeatedly without pumps or timers. The natural fill and drain cycle is the timer, controlled by how fast water enters.\nI. Grow beds. Gravel inside of a large trough lined with pond liner. You can have up to 2:1 ratio of water for the grow beds. So, if I had 2 IBC 270 gallon tanks of fish (540g total), I could support about 8 grow beds that are 8′ long x 2′ wide x 12″deep. The 12″ depth is important for many reasons. It keeps plants healthy by not rotting the roots, shades water so algae doesn’t grow (if water isn’t pumped too high before draining), and provides a stratification of the various elements of fish poop sludge for worms, oxygen and bacteria to clean the water and break down ammonia into nitrates/nitrites. This is a natural process that takes about 8 months to grow a full production bacteria colony. The plants in turn, eat up the nitrates, and you get clean water as a byproduct back to (F). I Need to make sure I can never get into a race condition where the beds are full, but the sump shuts off because it’s empty.\nJ. A valve to each grow bed allows me to control the flow, and thus how fast the tanks flood and drain. I can grow different types of plants this way because not all plants like the same amounts of water. Isolation of grow beds also isolates pests and allows me to only damage some of the crop if I’m infested. It gives me more time and ability to manage the crops.\nK. This is a gravity fed drain that filters waste from the sand filter before it gets to my grow beds. This entire tank (LRK) is designed to mechanically separate solids (fish waste) so I have water that is easier for the worms and plants to break down and so that my pumps stay clean longer. If I don’t manually filter solids, I might fill up my grow beds with more sludge than they can process, and that would kill everything. By filtering solids like this, I also keep the valves healthy and clean. If they are not clean, I have to tweak them and purge them often as they clog up.\nL. Sand filter. Gravity pours partially filtered water from the swirl filter into sand in a jar. This chews up and breaks up remaining solids before it goes on. Maintenance free, cheap, perfect. Eventually I have to replace sand and possibly the nozzle, but this is very low maintenance.\nM. Swirl filter. Mechanical separation of fish waste. The tanks use a siphon (N) that has a T on it open to the air to prevent a complete siphon. Gravity pushes it through tanks and it sucks up the waste off of the bottom. The solids go into a cone where they settle to the bottom. I can then purge this portion every few days and have super rich fertilizer for regular dirt gardens. This is also a way to get the fish poop out of the system, allowing me to stock more fish than I should be able to. The input pipe is lower than the output pipe to help solids go down by gravity and swirl instead of up into the sand filter.\nN. SLO is a system of siphoning water from the bottom (and thus getting the solids lifted). A “Tee” at the bend ensures that water doesn’t autosiphon out past a certain level. The pipe on the bottom is a 4 way T that has vents cut into it to keep fish from entering, and to spread out the area of available suction and help prevent dead spots.\nO. Fish tanks. IBC containers, food grade 275 gallon each. More water means a more stable system from temperature chagnes, PH, etc. I’m also able to hold about 1 fish for every 2 gallons safely. I have chosen 2 tanks because a large one is 2x as expensive, but also because I can sort my stock. One tank could have full grown adults, ready to be harvested, and another tank could have smaller fish that might get eaten by the larger ones. I could also put a stack of pipes in and have 3 or 4 breeders for this tank. In addition, this design is highly modular. You can just keep adding tanks, growbeds (and eventually more sump space) as needed.\nP. Hot water return. Hot water is expensive. This is fed from the solar heater array above. A clear section allows me to make sure it’s flowing, and not stagnant up top.\nQ. Venturi snakes. This is my design/idea. I will inject air (via gravity) at the top and use a flexible hose at the bottom with a sprayer head. This should move around randomly in the tank disturbing the bottom and not allowing dead spots while at the same time aerating the entire tank. This would not be necessary if I had cone bottom tanks, but those cost about $400 -$700 each and IBC tanks are only $120 each, delivered. The pressure is regulated from the sump backpressure valve (C). I can control how fast water flows into the entire growbed system by adjusting (C), and I can individually control turbulence in each tank with (Q and R). Different aquaculture likes different amounts of water running through it.\nR. Backup Aerator. In the event that my sump pump dies, the grow beds will drain and it will fill up. Plants are fine for a few days without water flowing, unless it’s 115F outside. However, fish will die within hours without aeration at any temp because of how dense the fish population will be. And within days or several hours without filtration of the ammonia. I’m not able to filter ammonia out, but I can purge as much solids as possible still because this pump moves things through the swirl filter and sand filter. Also, the down spouts will be under pressure as nozzles that spray into tank, or as venturi aerators. This gives me a chance to swap pumps in case of a single pump failure with much less danger to fish. Because it’s pumping mostly clean water (swirl filter + sand filter), this pump should require very little maintenance. Stopping one of the pumps for any reason (maintenance or emergency), still aerates the water.\nGreenhouse\r#\rEverything is up on cinder blocks and 2×4 as needed to get the proper height. It will go inside of a greenhouse/shadehouse to regulate temperature and protect against pests (neighbors or cats have been getting trash into my yard, specifically in the aquaponics).\nThe greenhouse/shadehouse is designed to have clear plastic or shadecloth as needed, and a slightly raised gravel floor from the several tons of river rock I purchased for the front yard. We built it out of aluminum pipes lashed together and then anchored to a brick wall on one side and the ground on the other.\nCare has to be taken that a hot day doesn’t suprise us and cook everything inside.\nWater Cooling Methods\r#\rIf needed, I could cool the water by pumping it down underground instead of above ground (thank you for the idea Mike).\nA less labor intensive way that will work for me though is probably to keep the water shaded and insulated, and to spray the water into the air back into the sump for evaporative cooling. This evaporative cooling will cost quite a bit of water though, so if it was extremely hot for extended periods of time, the underground heat sink would be a perfect solution worth the effort. I haven’t researched it, but I imagine an array like the solar heater, but angled so hot water goes into the top and cold water flows down the sump would be what I want. Perhaps something simple like a snake back and forth through the earth would work too – I would just have to be careful of pipe resistance and make sure drain beds could drain fast enough.\nPricing\r#\rI suspect the entire system will be less than $2500 considering all parts, and the hired labor that I had help me build the greenhouse. I also think it will cut our grocery bill down to $100 a month total for electricity, stuff we can’t grow, and maintenance. In addition, it’s 100% organic, fresh, and healthy. I eventually want to sell the fish too for income and the entire project is a “business” so it will be a tax write off until it makes a profit. I found I out I need special permits to legally eat fish that I raise for myself (go figure). Here is a list of some of the components:\n$250 – 150 Tilapia fingerlings + Overnight shipping $360 – 3x Food Grade IBC tanks. 275 Gallon each, 250 gallon usuable. $300 – Sump Pump, 2000 GPH, 22′ lift, 1.5 amps $50 – Sump shut off switch $150 – estimate on PVC parts, gaskets, valves and glue where needed $150 – solar water heater parts, boards, pipes, glue, special caulk, glass $250 – Greenhouse parts, shadecloth, clear vinyl tarp $40 – Cinderblocks, Misc Lumber $160 – Firestone EPDM Pond Liner 45 Mil – 10 x 10 Feet $200 – Lumber for grow beds $20 – 55 gallon food grade barrel $35 – secondary pump $25 – pH, Ammonia, Nitrate Test Kits $100 – estimate on gravel $20 – clear vinyl tubing $250 – Labor to dig sump, posts, help build greenhouse $150 – Starter plants, seeds, seaweed extract, spray bottles, etc $??? – Government meddling, or right to exist taxes (licenses, fees, etc to eat tilapia) That comes out to $2460 approximately before licenses.\nAdditional Things I’d Like….\r#\r$300 – Backup, hot standby, Sump pump like first one $35 – backup, hot standby, Aerator pump like first one $750 – Off Grid Solar Array (2 panels, inverter, regulator, battery bank for overnight use) $150 – other aquaculture $200 – plants instead of seeds $350 – Backup generator and a week’s fuel … just in case The efficient aquafarmer could spend another $1750 on things to prevent disasters and speed things along/add variety of crop. I bought the backup pump, and am investigating batteries and a hot standby switch, but solar is so expensive and it’s only for if zombies attack so I can’t really justify it.\nMaintenance Costs\r#\rAs Needed – Estimate 1-4 days, purge swirl filter As Needed – trade or sell fish/veggies Daily – monitor water levels and temperature Daily – check plants for harvest, pests, health Daily – monitor fish while feeding, look for spots, damage, odd behavior, deaths Weekly – top off evaporated water ($5/month) Weekly – pH, Ammonia, Nitrate tests… as needed (10 minutes) Weekly – Sort stock by size, verify density Monthly – clean filters (20 minutes) Monthly – monitor and plan for upcoming crops based on weather changes (1-3 hours) Monthly – Water bill ($4-$5) Monthly – Electricity bill ($8 monthly, .95A/105W pump @ 10.5 per Kw/H 24×7) As Needed – Fish food can be grown, free, or purchased Space Used\r#\rIt all fits in a 6′ by 30′ space as designed, which is enough for just about any backyard in the US. I can fit 3 of these and still have a backyard – and I have a pretty small back yard.\nChickens and Rabbits\r#\rI also plan to have chickens (for eggs) and rabbits (for meat and to sell) inside this system. Their waste will drop into the tank and be processed just like the fish waste. This will add a variety of nutrients and minerals as the bacteria breaks it down and make clean up of the animals much easier while providing additional protein choices – that is still a way off though. I also need more planning, and probably more filtration (a second system). I’ll have to be careful to wash greens first if I do this.\nProgress Pictures (updated frequently)\r#\rThis is a 80″ by 30′ section.\nWe used 42 EMT 1/2″ conduit pipes to build the framework, 15 wall connectors and 15 female to female pipe connectors. The ends used a treated 4×4. Total cost in parts was about $120, but I paid someone $150 to put it together, so $270. The shade cloth is about $50, and the clear tarp for the winter was about $80. A small 8’x10′ greenhouse from harbor freight is almost $750 so this is a good savings I think, and much more versatile.\nThe river rock is left over and costs about $32 a ton. The pest guy happened to spray this part of my pile of river rock, so it became flooring instead. I have several more tons, but it still irritated me. You can see where the two IBC tanks will go. The current IBC will become a sump.\nWe used some of the plywood trimmings to make spacers. 2″x4″ @12′ are much cheaper than buying 12′ 4x4s I feel confident this can hold the weight of the grow beds. I might of been better to put the cross braces 16″ instead of 24″, we’ll see. I messed up a bit though and did things out of order. It would of been better to put the cross braces in first, then the spacers and second 2×4. We had to toenail them in instead of come in through the ends.\nWe put the 5/8 plywood down (again maybe 3/4 is needed?), then we built the side walls. I could of saved some money by getting scraps and cut offs from lowes/home depot, but I didn’t think of that until too late. Also, I could of saved a few dollars by using 92″ studs instead of 96″ as the cuts worked out to waste 4″. Each of the pieces is 9″, so it would of fit perfection to cut 10 of them out of a 92″ stud.\nSide view of the grow bed.\nJustin asked me if he could dig a hole when I told him I was going to hire someone to do it. He got about half way down into the clay but his hands got blisters (through the gloves), so I made him stop. He helped me with all of the other assembly, measuring, cutting, etc. We had fun, I think lol.\nFinished grow bed, before it is placed on the 4×4 posts. The posts will go every 2 feet and raise the grow bed about 28″ off of the ground. The 2x4s on top are to keep the sides from flexing outwards from the weight of the grow media and water.\nIt took about a day to measure, cut, assemble 1 complete grow bed, and measure and cut the parts for the other grow bed. I think it will take about 4 hours or so to assemble it, but I’ll save that for next week.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-systems/500-gallon-aquaponics-system/","section":"Aquaponics Systems","summary":"These are the plans and design for the 4th version of the aquaponics system that we’ve made. It’s amazing how much is learned by simply creating aquaponics systems and testing them out.\n","title":"500 Gallon Aquaponics System","type":"aquaponics-systems"},{"content":"I do not like how this particular aquaponics system turned out, but it was one of my first and I learned many things from it. One of those things was how to build an autosiphon.\nAs water fills up about 2 or 3 inches past the top of the pipe bends, air pressure from above forces water into the pipes which starts the siphon. It flows pretty quickly until suction breaks on the bottom, then it back washes a small bit and refills.\nThe entire cycle on this system is about 25 minutes. I can adjust how much water, and how often it flows by raising the height of the bends and by adjusting how much water flows in.\nThis small system floods 4 grow beds below, and I actually need to lower it a bit as the grow beds don’t drain as fast as I’d like. I’m focusing on other systems now though, and will rebuild this one when time permits.\nAnyway, this isn’t a pro design, but I wanted to offer this in case it helps someone else. It is 100% reliable and requires zero maintenance.\nThe top is covered to prevent algae, which could clog up the system and rob nutrients.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/timers-and-autosiphons/alternative-autosiphon-design/","section":"Timers And Autosiphons","summary":"I do not like how this particular aquaponics system turned out, but it was one of my first and I learned many things from it. One of those things was how to build an autosiphon.\n","title":"Alternative Autosiphon Design","type":"timers-and-autosiphons"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-basics/","section":"Aquaponics Basics","summary":"","title":"Aquaponics Basics","type":"aquaponics-basics"},{"content":"\rGrowing Vegetables in Dirt\r#\rTraditional dirt farming requires nutrients in the soil either added, existing or naturally renewed (river floods, composting, rain run offs, etc). It usually requires considerable space, and considerable water and a LOT of work. You have to fight with nature often times to produce consistent crops. Basically this is hard work and requires knowledge, luck and patience that I simply don’t have.\nUsing Hydroponics to Grow Vegetables\r#\rI started learning about hydroponics, but thought it was a gimmick. Plants grow in containers that have recirculated water. Nutrients are added and when toxic chemicals build up, you dump the waste water. If you aren’t a chemist, or daydream about being a chemist, hydroponics is probably not for you. There is a certain science and exactness to hydroponics and if you are not on your game, food will taste synthetic. Your food has these types of tastes, because the chemicals you add are all synthetic. There is no natural process involving microbes, bacteria or all the wicked coolness that comes with dirt farming and aquaponics farming (nature). You are basically giving specific chemicals to plants to force them to fruit, flower and grow. This was definitely not in line with my way of thinking. The waste of toxic sludge is not organic or eco-friendly at all. And the idea of eating chemicals from a bottle makes me a bit sick.\nWhat is Aquaponics?\r#\rWhat if we could grow plants but use them to do a task, like clean up waste from another system consisting of fish? We could eat the fish and the plants and there was never waste. It would be completely organic, and nutritious without all the traditional dirt farming intensive labor or lack of control. Wait! We can! It’s called aquaponics.\nIn aquaponics fish and plants are harvested together in a symbiotic way much like an entire eco system, but smaller. There is no waste, and it uses 90% less water than traditional dirt farming. There are some chemicals, but only if a system is not balanced (chelated iron, Epsom salts, vinegar). These are much more natural than the highly toxic gunk that hydroponics uses.\nPest control must be done using companion planting, natural enzymes from healthy plants, and organic extracts like neem oil, garlic spray, etc. If organic methods are not used, the fish suffer and will die.