A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

One and only Expanded Clay Pellets (hydroton) source in India...

Hi, it took me two weeks but I think I found the only manufacturer-supplier of hydroton in India :

GBC India
Mr. Sandeep V.
A/408, Neelkanth Palace, 100 FT Road, Satellite
Ahmedabad, Gujarat - , India

Telephone	:	+(91)-(79)-26930619
Mobile	:	+(91)-8866117051
Website	:	http://www.gbcindia.org

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Knowmore09 on January 9, 2012 at 5:34am

There are suppliers in Mumbai too.

http://ankurnursery.com/product-details-R.asp?Pid=68&Cname=Soil...

I bought mine from Ratanshi Agro-Hortitech, Jijamata Udyan 175, Dr. Ambedkar Road Mumbai(Garden Products) 02223723296, 02223782596.They are highly efficient and ship across India.

In Pune you can buy from Jagtap Nursery. (I think Jagtap sources from Ratanshi and resells it locally)

Permalink Reply by KOUSHIK on January 9, 2012 at 6:01am

did u inquire on the price of the hydroton??

Permalink Reply by Knowmore09 on January 9, 2012 at 6:16am

Got it same time last year. 50 ltr bag for Rs.1120.00

Permalink Reply by Anir Chanda on January 9, 2012 at 6:19am

Right about the price , With shipping for me to have it sent to Calcutta, was close to absurd...... Compared to what black stone gravel costs me, available within the mile, and it works just fine. :)

Permalink Reply by Alexandre Letellier on January 9, 2012 at 6:22am

There you go ! The group starts to be useful already...

Thx for the info Knowmore ! I sent an inquiry today, haven't heard from them yet ...

Please feel free to share any good sources you may know of, in India, for any kind of stuff related to aquaponics in this group ! (equipment, fingerlings etc)

Bharatponics !!!

Permalink Reply by Knowmore09 on January 9, 2012 at 6:48am

@Anir: The advantage with Hydroton is its weight and transplanting is a breeze. I have gravel as well and its a pain to clean and replant and so on..and it is PH neutral. Check with Ratanshi. I am sure they can put it in train transport to Cal from Mumbai.What's your system like?

@Alex: Thanks to you actually! Where are you based in India and what kind of system do you have?

Permalink Reply by Alexandre Letellier on January 9, 2012 at 7:15am

I was kinda hoping that it would be cheaper than that... So that's close to 7k for a square meter of grow bed at standard depth. I was looking at a system with 6 square meters of growbeds with a 2000 liters of fish tank, that would be 42k of hydroton ! So I guess I'll indulge in a couple of square meters filled with it, for the kind of crops that need to be harvested often like lettuce and others, and will go for gravel for plants that last a season or more. Then I can always "upgrade" one square meter at a time every few months. Because I somehow find hydroton to be ideal in terms of weight, hand-friendliness, and even aesthetics... After all its almost a lifetime investment so I think i'll go for it in stages :)

Knowmore, I'm in Bangalore at the moment, no system yet, planning to move to the nearby country side sometime this year and start one.

Permalink Reply by Anir Chanda on January 9, 2012 at 8:50am

I know how wonderful hydroton is, I do have a whole bunch of different systems, and agreed would be pretty and expensive to have hydroton, but affordability and availability is at the top of this indians list, have access to cheap labour, cheap black gravel, and no ph issues that are killing me either......black gravel is working and thats great for me , thx !

Permalink Reply by KOUSHIK on January 9, 2012 at 9:07am

Has anyone tried out hybrid?? gravel at the bottom and hydroton at the top??? it would be little soothing as far as costing is concerned.... also will be easy for transplanting/ replanting....

Permalink Reply by Sahib Punjabi on January 9, 2012 at 7:29pm

KOUSHIK,

I do this in my Hybrid systems. It works wonders.

Actually if you wait until the water level is at the highest, you really do not have a problem in transplanting as the gravel moves easily. 2 inches of Hydroton on top of the gravel works great regardless of water level. Here is a write up of a system that we recently introduced during the last Aquaponics Workshop:

Aquaponics Hybrid Urban Growing Systems introduced by Sahib Aquaponics

God bless

Permalink Reply by Alexandre Letellier on January 9, 2012 at 9:33pm

Hybrid media is the best solution to start with, thanks for the reminder Koushik, I had read this somewhere and forgot about it... With just 2 inches on top as Sahib says, you get the advantages of hydroton for transplanting ease + aestetics for only 1000 Rs per square meters of growbed surface. That gets really affordable this way. I'll do that ...

Permalink Reply by KOUSHIK on January 10, 2012 at 8:25am

@ Sahib: Thanks for the pics... ur system is cool.... Will surely try this in my upcoming model farm....