An attempt at Aquaponics in a lake

[Ben Elliott]

Hello, glad I finally found this sight, I am a new member and, boy do I have a lot of questions. I have been reading about aquaponics for some time, and decided I was going to try it in my lake. My lake is 6 acres, is spring fed and full of fish and other wildlife. I would like to make this into a community garden project, open for anyone who would like to participate, but I need to figure out how to make it work first. I have 6 sheets of polystyrene floating, loaded with plants that I started in plant beds. The plants are not growing, roots are growing, but no changes for plants. They do have signs of lack of iron and I know the ph is high. I don't understand the difference from containers to being in the lake. I figured the problem would be with fish and the roots, so I have chicken netting keeping fish from the roots, Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks Ben

[Keith Rowan]

in a lake situation, the natural ecosystem balances out the materials that are concentrated in an aquaponics system..

try testing your lake water with the same type of test kit that ap folks use, measure ph, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.. i would bet that besided the ph, the rest of your readings would be close to zero.. and the plants (most plants that you want to grow in aquaponics) need nitrates..

something i would try (if i had a pond)  would be to "cage culture" some fish, and pull the water for your growbeds from under the cage, where you'd probably have a bit better chance of capturing some nutrients..

 

[Ben Elliott]

I never thought about that, but I bet you are right.  Some how I am going to make this work, at least I am going to give it a heck of a shot, Thanks for the reply. 

Keith Rowan said:

in a lake situation, the natural ecosystem balances out the materials that are concentrated in an aquaponics system..

try testing your lake water with the same type of test kit that ap folks use, measure ph, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.. i would bet that besided the ph, the rest of your readings would be close to zero.. and the plants (most plants that you want to grow in aquaponics) need nitrates..

something i would try (if i had a pond)  would be to "cage culture" some fish, and pull the water for your growbeds from under the cage, where you'd probably have a bit better chance of capturing some nutrients..

 

[TCLynx]

You probably also need lots of extra aeration under the raft beds.

[Alex Zakrisson]

Hello Ben.

I've just read your post in interest, and are curious about, how your system is going.

I am looking into making a aquaponics system based on a semi natural lake with fish and if you have had some interesting findings, I am all ears. :)

Cheers Alex.

[Ben Elliott]

Alex, sorry I can not give you positive info. Nothing I have tried on the lake works, I am to the conclusion that I have to keep the aquaponics system seperate from the lake. The lake is balanced and does not have the nitrates or nitrites that are necessary for plants. I have a large end of the lake that is shallow, I thought maybe if I could seperate if from the main body, maybe that would work, but don't believe it will. There is enough plant life to keep the balance to 0. I am befuzzled that the indians in the past history have had floating beds in lakes with great gardens, don't understand how they did it, but I have not found the key yet. I am about at the place to give up on the lake and go to land based fish ponds and grow beds. If you find out any way to make it happen, I would love to find out. Thank  you for responding.

Alex Zakrisson said:

Hello Ben.

I've just read your post in interest, and are curious about, how your system is going.

I am looking into making a aquaponics system based on a semi natural lake with fish and if you have had some interesting findings, I am all ears. :)

Cheers Alex.

[Glenn]

Greetings Ben,  Community farming and community supported or cooperative farming is intriguing. I applaud  your desire to help your neighbors in such a way.

It reminds me of this video  http://vimeo.com/27493646

Where a vineyard lends the use of their ponds to local farm fishermen who all benefit from the group efforts. If you watch it, it might not seem to be on topic, but If you look deeper, I think you can see how it helps point out a lot of the issues that might face and plan for as you proceed on your project. Good Luck.

Hope this helps. 

[Ben Elliott]

Thanks, I am going to watch right now. Ben
Glenn said:

Greetings Ben,  Community farming and community supported or cooperative farming is intriguing. I applaud  your desire to help your neighbors in such a way.

It reminds me of this video  http://vimeo.com/27493646

Where a vineyard lends the use of their ponds to local farm fishermen who all benefit from the group efforts. If you watch it, it might not seem to be on topic, but If you look deeper, I think you can see how it helps point out a lot of the issues that might face and plan for as you proceed on your project. Good Luck.

Hope this helps. 

[TCLynx]

How the Indians did it was probably because their gardens floating on the lakes were planted in the sediment from the bottom of the lake that was mounded up on top of their rafts.  The sediment probably provided most of the nutrients necessary and the fact that it was floating on the lake kept it irrigated.

Ben Elliott said:

Alex, sorry I can not give you positive info. Nothing I have tried on the lake works, I am to the conclusion that I have to keep the aquaponics system seperate from the lake. The lake is balanced and does not have the nitrates or nitrites that are necessary for plants. I have a large end of the lake that is shallow, I thought maybe if I could seperate if from the main body, maybe that would work, but don't believe it will. There is enough plant life to keep the balance to 0. I am befuzzled that the indians in the past history have had floating beds in lakes with great gardens, don't understand how they did it, but I have not found the key yet. I am about at the place to give up on the lake and go to land based fish ponds and grow beds. If you find out any way to make it happen, I would love to find out. Thank  you for responding.

Alex Zakrisson said:

Hello Ben.

I've just read your post in interest, and are curious about, how your system is going.

I am looking into making a aquaponics system based on a semi natural lake with fish and if you have had some interesting findings, I am all ears. :)

Cheers Alex.

[Paul Smith]

Hi,
I have been growing floating baskets of plants on my fish pond with Great Success.  The difference is, I treat the baskets as wicking beds rather than try to do straight aquaponics.  I use soil and some extra plant nutrients in my baskets, with wicks down into the water.  I know I get some nutrients from the water and some nutrients from the soil I have in the baskets.
You might have to go to a system such as a floating earth box, earthbox.com  .