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-basics/aquaponics-basics/","section":"Aquaponics Basics","summary":"Growing Vegetables in Dirt\r#\rTraditional dirt farming requires nutrients in the soil either added, existing or naturally renewed (river floods, composting, rain run offs, etc). It usually requires considerable space, and considerable water and a LOT of work. You have to fight with nature often times to produce consistent crops. Basically this is hard work and requires knowledge, luck and patience that I simply don’t have.\n","title":"Aquaponics Basics","type":"aquaponics-basics"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-calculations/","section":"Aquaponics Calculations","summary":"","title":"Aquaponics Calculations","type":"aquaponics-calculations"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-construction-tips/","section":"Aquaponics Construction Tips","summary":"","title":"Aquaponics Construction Tips","type":"aquaponics-construction-tips"},{"content":"How much does your aquaponics system cost to operate? We can figure out the basic electricity costs by using the following simple formula:\nFirst, you have to figure out how many watts your pumps are using, then you can enter it into the following formula to figure out how much your electricity costs are (approximately):\n=(Wattage*Hours*Days)*KWH\nWatts (vA) Hours Days KWh Cost (cents) $ Yearly Energy Cost $ Monthly Energy Cost |\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-calculations/aquaponics-energy-costs/","section":"Aquaponics Calculations","summary":"How much does your aquaponics system cost to operate? We can figure out the basic electricity costs by using the following simple formula:\nFirst, you have to figure out how many watts your pumps are using, then you can enter it into the following formula to figure out how much your electricity costs are (approximately):\n","title":"Aquaponics Energy Costs","type":"aquaponics-calculations"},{"content":"Anything that lives in the water, which is generally fish but could be prawn, crabs, turtles etc.\nIn typical aquaculture, large volumes of waste water are produced and only the animal is harvested for its meat.\nIn aquaponics, the waste of the animal is fuel for the other parts of the system, feeding the plants. There is no waste water, only evaporation.\nIn aquaponics, we want to use the animal waste and it needs to be safe to put directly on crops. For this reason we will use only freshwater fish, prawn or crayfish as they are cold blooded, and thus don’t have the same types of parasites and bacteria that can infect humans.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-vocabulary/aquaponics-glossary-aquaculture/","section":"Aquaponics Vocabulary","summary":"Anything that lives in the water, which is generally fish but could be prawn, crabs, turtles etc.\nIn typical aquaculture, large volumes of waste water are produced and only the animal is harvested for its meat.\n","title":"Aquaponics Glossary: Aquaculture","type":"aquaponics-vocabulary"},{"content":"\rAquaponics System\r#\rAny series of containers that allows aquaculture (like fish or crawfish) and hydroculture (plants), usually in a low maintenance configuration is considered an AP system. Systems can range from small 10 gallon systems that use upside down soda bottles to grow the plants, to mid-sized bathtubs, jacuzzis, trash cans, 55 gallon barrel drums or IBC as both grow bed and fish tank. Larger commercial systems use a variety of parts, or are custom built, or use very large stock tanks. Any combination of these parts constitutes an aquaponics system.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-vocabulary/aquaponics-glossary-aquaponics-system/","section":"Aquaponics Vocabulary","summary":"Aquaponics System\r#\rAny series of containers that allows aquaculture (like fish or crawfish) and hydroculture (plants), usually in a low maintenance configuration is considered an AP system. Systems can range from small 10 gallon systems that use upside down soda bottles to grow the plants, to mid-sized bathtubs, jacuzzis, trash cans, 55 gallon barrel drums or IBC as both grow bed and fish tank. Larger commercial systems use a variety of parts, or are custom built, or use very large stock tanks. Any combination of these parts constitutes an aquaponics system.\n","title":"Aquaponics Glossary: Aquaponics System","type":"aquaponics-vocabulary"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-laws/","section":"Aquaponics Laws","summary":"","title":"Aquaponics Laws","type":"aquaponics-laws"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"","title":"Aquaponics Plants","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-pumps/","section":"Aquaponics Pumps","summary":"","title":"Aquaponics Pumps","type":"aquaponics-pumps"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-systems/","section":"Aquaponics Systems","summary":"","title":"Aquaponics Systems","type":"aquaponics-systems"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-vocabulary/","section":"Aquaponics Vocabulary","summary":"","title":"Aquaponics Vocabulary","type":"aquaponics-vocabulary"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/recipes/bananas/","section":"Recipes","summary":"","title":"Bananas","type":"recipes"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-systems/barrel-aquaponics/","section":"Aquaponics Systems","summary":"","title":"Barrel Aquaponics","type":"aquaponics-systems"},{"content":"For most people, they just buy a pump that matches their pumping requirements and go from there. There is no need to calculate how many watts, Amp Hours, or other information about the pump. \u0026lt; br/\u0026gt;\nAirlifts use much less power!\r#\rFor small systems, a small pump is probably much easier. However, when you need to move 500+ gallons per hour, the pumps have increasing power requirements that make solar and off grid living expensive. The air lift however uses sometimes as much as 1/4 of the power that a traditional pump uses, and it also oxygenates the water at the same time.\nA 25W air lift pump designed around a geyser system that burps bubbles to lift water can move about 500 gallons per hour, and can lift it several feet. It would require almost 100 watts to move 500 gallons per hour with a regular pump and once you try to lift the water beyond 3 feet, power nearly doubles again!\nRead our articles on air lift tests and see which one will fit your system if power is a concern for you. In a one year period, the air lift/geyser type pumps will actually pay for the cost of a whole new pump in electricity savings too, so it’s a no brainer that you should be using air lifts or geyser pumps to move water, not traditional pond pumps.\nWhen using air pumps to move water in very large commercial systems, a single compressor can pump through multiple tanks, so the savings in hardware is realized that much faster.\nSample Watt/Amp Usage for Common Pumps\r#\rDescription LPM Estimated GPH @ 3′ Watts Amps Pentair AIR 9720 25.49 323 20 .18 Danner AIR 4520 27.86 350 20 .18 Pondmaster 250 – 200 24 .22 Pondmaster 500 – 400 45 .41 Pondmaster 950 – 760 93 .85 Calculate Watts, Amps, Volts\r#\rIf you are designing a system for off grid, or planning a battery backup solution, you need to know exactly what the power draw on the pump is. This calculator will give you estimates to assist with your power backup planning and show you the value of using one pump over another.\nFirst, we need to get the power factor of the ac circuit you are working with. The instant PF for an AC circuit is the same as a DC circuit (P=VI), but for AC it is measured in rms as an average. Think of power factor as electricity lag. Usually, for a home user the PF will be 1, but if you have an industrial complex the power factor can be significantly different. Lagging power factor means the current lags the voltage, much like an inductor. Often large motors and industrial complexes use capacitors to correct the power factor.\nWhy is PF so important?\r#\rFor the hobbyist that has a small aquaponics pump, it’s not important. Just use 1 as the power factor. However, if your power factor is lower, the math changes and you pull more amps than is necessary, thus draining batteries faster and possibly burning up circuits or kicking circuit breakers.\nHow to Calculate Power Factor\r#\rPower factor can also be calcuated as: PF = True Power / Apparent Power, or PF = Watts/Volt Amps. There is quite a bit more physics and high level math involved, but for the hobbyist, this is as far as you need to go probably, or just use “1” if you are not sure. If you are calculating DC circuits, always use “1” for Power Factor.\nBattery Information\r#\rWe’ll assume that power calculations are important because you are planning an off-grid aquaponics system and need to know how much battery backup is required to last over night, or over a few cloudy days. First, let’s learn about amp hours:\nAmp Hours\r#\rBatteries are rated in Amp Hours (Ah), and a battery will run depending on how many amps are dran out of that Amp Hour Pool. A typical computer UPS battery is a 7 to 9 Ah lead acid battery. A typical solar battery backup is a sealed gel deep cycle battery with a rating of anywhere from 75Ah to 200Ah or more.\nSo the simple math goes something like this:\nYou are pulling 1 Amp per hour, the battery has a 200 Amp Hour rating… you can pull up to 200 hours until the battery is dead.\nHow to Ruin Your Battery Backup\r#\rIf you do drain a battery down to nothing, it’s ruined. Instead, you plan for only 50% draw. So a 200 Amp Hour Battery might give up to 100 hours at 1 amp draw theoretically.\nTheoretically?\r#\rHowever, if you try to pull 100 amps from the battery in a shorter time than 100 hours, it will give you significantly less run time. As batteries heat up, they do not function as well (also if they are too cold). With this in mind, it’s best to design a small load on a large battery bank and leave 50% unused at all times.\nDeep Cycle Batteries\r#\rFurthermore – regular lead acid batteries are not designed to drain down very much at all, and if you try to drain them down to 50% or less, you will destroy the battery making future recharges impossible. AGM and sealed gel deep cycle batteries are designed to take this type of discharge though so you should use a “deep cycle battery” in your battery backup solution.\nOngoing Costs of Battery Backup\r#\rCurrently, a 200 Ah battery lasts 5-7 years if properly used, and cost about $350. This expense adds up extremely quickly! There are more expensive batteries that last up to 15 years, but you’ll pay the same as buying a few of the cheap ones. This entire section has been devoted to showing the importance of using the smallest pump required to do the job and why alternatives like airlifts are so awesome.\nWhat about Solar Panels?\r#\rBecause we’ve already done the math for everything else… it’s only a few more calcuations to add solar estimates on. First, you need to know how many hours per day of sun you get (refer to the map):\nNext, winter sun can be as little as 50% of what the full daylight sun is for your area, so if you want to run solar in the winter, only count for 50% of your total average sun hours to make sure you have enough.\nNow, we need to know how much power to put into the battery bank each day to make sure it can be recharged each day. Basically this is twice as much power as the system consumes with about 25% room for various losses.\nElectrical Formula to Get Watts, Amps or Volts\r#\rAmps = Watts/Volts For example 12 watts/12 volts = 1 amp Watts = Amps x Volts For example 1 amp * 110 volts = 110 watts Volts = Watts/Amps For example 100 watts/10 amps = 10 volts\n### AC Power Calculator Enter any two values and press calculate to get the remaining value: Power Factor (DC and non industrial use “1”) Volts Watts (vA) Amps\nBattery Bank Calculations\r#\rDays on Battery Power Amp Hour Rating on Battery Single Battery Cost\nSolar Panels\r#\rAverage WINTER full sunlight hours Watts produced by each Solar Panel The map below will show you approximate hours. Remember though that this is average over the whole year, and we need to make sure we have enough power during the winter, so if I’m in dallas texas with about 4.8 hours per day average – I will input 2.4 to account for winter. During the summer I’ll produce far more than I need, but I’ll have enough for the winter. An alternative is to run your pumps on timers during the winter and purchase less panels. I would recommend just getting the panels though! During the summer you could probably run a swamp cooler or window unit for free off of the excess power produced and still have more than enough left over.\nCalculation Results\r#\rTotal Watts Required for 1 day Total Amp Hours Required for 1 day Twice as much required to keep above 50% Battery Reaction Loss (10 percent estimate unless batteries are not kept between 35F and 90F, more outside of these ranges) Inverter Loss (30 percent estimate, inefficiency of converting from DC to AC) Total Battery Storage Required for all days combined Batteries required to store this amount of energy Total Battery Cost!\nOff Grid Cost Estimation\r#\rBased on the data you’ve entered, here is what you’ll probably spend if you get the parts for a solar system that meets the above requirements: Solar Panels ($150 each) 300W Inverter (Quality costs about $130, cheap is about $30) Charge Controller ($30 to $50) Battery Shelf ($50~) Battery Bank ($350 per battery) Solar Panel Mounting Kit ($100~) Solar Wires ($25~) Grand Total for Off Grid |\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-calculations/battery-and-solar-calculations-for-aquaponics/","section":"Aquaponics Calculations","summary":"For most people, they just buy a pump that matches their pumping requirements and go from there. There is no need to calculate how many watts, Amp Hours, or other information about the pump. \u003c br/\u003e\n","title":"Battery and Solar Calculations for Aquaponics","type":"aquaponics-calculations"},{"content":"\rBSFL (Black Soldier Fly Larvae)\r#\rThe maggots of this fly compost organic waste without odor or disease transmission. The pupae self-harvest by crawling to a high point and dropping into a collection container. The BSF larvae have excellent nutrient benefits and add many macro and micro nutrients that cannot be added any other way. A small 5 gallon bucket can produce several thousand BSF larvae a season and get rid of organic waste as the same time. BSF odors, which are not repulsive to humans, are repulsive to the common black house fly. Not to mention that they simply grow out of food scraps you would normally throw away. The larvae can also be frozen and fed to fish when it’s cooler, and there are no flies composting, or you could overwinter your colony and keep them warm enough to keep going all year round.\nDIY Homemade BSFL composter\r#\rOn the Blacksoldierflyblog.com a guy gives away plans for a very effective BSFL compost bin. I would like to give credit where it’s due, and I have not built one of these yet so please read the instructions on how to make your own BSFL composter.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-vocabulary/black-soldier-fly-larvae/","section":"Aquaponics Vocabulary","summary":"BSFL (Black Soldier Fly Larvae)\r#\rThe maggots of this fly compost organic waste without odor or disease transmission. The pupae self-harvest by crawling to a high point and dropping into a collection container. The BSF larvae have excellent nutrient benefits and add many macro and micro nutrients that cannot be added any other way. A small 5 gallon bucket can produce several thousand BSF larvae a season and get rid of organic waste as the same time. BSF odors, which are not repulsive to humans, are repulsive to the common black house fly. Not to mention that they simply grow out of food scraps you would normally throw away. The larvae can also be frozen and fed to fish when it’s cooler, and there are no flies composting, or you could overwinter your colony and keep them warm enough to keep going all year round.\n","title":"Black Soldier Fly Larvae","type":"aquaponics-vocabulary"},{"content":"\rNotes on Calcium Deficiency in Plants\nCalcium is a macronutient.\nSymptoms: Hook Shapes on new leaves, or distorted leaves/fruits. Growing tip may die, especially on cabbage. Blossom end rot in tomatoes. shriveled fruit. Sources: Calcium Nitrate 19% calcium, 15% nitrate from greenhouse supplier Notes: Can inhibit other nutrients. Generally not toxic to fish.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/plant-nutrient-deficiency/calcium-deficiency-in-plants/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"\rNotes on Calcium Deficiency in Plants\nCalcium is a macronutient.\nSymptoms: Hook Shapes on new leaves, or distorted leaves/fruits. Growing tip may die, especially on cabbage. Blossom end rot in tomatoes. shriveled fruit. Sources: Calcium Nitrate 19% calcium, 15% nitrate from greenhouse supplier Notes: Can inhibit other nutrients. Generally not toxic to fish.\n","title":"Calcium Deficiency in Plants","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"Channel Catfish, or channel cats, or their scientific name: Ictalurus Punctatus are used in traditional aquaculture throughout the midwest. Catfish are also part of many stocking programs and pay to fish lake programs so there are numerous case studies and research available. This article will focus on how and why to raise and breed the best tasting catfish in aquaponics.