A trip to the hydroponic store

[Lonny Harper]

Well, a trip to the hydroponic store left me bummed.  I excitedly explained my aquaponic system to the salesman (as he was trying to understand the application of my purchases).  He then spent half an hour using colorful language to explain that my venture is stupid and a waste of money.  He then told me growing in dirt is better than aquaponic and hydroponic with nutrients would blow my system away.  After explaining there are many people with successful systems, he explained these systems are the best way to go in countries that don't have easy access to liquid nutrients.  Since we are in the US, the nutrients are made here, giving us easy access. 

 

I left pretty discouraged. Just need to hear I am on the right path...

[Lonny Harper]

Cajun,  I'm up and running.  I have a tilapia tank and a crayfish tanks flowing through a 60 sq foot grow bed.  I had a couple hiccups with the fish.  I lost my first batch of six due to an oversight with my plumbing...the tilapia ended up in the growbed.  I then lost my second batch due to a cold snap and broken heater.  I knew it was cold, but I was waiting for the weekend to fix it as I didn't have time with work.  My crayfish have survived, but I'm on my third batch of tilapia fingerlings.  I think I have all the kinks worked out, so I think I'm gonna go for it and buy a lot more fish as I need more to power my plant growth.

I have since found a great hydroponic shop that actually has three aquaponic systems as demo's in their warehouse.  However, they are truly a hydroponic shop and don't carry the fittings or pumps for the kind of water I'm moving.  The internet and Home Depot have sufficed so far.  I plan on doubling the square footage of the grow space by integrating more vertical growing with grow towers and trellising.  Thanks for all the positive feedback.

[TCLynx]

Drop me a note when you go to add the vertical growing as I've now had some experience with pumping to towers and how much a single pump can handle.  The Quiet One 4000 handled 10 towers plus the flow to the 300+ gallon fish tank.  (I got to 40 towers plus the flow to the 300+ gallon fish tank with a Danner MD18 pump before I had to add another pump to provide enough flow to add more towers.)  Currently I'm using both The Danner MD18 and the Quiet One 4000 to power the flow to 58 towers and I still have enough flow to keep the fish tank circulating.

Many Hydroponic shops probably have access to bigger pumps but probably don't carry them most of the time since most the systems they sell are tiny.  The MD 18 is available through at least one of the hydroponic wholesale suppliers I know of and the other wholesale supplier I know carries the Eco Plus line of pumps.  Then of course there is Aquatic Eco Systems who have a huge inventory of pumps to meet just about any fish keepers needs.

[John Nelson]

Prime example of people who eat Twinkies for breakfast and snack on additives and preservatives all day.