Aquaponics Garden in your house - AquaLibrium

The Aqualibrium Garden is an indoor ecosystem designed to grow fresh herbs, vegetables, and flowering plants in any home.

• Aquaponic and Hydroponic Gardening
• Food Grade, BPA-Free Plastic
• Adjustable for Larger Plants (e.g. Tomatoes)
• Snap-on Aquarium Window Covers and LED Grow Lights Included
• Beautiful Clear Design
• Aquaponic/Hydroponic Instruction Manual Provided

Plants require nutrients to grow. Aquaponics uses a closed loop ecosystem composed of a fish tank and a garden. The fish produce the nutrients that are cycled up to feed the garden. The plant roots then act as a bio-filter by soaking up nutrients. Finally, the water is cycled back down to the aquarium, fresh and clean for the fish. 

All that is needed to grow peppers, kale and eggplants in your Aqualibrium Garden is a few small fish from your local pet store. The Aqualibrium Garden can also be used as a hydroponic system. Hydroponic gardening allows you to use pre-bottled nutrients instead of fish. Sprinkle nutrients in the bottom portion of the Aqualibrium Garden a few times a week and you will have a fresh herbs and flowers in no time!

http://www.aqualibrium.com/

  

Aquaponics Trial #2

Hey guys, its been a while.

Here's the second trial I've been doing at my house. Had the first prototype moved out of the shade plus additional 2 pods. Also added a fish tank i acquired from a fish store that's about to move out of town.

Actually these photos here are outdated by 2-3 months, since I've already started to harvest them from August. Anyway, here's a close-up of the pods.

I've been trying a lot of different kinds of vegetable; kailan, lettuce, salad, cabbage, sawi, etc. But the most success I've had so far is the kangkung (water spinach).

The two tanks shown are connected underneath; the right tank receives freshly filtered water from the pods. It has 9-10 lampam fish. The water then travel to the left tank (along with fish faeces), before being pumped to the highest pods to begin the cycle again.

Aquaponic Trial #1

Alas, my first trial setup

The view from a distance, tier 1 = koi pod, tier 2 & 3 = flower pod, tier 4 = biofilter pod.

The flower pods below (tier 2 & 3) with seedling starting to grow. It took awhile for them to pop up due to the location of the system under the porch roof which is preventing precious sunlight. Nonetheless, they still grow.

 

The biofilter pod (tier 4) is located on the topmost of the system, comprises of 4 filter elements with 3 aeration outlets between them. This pod is designed to capture solid fishwaste and dissolves it into elements which the plant then could absorb, such as ferum, potassium, kalium, etc. It is an essential to have this pod as described in the aquaponic cycle below.

The fish pod, basically contains my 3 koi fish and a pump. Since the system is practically new, the fish is quite stressfull and is a bit jumpy. So i didnt manage to take a picture of them, maybe next time, in the next update.

Aquaponics Design #2

Ok, its been 5 months since my last post. But I've been wanting to post this for a long time. So here goes.


Continuing the 'Concept' topic on which I'll base my system on, here are the findings I got from the net apart from the last post.

The system from University of Virgin Island. One of the first systems I encountered back in 2006. Used as a learning field for Aquaponics study. Too big for me of course, just wanted to share it with u guys.

This would be how that system looks like under the raft. Remember that this is a deep water raft system much like the one I tend to adopt in my trial system at home.

Going back to my previous post, first image. This is the realization of it. Somebody must have build up this system according to that design and made it work. Nice looking system, but still too big for me to try, unfortunately.

Great design to accommodate the vege raft on the fish tank itself. Thus saving space for a more bigger fish population. But having too big fish to vegetable ratio will be problem for this setup I reckon.

Having seen all the design I could search in the net, this one of the smallest and simplest of aquaponics design I've came upon. Suitable in urban area where space is tight while still having all the features of an aquaponics system. I am in the construction phase of my system as of now. A little DIY assembling and I'll be posting my own system in a few days. Stay tuned.

Aquaponics Designs #1

I need to figure out what kind of Aquaponics system design suitable for me, so I've google'd quite a few of them and saved those for future references. Some are really inspiring and ingenious designs that are worth sharing with u guys.