\nPhoto Courtsey of FWS.gov\nAppearance of Channel Catfish\r#\rCatfish change color depending on their age, and the type of water where they live. Older males are generally darker and no longer have spots. Catfish from muddy water have a yellowish tint, and catfish from clear water have a dark almost blue appearance. Albino catfish are uncommon but not rare. Channel catfish have a rounded anal fin with 24 to 29 rays. They also have a deeper fork in the tail than other types of catfish, but without side by side comparison this is hard to see.\nWhy Use Channel Catfish for Aquaponics\r#\rCatfish are hardy fish Catfish can take extreme temperatures Catfish are easy to feed being omnivorous, and with commercial feed readily available Catfish co-exist well with bluegill and sunfish Catfish is a familiar fish that many people are happy to eat In aquaculture they can take extremely high stocking density Disadvantages to Catfish\r#\rThere is only one disadvantage to using catfish in aquaculture and that is their relatively slow growth rates compared to tilapia. However, catfish can live in environments that tilapia cannot, as they are a native fish to many regions of the US and Canada.\nAnother thing to be careful of when handling catfish are the three spikes they have. The Dorsal fin (on their back), and their two pectoral fins each have a single, large, sharp spike that is actually connected to a venom gland. This venom is not enough to kill a human, but it is painful. Anyway, it hurts to have a huge spike jammed through any part of your body as the fish is thrashing around. A hammer to the back of the head on a hard surface is recommended when processing the fish, and even then, be careful of partially functioning nervous systems up to several hours after they stop moving. Handle catfish carefully. To stun them you can also drop them in a bucket of ice water as the shock will make them immobile enough to handle for processing (in case you don’t like the hammer method, which is admittedly a bit gruesome).\nEnvironment Required for Raising Channel Catfish\r#\rDissolved Oxygen (DO) Less than 1 ppm is lethal. Between 4 and 5 ppm is ideal. Growth slows below 4ppm. In a dense tank you might need aeration at night because the plants will absorb oxygen from the water and choke the fish. Higher temperatures also do not hold as much Dissolved Oxygen (DO) as colder water, so extra aeration when water temperatures go above 85F won’t hurt. When fish feed, they exert themselves in a frenzy, reducing oxygen too. If you notice your fish gasping at the surface, you have DO problems! pH Ideal pH is 7.0 with the range of 6.0 to 9.0 acceptable. Measure pH weekly and adjust slowly, no more than .2 per day. Do not use pet store pH adjusters in aquaponics! Use vinegar and boiled clam shells in a stocking to lower or raise pH. Temperature Catfish can live in waters 35F to 95F, but these are not ideal and will cause stress on the fish at these extremes. Ideal temp is about 80F with the range of 65F to 90F pleasant and healthy for the fish. Colder temperatures slow metabolism, growth food consumption and thus nitrate output, so warmer fish will mean more growth for your plants and fish. With that said, catfish are great because in most climates they do not need a green house to survive (though that will be ideal).\nStocking Density\r#\rOne pound of adult fish per gallon of water is the maximum recommended by the studies referenced. I would strongly suggest that you plan on 3 to 5 gallons of water per fish though to give them more available oxygen and reduce stress. You still need the standard 1sqf of grow-bed per pound of fish too. As a system ages and has a stronger bacteria culture with heavy feeding plants, you can go a little bit beyond the 1lb per 1sqf rule, but for the first year stick with 1lb to 1sqf of grow space.\nHere are some examples in typical containers and setups of using catfish for aquaponics:\n55 Gallon Barrel 6lbs of fish suggested, using 2 barrel halves as the grow bed (about 6 sqf). The grow bed space is the limiting the factor, not the tank. You will need at least a 75 gph pump at 3 feet head height. Fish growth may be limited because of the size of the container. 275 Gallon IBC Using 200 gallons for the tank and 75 gallons for the grow-bed by cutting the IBC provides about 12 sqf of grow space. 15 lbs of fish is suggested. If you triple the grow bed space, you can easily hold 40 lbs of fish in the 200 gallon tank because now you’ll have 36 sqf of grow space. You’ll need at least a 250 gph pump at 3 foot head height. 275 Gallon IBC with Sump Assuming you build out 2 grow beds for a total of 64 sqf, and are using a 275 gallon tank with at least a 200 gallon sump, you should be able to hold 75 to 90 lbs of fish in a mature system. You’ll need a 500 gph pump (at 3 foot head height). Adding a 3rd grow bed would be safer and is recommended (total 96 sqf)\nGrowth Rates of Channel Catfish in Aquaponics\r#\rMost fish take about 2 years to mature to plate size (1.5 lbs), and catfish grow slightly faster in the first few years than as they get older. A channel cat allowed to reach maximum size could get up to 40-50lbs in ideal conditions. Ideal conditions for catfish growth are regular, consistent feeding and temperatures between 50F and 90F, however fastest growth is at 85F. Every 18F away from 85F halves the catfish’s metabolism, thus slowing their growth and eating requirements.\nThere is a formula for estimating a fishes weight in proportion to their weight, but I will give some typical examples instead:\nMonths Weight Inches 12 1lb 14 18 1.5lb 15.5 24 2lb 17 ?? 4lb 20.5 Most commercial catfish are harvested at 18 months.\nFeeding Catfish\r#\rCatfish are omnivorous and will eat just about anything that fits into their mouth. However, rancid commercial pellets, or rotten carcasses and certain types of algae will give them a muddy taste. If your water stinks, your catfish meat is going to taste muddy too.\nIn the winter they won’t eat much or at all, and in the spring and and fall they’ll have a hearty appetite, especially for other fish or crawfish depending on their size. In the warmest parts of summer they tend to eat more algae and moss.\nCatfish naturally eat all types of other insects, fish, frogs, clams, crustaceans, birds, and even small mammals and algae. After they reach 18 inches, it is estimated that 75% of their natural diet is other fish. In aquaculture system they are fed a floating 32% protein pellet as they will consume in 20 to 25 minutes. To maximize profits on commercial systems, food is carefully measured, controlled and adjusted once per week. Commercial catfish aquaculture uses the following guidelines, which are a good start for smaller backyard aquaponics system too:\nTemp F Feeding adjusted to weight of fish \u0026lt;39F Do not feed if there is ice on the surface. 50-60F 1/2% to 1% daily 60-70F 2% daily 70-90F 3% daily 90-95F 1/2% to 1% daily \u0026gt;95 do not feed If water temperatures exceed 90F you should prepare ways in advance on how to cool the water and provide additional oxygenation. The two easiest ways to lower temperatures are:\nFreeze jugs of water and float them daily to lower a small tank Aerate the water with a fountain to increase evaporation The bad thing about commercial fish food is what it is made from. Most commercial fish feed are made from non renewable sources, notably sea fish. Some commercial fish feeds are made from sick slaughterhouse animals, unfit for consumption. You may want to grow your own crickets, roaches, worms, meal worms, super worms, and/or black soldier fly larvae. All of these home grown colonies of insects and larvae are excellent food sources with the perfect mix of nutrients, fats and proteins. Most of them grow from very cheap base or from food scraps. Commercial feed is definitely easier but it may not provide the additional macro and micro nutrients that plants need. For example crickets and other shelled insects contain phosphorous naturally. Even if you are not able to feed your fish a natural diet like this, you can easily supplement the commercial feed with these types of home grown feeds to increase the health of your fish, your plants, and ultimately you. You’ll also be doing the environment a favor by not consuming sea fish (an already depleted resource), and by limiting your waste through composting.\nBe careful of commercial feed pellets stored longer than 90 days or in high temperatures. The oils will break down causing it to go rancid, and affecting the flavor and nutrient value of your fish.\nAn interesting fact about catfish is how they sense food. Their entire body is a taste bud, with most receptors concentrated on their whiskers. They can detect minute traces of amino acids and odors in the water and this allows them to identify each other by pheromones. In the wild catfish are often caught with bait that stinks such as: wd-40, ivory soap, chick livers, marshmallows, ‘stink bait’, and live fish.\nBreeding Catfish\r#\rCatfish can breed when they are about 2 to 5 years old, but usually by age 3. A female spawns once per year and lays an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 eggs per pound. The male will prepare a quiet place in a crevice or under a log out of the currents and fan out all of the debris he can. The female lays eggs and then leaves. The male guards the nest and fans oxygenated water on them until the fry hatch. Males can spawn several times per year if the eggs are removed.\nYou would need to isolate a breeding pair away from other fish or the male will be too busy guarding the nest to actually fertilize and care for the fry. Catfish will also prefer low turbulence and slow moving current for their spawning. Temperatures are optimal at 80F but they will spawn between 75F and 85F. It’s possible to spawn as low a 65F, but many of the eggs will not hatch.\nAt 78F eggs spawn in about 8 days. Temperatures up or down by 2F add 1 day to the spawning process. Fry have a yolk sac that nourishes them for the first 5 days, and then they’ll begin eating small insects and other types of food. For the breeder, wingless fruit flies are a good option, or smaller floating commercial pellets. Fry will gulp air to maintain buoyancy.\nThe male will guard his nest by changing colors momentarily to alert other fish, and by making clicking/grating sounds that reverberate off of his swim bladder. All catfish can detect and recognize individual pheromones, and these are used to alert danger, warnings, etc.\nMost of the stocking fish that are sold are about 45 grams and growth rates are based on having these fingerlings available at the beginning of the two growth seasons (Apr to Oct growth or Oct to Sept growth) for financial reasons. In aquaponics for self sufficiency – we need to plan the harvest of the fish to coincide with the cost and ability to feed them.\nDon’t forget that you need a special license from your state to transport or sell live fish!\nReferences\r#\rThe following sites and studies provided bits and pieces of my research, many of them having overlapping information:\nhttp://www.fishbase.org/summary/Ictalurus-punctatus.html http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/118/channel-catfish-life-history-and-biology https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/CategoryDetails/whichcategory/3/ http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodScienceResearch/RFE/ucm079751.htm https://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/regulations/outdoor-annual/fishing/freshwater-fishing/catfish-identification http://www.aa-fishing.com/az/arizona-catfish-fishing.html http://www.fws.gov/refuges/FishingGuide/species_catfish.html All information was taken in January of 2014.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/fish/channel-catfish-for-aquaponics/","section":"Fish","summary":"Channel Catfish, or channel cats, or their scientific name: Ictalurus Punctatus are used in traditional aquaculture throughout the midwest. Catfish are also part of many stocking programs and pay to fish lake programs so there are numerous case studies and research available. This article will focus on how and why to raise and breed the best tasting catfish in aquaponics.\n","title":"Channel Catfish for Aquaponics","type":"fish"},{"content":"For my own reference, here is a delicious granola type bar made from bananas, nuts and cranberries.\nI went to a class at Gardenpool.org about bananas and they let us try these chewy banana bars. I am impressed. They were easily as good as any cookie I can remember, and far healthier.\nBanana Bars Recipe\r#\r2 Large Bananas 1/4 Cup Dried Cranberries 1/4 Cup Sliced Almonds 1/2 teaspoon of Cinnamon 1 Teaspoon Vanilla 2 Cups Rolled Oats Directions for 8 Servings\r#\rPeel the bananas and mash in a bowl until no chunks remain Sir in the cinnamon, vanilla and oats Mix in Cranberries and almonds. Spread evenly into 9×9-inch square baking pan. Heat oven to 350F (Perfect solar oven temp) Lightly grease a dish with olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes Cool to room temperature and serve as squares ","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/recipes/bananas/chewy-banana-bars-recipe/","section":"Recipes","summary":"For my own reference, here is a delicious granola type bar made from bananas, nuts and cranberries.\nI went to a class at Gardenpool.org about bananas and they let us try these chewy banana bars. I am impressed. They were easily as good as any cookie I can remember, and far healthier.\n","title":"Chewy Banana Bars Recipe","type":"recipes"},{"content":"People all over the world are learning about, experimenting with and building aquaponics systems. I’ve read articles that were listed as inches and millimeters for pipe fittings. This is probably a good conversion to have available.\nInches Millimeters 1/4″ 6.35 3/8″ 9.525 1/2″ 12.7 5/8″ 15.875 3/4″ 19.05 1″ 25.4 1.5″ 38.1 2″ 50.8 2.5″ 63.5 3″ 76.2 4.3″ 110 12″ 304.8 ","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-calculations/common-inches-and-millimeter-conversions/","section":"Aquaponics Calculations","summary":"People all over the world are learning about, experimenting with and building aquaponics systems. I’ve read articles that were listed as inches and millimeters for pipe fittings. This is probably a good conversion to have available.\n","title":"Common Inches and Millimeter Conversions","type":"aquaponics-calculations"},{"content":"People all over the world are learning about, experimenting with and building aquaponics systems. I’ve read articles that were listed as liters and as gallons. This is probably a good converter to have available.\nLiters Gallons |\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-calculations/convert-between-liters-and-gallons/","section":"Aquaponics Calculations","summary":"People all over the world are learning about, experimenting with and building aquaponics systems. I’ve read articles that were listed as liters and as gallons. This is probably a good converter to have available.\n","title":"Convert Between Liters and Gallons","type":"aquaponics-calculations"},{"content":"You will often need to know how much an aquaponics sump, timer, air pump or other device uses to plan for backup power such as solar, battery, generators etc. This formula shows you how:\nElectrical Formula to Get Watts\r#\rAmps = Watts/Volts For example 12 watts/12 volts = 1 amp Watts = Amps x Volts For example 1 amp * 110 volts = 110 watts Volts = Watts/Amps For example 100 watts/10 amps = 10 volts\nEnter any two values and press calculate to get the remaining value: Volts Watts (vA) Amps ","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-calculations/electrical-formula-for-watts-amps-volts/","section":"Aquaponics Calculations","summary":"You will often need to know how much an aquaponics sump, timer, air pump or other device uses to plan for backup power such as solar, battery, generators etc. This formula shows you how:\n","title":"Electrical Formula for Watts, Amps, Volts","type":"aquaponics-calculations"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/fish/","section":"Fish","summary":"","title":"Fish","type":"fish"},{"content":"Not sure where buried water and power lines are? Most areas in the US have a dedicated team that will help you avoid breaking these lines.\nIf you call 811, and schedule an appointment, they will come out and mark locations where existing utility lines are. They will however, want to know your permit number… Mesa, AZ has setup a phone number and service to help people plan safe DIY projects: (480) 644-4273\nThey will basically make sure you following various national and local building codes.\nA building permit is required for any construction that changes the footprint of the structure, changes or adds to the electrical service or plumbing system.\nFor Mesa, AZ that would be:\nICC Building Code Mesa city code Zone 11 codebook info Additional Paperwork\r#\rConstruction Permit Contractor License Verification Fees…\r#\rI can’t believe they charge so much to review work before you do it.\nmesa fee schedule If you do not call, and damage a line, you will be held civially and criminally responsible for the damages.\nMaking Digging Easier\r#\rIn Arizona we have homes built on top of clay only a few inches down. Digging through this is a nightmare. You can make the job easier by soaking the area a day before you dig to soften it. Dig the softened earth out, and then resoak. Repeat as necessary. Day labor or a rented ditch witch might be a good investment too.\nElectrical Code for Underground Electricity\r#\rThe NEC specifies that if you are burying UF cable directly as an electrical line, it must be at least 24 inches deep. If you enclose it in schedule 80 PVC (grey) conduit, it only needs to be 18 inches deep.