Hydroponic enthusiasts (hobby/personal growers)

[nervewrecker]

oh wait, I now see you mention its an Aquaponic system. My cuz mentioned someone who has something of this sort somewhere in couva, I will see what Info I can score from her.

[rfari]

^^sounds like a concrete trough. is it? shakes has a point. grobox may be a great starter.

it is

I dont like it. While concrete is porous & will allow water to pass through its walls the rate will be very slow (low hydraulic conductivity). Excess water will more or less settle at the bottom & create an anaerobic zone.
Also, where you getting the soil from? Normal soil like in your yard etc has a lot of critters (earthworms, mole crickets etc)that actually contribute to the aeration of the soil mass when they move about in it. To a minor extent they contribute to the organic content upon their deaths.

interesting points here. in the case of anaerobic conditions to the bottom, can it be sufficient enough to aid in the digestion of decomposed plant matter? or would it be negligible. and i'm not too sure about the grow medium for the grobox but i believe its sharp sand and bagasse in layers. that may allow for a porous enough soil.

[nervewrecker]

soooo....the concrete containment unit is not gonna be used for rearing fishes etc (as I read aftre I typed that).

rfari wants me to go into chemistry hurr...I not so hot on it, will have to check my notes. I meant a lot of excess water though. Had a plant on work where some organic matter (grass cuttings) was added & resulted in what looked like unfavorable growing conditions as the plant start to die. Excess water contributed to that (I talking bowl half filled with water) & not sure how the decomposing grass may have affected the ph & yadda yadda yadda but some h2so4 was there *covers nose*

[supercharged turbo]

a decent floating raft system is possible if u go the aquaponics way. some tilapia fingerlings and lettuce.

oh wait, I now see you mention its an Aquaponic system. My cuz mentioned someone who has something of this sort somewhere in couva, I will see what Info I can score from her.

i think i saw someone who had 1 setup in their front yard fully operational but can't remember where

[nervewrecker]

I will talk to my cuz tomorrow & see what I get.

[supercharged turbo]

I will talk to my cuz tomorrow & see what I get.

thanks man..will appreciate dat info

[shake d livin wake d dead]

as for gro-box,this is as simple as it can get.

material: about 20-25 concrete blocks..you are making a rectangle from this..rather small but can be efficient,you would need some gravel or maybe sharp sand and well nice top soil and manure.for this area you could invest in a bag of cow manure.some people may use pro-mix.

you could utilise all the space you have.especially the spaces in the blocks can be used for chives and other seasoning etc etc...you could grow a nice mix of lettuce,baigan anything you want.I suggest you stay away from tomatoes as you're a first timer( I think).it's very simple to develop,feel free to ask for more info if you like,especially when you decide what you want to plant.

[nervewrecker]

de phorq, is h2so4 I post dey? wdmc does wrong with my brain when I sleepy jed?

H2S not h2so4 0.o I will make people blow up they garden

[rfari]

shakes, would nutrients be feed to the plants or just plain water?

[Chimera]

rfari you might have noticed a good bit of growboxes by me when you were doing the site visit, we had 4 acres of growbox way back when ytepp was doing courses for the people in the area.

were planting patchoi/pepper/lettuce/tomatoes

about 2-3 acres still have the beds with bricks and concrete walkways, project flopped when URP came online though and people stop bothering with ytepp lol

[rfari]

rfari you might have noticed a good bit of growboxes by me when you were doing the site visit, we had 4 acres of growbox way back when ytepp was doing courses for the people in the area.

were planting patchoi/pepper/lettuce/tomatoes

about 2-3 acres still have the beds with bricks and concrete walkways, project flopped when URP came online though and people stop bothering with ytepp lol

or scn. that's what it was . jed, if i had the land space like you, i woulda make mass. you gots to get something on-stream soon man. little bit everyday

[Chimera]

i actually have some padnas gonna come help me build a greenhouse along the lines of sharon one on sunday, im taking down the one i have now with the shade netting

looking to build something 16 feet wide and 40-60 feet long.

[rfari]

nice. post some pics on the progress. i've yet to start anything on my 'sharon greenhouse'. have to work out the best fit in the corner of the backyard

[shake d livin wake d dead]

de phorq, is h2so4 I post dey? wdmc does wrong with my brain when I sleepy jed?

H2S not h2so4 0.o I will make people blow up they garden

@fari-yes, it's like you're a small small small farmer,when using the gro-box technique,same concepts apply,mix required nutes,pesticides,insecticides with water and apply according to what you planting..you could invest in a small spray-can or on of those with the nozzles,I believe the green one( ) is the bess.

