Growing algae on purpose.

[Daniel Driscoll]

Hi,

 I was pondering the idea of having a algae farm replace some or all of my indoor growbeds. I dont really eat my veggies. That may change because I just had a batch of lettuce not bolt. But, im just planting to remove nitrates. I saw a video of a algae scrubber, which is basically a hanging screen that has a spray bar over it and lamps on it in a five gal bucket. It was being used as a filter for a aquarium. I imagined having several of these, plus a spare that would allow for swapping them out and placing it into the fish tank for the tilapia to clean.  Something tells me that if this was feasible someone in aquaculture would be doing it. Oxygen depletion is also a concern. Thanks for reading.

[Michelle Silva]

lol. this is funny, I'm not eating my fish..would be great if we lived near each other! I really only got into AP because wanted to grow hydroponically in an organic way and it seemed to make the most economical sense after looking at the costs of organic hydro fertilizer!

 

[Edward Pozek]

Honestly if you're just planning on using your alage to feed your fish I would personally just remove some or all of your clay grow media and plant duckweed in its place. That way it'll work to remove nitrates while providing you with some fish food. I tend to think the simplest option is the best. 

Thanks for the friend request. I wish you the best luck.

[Daniel Driscoll]

Edward Pozek said:

Honestly if you're just planning on using your alage to feed your fish I would personally just remove some or all of your clay grow media and plant duckweed in its place. That way it'll work to remove nitrates while providing you with some fish food. I tend to think the simplest option is the best. 

Thanks for the friend request. I wish you the best luck.

 

That is definitly a more simple option. But, i was hoping for something alittle more compact. Probably just a pipe dream. Thanks.

[Alfio Contarino]

Hi Daniel,

Another option is to run it like an aquarium, just have lots of aquatic plants in the tank and they will do the same thing...   But you will also need to aerate it well as aquatic plants at night suck up oxygen, but in the day the produce it and suck up the nitrate.

Just like an aquaponics system it’s all about balance.

[Ron Chiarello]

One advantage to the duckweed solution is that duckweed uses ammonia directly...as a matter of fact it will not use nitrates unless there is little to no ammonia

Daniel Driscoll said:

Edward Pozek said:

Honestly if you're just planning on using your alage to feed your fish I would personally just remove some or all of your clay grow media and plant duckweed in its place. That way it'll work to remove nitrates while providing you with some fish food. I tend to think the simplest option is the best. 

Thanks for the friend request. I wish you the best luck.

 

That is definitly a more simple option. But, i was hoping for something alittle more compact. Probably just a pipe dream. Thanks.

[Rebecca B]

I've seen a system where there were no plants other than the algae in the water.  The small pond was kept constantly at that "pea soup" phase of algal bloom because there was no shade.  The water was pumped to a 600 gallon tank with gravel on the bottom (that also had fish) and then back to the pond via a fountain for aeration.  Tilapia are filter feeders; the algae was their primary food source.  But because of the water quality, the fish were only seen when pellets were thrown to them.