\nIf a receptacle is run to the center of a yard, it needs to have an anchoring for the junction box. Schedule 80pvc embedded in concrete to support the box, or attach the box to a post or wall.\nSwitches and receptacles installed outdoors need weatherproof electrical boxes and covers.\nReceptacles need to be a minimum of 12″ above grade and need to be either GFCI receptacles or breakers.\nIf more than four receptacles are connected to a circuit, a 20 amp breaker should be installed.\nLaws about burying water lines\r#\rThe City of Mesa uses the International Plumbing Code. Here are some tidbits:\nThe line should be buried 6″ below the frost line. If you do not drain the system before a frost, this will cause havoc. If frost is an issue in your area, consider an automatic drain valve.\nGreenhouse Construction\r#\rUnless your greenhouse is taller than 30 feet, no fire resistance codes are required on the actual membrane material. Plastic less than 20 mil that is not designed for public occupation is not restricted.\nGreenhouse glass does not need to be screened unless taller than 20′\nTank Construction\r#\rIf your tank is large enough, you need a ladder.\nWater can’t affect surrounding soil in an unhealthy manner or pool up.\nSearch through the ICC for the following words to look up specifics:\nSeptic Tank Aquaculture Pond Water feature Fountain Pool I got bored of looking all over and don’t want to post specifics. Mostly the code is about being safe, and not affecting the health or life of others.\nWarning\r#\rRemember, if you are passing water in your system to other parts of the system – all parts need to be food safe and fish safe. Copper pipe for example will kill fish. Use CPVC for heated water and PVC for cold water. Make sure your glue is safe too. Opt to not use glue on parts that are not necessary. Teflon tape is safe where possible.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-laws/general-building-codes-for-aquaponics/","section":"Aquaponics Laws","summary":"Not sure where buried water and power lines are? Most areas in the US have a dedicated team that will help you avoid breaking these lines.\n","title":"General Building Codes for Aquaponics","type":"aquaponics-laws"},{"content":"Certain air lift designs can go beyond the basic lift guidelines by using chambers and air burps to accelerate water faster than through a straight pipe and thus much higher than their submergence would normally allow.\nThere are several patents for geyser pumps that we can learn from, and Olomana Gardens in Hawaii has been kind enough to demonstrate an excellent design for a type of geyser pump too.\nThe basic principles behind their designs and changes over the standard air lift are to create a “burp” of air. This air slug carries water several feet.\nThe mechanism to allow this to happen involves a large bubble that goes through a narrower pipe than it was created from.\nThey also improved on the design by adding a check valve and a bubble chamber. The check valve holds the water reservoir in place while the bubble chamber builds up. Once pressure is enough to open the valve, it purges the bubble chamber creating a very large burp.\nOlomana Gardens also improved the design further by adding a separator at the top of the burp to quickly channel water away and reduce resistance from the water falling back into the pipe.\nThe device is a bit noisy, so they added a silencer chamber that reduces sound.\nAdditional volume or gallons per hour are not added using this method, but water can be pumped reliably up to 20 feet using only a 25 watt pump and their “aquazen” design improvements over the normal air lift.\nI will be adding pictures and tests of the aquazen that my son and I built and the comparison to a standard air lift to see which works best.\nNote that the geyser pump should pump less water over all, but can lift it much higher.\nYou can review a few of the patented geyser pump designs at the links below:\nGeyser Pump Patent 8371826 Aquazen ","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-pumps/geyser-pump/","section":"Aquaponics Pumps","summary":"Certain air lift designs can go beyond the basic lift guidelines by using chambers and air burps to accelerate water faster than through a straight pipe and thus much higher than their submergence would normally allow.\n","title":"Geyser Pump","type":"aquaponics-pumps"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/herbs/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"","title":"Herbs","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/homesteading/","section":"Homesteadings","summary":"","title":"Homesteadings","type":"homesteading"},{"content":"\rAn air lift is using air bubbles in a pipe to lift water. The deeper you start the bubbles, the more water you can lift, but the more PSI required on the air pump.\nThe air lifts the water and it flows out of the top. Air lifts are extremely energy efficient, but not as strong as a regular pump.\nAir lifts can only raise water as high as the surrounding submerged “lift”. For example, if you wanted to lift a 2″ PVC column of water 3 feet above the water table, you would need at least 3 feet of water UNDER the water table to introduce air.\nAirlifts generally have a low suction and will not suck up fish. Head height is the major limiting factor.\nA major advantage besides the energy efficiency is the reliability of the air lift system. Gravel and other objects can be sucked up without damage to the pumping equipment.\nIn a commercial aquaponics system a large and powerful air pump and provide air to multiple air lifts throughout the complex, saving money, maintenance and energy multiple times.\nTo repair a typical air pump requires only a diaphragm, which is usually less than several dollars and lasts a year or more.\nIf you needed to lift the water higher, you could dig a small well next to the tank, and force air at the very bottom of the well to rise through several feet of pipe.\nEvery 3 feet of water depth requires about 1 PSI on the pump. A typical 25 Watt air pump can move 350 to 500 gph of water and lift it a few feet, where a traditional pump that does the same thing might require 100 watts or more.\nAir lifts also highly oxygenate the water, for no additional energy cost, whereas traditional pumps require excess power to introduce high DO content.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-pumps/how-an-air-lift-works/","section":"Aquaponics Pumps","summary":"\rAn air lift is using air bubbles in a pipe to lift water. The deeper you start the bubbles, the more water you can lift, but the more PSI required on the air pump.\n","title":"How an Air Lift Works","type":"aquaponics-pumps"},{"content":"The pump you choose is critical. Harbor freight sells cheap pumps, but you will be caught with a dead pump sooner or later if you use these (not to mention the lead and oil in your aquaponics system). What are some good pump choices?\nAs we learn about pumps, there are a couple of words that we need to define:\nHead Height This is the distance the pump must lift the water. Horizontal water movement only has pipe friction, which is not usually very much. A pump that is rated at 580 GPH at 5′ means that it can lift 580 GPH 5′. It can probably pump much more at 3 feet head height. GPH How many Gallons Per Hour can the pump do? If you have your system on a timer, you will need to have the pump cycle your entire aquaponics tank about once an hour. As an example, a 300 gallon tank that is off for 45 minutes and on for 15 minutes will need to do (15 minutes goes into 1 hour, 4 times. 4x 300gallons = 1200gallons). Note that it needs to do this volume at the proper head height, and you should have a little extra to account for pipe friction, and pump gunk performance loss. So, in the above example, I would want a 1500 GPH pump to cycle my 300 gallon tank if I only ran it for 15 minutes of every hour. Watts A 200 watt pump that runs 24 hours a day will cost you about $20 a month in electricity. It will also take almost 5 solar panels to run (assuming 45W per solar panel). Watts is a measure of how much power you will need. Two similar pumps might be $30 difference in price, but one could save you $200 a year in energy costs because it is more efficient. Generally, a 220V pump will require less wattage than a 110V pump too. There are other factors that MIGHT be important, such as starting watts vs running watts. Typically a pump requires about 50% more power to start than to run. This can be fixed by adding capacitors to fire more energy into the pump at startup. Shutoff This is how high the pump will go before it stops pumping. Keep in mind that if you use a sump and then try to lift water above ground 5′, you will also have to lift the water from the sump (typically 2 or 3 feet), for a total of 7 or 8 feet. Some pumps drastically lose their GPH rating as the head height rises! Gunk There is a sludge/film that gorws on everything in an aquaponics system. This is normal, but you have to account for it causing more friction in your pipes and if you don’t clean your pump, ever, seizing your pump. If you clean the pump once a month that’s fine, and blasting water through your pipes once a month will also help. Be careful of blasting too much chlorinated water! Mag Drive Instead of having parts that are exposed to the gunk, a mag drive is built in a way that there are less moving parts and friction. The pumps last longer and are less susceptible to gunk build up.\nNow that we know the basics of pumps, let’s look at some of the choices by pondmaster (the brand I use). If you know how big your tanks are, you can estimate a pump that is what you need for your system.\nRetail Pump Watts GPH@0′ GPH@1′ GPH@3′ GPH@5′ GPH@7′ GPH@10′ GPH@15′ $4 2 Model 1.5 10 150 ??? ?? ? – – – $102 Model 2 24 360 270 205 80 – – – $109 Model 3 35 480 405 335 270 170 – – $119 Model 5 45 570 480 425 325 205 – – $137 Model 7 70 640 530 460 390 290 90 – $170 Model 9.5 93 975 780 740 685 610 450 – $239 Model 12 110 1200 970 880 800 715 580 – $272 Model 18 150 1500 1325 1200 1100 1050 875 575 $339 Model 24 255 2175 1910 1700 1630 1345 1100 720 Other pumps that had good recommendations as I researched:\nLaguna Aquapro Danner (mag-drive only)/Pondmaster Manufacturer Ebara Rio (though not recommended for start and stop use like a timer) I went with pondmaster because of the following reasons:\n5 year warranty / Respected Brand Mag Drive Fish/Food Safe Nice Energy to Output ratio Ability to reliably pump pond water Tips for Keeping Your Pump Cleaner\r#\rThere are many configurations for setting up an aquaponics system. I have found that if you have a clean sump, your pump stays cleaner for a longer period. You also don’t have to worry about fish getting sucked up into the pump this way. 500 Gallon Aquaponics System that uses a sump to pump clean water after it passes through a variety of filters. Gravity moves the “dirty” water.\nOnce a month or so you can keep the pump running at full capacity by spraying it with high pressure water. This removes the gunk.\nPump Backup\r#\rWhat would you do if your aquaponics pump failed Sunday night at 10pm? There are no stores open, and your fish will need to survive until you can get water/air flowing again. Without air, your fish might last 30 minutes. Without clean water flowing they might last for a few hours. For this reason, it’s a good idea to have an air stone backup and a second pump on standby that you can simply hot swap.\nPower Backup\r#\rMost deep cycle batteries will only last about 12 hours if you have a 2 Amp pump. There are switches and relays that are normally open, but that fail closed in the event of a power loss. The bad news: a deep cycle battery worth having is going to cost about $250. Solar panels (to match your pump wattage), and an inverter will get you through the day, but a simple setup to run your pumps is also going to cost around $400 (before the battery). You would still need the battery for night time or cloudy operation. To be safe, you might even need 2 batteries.\nHarbor Freight Aquaponics Pumps\r#\rI purchased a pump from harbor freight and it leaked oil (I cleaned this up and started over). The instructions said “contains lead”. After a few months the pump burned up and leaked more oil. However, it was the cheapest! (buyer beware)\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-pumps/how-to-choose-a-good-aquaponics-pump/","section":"Aquaponics Pumps","summary":"The pump you choose is critical. Harbor freight sells cheap pumps, but you will be caught with a dead pump sooner or later if you use these (not to mention the lead and oil in your aquaponics system). What are some good pump choices?\n","title":"How to Choose a Good Aquaponics Pump","type":"aquaponics-pumps"},{"content":"You can use the USDA Hardiness Zones to find out plants that will easily grow in your area, but finding the exact temperature ranges tells you what types of fish and aquatic life you can harvest too. Here is how to find the local temperature for your area.\nFind Your Local Temperature\r#\rI used data from sources like:\nhttp://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/85201.\nHere is the temperature ranges for Mesa, AZ:\nMonth Max Low Avg Low Median Avg High Max High Jan 15 41 54 67 89 Feb 19 45 58 71 95 Mar 24 49 63 77 99 Apr 30 54 69.5 85 106 May 37 61 77.5 94 118 Jun 43 70 87 104 116 Jul 54 77 91.5 106 119 Aug 51 76 90 104 115 Sep 40 70 84.5 99 113 Oct 30 59 74 89 107 Nov 22 47 61 75 97 Dec 17 40 53.5 67 86 I use this data to help me decide when and what is able to exist in my aquaponics system. If I move or setup in a different area, I’ll have to figure out the temperature ranges and USDA Hardiness zones for that area too.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/fish/how-to-find-temperature-ranges-for-aquaponics/","section":"Fish","summary":"You can use the USDA Hardiness Zones to find out plants that will easily grow in your area, but finding the exact temperature ranges tells you what types of fish and aquatic life you can harvest too. Here is how to find the local temperature for your area.\n","title":"How to Find Temperature Ranges for Aquaponics","type":"fish"},{"content":"\rCommon Problems With Seed Germination\r#\rWilting happens when the seed does not have enough moisture and dries up.Mold,however,is the opposite of wilting.The seed has to much moisture and bacteria grows and eats the plant.\nWhy Use This Seed Germination Method?\r#\rWe have had experience with germinating seeds and know the best way to do it.We have tried pots, greenhouses,and paper towels. We have researched books and articles that have good information for beginners and professionals alike. We have germinated seeds with success before and know the easiest way to get seedlings.We even have a growing amount of pictures to show our progress.\nThese Things Frustrated Us When Germinating Seeds\r#\rWe were really disappointed when our seedlings died.It was very difficult for us because seeds had to be just right, right temperature, right amount of water, not to much sunlight, etc. We were really bummed out, but were eager to try again, hopeful that one day we would be able to grow seedlings and not buy expensive plants grown in a nursery. After many seeds, we accomplished our goal and wanted to share it with everyone else.\nOther Seed Germinating Methods That Don’t Work So Well\r#\rPots and mini greenhouses don’t work so well because water escapes and the seedlings wilt. They clog up and have too much water and breed mold.The roots can’t reach water fast enough to survive.Even if they did, the gardener sometimes forgets to water the seedling or drowns it.\nThis Method of seed Germination Works Because\r#\rOur method works because water escapes through air vents. This prevents mold and and keeps fresh air in the bag. We mist the bag to give water but not too much water,and because we have water and air holes, we can easily put it on a window sill or shelf without worry of wilt.The misting always keep moisture right by the roots, solving the problem of no water.\nHow to Germinate Your Own Seeds\r#\rItems needed:Paper towel,Seeds,Ziploc bag,Water\nWet a paper towel Put seeds on paper towel and fold the paper towel over Put carefully in Ziploc bag Place on windowsill and check everyday for sprouts What Not To Do When Germinating Seeds\r#\rTake out the sprouts once roots are 1 inch.If you don’t, the roots will grab on to the paper towel and be tricky to take out. If you put too much water and no air vents in the bag mold will infest the bag and eat your seeds.Don’t be rough with your seedlings:they are very delicate.\nTips and Reminders About Seed Germination\r#\rTake out seedlings once roots are 1 inch Don’t over water Cut air vents and/or leave bag open for air and mold prevention Mist with spray bottle when dry Better for the paper towel to be a little dry because mold can easily infest bag When there’s mold, take out of bag and let dry ","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/seeds/how-to-germinate-seeds/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"Common Problems With Seed Germination\r#\rWilting happens when the seed does not have enough moisture and dries up.Mold,however,is the opposite of wilting.The seed has to much moisture and bacteria grows and eats the plant.