My pilot project Francois

[Francois Lemmer]

I started messing around with tilapia 2006-2010

2010 - the end of july i had to take  my system down

i am currently trying to get a piece of property to set up a scaled system.

basickly i dont have a system that is running

but i want to share my last 4 years with aquaponics

with members.......

 

[Francois Lemmer]

2006
I bought 250 fingerlings from a local....

2007

I moved what was left of the 250 fish from my system in my garrage out to my pilot project.

Another local was cleaning a dam and offered the fish to me...

GUTSY GIRTY of cause helped himself... few100 fry.....50 bigger tilapia but.... 

I killed lost allot of fish, lost most of the fish given to me and some of my original fish 

2008

the fish i started the year of with in my system...how many....?

Keeping rekords of the fish was something i never had time for....

31/3/2008

31/3/2008

26/10/2008

 11/11/2008 water did not look good

4 2 2009

20 2 2009

[Francois Lemmer]

31/3/2009

6/4/2009

6/5/2009

6/7/2009

23/7/2009

27/8/2009

22/9/2009

3/10/2009

11/11/2009

5/1/2010 water going straw colour...

9/2/2010

23/3/2010

[Francois Lemmer]

5/4/2010

12/6/2010

17/6/2010

 

28/6/2010

this was my last photo of my fish.

All these fish i had to move suddenly...so gave the fish to a farmer for his dam...

the farmer,s lands border was the back fence of where my tunnel was up.

quick salution ...the farmer was happy...and i had less work...the farmer had a tracktor to come to this fence..

made the move easy... was catch and release easy and quick.

 

 

[Francois Lemmer]

My photos of my fish...i never added the fish i sold.....  a few hundred fingerlings and +-2000 of my bigger Tilapia

 

[Francois Lemmer]

 

This morning I took some photos of my worms
This is an old cast iron bath that I filled with the pieces from a tree I cut down and put through a chipper
Was not chipped very fine....
This is what it looks like after +-1 year...almost broken down...lots of some of bigger pieces still not broken down totally but the worms are working at this. This worm bath I started by using just these cuttings that had gone through most of the compost heating process.
Added worms...worms did the rest....slow but worth the time if you have space
Great compost

 

 

 

this is photos of one of my other worm bins...big clay pot

 

 doing well.... i feed these worms scrap veggies maybe every 2 weeks and then i use newspaper and cardboard boxes

just keep damp and the worms thrive.....

[Francois Lemmer]

 

This is how I separated my worms from castings...on my back lawn.

 

[Francois Lemmer]

Hi all
I have wanted to build a new system but due to...........bottom line I don’t have money ........

WELL.......

This is a small system I have been designing to build in my back yard and actually having to take a lot into account due to space and sun light.....I have come up with a good size system to play with.
With the design wanted to keep as cheap as possible and my first idea was using 210 litres drums but after getting the price of one drum I had to re-think....I had my pilot project grow trays and if I use these in my new system.......I have eight of these trays and I need four...using as they are....no work....

[Francois Lemmer]

I dug foundations on friday and cast on saterday morning

My first attemp at building a wall...I marked and  layed the first row of bricks down the one side

did not take to long so if i have a day or two i would beable to finish the brickwork

 

 

This system i want to be part of my garden outlay...fit in and be a permanent fixture to the property...

[Francois Lemmer]

Fish tank 500-700 litres water.

My aim is to run with 500 litres... the other  extra 200 litre don’t known......risk management.
Worm bio filter sump +-150 litres volume filled with a media that is worm friendly...soft on the worms.

 
Two grow trays 6500x350x200 deep and have a volume of 4.55 litres each.

I will have these two grow trays filled with growing media for the plants.....not sure what I will use.

 
455+455 =901 litres volume in my grow trays.

Then using two more of these grow trays for growing duckweed to supplement my fish food cost.
The two duckweed trays will run shallow.....+- 80 mm deep.

 
6500x350x80 deep = +-182 litres per tray

This will give me a plant growing space of +-2.27 square meters per tray.
2.275x4 = +-9.1 square meters grow space.
2 trays for plants and the other two trays for duckweed

Then I will use the same barrel pump sump I used with my pilot project. +- 180 litres

The total litres water in my system will be

Dam +-500 litres
Worm bio filter +- 150 litres volume
Grow trays +- 901 litres volume
Duck weed sump +- 364 litres
Barrel pump sump +- 180 litres

Total +- 2095 litres

Fish 500 litres = Filters and grow trays 1595 litres volume – grow media

Grow space = 9.1 square meters

With this system I want to stock +-30 kg Tilapia per 1000 litres water.
30 fish and final weight 0.5 kg per fish
And in my trays I want to grow peppers … tom fruiting plants.
I want to feed near max per day and see what this system can handle.

i want to get figures down on paper...keep good rekords and push the limits... 

[Cory Cramer]

Thanks for posting, Francois. Can't wait to see how the new system turns out.

[Francois Lemmer]

 

I completed the building of my base of my walls for my grow trays.

 

I picked up all my levels with the first cource and now it is just building up

the worst is done.

Hopefully by the end of the weekend i can have all my building done.

Building is completely new to me.

[Francois Lemmer]

Hi cory

Only is a pleasure and i am planning on updating at least weekly right through the process of building and then the running of the system.

Cory Cramer said:

Thanks for posting, Francois. Can't wait to see how the new system turns out.