Newbie from New Jersey

[Aaron Padron]

Hi All,

I have emerced myself in the different aquapoics websites and forums and my head is spinning. I basically want to find out the answers to a few questions that I cannot seem to get concrete answers to:

1. Since I live in NJ, I have 4 true seasons here including a winter with freezing temps and snow pretty much every year and Summers with temps in the 80-90 degreess F. Is there a way to keep an outdoor system or am I going to be restricted to using a greenhouse?

2. If I use a greenhouse, can keep the fish outside if I use a cold water fish and just keep the plants inside the greenhouse? If so, what types of fish have people had success with?

3. If I need to have everything contained in a greenhouse, will the water stay warm enough from the ambiant air of the greenhouse or do I need to worry about heating the fish tank water too?

4. Are there any people doing this on a hobby level in NJ or Eastern PA that would care to share their experience with me and/or let me come out and see their system?

5. How big of a system would I need to provide the majority of vegtables and fish to feed my family throughout the year? 3 adults and 2 kids (so far...)

6. Does heating the greenhouse become very expensive in the winter months?

7. What else do I need to consider?

8. I have seem some systems using large PVC pipes to grow their plants instead of planter beds with media. The pipe system seems to me, with no experience mind you, to be a much more efficient system. I would imagine that you can have a lot more plants in a lot less space using a system like that. Any thoughts, experiences?

Thanks in advance for any and all feedback!

Aaron
Edison,NJ
[e-mail]

[Aaron]

Aaron,  I live in Philadelphia and am asking many of the same questions you are. I can say that gateway public highschool has a decent ap setup.  If your incline to continue gathering intel I will have my school system up and running within a year. (Im a teacher in Delran, NJ). -best Aaron F

[TCLynx]

Keep in mind that the pipe systems, they may seem simple and efficient until you realize that you need to filter the water some how.  Aquaponics has three key components 1) Fish, 2) Plants, 3) Filtration (bio-filtration and Solids filtration)  Now a bio-ponics system can get along for a time without 1 or 2 but doesn't function well at all without 3.

 

In a media bed system the media beds fill many rolls in addition to being a place to grow the plants.

1-they are the plant beds

2-they provide support to the plants

3-they provide bio filter surface area

4-they provide solids filtration

5-they provide a home for worms to process the solids

6-if flood and drain they provide aeration for the bio-filter and the plants and the worms without an extra air pump.

7-you can seed directly into media while it usually requires separate seeding and potting of plants for NFT or raft systems.

 

If you do NFT, as your plant growing method, you would have to provide a separate component to the system to handle filtration and those kind of filters usually need regular cleaning.

[Aaron Padron]

Hi TC,

 

Thanks for your reply.

What if you have plant beds with growing media and then use the water that drains from the plant beds for the NFT system and then back to the fish tank?

 

I have also seen tower systems that have individual media beds cut into 4-5" PVC pipes for each plant. They seem like you could utilize more space.

 

Any thoughts? 

TCLynx said:

Keep in mind that the pipe systems, they may seem simple and efficient until you realize that you need to filter the water some how.  Aquaponics has three key components 1) Fish, 2) Plants, 3) Filtration (bio-filtration and Solids filtration)  Now a bio-ponics system can get along for a time without 1 or 2 but doesn't function well at all without 3.

 

In a media bed system the media beds fill many rolls in addition to being a place to grow the plants.

1-they are the plant beds

2-they provide support to the plants

3-they provide bio filter surface area

4-they provide solids filtration

5-they provide a home for worms to process the solids

6-if flood and drain they provide aeration for the bio-filter and the plants and the worms without an extra air pump.

7-you can seed directly into media while it usually requires separate seeding and potting of plants for NFT or raft systems.

 

If you do NFT, as your plant growing method, you would have to provide a separate component to the system to handle filtration and those kind of filters usually need regular cleaning.

[TCLynx]

The pocket towers (the towers with gravel in the pockets) kinda require that the water is filtered before it goes to the tower or the top is likely to slime up and overflow out instead of down inside the towers.  They also tend to get root bound after a time and need to be taken down and emptied and re-planted.

 

It might seem that you can plant more in less space by putting them in pipes but I think that is a false impression.  About all you are saving on is the weight of the gravel where the plants are.  Plants still need enough space to grow without being mushed by the next plant over and this will be the same if they are in a pipe, a raft or a media bed.  In the pipe or the raft you have to guess on the spacing of the plants you will want in the future because once you cut the holes, that is kinda the spacing you will work with.  In a media bed, one season you can plant stuff really close together and the next you might plant further apart depending on what you will be growing, it's more like a soil garden plant bed since you can plant anywhere in the surface of it.

 

Also a big note, the NFT or plants in pipes will limit the size of the plants by the size of the troughs since as plants get bigger, their roots will start clogging the pipes or troughs and pulling the plant out to prune the roots will be a bit hard on the plants.

 

Yes, if you have a grow bed up high enough that will be constant flow, it could filter the water for your NFT pipes, or another option would be to have a clean water sump where the water flows from your fish tank through grow beds and into a sump that only gets this nice clean water then you can have a pump run constantly to feed the needed amount of water to your NFT pipes.

Here I have posted the slides from my plumbing class that has some diagrams that show some of these ideas.

http://www.aquaponiclynx.com/aquaponic-lynx-llc/aquaponics-in-detai...

[loboy]

Hello Aaron,

 

 

I live in Hoboken, NJ and I run a small indoor system.

 

 

1. I would definitely recommend a greenhouse in the NJ climate. A greenhouse allows you to control more variables, and you can grow year round.

 

 

2. If you were to keep the rearing tank outside, I would recommend the tank be insulated and covered well during the winter. However, if the tank was inside the greenhouse, it would act as a thermal mass if properly designed. If you have the space I would definitely keep the rearing tank inside the greenhouse.

 

 

3. You can also sink the rearing tank into the ground inside the greenhouse, using the earth as an insulator. This is all really dependent on how elaborate you wish to get and what your budget is. The temperature in the greenhouse will be dependent on how well designed the greenhouse is. I would recommend facing the long length of the greenhouse toward the southern sky, for the longest exposure to the sun throughout the year. The design of the greenhouse will depend on how your property is situated and what geographic features you have to work with. Also, if you do heavy composting within the greenhouse, this will generate heat as well. Thermostatic control is ideal.

 

 

4. Yes, you could come see my small indoor window setup. It is only around 23 gallons. Let me know and I'll email you, I live in Hoboken.

 

 

5. As far as feeding 5 people throughout the year, I have little experience. But I would imagine the footprint would be about the size of a large two car garage. This also depends on how you decide to harvest. You can harvest leaves and fruits from lots of many different plants and let them continue to grow, or you can harvest entire plants, and then replant.

 

 

6. Again, this is dependent on how efficiently designed your greenhouse is. It is also dependent on how many cubic feet your greenhouse is. If you don't keep the temperature at optimal growth rates, everything will just slow down.

 

 

7. Design you system for ease of use. Have an efficient layout, and think about how material moves through your system. Set yourself up for success. A workbench is a must.

 

 

8. The pipe system you mentioned is a Nutrient Film Technique, or NFT. I have no experience with those systems, but I think you will have to monitor the system more closely. I personally don't like the look of them, but that is subjective.

 

 

If this is your first system, I would recommend starting small and then scaling up incrementally as you become more experienced. I would also recommend designing the system to be modular, because later you will find things to improve and having a modular system allows you to rearrange the system later. I would recommend the book "Permaculture: A Designers' Manual" by Bill Mollison.

 

 

Hope that helps.