\n","title":"How to Germinate Seeds","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"\rBell Siphon\r#\rA bell siphon is an automatic siphon that allows you to completely fill and then drain a grow bed on a timer. The timing comes from how fast you add water into the system. Once the bed is full, it creates a siphon that drains all the way down to the bottom of the bed. At the bottom it sucks up air, breaks the siphon and the process starts all over.\nUsually water constantly floods the siphon apparatus and when it fills up, air pressure lifts water from the bottom of the tank as a siphon starts, draining it without other sources of power until it gulps air, breaking the siphon.\nThe other primary type of automatic siphon is the loop siphon. All of them use atmospheric pressure to “start” the siphon, and when water has been emptied, the suction is broken, disabling the siphon until the next fill up.\nLive graphic explaining the physics of the bell siphon: Youtube Bell Siphon\nBell Siphon Troubleshooting\r#\rEach bell siphon is adjusted to your particular grow bed, pump rates, and water break size. Here are some tips to help you adjust your bell siphon:\nSiphon never starts or just trickles:\nStandpipe must be level. Brake should be level or with only a slight downward angle (to speed up the drain only slightly) Water inflow is not fast enough, or outflow is too fast. Adjust brake to throttle water drain speed so stand pipe fills up with water (longer, sharper turn, add an elbow), or increase water flow, or increase size of accelerator (the flange) to dump more water down the standpipe so it seals and makes a clean siphon start. Bell height over standpipe might be too high. See if gravel or grow media has lifted the bell at all. You might benefit from placing a large stone on top of your cap to keep it forced down. If you are using a snorkel to break the suction, make sure it is airtight, and the cap of the bell must also be air tight. Siphon starts but then trickles, never truly shuts off:\nWater in and out is too balanced or you have too much water input and not enough drain. Reduce accelerator (the flange), or reduce inflow, or shorten brake or remove an elbow. The crenellations on the bell might also be too low and buried in the sludge layer. It must have air to suck up to “break” the siphon so it can completely refill. Adjust the drain pieces to have longer or shorter horizontal pieces. Bell width might be too small. Bell height over standpipe might be too small (1/2” or more depending on standpipe width) If you have a large grow bed, the water level might drop too slow to suck up air and break suction. See: Slow Drain Bell Siphon as a way to add a breather tube and a small cup that forces a burp. The snorkel, or breather, might be jammed with grow media, a worm, or bio matter. It should be clear and freely allow air to be sucked in so the suction can officially break. Siphon never fully drains system:\nToo much brake or water input too fast. Make sure your break is shorter, or angled down so water flows out faster. Reduce 90 deg elbows and use 2x45deg instead, or remove elbows completely. Notice in the drawing how roots are invading the media filter. Taking care of things like this are part of the regular maintenance and you should inspect your bell siphons at least weekly for slime build up, solid waste, or things like root growth. See Also:\r#\rAlternative Auto Siphon Design 100% reliable, no fuss autosiphon Bell Siphon Study by the University of Hawaii best practices for bell siphons Affnan’s Bell Siphon Experiments ","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-vocabulary/how-to-make-a-bell-siphon/","section":"Aquaponics Vocabulary","summary":"Bell Siphon\r#\rA bell siphon is an automatic siphon that allows you to completely fill and then drain a grow bed on a timer. The timing comes from how fast you add water into the system. Once the bed is full, it creates a siphon that drains all the way down to the bottom of the bed. At the bottom it sucks up air, breaks the siphon and the process starts all over.\n","title":"How to Make a Bell Siphon","type":"aquaponics-vocabulary"},{"content":"Plants require different spectrum of light for the different phases of their growth.\nThis article is a summary of the lighting information we researched to help our seedlings.\nWhy Indoor Lights\r#\rSeedlings require a temperature of about 80F to really do well. Outside currently it is about 50F-70F during the day, and drops to around 40F at night. My greenhouse isn’t completed yet, so I needed a solution to start my seedlings.\nArizona is generally full of sunshine, but this past week has been cold and cloudy most of the week too. The only way to reliably start off our seedlings was to have the plants indoors under artificial light.\nThe reason for starting our own seedlings instead of buying plants is about 500% reduction in price instead of buying nursery plants.\nSome seedlings require certain amounts of light to actually sprout. Indoor lights in a controlled environment guarantees that we are able to meet all of the requirements needed for tempertaure and light.\nTypes of Grow Lights\r#\rFor us, we needed to light up about 2 foot by 4 foot area, so these comparisons are for a small area like this.\nT5 standard Home Depot/Lowes sells a T5 standard output light that is cheap, but it only outputs half of the light that a high output does. This is listed so remember not to go to Home Depot and get the “cheapest option”. ($100, 108W $4.50/mo) T5 high output From most hydroponics stores, or directly from hydrofarm, you can get these pretty inexpensive. Bulbs are changed every year. Lowest coverage area (2×4 feet), but most inexpensive maintenance and setup, for the first time project too. The light generated is white, and is best for sprouting seedlings and vegetative growth, not fruiting/flowering. ($200, 400W $16.50/mo) HID (MH+HPS) Metal Halide High Intensity Discharge is a good all around light best for vegetative stage (plant growth), but it generates quite a bit of heat. This would be a good choice if you don’t have sunlight year round and need to grow indoors always. Bulbs are replaced every year. High Pressure Sodium High Intensity Discharge is best for flowering/fruiting. There are ballasts that allow you to swap bulbs during different stages. Again, these generate a ton of heat and are not as efficient as florescent lights. Bulbs are replaced every 2 to 3 years. HID are the commercial standard for indoor lighting and the spectrum of light is loved by the plants. Coverage area is 4×4 feet. Replacement bulbs are expensive compared to T5. Combo Kit for $200 ($600, ???W) LED LED lights are unique in that they can be very specific in the exact wavelength of light. LED lights also last up to 8 years, and use the least amount of power (because they are so efficient). I read several studies though that showed the LED lights didn’t perform as well for most plants compared to other types of lights. When you replace LED systems, you replace the entire array. LED lights are 4x as expensive as T5 setups of similar intensities.\nSpectrums of Light\r#\rThe different temperatures of lights are used in different phases of plant growth. Look at this chart to determine what types of lighting you need to use. If you are producing seed/fruit you would use yellow/orange spectrum lighting. If you are sprouting seeds though, you would use closer to the white spectrum. Normal plant growth is also in the white spectrum.\nTemperature Notes/Description 1850K – Candle Flame, Sunset/Sunrise 2200K – High Pressure Sodium (HPS/SON) – Yellow/Orange Used for the second/reproductive phase of growth (fruits/flowers). Makes leggy plants if used initially. Hot. 2700K – Standard Incandescant – 3000K – Halogen – 3200K – Warm Metal Halide (MH HID) – Mimics spring/summer sunlight 4000K – Standard Clear metal Halide – 4150K – Moonlight, Xenon Arc Lamp 4200K – Cool White Flourescent – 5500K – Daylight Metal Halide – Initial vegetative growth (seedlings and stems) 6400K – T5 High output lights, Overcast Daylight 5000K – 10,500K – LCD or CRT Screen Our T5 Light Setup\r#\rPrice Part $109 Two T5 High Output 54W, 6400K Growlights + reflectors $96 40 or so packs of heirloom seeds $6 One 3/4″ PVC pipe + several fittings $17 Four Mini Greenhouses from Lowes $5 a few handfuls of potting soil $4.50 Calculated Monthly Energy Cost of 16 hours, 8.5c per KW/h @ 108W $237.50 First month, but only seeds + another set of grow trays for the next month The bulbs themselves will need to be replaced about once a year for a cost of about $10 each.\nThis may seem like a lot, but the cost of 200 plants from a nursery will easily reach $600-$800. I think this is a great savings and allows us to inexpensively load up the garden. Because we have heirloom seeds, we can let some of the plants go to seed to keep our supply of heirloom seeds. I’m not sure I’m willing to go through that trouble, but we have the option in case zombies attack lol.\nThe bulbs themselves are about 4 foot long and when raised above the plants a few inches disperse enough light to hit at least half of the seedlings with “good enough” intensity.\nThe Results\r#\rWe setup the seed starter on Tuesday, Feb 11th, Within 3 days we had several seeds sprout. I will be updating this table below with the sprout times of the various seeds we planted as I see them. We also did not plant all of the seeds, as some are not to be started until next month.\nThere is about 200-220 plants of the following types below:\nDay Sprout Feb 14th Radish Feb 14th Chamomille Feb 14th Basil Feb 15th Spinach Feb 15th Marigolds Feb 15th Dark Green Lettuce Mix 1 Feb 16th Cabbage Feb 16th Snapdragons Feb 16th Cantelope Feb 17th Cherry Tomatoes Feb 18th Chives Feb 18th Sweet Peppers Feb 18th Watermelon Feb 19th Dark Green Lettuce Mix 2 Feb 19th Thai Hot Peppers Feb 19th Lemon Balm Feb XXth Roma Tomatoes Feb XXth Hot Peppers Feb XXth Nasturtium Today when I woke up, Justin excitedly told me that the seeds sprouted (literally overnight). He showed me the radishes, and as we looked, we saw the chamomille also sprouted. As I was writing this article a few hours later, I noticed the basil too. I really enjoyed seeing him excited about this!\nHe reminded me that we need to finish the aquaponics shelves in our 500 Gallon Aquaponics System so we have a place to put all these plants, and now I’m looking forward to the weekend so we can work more together on the large aquaponics system/greenhouse.\nIn 4-6 weeks we’ll be able to move most of these sprouts out and start the hardening process to acclimate them to the regular outdoor weather. I’ll have the tarpaflex cover for the greenhouse by then, and the grow beds will be ready for them too, so they should be off to a good start with a stable growing environment!\nWho would of thought that growing things was so exicting and rewarding?\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/seeds/indoor-grow-lights/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"Plants require different spectrum of light for the different phases of their growth.\nThis article is a summary of the lighting information we researched to help our seedlings.\nWhy Indoor Lights\r#\rSeedlings require a temperature of about 80F to really do well. Outside currently it is about 50F-70F during the day, and drops to around 40F at night. My greenhouse isn’t completed yet, so I needed a solution to start my seedlings.\n","title":"Indoor Grow Lights","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"Lemon Balm is also known as bee balm or simply Melissa (Greek for honeybee). This wonderful herb has several uses and grows very easily. The leaves release a lemon scent when crushed.\nEdible Parts of Lemon Balm Plant\r#\rThe flowers of the Lemon Balm (and all members of the mint family) plant are slightly sweet and can be eaten raw, in salads, or used in teas. The leaves have a lemon flavor and can be used raw or dried in various dishes such as fish, stuffings, and teas.\nHealth Benefits and Lore of Lemon Balm\r#\rLemon Balm is an old remedy for feverish colds. Lore states that bees will not leave their hive area if Lemon Balm is nearby It is said that “Melissa” calms the nervous system and stimulates the heart Cows that eat bee balm are said to have an increased flow of milk. Recent studies have shown Melissa essential oil to be effective as a topical treatment against cold sores! Planting Lemon Balm\r#\rPlant melissa in the spring about 1/2 inch into any type of soil. Bee balm is not particular about where it grows. However, it can get up to 3 feet high as a bush within several months, so plan on the space and leave about 10 inches between plants. Roots will need to be managed, much like mint. In aquaponics, this can cause drains to clog and can be fixed by planting a bottomless bucket around the roots so they grow down instead of out. Plant away from drains and replant each year so the roots do not take over.\nGrowing Tips for Lemon Balm\r#\rPinch off the flowers for more vigorous leaf growth. If you want to prevent flowering completely, cut long stems and flowers will not appear.\nCompanion Plants for Lemon Balm\r#\rBee balm will attract honeybees, so are good companion plants for any flowering or fruiting plant that needs assistance with pollination.\nIdeal Growing Conditions for Lemon Balm\r#\rBee balm grows wild and fierce…. just plant it somewhere and make sure it doesn’t overtake your grow area. The ideal soil temperatures are between 50F and 77F.\nHarvesting Lemon Balm\r#\rTo get the most of the essential oils from any herb, harvest them after the flower buds appear, but before they open. Early morning is the best time to pick herbs, after morning dew is gone, but before the plants are scorched by midday heat. The fresh leaves have more flavor then dried leaves.\nStoring Lemon Balm\r#\rFor long term storage, you do not need to dip the leaves in boiling water. You can either freeze the leaves as they are or mix with oil as a paste, and then freeze. If you have an arid climate, you can bunch the stems with leaves on them and hang them upside to dry. If you do not have an arid climate, a dehydrator may be required.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/herbs/lemon-balm/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"Lemon Balm is also known as bee balm or simply Melissa (Greek for honeybee). This wonderful herb has several uses and grows very easily. The leaves release a lemon scent when crushed.\n","title":"Lemon Balm","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"pH is critical in aquaponics. Fish and plants both need the same range of pH. Here are some notes on Lowering pH in your aquaponics system.\nAdjust pH SLOWLY!\r#\rThe most important thing when adjusting pH is to do it slowly. If you lower pH too much too fast, it could stress your fish or plants and kill them. pH should be lowered over a week or more, not sooner. Murray from http://www.aquaponics.net.au says that testing pH is one of the most important things you can test and stay on top of.\npH Fluctuations\r#\rpH will vary according to what is added (rain, fish, plants). Temperature will also cause your pH to vary. If you are testing for pH, you should measure at several points in the day for an average, or measure at the same time and temperature each day so you have consistent readings.\nAt the beginning, when you have water without a bacteria colony, pH will fluctuate. This is normal.\nWhen adding water from most municpal taps, the chlorine will off gas, which will also cause pH to change.\nBest pH Range for Aquaponics\r#\rA healthy range of pH for most fish and plants is 6 to 7. Many plants and fish prefer certain ranges of pH. For this reason, some plants like roses and blueberries will not do well in an aquaponics systems. Also, macronutrients and micronutrients are absorbed by plants depending on what the pH is. Too high or too low and the plants will not be able to absorb the nutrients in the water.\nHow pH Relates to Aquaculture Breeding\r#\rpH also determines aquatic life breeding cycles. As pH changes so will the number of fish eggs that are produced, or if they can be produced at all.\nLowering pH in Aquaponics Systems\r#\rAs you might remember lower pH is more acidic. Here are some safe additives you can use to lower the pH of your aquaponics system.\npH Down Hydrochloric Acid 1 or 2 caps per 250 gallons Acetic Acid (Vinegar) Sulphuric Acid Maidenwell media or Diatomite (5.2-5.8) Iron sulfate fertilizer Do not use citric acid – it is antibacterial and will kill your filter.\nNote: if you have limestone as your gravel, you will constantly have low pH. Your sourcewater might also be the culprit if you top off with a non neutral pH. I’ve also read that injecting CO2 directly into the water might lower pH too.\nRaising pH in Aquaponics Systems\r#\rHigher pH readings are called “base”. Here are some safe additives you can use to raise the pH of your aquaponics system:\npH Up Dolomite Lime – Calcium Magnewsium Carbonate Calcium Hydroxide (hydrated/builder’s/slaked/hydrated limes) Potassium Carbonate (bicarbonate) Potassium Hydroxide (pearl ash/potash) Snail Shells Sea Shells Egg Shells If you are using shells, boil, bleach or hydrogen peroxide them first to kill all bacteria. Containing chemicals/ingredients in a nylon stocking or other bag will allow you to remove it easily once you are below 7 pH.\npH Explains Cycling\r#\rCycling aquaponics systems simply means that the nitrfying bacteria are present and the system is stable. By monitoring pH, you can tell what is happening or has happened recently in your system. Especially when starting an aquaponics system, record the pH regularly.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/plant-nutrient-deficiency/lower-ph-raise-ph-aquaponics-system/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"pH is critical in aquaponics. Fish and plants both need the same range of pH. Here are some notes on Lowering pH in your aquaponics system.