There’s a feature of aquaponics in the current ‘Warm Earth’ Mag.

Anyone here got experience with it? I’m almost convinced.

Feed the fish. Water is pumped from the fishtank to a gravel bed with vegies in it which filters the water. Like a hydroponics bed but no chemicals, just fish waste. Water returns clean and oxygenated to the fish tank. Eat the fish, eat the vegies. Easy to understand the concept.

I’m itchin to give this a try.

Longy said:

There’s a feature of aquaponics in the current ‘Warm Earth’ Mag.

Anyone here got experience with it? I’m almost convinced.

Feed the fish. Water is pumped from the fishtank to a gravel bed with vegies in it which filters the water. Like a hydroponics bed but no chemicals, just fish waste. Water returns clean and oxygenated to the fish tank. Eat the fish, eat the vegies. Easy to understand the concept.

I’m itchin to give this a try.

I have a couple of blogs I lerk in & thay have fish for that reason and the garden/plants do very well.

Good site on that here Longy.
Someone else suggested it to me with my pond. But I,m yet to get into it. And someone to build it,

http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://brainright.com/Aquaponics/aquaponics2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://brainright.com/Aquaponics/index.htm&h=994&w=545&sz=192&hl=en&start=11&tbnid=0bOk4qXxxdEUcM:&tbnh=149&tbnw=82&prev=/images%3Fq%3Daquaponics%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T5GGLL_enAU260AU260

Good site on that here Longy.
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Yes a good’n Potter. I was intersted to see the vertical tubing. I envisioned horizontal pipe. All input is good input. I’m really warming to this idea. So is Mrs. (Lets face it, i’ll figure out how to do it and she’ll actually do it.)Perfect!!!!!

More about ‘how to’ Longy

http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ecosherpa.com/images/aquaponics1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ecosherpa.com/category/urban-farming/&h=298&w=450&sz=37&hl=en&start=5&tbnid=yOMWNzeSkjZ6cM:&tbnh=84&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAquaponics%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T5GGLL_enAU260AU260

Happy Potter said:

More about ‘how to’ Longy

http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ecosherpa.com/images/aquaponics1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ecosherpa.com/category/urban-farming/&h=298&w=450&sz=37&hl=en&start=5&tbnid=yOMWNzeSkjZ6cM:&tbnh=84&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAquaponics%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T5GGLL_enAU260AU260

LOL. looking at this one HP.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~jmalcolm/thumbnails/halfbed.html

it’s an interesting field innit!

Not sure what your looking for, but Dryland has a little set up ……showed it to me one trip up his end of the garden fork.

LOL. looking at this one HP.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~jmalcolm/thumbnails/halfbed.html

it’s an interesting field innit!

That looks fab Longy ! Whats the site ? I don’t know how long I have wanted to set something like this up..forever !

Not sure what your looking for
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Neither am i L1. I’m just interested in the concept. You recall i have an 80,000litre dam which is full of duckshyte. Gotta be a feed in that somewhere.

I especially like this part.. what one could do…the ultimate in recycling and sustainable gardening :D

“When left for a period of time the plants grow very densely. They can easily be pulled out of the gravel and ultimately any unwanted vegetation should be fed to a worm farm, the worms can then be fed to the fish.”

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what’s the site?

http://members.iinet.net.au/~jmalcolm/Gallery2.htm

Longy said:

Not sure what your looking for
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Neither am i L1. I’m just interested in the concept. You recall i have an 80,000litre dam which is full of duckshyte. Gotta be a feed in that somewhere.

Oh yeah….. hhhmmmm got any yabbies in it???

Oh yeah….. hhhmmmm got any yabbies in it???

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Probably. I’ve found them in the drains that lead from it.
It’s full of little native fish but none i’d fillet.
And then there’s duckshyte. Loads of duckshyte.

Longy said:

Oh yeah….. hhhmmmm got any yabbies in it???

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Probably. I’ve found them in the drains that lead from it.
It’s full of little native fish but none i’d fillet.
And then there’s duckshyte. Loads of duckshyte.

With that dam Longy, and aquaponics … I have visions of silverbeet and tomato TREES!!

I have visions of silverbeet and tomato TREES!!
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Yeah well, i best not get ahead of myself but i do like the idea. Like i’ve got nothing else to do. Be nice if i could get a few days off in a row as well!

Well the biggest problemo i can find is that the fish will be cold in Winter, so they won’t eat and they won’t grow and they won’t produce waste so the vegies won’t grow. Heating is expensive.
Hurdle #1 rears its ugly head!

Longy said:

Well the biggest problemo i can find is that the fish will be cold in Winter, so they won’t eat and they won’t grow and they won’t produce waste so the vegies won’t grow. Heating is expensive.
Hurdle #1 rears its ugly head!

what about floating some black sheets of something over some of the dam to create a bit of a solar heat?

bluegreen said:

Longy said:

Well the biggest problemo i can find is that the fish will be cold in Winter, so they won’t eat and they won’t grow and they won’t produce waste so the vegies won’t grow. Heating is expensive.
Hurdle #1 rears its ugly head!

what about floating some black sheets of something over some of the dam to create a bit of a solar heat?

Yeah i’m not going to go straight into a system with the dam BG. Most likely i’ll use a bathtub or similar, a few goldfish and some lettuces or something to see how it all works but it does raise the potential problem of a Winter difficulty. I’m sure i could run a pump (windmill) from the dam to the vegie beds then thru a series of black poly pipes after the water leaves the vegies to heat up the water or something. Just another consideration i guess.

There’s a whole section devoted to it on the Aussies Living Simply forum.

I am doing this on a small scale Longy and while it is successful the evaporation rate (there is another word for it but oldtimers got me) is high. Probably not a problem for you as you are getting good rains I hear. Overall it is successful and fish or yabbies are good to go.
If you check out this link (joel was on GA last year) They have a maker of grow tanks in Brissy if you go that route or the cheaper but recyle way is lots of blue barrels cut in half lengthways. http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/index.php
The dvd and manual Joel sells is definately worth the money and makes the learning easy and explains the whole system well.

Longy said:

Well the biggest problemo i can find is that the fish will be cold in Winter, so they won’t eat and they won’t grow and they won’t produce waste so the vegies won’t grow. Heating is expensive.
Hurdle #1 rears its ugly head!

No probsthe duck goo and native fish, yabbies will do it ok. I’m just using goldfish and the plants do ok in winter. It the bacteria in the gravel that does the work and helps the plants along.

Bubba Louie said:

There’s a whole section devoted to it on the Aussies Living Simply forum.

Thanks Bubba. I’ve found a few other forums and stuff too. I’ll have a gander.

drylander1 said:

I am doing this on a small scale Longy and while it is successful the evaporation rate (there is another word for it but oldtimers got me) is high. Probably not a problem for you as you are getting good rains I hear. Overall it is successful and fish or yabbies are good to go.
If you check out this link (joel was on GA last year) They have a maker of grow tanks in Brissy if you go that route or the cheaper but recyle way is lots of blue barrels cut in half lengthways. http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/index.php
The dvd and manual Joel sells is definately worth the money and makes the learning easy and explains the whole system well.

Thanks DL, that’s one of the sites i’ve been looking at.
MMMM. Yabbies.

duck goo and native fish, yabbies will do it ok.
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Yeah fair enough. I would like to have edible fish at some stage if i was gonna do it. Might start with a small setup in my wormshed, get the gist of it and go from there.