Baker in Kenya starting AP.....

[Michel Mouyart]

Hello People
I must say this community is amazing and big thanks to everybody for all this information. My set up is slightly delayed because we had to address a termite problem in the newly build shade net/plastic green house. I had a guy removing the queens in two different places but still this morning there is some activity again in one of the nest, so we may have to dig again...My thank arrived also (2300 liters) which I plan to connect to a growing filter bed of about 1800 liters capacity to be filled with coco husk. This growing bed will drain into another bed same capacity where I want to try raft culture and from there will drain back in the fish tank. The system will run for about a month or so before trying to include tilapias. What do you people think of the problems ahead of this kind of set up.
Thanks for any input in advance

[Chi Ma]

From my limited AP knowledge, I think that the raft tank should come before the grow bed because the media in the grow bed will filter out too much of the nutrients needed in the raft tank.

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Baker and welcome to AP. This site is amazing,and it's time for you to do some research.I suggest the Basic and Useful info in the Forum section, and our gracious Host( Sylvia ) has recently added on the Home page, an all you'll need to know section entitled "Rules of Thumb" in the left hand top. AP is an exciting and challenging adventure and you will get immense joy and a feeling of self-accomplishment as you study and go along.This site has many experienced AP'ers who will be more than eager to assist you as you will observe from all the advice following your post, but one of the real joy's come from personal initiative! By the way good ideas on your post but you'll have to know how to balance your tank and growbed size and how to perform water test etc.

[TCLynx]

Sorry Chi but I'm going to disagree here, nutrients flow all around the system so it isn't like they are used up before getting back to the fish tank. You want the water to be filtered before going to the raft tank so the original plan is better. I would just suggest that you want more media filled grow bed and for a lightly stocked system you want about equal volume of media bed to fish tank if possible.
Anyway, having the water go through a media bed will filter the solids and allow the bacteria to work on the ammonia and covert it into plant usable nutrients so that the water going into the raft tank will be less likely to gunk up with roots with fish poo and other gunk.

I feel for the termite problem, I've had to replace all my lumber and liner beds due to leaking because of termite damage. I'm now avoiding wood around my AP systems.


Chi Ma said:

From my limited AP knowledge, I think that the raft tank should come before the grow bed because the media in the grow bed will filter out too much of the nutrients needed in the raft tank.

[Chi Ma]

I stand corrected.



TCLynx said:

Sorry Chi but I'm going to disagree here, nutrients flow all around the system so it isn't like they are used up before getting back to the fish tank. You want the water to be filtered before going to the raft tank so the original plan is better. I would just suggest that you want more media filled grow bed and for a lightly stocked system you want about equal volume of media bed to fish tank if possible.
Anyway, having the water go through a media bed will filter the solids and allow the bacteria to work on the ammonia and covert it into plant usable nutrients so that the water going into the raft tank will be less likely to gunk up with roots with fish poo and other gunk.

I feel for the termite problem, I've had to replace all my lumber and liner beds due to leaking because of termite damage. I'm now avoiding wood around my AP systems.


Chi Ma said:

From my limited AP knowledge, I think that the raft tank should come before the grow bed because the media in the grow bed will filter out too much of the nutrients needed in the raft tank.

[Chi Ma]

Don't rub it in that I am wrong :D



Kobus Jooste said:

Hello and welcome. If I may disagree with Chi Ma a little bit, it should be the other way round. Raft beds that fill up with solids are a problem, while you will not experience any of that if you go through media first. The plants that you keep in the media beds will not take all the nutrients. These beds play an important role of trapping nutrient particles and allowing micro-organisms to break it down into finer soluble nutrients for the system's plants to use. Going from tank to raft to media bed will mean that all of the solids will build up under water and gunk up plant roots in the raft. You will go for larger plants such as cucumber, beans, tomato etc in the media beds, and leaf crops in the raft

Chi Ma said:

From my limited AP knowledge, I think that the raft tank should come before the grow bed because the media in the grow bed will filter out too much of the nutrients needed in the raft tank.

:D :D :D

[george]

Hello Michel Mouyart, my names are George from Nairobi. I came across a lost passport bearing these names (mouyart michel from Belgium) and have tried to search the owner through the internet and this is the only forum I could find a match.
If you are the owner or do happen to know him, reach me through my cellphone [phone] or email [e-mail].

[michael heery]

so what is ever happenign aquaphonics in kenya now,,.