\nAdjust pH SLOWLY!\r#\rThe most important thing when adjusting pH is to do it slowly. If you lower pH too much too fast, it could stress your fish or plants and kill them. pH should be lowered over a week or more, not sooner. Murray from http://www.aquaponics.net.au says that testing pH is one of the most important things you can test and stay on top of.\n","title":"Lower and Raise pH in Aquaponics System","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"Notes on Magnesium Deficiency in Plants:\nMagnesium is a macronutrient.\nSymptoms: The outer edges of older leaves might turn pale yellow instead of dark green. Deficiencies appear as interveinal discoloration on older leaves. There will be slow growth, and new growth might have dark spots and be yellow. Sources: Epsom Salts/Magnesium Sulfate from the grocery store Notes: Generally not toxic at higher levels to fish.\nImage from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_deficiency_(agriculture)\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/plant-nutrient-deficiency/magnesium-deficiency-in-plants/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"Notes on Magnesium Deficiency in Plants:\nMagnesium is a macronutrient.\nSymptoms: The outer edges of older leaves might turn pale yellow instead of dark green. Deficiencies appear as interveinal discoloration on older leaves. There will be slow growth, and new growth might have dark spots and be yellow. Sources: Epsom Salts/Magnesium Sulfate from the grocery store Notes: Generally not toxic at higher levels to fish.\n","title":"Magnesium Deficiency in Plants","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"Notes on Nitrogen Deficiency in Plants:\nNitrogen is a macronutrient.\nSymptoms: Older leaves will yellow, especially at the bottom of the plant. Stems might be yellow and spindly. Growth is slower and foliage might be light green. Sources: More fish! Urea. Notes: In an established system with fish that match your grow area, this should not be a problem. Fish waste is turned into ammonia, which turns into nitrites, then nitrates. A brand new system doesn’t have the nitrifying bacteria built up yet, but after 6-10 weeks water with urea/ammonia in it will naturally form the bacteria needed to create nitrates. Danger: Nitrogens are toxic to fish in higher levels. Your test kit will tell you how many PPM you currently have, and each fish can tolerate different levels.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/plant-nutrient-deficiency/nitrogen-deficiency-in-plants/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"Notes on Nitrogen Deficiency in Plants:\nNitrogen is a macronutrient.\nSymptoms: Older leaves will yellow, especially at the bottom of the plant. Stems might be yellow and spindly. Growth is slower and foliage might be light green. Sources: More fish! Urea. Notes: In an established system with fish that match your grow area, this should not be a problem. Fish waste is turned into ammonia, which turns into nitrites, then nitrates. A brand new system doesn’t have the nitrifying bacteria built up yet, but after 6-10 weeks water with urea/ammonia in it will naturally form the bacteria needed to create nitrates. Danger: Nitrogens are toxic to fish in higher levels. Your test kit will tell you how many PPM you currently have, and each fish can tolerate different levels.\n","title":"Nitrogen Deficiency in Plants","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"Parsley is one of our plants that grew like mad in the aquaponics system. Here are some notes on caring for parsley.\nWhich Type of Parsley Has Best Flavor?\r#\rParsley with curly leaves is more decorative. Straight leaves parsley is more flavorful. Planting Parsley and Seeds\r#\rParsley is easy to grow from seed. Sow seed about 1/2 inch deep in seed trays in February. Parsley is best planted at soil temp between 50F and 86F (February). If you have parsley plants, you can plant them in April and May.\nThe plants are about 18 inches in diameter when grown, so plant parsley about 9 inches from other plants.\nSeedlings take about 3 to 5 weeks to appear.\nWhat Are Companion Plants for Parsley?\r#\rParsley protects carrots from carrot flies and roses from rose beetles. It helps chives, tomatoes, asparagus to grow more vigorously but does not like potatoes.\nHow is Parsley Harvested?\r#\rIn about 9 to 19 weeks, begin cuttting stems from the other plant often for new leaf growth. Remove flowering stems unless you want the parsley to self seed. Useful leaves disappear when parsley flowers, so either have more seedlings, or prevent flowering.\nHow is Parsley Stored?\r#\rDip the sprigs in boiling water for about 30 seconds, then let them dry in a cool oven. Crush the leaves when they are dry.\nWhat type of Growing Conditions does Parsley Like?\r#\rParsley likes some shade, and moist very fertile soil.\nWhat are the Most Common Parsley Diseases/Pests?\r#\rPoultry are sometimes used to pick off parsley worms, which are the larvae of the black swallowtail butterfly. The black swallowtail caterpillar is black and green striped with yellow dots. It feeds on parsley for about 2 weeks before turning into a butterfly. Goldfinch and similar birds like the seeds.\nAre there Health Benefits to Parsley?\r#\rParsley is a good source of antioxidants such as:\nluteolin folic acid ascorbic acid vitamin A Parsley is also known for anit-inflammatory properties and boosting the immune system. A natureopath told me that large amounts of parsley helps to remove the dark circles under your eyes if you have a blood issue and/or kidney problems.\nPregnant women should not consume large amounts of parsley as it decreases breast milk production.\nWhat are Some Common Dishes/Recipes for Parsley\r#\rParsley is often added to burgers, used in a white sauce, eaten for leaves, stems or roots, and is prepared in tabbouleh salad.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/herbs/parsley/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"Parsley is one of our plants that grew like mad in the aquaponics system. Here are some notes on caring for parsley.\n","title":"Parsley","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"Notes on Phosphorus Deficiency in Plants:\nPhosphorus is a macronutrient.\nSymptoms: Reddish or purple leaves and joints. Leaf tips can have brown or black spots if they are older. There will also be reduced growth, fruit or seed production. Sources: If pH is around 6.5, the phosphorus in the water will be available to the plants. Bone, Greensand, crickets. Notes: Phosphorus is toxic to fish, so you should not add large quantities to an aquaponics system. PH affects how the plants can absorb phosphorus. Warning: Beware of heavy metals being added to a closed loop system. Many of the commercial fertilizers might contain other chemicals that will ruin an aquaponics system.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/plant-nutrient-deficiency/phosphorus-deficiency-in-plants/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"Notes on Phosphorus Deficiency in Plants:\nPhosphorus is a macronutrient.\nSymptoms: Reddish or purple leaves and joints. Leaf tips can have brown or black spots if they are older. There will also be reduced growth, fruit or seed production. Sources: If pH is around 6.5, the phosphorus in the water will be available to the plants. Bone, Greensand, crickets. Notes: Phosphorus is toxic to fish, so you should not add large quantities to an aquaponics system. PH affects how the plants can absorb phosphorus. Warning: Beware of heavy metals being added to a closed loop system. Many of the commercial fertilizers might contain other chemicals that will ruin an aquaponics system.\n","title":"Phosphorus Deficiency in Plants","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/plant-nutrient-deficiency/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"","title":"Plant Nutrient Deficiency","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"Potassium Deficiency in Plants Notes:\nPotassium (K) is a macronutrient.\nSymptoms: Yellowing between veins of leaf (Interveinal chlorisis). Reduced flowering/fruiting. Leaf tips can look burnt or black. Sources: Potassium carbonate or potassium hydroxide (pearl ash, potash). Notes: This will raise PH, so add Potassium slowly and test every few days. Warning: Heavy metals added to a closed loop system will ruin an aquaponics system.\nPhoto Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_deficiency_(plants)\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/plant-nutrient-deficiency/potassium-deficiency-in-plants/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"Potassium Deficiency in Plants Notes:\nPotassium (K) is a macronutrient.\nSymptoms: Yellowing between veins of leaf (Interveinal chlorisis). Reduced flowering/fruiting. Leaf tips can look burnt or black. Sources: Potassium carbonate or potassium hydroxide (pearl ash, potash). Notes: This will raise PH, so add Potassium slowly and test every few days. Warning: Heavy metals added to a closed loop system will ruin an aquaponics system.\n","title":"Potassium Deficiency in Plants","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"I wish I would of known this on my first aquaponics system build:\nTips for Fitting PVC with Glue\r#\rStart from the water source and work your way back Use primer if you are gluing Use enough glue to have a small bead when you push them together, not a drip Only glue what you don’t want to come apart or adjust Common Sense PVC Tips:\r#\rDry fit 1/4″ deep before gluing Remove all burrs with sandpaper to prevent clogs inspect the insides of the pipe before you glue them together Avoid getting dirt into the pipes as you build them. Block up the far end while you work on other peices stuff a rag into the end of the pipe if you have to stop for the night Plan for ways to clean out your design, it will clog eventually Holes drilled will fit clay hydroton balls nicely – use slits instead Do not use a wrench to tighten plastic nuts on PVC, hand tighten only Wait 24 hours before using freshly glued pipes PVC Irrigation and Drainage\r#\rSharp bends (90 degree elbows), cause resistance in your drains A good rule of thumb for drains: use a larger drain pipe than input pipe Larger pipes have less pressure and more volume PVC Safety\r#\rUse fish safe resins and glues Snapping PVC with your bear hands is cool, until it rips your knuckles apart on a sharp edge. Primer (acetone) melts plastic… be careful PVC gets soft around 140 degrees, CPVC gets soft around 180 degrees Avoid breathing PVC dust or fumes if you heat bend something ","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-construction-tips/pvc-irrigation-tips/","section":"Aquaponics Construction Tips","summary":"I wish I would of known this on my first aquaponics system build:\nTips for Fitting PVC with Glue\r#\rStart from the water source and work your way back Use primer if you are gluing Use enough glue to have a small bead when you push them together, not a drip Only glue what you don’t want to come apart or adjust Common Sense PVC Tips:\r#\rDry fit 1/4″ deep before gluing Remove all burrs with sandpaper to prevent clogs inspect the insides of the pipe before you glue them together Avoid getting dirt into the pipes as you build them. Block up the far end while you work on other peices stuff a rag into the end of the pipe if you have to stop for the night Plan for ways to clean out your design, it will clog eventually Holes drilled will fit clay hydroton balls nicely – use slits instead Do not use a wrench to tighten plastic nuts on PVC, hand tighten only Wait 24 hours before using freshly glued pipes PVC Irrigation and Drainage\r#\rSharp bends (90 degree elbows), cause resistance in your drains A good rule of thumb for drains: use a larger drain pipe than input pipe Larger pipes have less pressure and more volume PVC Safety\r#\rUse fish safe resins and glues Snapping PVC with your bear hands is cool, until it rips your knuckles apart on a sharp edge. Primer (acetone) melts plastic… be careful PVC gets soft around 140 degrees, CPVC gets soft around 180 degrees Avoid breathing PVC dust or fumes if you heat bend something ","title":"PVC Irrigation Tips","type":"aquaponics-construction-tips"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/homesteading/rabbits/","section":"Homesteadings","summary":"","title":"Rabbits","type":"homesteading"},{"content":"Since ancient times radishes have been used a poor man’s appetizer. In modern times, the radish is more commonly used as a salad garnish. This is a troublefree, easy to grow plant.\nThere are several types of radish, but they can be divided into summer and winter crops. They can be ready for harvest within a month of planting, and are often used to mark out rows for other plants, or to teach children gardening as they are a very no fuss. To ensure a sweet, flavorful root the radish should be grown fast and undisturbed. Radishes are also known as Daiken in some parts of the world.\nSummer Radishes\r#\rSummer radishes are planted in January and February and harvested in March through June.\nCherry Belle An all red globular radish that is very popular. It is crisp, mild and white on the inside and can remain in the ground for a longre time before losing its flavor. Scarlet Globe Like the Cherry Belle radish, but matures slightly faster. Also popular. Prinz Rotin Globular; all-red. This is a modern radish bred for the claims of producing a large root that keeps it flavor as it gets larger. Pink Beauty A pink globe used for adding color to salads. French Breakfast A cylinder/egg shaped root that makes crips and mild roots if harvested when tender. One of the most popular of all radishes. Long White Icicle Long and white crisp and nutty flavored roots that mature in only a few weeks to harvestable size.\nWinter Radishes\r#\rWinter radishes take 2 or 3 times as long to harvest because plants grow slower when it’s cold. As such, they have a sharper flavor than summer varieties.\nChina Rose About 5 inch long and 2 inches wide. Skin is deep rose and the inside is a crisp and white. Mino Early a Foot long root that is milder than some of the other winter varieties. Black Spanish There are two varieties, long and round. Both are black skinned and white flesh. The long grows up to one foot long and is shaped like a parsnip.\nEdible Parts of Radishes Plant\r#\rIn most radish plants, the root is the edible part, but there is one, the Munchen Bier where a large leafy stalk is eaten instead of the root.\nHealth Benefits to Radishes\r#\rHere are some of the claims that are benefits and uses of radishes that I was able to find.\nLiver Functions – radish contains enzymes that help regulate the liver and digestive system, namely: myrosinase, amylase, esterase, and diastase Jaundice – leaves and roots are good for the liver and stomach and as a general blood detoxifier (black varieties). Urinary/Kidney Infections – because radishes increase urine production and reduce inflammation and burning during urinating, this is a natural remedy. Skin Disorders – there are several minerals and vitamins that are good when radish pulp is used as a poultice directly on dry skin, rashes and cracks. A face mask made of radish pulp will help detoxify pores. Cancers – radishes have high levels of anthocyanin, folic acid and vitamin C and are said to be good for many types of cancer, but in particular colon, kidney, intestines, stomach and oral. Weight loss – radishes are filling without giving very many calories. They are high in water and roughage and low in carbohydrates. Constipation – radishes are high in roughage and water and is a good detoxifier. The juice soothes the digestive system. Insect Bites – The juice helps reduce swelling and pain in bee, wasp and hornet bites and stings. Fever – the anti inflammatory properties of radish juice mixed with salt are said to reduce fevers. Planting Radishes\r#\rRadishes are planted a few inches apart either as a row marker (as they will be harvested within a month), or under glass if too cold. For a continual supply, plant summer varieties every few weeks in January through March or when the soil temperature is greater than 46F. Winter varieties can be planted from September through December.\nGrowing Tips for Radishes\r#\rRadishes are a very easy to grow vegetable that requires little attention aside from fertile soil to start with. In aquaponics, the bulb might rot if the grow media is constantly wet. To remedy this, make sure you have a dry zone where the radish will grow.\nCompanion Plants for Radishes\r#\rNasturtium and mustard release a protective oil that helps radishes.\nAll of the cabbage family should not be rotated with radishes (cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, broccoli, turnips).\nRadishes grow well with:\nCucumber, Squash and Melons (repels striped cucumber beetle) Tomatoes (repels two-spotted spider mite) Bush Beans/Pole Beans Leaf Lettuce makes radishes more tender. Chervil, cress, leeks, spinach, strawberries (could not identify specific reason) Do not grow radishes near Hyssop.\nIdeal Growing Conditions for Radishes\r#\rThe best temperature to plant Radishes are soil temperatures between 46F and 86F, though different varieties can take more cold.\nHarvesting Radishes\r#\rEach variety has a different harvest time. The longer most radishes stay in the ground, the more woody and dry they become. Read the specific seed instructions for the variety you wish to grow and harvest while still tender as per the instructions.