[supercharged turbo]

So I did a bit of research,and it seems it is just simply easier to rear fishes(in this case tilapia)in the space provided instead of having to go through the whole aquaponics system.So it would just be the said space from before with ah few fishes and the other small spaces with some small crops.What you guys think?

[rfari]

the curious part of me is saying do the aquaponics setup. once you have adequate sunlight for crops, all you would need would be some styrofoam board if you going with the floating raft or a sump and some pvc parts for a NFT.




if its really too much for now, the aquaponics conversion would be simple.

additional reading.
http://blog.aquaponicssystems.com/2009/ ... ating.html

[supercharged turbo]

the curious part of me is saying do the aquaponics setup. once you have adequate sunlight for crops, all you would need would be some styrofoam board if you going with the floating raft or a sump and some pvc parts for a NFT.




if its really too much for now, the aquaponics conversion would be simple.

additional reading.
http://blog.aquaponicssystems.com/2009/ ... ating.html

i really want to do the aquaponics setup.assuming that i go with the aquaponics setup,all what materials wud i need?

[rfari]

you going with that a similar design to what's last attached? any experience taking care of fishes?

[supercharged turbo]

you going with that a similar design to what's last attached? any experience taking care of fishes?

dat design is wat i had in mind before i even see de pic and somewhat experience in caring for fishes

[rfari]

wht u have in mind for the plant trough?

[supercharged turbo]

this is wat i hav in mind

[rfari]

The size of the trough with the fish will determine how many u can have, and the amount of veggies you can grow. (Nitrates per lb of fish stock). I will have to pull that info. You can probably use 2 halves of a plastic barrel as plant troughs (I would prefer pvc guttering but sticking to the design you have in mind) alongside and higher than the fish trough with some grow medium for your plants. A sump with a split flow to each plant trough which would then drain back to the fish trough. Air pump to supply air to the fishes and oxygenate the fish water. Hardest part IMO would be the bio filter.

[supercharged turbo]

i wud prefer pvc also but yuh nw give me ah idea with de half of plastic barrel please give some more details on the bio filter

[rfari]

i wud prefer pvc also but yuh nw give me ah idea with de half of plastic barrel please give some more details on the bio filter

Bear in mind that you would need enough grow medium to fill these barrels.
The bio filter simply converts the ammonia in fish waste into nitrites then nitrates. Ammonia and nitrites are much more toxic to fish than nitrates and plants can't directly utilise these compounds but they can absorb nitrates. So basically, the plants helps to remove the converted nitrates. The actual conversions are done by aerobic micro-organisms that usually live in fish tanks/ponds but thrive in bio-filters. There are different bio-filter designs to follow. In most cases, bio-balls and sponges are used in a re-circulating system with an additional air supply. There are some DIYs online and on youtube. By weekend, I'll post some examples.

Bio-filters are a bit new to me so any mistakes I've made, somebody please correct me.

[shake d livin wake d dead]

the curious part of me is saying do the aquaponics setup. once you have adequate sunlight for crops, all you would need would be some styrofoam board if you going with the floating raft or a sump and some pvc parts for a NFT.




if its really too much for now, the aquaponics conversion would be simple.

additional reading.
http://blog.aquaponicssystems.com/2009/ ... ating.html

fari I real like this illustration hoss.

[rfari]

^^simple and straight forward. Even tempted to setup a small aqua system at home but I have too much on my plate right now. Shakes, u know anywhere that sells purple tomato seeds? I ordered a pack and it looks like customs seize it.

[shake d livin wake d dead]

^^simple and straight forward. Even tempted to setup a small aqua system at home but I have too much on my plate right now. Shakes, u know anywhere that sells purple tomato seeds? I ordered a pack and it looks like customs seize it.

just had to,sorry...best bet might be Caribbean Chemicals or maybe CARDI...but caribbean chemicals does be real expensive though.

[hustla_ambition101]

^^simple and straight forward. Even tempted to setup a small aqua system at home but I have too much on my plate right now. Shakes, u know anywhere that sells purple tomato seeds? I ordered a pack and it looks like customs seize it.

you need a permit to import any planting material

[Coppershot]

For aquaponics ppl, what feed are you using and how much is it?
I understand that the local feed is not perfect. Sinks to bottom sometimes and tilapia for instance is a top feeder.

BTW

Anybody confirm the ttec electricity rate, I read an article saying it was 7cents USD per kWh. Not seeing anything on their website.
Trying to calculate the cost of running a water pump (57watts), air pump(20watts) 24 hours per day etc.

[shake d livin wake d dead]

am try not to make that electricity thing an issue.^^ otherwise you would never get started,but on the other hand the cost is very affordable.