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.......

 

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Francois,

I think you have amazing ability and creativity. The story you told  before was beautiful and it never died, as the story continues with the new system.Thank you for sharing this with us all! My feeling is that this new system will be even better than the one before, if that is at all possible.

[Francois Lemmer]

I did some more building today....
Looks like another 2-3 hrs then the brickwork complete.
I am thinking of plastering these two walls now because the bricks are build on the narrow side...the plastering will help with the strength of the wall.
I also meant to leave axis holes in the wall to get to the duckweed.....
I will cut them later
Hopefully by the Monday/Tuesday I can start with the assembly of my system…
Eager beaver…..

Almost there......

[Francois Lemmer]

Done...
I finished building the last few rows today.
for my first building experience it does not look to bad.
the outside of these walls I want to plaster and the inside will bag...rough finish

[Francois Lemmer]

The water from the dam.
Top pipes flow into the 2 grow trays and bottom pipes back to pump sump
Then pumped back to the dam
This end is my inflow and outflow side of my system this is the other end

the water from grow trays to duckweed trays

[Francois Lemmer]

Re using my grow trays
4 trays in my system 6500 x 350 x 180
2 grow trays on top and then two duckweed trays bellow

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Francois,

Looks a great job, waiting to see it up and running.

[TCLynx]

How will the duckweed get any light down below like that?  I know duckweed can grow in shade but it seems that such an arrangement might be quite dark.

[Francois Lemmer]

TCLynx said:

How will the duckweed get any light down below like that?  I know duckweed can grow in shade but it seems that such an arrangement might be quite dark.

Morning TCLynx

with my pilot project all my duckweed grew with no sunlight and min light

i  grew my duckweed under thick shadecloth and black plastic.

in the photo you can see some of the black plastic under the shade cloth

I hope i can do the same here.

down the sides of the two walls i will still cut maintenance/light openings in both sides.

[TCLynx]

I must be misunderstanding the diagrams.  I thought you were doing two layers of grow trays with the bottom ones under the top ones with only a few windows in the bricks to harvest duckweed from the bottom trays that would be like in a cave.

[Francois Lemmer]

Hi TCLynx

what you see and say is correct....like a cave with windows

 

TCLynx said:

I must be misunderstanding the diagrams.  I thought you were doing two layers of grow trays with the bottom ones under the top ones with only a few windows in the bricks to harvest duckweed from the bottom trays that would be like in a cave.

[Francois Lemmer]

Finished of the last....took grass out and levelled
Now to plaster the two outsides of these walls...

[Francois Lemmer]

Francois Lemmer said:

Hi TCLynx

what you see and say is correct....like a cave with windows

 i hope it want be to dark...holes and gap between trays