\nStoring Radishes\r#\rStore radishes in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to a week.\nCommon Dishes/Uses of Radishes\r#\rIt is common to eat radishes as a salad garnishment, or raw (washed) with butter, bread, and a strong drink as an appetizer.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/vegetables/radishes/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"Since ancient times radishes have been used a poor man’s appetizer. In modern times, the radish is more commonly used as a salad garnish. This is a troublefree, easy to grow plant.\n","title":"Radishes","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"Rainbow trout are related to salmons and are sometimes called salmon trout. Some species can live in sea water or fresh water. This article explains some of the basic information needed to harvest Rainbow trout in your aquaponics system.\nRainbow Trout? Steelhead?\r#\rOceangoing or those returning for spawning are called steelheads or ocean trout.\nSteelheads can spawn several times and make several trips between salt and fresh water.\nThe maximum recorded age for a rainbow trout is 11 years. The IGFA recognized world record was caught in Sept 2009 and weighed 48lbs.\nWhat do Trout Eat?\r#\rRainbow trout are predators and eat just about anything. Brown trout are even more aggressive than rainbow trout. Normal diet would include:\nWorms Leeches Dragonflies Damselflies Stoneflies Caddis flies Mayflies Soldier flies Water boatman Mosquito larvae Mosquito pupae Chironomus Haliplid beetles Dytiscid beetles midges, black flies, crane flies, etc. Copepods Cladocerans Ostracods Amphipods Water lous Frogs Snails Other Fish up to 1/3 their size Carcasses Fish Eggs As the fish grow larger they eat more fish proportionally.\nThe types of baits and lures used are:\nFly Fishing Spinners Spoons Small Crankbaits Minnows Night Crawlers Trout Worms Size of Fish\r#\rThis chart shows what a trout should weigh given a specific length:\nWeight Length 1 13 2 16.5 3 19 4 21 5 23 Diseases of Rainbow Trout\r#\rRainbow trout are susceptible to enteric redmouth disease, but this does not affect humans. Rainbow trout can get other diseases that are common to all fish.\nHow Does Rainbow Trout Taste?\r#\rWild and farmed fish have different flavors based on what they are eating.\nWild rainbow trout eat more shrimp, crawfish and flies and many find these taste more appealing. In aquaponics, you can feed your trout crickets, worms, black soldier flies, tubifex worms, and commercial foods as a supplement to adjust the taste of the fish.\nFlesh can be red/orange or white/yellowish. The red/orange flesh color comes from high levels of Astaxanthin which is a powerful antioxidant. The red/orange flesh has a stronger fish flavor.\nThe size of the fish also determines the intensity of the fish taste. Rainbow trout are of edible size within 6 months, but these will be smaller fish that weigh around 1 pound and will not have the intense flavor of older fish.\nRainbow Trout Temperatures\r#\rAquaponics tend to need water higher than 68 degrees for plant growth, and trout need water temperatures that vary between species:\nSpecies Low Temp Ideal Low Ideal High Max Temp Max Age pH Min pH Max Brook Trout 36F ?? F ?? F 59F 24y ? ? Rainbow Trout 36F 45 F 65 F 71F 11y 6 8.5 Sea Trout 65F ?? F ?? F 75F 38y ? ? Lake Trout 36F ?? F ?? F 61F 7y ? ? Brown Trout 36F ?? F ?? F 61F 8y ? ? Some fingerlings can take up to 80F water, but adults cannot.\nMeasure water temperature at the middle/bottom of the tank and at the surface. Average the temperatures, and take temperatures at various times of the day. Know that water will be 5 degrees warmer/colder than ambient temperature.\nUsing my temperature chart for Mesa, AZ\nThis tells me that if I want to harvest trout, my realistic growing season is probably from October (Fingerlings only) to April. In May if I have unharvested rainbow trout, they will likely die. If I have a hot month in April, I might lose trout there too.\nBecause it takes at least 6 months to grow a fingerling to plate size, I might have a bunch of small fish if I try Rainbow Trout.\nTrout like fast moving high oxygenated water. As water temperature goes up, dissolved oxygen goes down.\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/fish/trout/rainbow-trout-in-aquaponics/","section":"Fish","summary":"Rainbow trout are related to salmons and are sometimes called salmon trout. Some species can live in sea water or fresh water. This article explains some of the basic information needed to harvest Rainbow trout in your aquaponics system.\n","title":"Rainbow Trout in Aquaponics","type":"fish"},{"content":"It’s unsettling to me that people eat meat from stores, but fail to make the connection that meat comes from animals. I plan on raising rabbits for meat, as I’m not a huge meat eater. Here are my notes on breeding rabbits to eat and how it works together with aquaponics systems.\nLet me start by saying these are my research notes for when I have rabbits for meat. I have not completed the hutch yet, but will as soon as I can make sure the rabbits won’t be overheated.\nRabbits produce 6 times as much meat for the same amount of food and water as a cow. Rabbits also take up a very small space comparatively to other types of livestock. For this reason, I plan on using rabbits for meat and as a method of self sustainability. I also want my children to know where meat comes from and to respect the cycle of life. I feel that as a society we are too distanced from the things that we depend on and as a result do not appreciate the very basic principles of life.\nRabbit Terms\r#\rKnowing the vocabulary will help as you learn more about rabbits. Here are some common rabbit terms that you will encounter:\nKit A young rabbit Fryer 70-90 days of age, weight 3-5lb Roaster 90-180 days of age, weight 5-8lb Stewer 180+ days of age, weight over 8lb Buck A male rabbit Doe A female rabbit Coney An old rabbit Hutch A Rabbit cage Cull To “remove” the rabbit (eat, destroy, trade, etc). Fostering Putting rabbits from one litter into another doe’s litter if the litter is too large, or if the original mother rejected them. Cecotropes Poop that rabbits eat directly from their anus. It looks like mucus covered grapes. Weaned The age that a rabbit stops nursing, usually 6-8 weeks.\nBreeds of Meat Rabbits\r#\rThe New Zealand White and Californian are the most popular meat breeds, but there are at least 40 other breeds too. The rabbit will produce slightly more than half of it’s body weight in meat when harvested. Here is a list of some of the most recommended breeds for the backyard rabbit keeper.\n| Image | Breed Name | Weight\nNew Zealand White 10lbs Californian 8.5lbs charcoal ranges Beveren 9.5lbs Palomino 9.5lbs Florida White 5lbs Chinchilla 3lbs Credit for images goes to wikipedia.org\nBreeds of Fur Rabbits\r#\rI do not intend to raise rabbits for fur personally, however, I wanted list the breeds that are commonly used for fur:\nPalomino Satin Chinchilla Rex Value of Rabbit Meat\r#\rI don’t plan to sell my rabbit meat, but I’ve read that if you are selling meat to a processor, they prefer white rabbits over colored ones, and most will not accept fryers older than 11 weeks.\nWhat do Rabbits Taste Like\r#\rI’ve heard they taste like chicken but have more firm texture. The meat is considered all white meat. I’ll update this post once I taste my first harvest.\nIs Rabbit Meat Healthy?\r#\rLook at this comparison chart for nutritional information about how rabbit meat compares to other types of meat. Measurements are on 1 pound of meat. Where possible, all data came from ground meat instead of select meat.\nMeat Cholesterol Calories Fat Protein Rabbit 742mg 624 25g 91g Chicken 996mg 569 32g 65g Veal ??mg 653 31g 88g Lamb 1132mg 1279 106g 75g Turkey ??mg 559 31g 65g Lean Beef 1041 947 62g 90g Pork 1041 1193 96g 76g What do Rabbits Eat?\r#\rHere is a list of the types of hay racks (cut into 4 inch lengths) that rabbits do well with:\nAlfalfa (though be careful of alfalfa adding too much calcium to the diet) Coastal Hay Timothy Hay Vetch Cow Peas Dried bread and crust Vegetable parings and tops Any type of root vegetable Prepared rabbit pellet foods Whole grain Too much greens all at once might cause diarrhea if your rabbit is not accustomed to this. Hay helps rabbits to get rid of their hairballs.\nA doe and litter will consume a clean gallon of water per day.\nAdult rabbits require 12% protein in their diet. Nursing mothers and growing fryers need 20% protein.\nAllow your fryers to eat as much as they can so they grow fast, but only feed adults about 3-6 ounces of pellets a day. A pregnant female needs 5-10 ounches a day. Nursing mothers may need as much as 20 ounces per day.\nYou can feed your rabbits scraps from root vegetables, but you will want their main source of food to be either a perfect balance of the proper hay, or store bought pellets. The pellets are going to be easier for the person just starting to raise rabbits for meat, and if your protein mixture isn’t just right, you will actually have a poor harvest on your rabbits.\nHow Often do Rabbits Reproduce\r#\rTwo does and a buck will make 40-50 rabbits per year at 3lbs each. Any doe that does not produce 36 fryers per year (six litters of six fryers each), should likely be culled and replaced for maximum profit. After 5 to 6 years rabbits will stop producing as much and should be culled and replaced.\nDay What happens 1 Put buck with doe until the doe is pregnant. 27-29 Provide a nest box for your doe 2-33 Gestation 33 Kindling – Litter of 6-9 is born 34 Check the nest box for any part of the litter that is dead, and remove it 33-75 Young Nurse and grow 76 Young are moved to separate hutch. Make sure the doe gets 2 weeks rest. 77-117 Eat/Process all young in this time period 90 Make sure young bucks are separate from does. Your breeders are ready again. You can eat the rabbits up to 8 months old, but if you wait this long the cost and food consumption of them is not profitable.\nOlder rabbits (3-4 years) make a good stew and their skins are worth more than fryers.\nRabbits can inbreed without issue most of the time. Take young does from the litter to the same buck without problems. It’s good to trade or buy a new buck about every 3 years.\nRabbit Hutches\r#\rHere are some key points to remember about rabbits:\nRabbits can stand cold, but not extreme heat Rabbits need clean water all day Cool, Leafy shade is great for rabbits Rabbits do not like to be soaked, it can kill them. You will need to clean the hutch once a week In cold weather, group 8 lbs of rabbits per cage and cover with a blanket Total Size A hutch for backyard production will take about 3′ by 10′ Minimum Per Buck or Doe At a minimum you will want at least 3′ long, 2 1/2′ deep and 1 1/2′ high for each buck or doe. Hutch Frame Wood can be used as the outer frame, but it cannot be exposed to the rabbits as they will chew it. Wood might be harder to clean though too as it absorbs urine and will have a . Types of Hutch Wire Large chicken type wire can be used on the walls, but 1/2″ x 1″ or similar should be used for the cage bottoms to protect your rabbit’s feet. Door to Hutch You need an opening that allows you to easily reach everywhere in the hutch, and to add/remove a nesting box (14″ is suggested) Galvanized Wire 14guage 1/2″ by 1″ wire that is galvanized after weld is preferred.\nHow to Cool Rabbits\r#\rRabbits can withstand up to -20F if there are no drafts, but above 85F-90F, most rabbits will die. Domesticated rabbits prefer 50-70F though, and if temperatures are too high, your bucks will not have a high sperm count. There are several methods of keeping your rabbits cool:\nKeep rabbits in the shade Bury wire mesh into the ground several feet and use this as your rabbit hutch Mist (2 feet away, not directly on) your rabbits. If they stay wet for more than a few hours, flystrike could result. Swamp coolers Fans under the rabbit hutch, not through it Bottles of ice for the rabbits to lay on House them indoors Rabbit Diseases\r#\rTularemia (rabbit fever) is the only known disease that pass from rabbits to humans, but the feces can contain e. coli and salmonella. Tularemia symptoms in a rabbit would be shown as the rabbit acting “ill”, lethargic, swollen lymph nodes, and fever. Cooking the meat kills the bacteria that causes this.\nRabbits can get several diseases that cannot pass to humans, most of which is best to simply cull the sick animal to protect the rest of the herd. Disease can quickly spread and kill the rest of your herd. The common diseases to rabbits are:\nsnuffles weepy eye enteritis coccidiosis mastitis sore hocks wry neck malocclusion rabbit hemorrhagic disease What is Edible\r#\rI’m not sure without tasting each of the parts of rabbit, but here is a breakdown of edible meat and usuable parts from the rabbits:\n4 lb rabbit produces 2 lbs of eating meat Liver can be chopped into a sandwich spread Kidneys can be sliced and fried Innards or other portions can be fed to dogs and pigs Rabbit manure is high quality and can go directly into your vegetable garden – without burning plants Rabbit manure can drop into your worm bin directly from the hutch for great compost Rabbit fur can be used obviously Rabbit feet can be sold as good luck charms Rabbit Manure Composition\r#\rThis was found on http://www.ardengrabbit.com\n% Chemical 2.20% Nitrogen 0.87% Phosphorus 2.30% Potassium 0.36% Sulfur 1.26% Calcium 0.40% Magnesium Dangers of Warm Blood Feces in Aquaponics\r#\rThese are all excellent things to put into your aquaponics system; however, if you do have your rabbit cage on top of your aquaponics system, you will also need to be careful of bacteria like e. coli and salmonella. Worms love rabit manure, and a worm farm setup directly under your rabbits might be another alternative to cleaning up the massive amount of manure that rabbits will produce.\nHow to Buy Healthy Rabbits\r#\rYou cannot truly tell if a rabbit is healthy before you buy it, but here are some things that might give you clues as you inspect the buyer’s rabbit production:\nCages clean? Other rabbits appear healthy? Sufficient food and water? Is there odor? Are flies under control? Are rabbits from same environment that you will place them? Is it old? Why is it being sold then? Cull? Are the insides of ears scabby (mites)? Are hocks and feet free of sores? Nose shouldn’t be wet, runny, or crusty droppings should be firm and round Does have 8 nipples Do the parents have meaty back legs? If your rabbits get sores on their feet, place a small 6″x10″ board where they can rest, away from their favorite pooping corners.\nHow to Pick Up a Rabbit\r#\rDon’t pick up a rabbit by it’s ears. Instead grab it gently but firmly by the scruff of the neck and scoop up under it’s bottom, supporting most of the weight on it’s feet in your hand. Be careful that it does not jump from your arms or scratch and claw if it’s not docile or used to being held.\nRabbit Resources\r#\rhttp://exclusivelyrabbits.blogspot.com\nhttp://www.aarabbits.com/rabbit-breeders-directory.html\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/homesteading/rabbits/raising-rabbits-for-meat/","section":"Homesteadings","summary":"It’s unsettling to me that people eat meat from stores, but fail to make the connection that meat comes from animals. I plan on raising rabbits for meat, as I’m not a huge meat eater. Here are my notes on breeding rabbits to eat and how it works together with aquaponics systems.\n","title":"Raising Rabbits for Meat","type":"homesteading"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/recipes/","section":"Recipes","summary":"","title":"Recipes","type":"recipes"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/seeds/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"","title":"Seeds","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"Need to know how many square feet that 5 gallon bucket holds, or how many square feet that 55 gallon barrel lid holds?\nArea of a Circle\r#\rSQF of a bucket\r#\rIt is recommended that you have at least 54 sqf of growing space for each adult if you plan on providing 100% of edibles from your garden. So how many sqf does a bucket hold? Assuming you have 12 inches of depth:\nπ x radius ² / 144\nor\n3.141592653589 * 5.75 * 5.75 / 144 = 0.69 SQF\nHrm, looks like you’ll need about 79 buckets to get 54 sqf. I suggest not to go this route.\nSQF of a 55 Gallon Lid\r#\r#\rThere is a neat demo unit made from a single 55 gallon barrel and we even offer the plans to you for free. Again assume that you have 12 inches deep, and let’s see how many of these we need to reach our 54sqf of grow bed goal: π x radius ² / 144 or 3.141592653589 * 11.5 * 11.5 / 144 = 2.89 SQF each, or about 19 55 gallon barrel tops! On the other hand, 54sqf fits nicely in a 9 by 6 feet rectangle….\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-calculations/sqf-calculation-of-a-cylinder/","section":"Aquaponics Calculations","summary":"Need to know how many square feet that 5 gallon bucket holds, or how many square feet that 55 gallon barrel lid holds?\nArea of a Circle\r#\r","title":"SQF Calculation of a Cylinder","type":"aquaponics-calculations"},{"content":"Notes on Sulfur Deficiency in Plants:\nSulfur is a macronutrient. Symptoms: Old growth is green, but new growth is pale yellow all over. Lower fruit production. Sources: Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) Notes: More often a problem in weather that is dry. Sulfur protects against some types of fungus. Sulfur isn’t used in germination. Sulfur helps with deterioration of the seed casing, but this does not apply to aquaponics. Embryonic roots use sulfur to grow strong. Lowers pH, which is good for peppers. Warning: Commercial fertilizers might add heavy metals, or other chemicals that will poison your fish and possibly you.