My pilot project Francois

[Francois Lemmer]

I started messing around with tilapia 2006-2010

2010 - the end of july i had to take  my system down

i am currently trying to get a piece of property to set up a scaled system.

basickly i dont have a system that is running

but i want to share my last 4 years with aquaponics

with members.......

 

[Francois Lemmer]

Yes sir the green screen is over my outlet and made of plastic mesh.

Normally this mesh is used for creeping plants,

[Francois Lemmer]

 

hi all

update on my plants and fish

the plants are doing ok but i had to add iron and some epson salt for magnesium

i have also been spraying the plants with brewed worm tea...

i bought a better quality kio food and with this i feed the fish worms +-3-4 times a day

the fish are happy

i am happy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the duckweed

 

[Francois Lemmer]

Hi all
A few photos of my plants...
The plants are still in the baskets and are too big to replant
The seedling roots you can see outside the plastic basket
Spinach cabbage lettuce tomato

 

 

 

 

11/9

3/10

[Francois Lemmer]

Hi All
The system running fine, the plants are happy, the duckweed has filled the bottom two trays to more than a 3rd…doing very well and summer is only beginning.
The plants I have been spraying with brewed worm tea once a week and the fish I have been feeding worms and (+-25 grams per day) Kio pellets.
In the worm filter/sump the worms are doing well and I am finding eggs in the media
So up to now I am very happy with the progress I have made…slow but ….getting there
Yust me thinking

[Francois Lemmer]

Hi All
I went into reverse gear for a bit.
I found a water snail in my top grow tray’s in the water 3 days ago and after looking for more…man what a %$##@$%^^%$#$%%...lots of snails, eggs and baby’s…lots. I stripped out the 2 top trays and washed/scrubbed them and put them back. So the 2 top trays are clean for now….
I am busy taking the plants out of the stones and washing the roots, cleaning them checking for the snails and then replanting them into my new way of doing things…lot less and lighter work. I have never grown plants this way so I will see how it goes. Under the polystyrene I want to still ad HDPE cutting witch I have but have not had the guts to clean…
In the bottom 2 trays there are some snails but not as bad as the top trays were.
In the bottom trays with the duckweed I want to add snail eating fish to keep them under control and the top I will watch and try to control. Reading up on the snails is an eye opener and if I had to start again I would really do things different. Once in a system it is very difficult to get rid of.
To clean the system means starting from scratch and cleaning everything.

These snails come from the duckweed I never quarantined and that was very stupid even if I have to say so myself. I can kick myself. This is a 1st of this type of problem so very new to me.
I will see if I manage their numbers….but………

[TCLynx]

My systems have always had snails.  As far as I can tell the snails are not hurting anything in my systems so I've generally ignored them.

The only thing I really don't like about the snails is their shells are the perfect size/shape for blocking spray bars and the little spray caps for my tower feeds.  So other than that, they have not been a problem in my system.  I think my fish eat them in the fish tanks.

[Francois Lemmer]

TCL ill take your advice...i dont want to start from scratch...will if i have to but for now i will add the snail eaters in my duckweed trays and i will try and keep check in the top trays

TCLynx said:

My systems have always had snails.  As far as I can tell the snails are not hurting anything in my systems so I've generally ignored them.

The only thing I really don't like about the snails is their shells are the perfect size/shape for blocking spray bars and the little spray caps for my tower feeds.  So other than that, they have not been a problem in my system.  I think my fish eat them in the fish tanks.

[Francois Lemmer]

Hi All
Today I finished of my rafts and planted some of the plants that come out of the baskets…quiet damaged but for now o.k. still have the spinach in the basket to plant out. I have sort of prepared for this so I have new seed that I have planted coming up and I will add them in stages but I think for now I must keep some of the bigger plants in the system to do what they have too.
I have planted beans and peppers in bags with stones and they are doing ok.
Even the peppers are growing well….I had them in media in seedling trays but they came up and then stopped growing…I was going to dump them because they were not getting bigger and then thought to put them in the system and see what happens…3 days later I could see the difference so now I have kept a few plant in the system.
The rafts were easy to make and I used a steel cup to burn my holes…worked like a dream.
I then used the inside that I burnt out…added a tapered hole and these went back into the holes
I made and I think they can work well for lettuce…..I will try them now with the new seedlings.
Getting there slowly…the fish happy….I’m happy

stainless cup

small camping gas stove for the heating

inside of cup tapered

i heated this planting tool for the smaller hole

 

[Averan]

water snails have not caused any trouble for my fish or plants.  the only negative, as TC mentioned, is that they'll clog inlets, screens and nozzles, but then so does fish poo.  the benefit, is that they will consume excess algae and fish food and even fish waste and further break it down into food for the bacteria.

[Francois Lemmer]

Hi All

Update on my system

Plants doing very well and look healthy …..peppers and beans (white healthy root systems)

I have 2 different age beans in the system and today I planted a third batch of beans…

The 1st batch planted 10 10 2011

The 2nd batch planted 23 10 2011

The 3rd planted today 1 11 2011

The peppers have been in the system from 11 9 2011

The fish I have started feeding duckweed/worms and pellet +- 30 grams per day

31/7/2011 I added the first fish in the system…so the system has been going for 3 months.

So far I have added iron 3.5 grams every +-21 days…… total so far 7 grams

Epson salt 50 grams +- 30 days……total so far 100 grams

Worm tea I brew once a week and now adding directly into my system before my outflow into the grow trays

Getting there slowly…the fish happy….I’m happy

 

1st batch beans

 

2nd batch

 

 

in the background i have some plants that i saved from the baskets and replanted them into the system

[Francois Lemmer]

Hi All

Rekords of my system from day 1I

From this you can see what I have added how much and when....not 100% but very close to actual
I have been watching the plant growth and that seems fine for now…very new system
The ph....I check every now and then....has stayed constant
The fish are eating and happy, the worms in my worm sump are good.
The duckweed is doing well….
Yust me thinking

[Safwat Zaki]

 

Hi Francisco,

Thank you for sharing your experience with your AP system, unfortunately the chart is not clear to me! can you tell us how much nitrate you get now since you started last July?

What's the size of the fish tank and how may koi in it?