Building a system in Wilkes-Barre, PA

[Nick wesley]

Hey Everyone,

I'm Nick, First post, Glad to be apart of this website.

Im getting started on building a small system for a restaurant in Wilkes Barre, PA. I'm with Wilkes University and we have a $1500 Sam's Club environmental sustainability grant to improve the sustainability of a small business. We decided to choose a place called the Euro-Bistro and implement a system inside to grow their basil and subsidize some of their lettuces. 

Currently I'm planning on using a raft system, with T5 lights to supplement the natural light. I am considering using LED's as there is some sun that gets in but I am unsure on the differences between LED lights. I am also considering building one but again I am unsure on what makes for the best LED for the job.

I'm also curious on cycling, This will be my first system and besides nitrogen dosing is there anyway to speed up this initial process? are there any frozen bacteria cultures that I can introduce to begin the nitrogen cycle?

But looking forward to creating a sustainable project, any help or advice is welcome

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Thanks Jon, I remember reading that before link before (thanks to you I believe), good stuff, but very hard for me to get here. I remember the 'old style' CMH being a mighty awesome bulb (a bit pricey at for me at the time) but it ran its course... Unfortunately now, here, I can't seem to get my hands on one of their new "retro white HPS", or any CMH bulbs anymore :(

I've tried the major and not so major lighting outfits, with no luck 

There's a lady here with a French connection that is trying to open up a hydro shop, I've asked her about a month ago, but she had no idea what the hell I was talking about... (As it stands there is only ONE hydro shop IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY), and you are at their (or their suppliers...a Slovenian outfit's mercy. They receive merchandise ONCE A YEAR).

The 'best' (my opinion) that I've bought/used here are the Phillips Son-T-Agro (not to be confused with the Master-Son-T)...but I've only used them for about a year+...It's just one of those 'tweaked' HPS bulbs that has 40% more 'blue' than a normal HPS...Nothing as cool as CMH :) but seems to do veg with a bit less stretch than a str8 HPS and flowers beautifully of coarse.  

Sorry for that paragraph of repeat info Jon...more for anyone else's benefit who might come across it here, than you :) 

I've read weird Chinese, I think, studies that say that plants they grew indoors that were exposed to some UV spectrum light were nutritionally superior to their non-UV counterparts. I should mention that LED's were in question here. Interesting though. I bet your CMH's might have the same effect.

[Nick wesley]

Hey has anyone ever heard of or had experience with using sucker fish to keep the tank clean? i had one in my tank back in the day and it kept it spotless, would that be good for an aquaponics tank?

[Jon Parr]

I use plecos in every tank. 

[Nick wesley]

would it be unwise to put them in the grow tank under the rafts? i feel the solid waste they produce would be minimal enough to justify the perpetual cleaning they would do.

Jon Parr said:

I use plecos in every tank. 

[Todd Sowell]

They might like the roots!

[Jon Parr]

True that. I don't have rafts yet, but a well designed raft shouldn't have much algae for the plecos to eat, at least not below the waterline. Throw some guppies and Crawdads in there. 

Todd Sowell said:

They might like the roots!

[Vlad Jovanovic]

I thought they (plecos) were detritvores?

[TCLynx]

they eat surface algae too.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

I kept having to replace them because of the Oscars...they'd eat them, I would try to buy the boniest ones, some would live for months and months before getting eaten... Bought them for the algae on the glass, but then a guy at the fish store told me that...well ...sort of how worms don't actually eat the kitchen scraps, but rather the stuff growing and dying on the surface of the rotting kitchen scraps. I don't know if this is true or not, it looked like they ate algae to me. How about roots though?

[Jon Parr]

Mine keep my glass clean, and grow very very fast. For a while I had only one pleco for two 55 gallon tanks. I'd catch him and move him to the other tank every week  or so. He went from pinky-sized to 16" in three months, spiky like a dinosaur. Then he jumped out one day and dried up, now his dried corpse is nailed to the growroom door. Anyway, they may it detritus, but they mow algae, polishing a glass tank, PVC pipes, everything, and they grow super quick if well fed. Mine all steal pellet food, swim right to the surface an suck floating pellets. 

Vlad Jovanovic said:

I kept having to replace them because of the Oscars...they'd eat them, I would try to buy the boniest ones, some would live for months and months before getting eaten... Bought them for the algae on the glass, but then a guy at the fish store told me that...well ...sort of how worms don't actually eat the kitchen scraps, but rather the stuff growing and dying on the surface of the rotting kitchen scraps. I don't know if this is true or not, it looked like they ate algae to me. How about roots though?

[TCLynx]

Plecos need warm water too don't they?

[Jon Parr]

My tanks are warm, altho I have seen plecos in outdoor patio ponds overwinter here in central Cali. I don't know what their lethal temp is.