\nPhoto Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorosis\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/plant-nutrient-deficiency/sulfur-deficiency-in-plants/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"Notes on Sulfur Deficiency in Plants:\nSulfur is a macronutrient. Symptoms: Old growth is green, but new growth is pale yellow all over. Lower fruit production. Sources: Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) Notes: More often a problem in weather that is dry. Sulfur protects against some types of fungus. Sulfur isn’t used in germination. Sulfur helps with deterioration of the seed casing, but this does not apply to aquaponics. Embryonic roots use sulfur to grow strong. Lowers pH, which is good for peppers. Warning: Commercial fertilizers might add heavy metals, or other chemicals that will poison your fish and possibly you.\n","title":"Sulfur Deficiency in Plants","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"\rWhat is Your Reason for Aquaponics?\r#\rOne time I asked a group of family members where meat comes from. Their joyful and dead serious response was “Wal-Mart”\r. Without humor I say that the most people do not make the association between our food and how it is produced. Many people are happy to eat meat, but don’t want to know where it actually comes from. I love an occasional bacon cheeseburger. Every time I eat meat I pause and have gratitude that I’m able to eat meat, and also that this animal gave it’s life for me. Aquaponics helps me (and hopefully others), to make the association with meat I eat and respect for the life that was given for me to enjoy it.\nI feel that it is our responsibility as a society to encourage self-sustaining technologies in all aspects of our life, as much as possible.\nAside from the actual responsibility as a human to conserve and be self-sufficient, aquaponics has become an almost spiritual experience for me. It is saddening to think that only 1 in the 3 families in the world have at least 1 meal per day. Can you imagine that kind of poverty? We would easily be there if the “Wal-Marts” could not keep up with our demands, or if climate changed just a few degrees cooler or warmer. We take for granted the abundance that most of us have known our entire lives. The more people that know about aquaponics and self-sufficiency, the better we are insulated from global collapse.\nAquaponics Works! It’s Easy!\r#\rOnly a few years ago I had black thumbs and couldn’t grow dirt. Now, I feel like anything is possible, and I look forward to seeing the progress and learning about how the natural systems operate more than I look forward to most other things. I cannot express the joy it gives to suddenly be able to grow things. Mark Twain said, “When a man carries a cat by the tail, he learns something he can learn no other way” – you have to build an AP system to truly experience it!\nOverfishing and Ecological Awareness\r#\rLast week I read another article about jelly fish taking over the oceans because of overfishing. A few weeks earlier I read that we currently have the ability to completely overfish the oceans by as much as nine times more than it can reproduce.\nDoesn’t anyone else see the danger here? We cannot go on forever without technologies like aquaponics as alternatives. We are requiring more food than we can produce.\nI do not want to actually research in detail (because of how depressing it is), the facts about overfishing and the global ecological impact of an ocean without a balance. However, I can put a positive spin on what I feel is soon to be at least a change in global ecosystems by learning and teaching everything I can about aquaponics.\nThe amazing part about aquaponics is how crystal clear the actual problem of an out of balance ecosystem becomes. If you have more plants than fish, the plants have insufficient nutrition and die. If you have more fish than plants, the waste can’t be processed and the fish choke and die.\nSelf Sufficiency\r#\rThe final reason (that I have not accomplished yet), is to actually be self-sufficient and have a lower food bill. I believe that in my lifetime, we will witness the quality and cost of food change drastically. I see food production as a barter tool, insurance against the changes that are coming (climate changes, food prices), and freedom of choice in what I eat (GMO, food selection, nutrition).\nThere is a great joy in knowing that you can provide at least some of your own income, food, and resources and have something of value to trade to others. Pre-WW II, homesteading and providing for yourself was a way of life and common place. It seems we have forgotten many basic skills in the hopes that the industrial age and government will always provide.\nEvery fiber of my being tells me this is not safe to trust the government to provide! It’s easy to see that the government will simply keep feeding itself and raising taxes until society collapses or people decide to make drastic change.\nWho is paying for cell phones for welfare victims? Why are we destroying healthy crops simply for government incentives? Who pays for the free education, etc. Eventually the people who work and pay the majority of the tax burden will not be willing to keep paying for those who do not work. My Grandfather says, “if everyone is riding on the wagon, who will push it?” I think it’s a great analogy and a clear insight to where we are headed.\nPerhaps also, it’s convenient to buy a dozen eggs at Wal-Mart as needed, I agree. But if they cut off the beaks of the chickens, fed them unhealthy doses of chemicals to fight off infections from unsanitary conditions, and forced them to live in a cage barely as large as themselves – does this make the eggs guilt free? I can’t eat eggs now or other animal products without at least considering how the product was made. I know many people don’t care, and I’m not a vegetarian either. I simply am more aware now of these types of issues than I’ve ever been in my life and this is one of the ways I can make a difference on a budget regardless of political plays and regulations.\nEven when I am grateful for my food, I add that I am grateful for the life that was given for me to enjoy the meal. It’s a simple, but significant shift in world view.\nAll of this assumes that Wal-Marts will actually have food. Where does that food come from? We currently do not produce enough food to feed ourselves as a country (in the USA). What happens as this problem becomes worse as population continue to grow and agriculture land decreases?\nAquaponics Creates Family Memories\r#\rI’ve had many opportunities to connect with my son and daughter as we build projects, learn things, solve problems, and discuss biology, chemistry, botany, electricity, solar power, energy conservation, natural systems, toxins, ecosystems, nutrition and more. Every day is like science class with the best lab and students I could possibly imagine. It is my sincere hope that the memories and knowledge we are sharing last a lifetime for them. I personally find great joy in sharing this with my son, his friends, family members, and anyone that has a remote interest.\nSo… what is Your reason for Aquaponics? Speak up!\r#\r","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-basics/the-reason-for-aquaponics/","section":"Aquaponics Basics","summary":"What is Your Reason for Aquaponics?\r#\rOne time I asked a group of family members where meat comes from. Their joyful and dead serious response was “Wal-Mart”\r. Without humor I say that the most people do not make the association between our food and how it is produced. Many people are happy to eat meat, but don’t want to know where it actually comes from. I love an occasional bacon cheeseburger. Every time I eat meat I pause and have gratitude that I’m able to eat meat, and also that this animal gave it’s life for me. Aquaponics helps me (and hopefully others), to make the association with meat I eat and respect for the life that was given for me to enjoy it.\n","title":"The Reason for Aquaponics","type":"aquaponics-basics"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/timers-and-autosiphons/","section":"Timers And Autosiphons","summary":"","title":"Timers And Autosiphons","type":"timers-and-autosiphons"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/fish/trout/","section":"Fish","summary":"","title":"Trout","type":"fish"},{"content":"When deciding or planning what types of fish and plants to run in your aquaponics system, the USDA Hardiness Zone tells information that is helpful to knowing what and when to plant.\nUSDA Hardiness Zone has other information, but here is a summary of the USDA Hardiness Zone for Mesa, AZ, which is Zone 9a:\nUSDA Hardiness Zone: Zone 9a: 20F to 25F PlantMaps Hardiness Zone: Zone 9a: 20F to 25F Days Where Temp Exceeds 86°F: 151 – 180 days Ecoregion: Freeze Data: Average First Frost December 1 – 10 Average Last Frost: February 11 – 20 Current Drought Data: Drought Conditions: Normal Palmer Drought Index: -1.20 Precip Needed to End Drought: 1.41 |\nLocal Climate Data Mon Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Ann |\nPlanting Based on Hardiness Zone\r#\rNow that you know your general temperature range, you can plan your crops. http://www.gardenate.com/?zone=115 is a list of things that should grow and when to plant in Mesa, AZ. What is your zone?\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/usda-hardiness-zone/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"When deciding or planning what types of fish and plants to run in your aquaponics system, the USDA Hardiness Zone tells information that is helpful to knowing what and when to plant.\n","title":"USDA Hardiness Zone","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/vegetables/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"","title":"Vegetables","type":"aquaponics-plants"},{"content":"Knowing how much water your tanks hold is very important in aquaponics. Here is the formula for calculating water volume in a cylinder tank.\nHow to Calculate the Volume of Water in a Rectangle\r#\rThere are many commercial grow tanks or even homemade welded cylinders that you might have access to, however we are going to use the measurements of a 55 gallon barrel to demonstrate. I default to these numbers to show you the example, but you can enter any numbers you want for your specifics.\nDimensions of 2 types of 55 Gallon Barrels\r#\rThere are 2 types of 55 gallon barrels, feel free to try both measurements.\n55 Gallon Open Barrel The open barrels are a bit higher and skinnier and measure 23.8W x 37.7H (inches) outside diameter.\n55 Gallon Closed Barrel The closed barrels measure 23.3W x 34.9H (inches) outside diamter.\nThe Formula for Volume of a Cylinder\r#\rThe formula for volume of a cylinder is Π * Radius ² * Height.\nEstimation of Inside Measurements\r#\rTo make things more accurate, neither of these cylinders are true cylinders, but more like ovals (subtract 1.25 inches). And we need to account for the size of the walls (subtract half inch from top and sides) and none of the barrels are actually filled to the very brim and the height includes the upper support ring which does not hold water (minus 3 inches).\nSo, the estimate using these numbers on a 55 gallon barrel drum with modified dimensions of 23.8 -1.25 -.5 = 22.05 (11.025 radius), and 37.7 -3 -.5 = height of 34.2 inches\nI have seen grow beds an tanks made from a welded sheet of aluminum then lined and painted on the inside to make a perfect cylinder. This calculation would be perfect for that type of tank!\nCylinder Volume Calculator\r#\rFirst, we need to get the cubic inches (Radius is half of diameter): Inside Radius (inches) Inside Height (inches) Cubic Inches Now we convert to cubic feet (cubic inches x 0.000578704) Cubic Feet To calculate gallons, we multiply cubic feet by 7.47: Gallons (Water only) To figure out how much this weighs (and if your subfloor can support the weight), we multiply 8.34 (freshwater weight of 1 gallon) x how many gallons: Weight (only the weight of the water) Note that if you are using this in grow beds, you will likely only get half or less of the water you plan for into the grow bed, the rest is filled with media (like gravel or hydroton). |\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-calculations/water-volume-calculation-formula-of-a-cylinder/","section":"Aquaponics Calculations","summary":"Knowing how much water your tanks hold is very important in aquaponics. Here is the formula for calculating water volume in a cylinder tank.\nHow to Calculate the Volume of Water in a Rectangle\r#\rThere are many commercial grow tanks or even homemade welded cylinders that you might have access to, however we are going to use the measurements of a 55 gallon barrel to demonstrate. I default to these numbers to show you the example, but you can enter any numbers you want for your specifics.\n","title":"Water Volume Calculation Formula of a Cylinder","type":"aquaponics-calculations"},{"content":"Knowing how much water your tanks hold is very important in aquaponics. Here are the formulas for calculating water volume in a rectangle grow beds.\nHow to Calculate the Volume of Water in a Rectangle\r#\rI am using a sheet of Firestone 10 X 15 Liner-45mil EPDM. I cut that in half for 2 sheets, and then build rectangle troughs or grow beds out of them. The measurements are approximately 30″ wide x 150″ long x 12″ deep. I default to these numbers to show you the example, but you can enter any numbers you want for your specifics.\nFirst, we need to get the cubic inches (wide x long x deep): Width (inches) Length (inches) Depth (inches) Cubic Inches Now we convert to cubic feet (cubic inches x 0.000578704) Cubic Feet To calculate gallons, we multiply cubic feet by 7.47: Gallons (Water only) Gallons (Water + Grow Media) To figure out how much this weighs (and if your subfloor can support the weight), we multiply 8.34 (freshwater weight of 1 gallon) x how many gallons: Weight (only the weight of the water) Note that if you are using this in grow beds, you will likely only get half of the water you plan for into the grow bed, the rest is filled with media (like gravel or hydroton). |\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-calculations/water-volume-calculation-formula-of-a-rectangle/","section":"Aquaponics Calculations","summary":"Knowing how much water your tanks hold is very important in aquaponics. Here are the formulas for calculating water volume in a rectangle grow beds.\nHow to Calculate the Volume of Water in a Rectangle\r#\rI am using a sheet of Firestone 10 X 15 Liner-45mil EPDM. I cut that in half for 2 sheets, and then build rectangle troughs or grow beds out of them. The measurements are approximately 30″ wide x 150″ long x 12″ deep. I default to these numbers to show you the example, but you can enter any numbers you want for your specifics.\n","title":"Water Volume Calculation Formula of a Rectangle","type":"aquaponics-calculations"},{"content":"If you plan on trading, or selling any of your crop you might want to figure out what has the most value. If you only intend to eat your crop, then grow whatever you like! Here are some of the crops that are worth more in the Mesa AZ area:\nhttp://ag.arizona.edu has information on intensive gardening, and they say the following are the most valuable crops for this area, for the small space farmer:\nTop Aquaponics Vegetables in Economic Value (Single Season):\r#\rTomatoes Leaf lettuce Cucumbers Peppers Summer squash Broccoli Edible pod peas Head lettuce Swiss chard Beans (pole, bush) Top Raised Bed or Dirt Vegetables in Economic Value (Single Season):\r#\rOnion storage bulbs Turnip (green + roots) Beets Green bunching onions Carrots Other Valuable Crops Considering Long Term:\r#\rFruit producing trees and shrubs Asparagus Rhubarb Horseradish Exotic Fruits Values based on pounds produced per square foot, retail value per pound at harvest time, and length of time in the garden.\nLow-Value Crops Not Recommended for the Small Space Farmer:\r#\rCorn Squash Melons Pumpkins Miniature varieties or trellising may increase value per square foot.\nDirt vegetables are listed because I plan on putting fish emulsion from the swirl filters onto the raised dirt beds. Anything with a bulb (onions, beets, horseradish, potatoes, etc), will grow in aquaponics, but the bulb may never form because everything is so wet. If it does form, it might rot. I’ve seen others growing carrots, but they come out the shape of apples, so I don’t think that will be appealing for resale.\nIn your aquaponics system you can grow almost anything (check your hardiness zone to make sure frost won’t kill it though). I plan on growing things that my neighbors would find valuable/desireable so we can trade for their fruit trees, etc. Until I have excess, I’m only growing things I like… and turnips won’t be one of them!\n","date":"20 February 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/aquaponics-plants/which-crop-is-most-valuable/","section":"Aquaponics Plants","summary":"If you plan on trading, or selling any of your crop you might want to figure out what has the most value. If you only intend to eat your crop, then grow whatever you like! Here are some of the crops that are worth more in the Mesa AZ area:\n","title":"Which Crop is Most Valuable?","type":"aquaponics-plants"}]