 

This somewhat the simple design that I was looking for; 2 growbeds, 1 fish tank, and a pump. But I wanted an aquaponics system using hydroponic (or deep water raft) system for my vegetables.

Now this is almost perfect, except that its for indoor system rather than outdoor. It could be done without the lighting if it's to be set-up outside tho. Quite an impressive design.

A bigger aquaponics design set-up, which I assume is for commercial purposes. The interior would probably looks like:

Which is fine if I'm running a commercial-based aquaponics. But I'm trying to find something I can work with; get my hobby started, get to do the trials & errors (hopefully few errors). A bit more like the system below:

This would be ideal for a beginner like me, simple and less complex to maintain. I'm eager to start my new hobby, just waiting for the right time (and also saving up some cash to get it started). Wish me luck!

Aquaponics DVD

Aquaponics Made Easy (2009) DVD
by Murray Hallam

Grow fish and vegetables together in your own backyard the easy way. Whether you want to build your own system from bath tubs or assemble a ready-made kit, Murray Hallam will guide you through every step, so you can enjoy fresh fish and organic vegetables at your place.

If you’re worried about using commercially made fish pellets, Murray will show you how to grow your own fish food – the natural way.

Everything you need to know to get started in your Aquaponics adventure is packed into this educational DVD.

Over 90 minutes of quality information:

* Assembling a kit system

* Grow Beds, Tanks, Gravel Media explained

* Flood and Drain, Auto Siphons

* Fish Aeration, pumps, filtration, backup systems

* Growing plants successfully

* The Nitrogen Cycle, Fishless Cycling

* Testing your Water

* Maintaining a balanced system

* Choosing suitable fish for Aquaponics

* Batching your fish for endless food

* Dealing with pests

* Feeding your fish – Growing your own fish food

* Building your own Bathtub Aquaponics system

* Solar powered systems

* Essential checklist summary

Aquaponics DIY

If you love to garden and the idea of growing your own vegetables sounds appealing but you have limited space or no access to fertile soil then an aquaponics DIY garden may be what you are looking for.

Aquaponics systems can be as small as an aquarium purchased at a pet store or as large as a commercial system with several acres. The system concept is the same just on a much larger or smaller scale.

If you live in an apartment and have limited space the ideal solution would be an aquaponics kit which may be a turnkey solution, you will have to add the water, plants and fish. If you have a larger space to work with you will be able to design a larger system with room for expansion.

Either way you will be able to grow your own vegetables or herbs and they will be at your fingertips year round.

An aquaponics DIY system can be an enjoyable hobby that will provide you with fresh herbs or plants. However if space is not an issue you would be able to produce enough vegetables to feed an entire family year round.

The idea of growing your own vegetables may be appealing just from the money you would save yearly but there is another benefit you will be able to control the quality of the food you will be producing and due to the recent food contamination scares that is a very appealing thought.

It is important to be realistic about your aquaponics DIY system because you are not going to save hundreds of dollars per year from an aquarium size system, which would be considered more of a hobby than a vegetable producing empire. However if you are ambitious and have the resources not only would you be able to produce enough foodstuffs for your consumption but you would also be able to profit from selling the excess.

It would be wise to invest in a step by step guide to help you get your system off the ground but will also help avoid any pitfalls that you might not think of in advance.

Reference : http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/

Aquaponics Valentine

Happy Valentines Day

Here are 3 more Aquaponics reference links I would like to share.
Note: I will update the Reference page as soon as possible.

1. Hobby Aquaponics: Zero Effort Farming - Aquaponics
- http://www.squidoo.com/hobbyaquaponics

2. ATTRA - National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service
- http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/aquaponic.html

3. The Aquaponics Guidebook (an e-Book) at Blue Planet Green Living
- http://www.blueplanetgreenliving.com/2010/01/13/the-aquaponics-guidebook-an-e-book/

Have a nice day

Aquaponics Facts

Aquaponics uses up to 90% less water than conventional farming does

Aquaponics is energy efficient: It requires up to 1/3 of the energy
other farming systems use.

Aquaponics can have up to 8 to 10 times more vegetable production in
the same amount of time and area than conventional gardens or farms.

Labor can be reduced as much as 40%, while useful byproducts are
created that can be used to farm other crops, trees, soil, water, and
energy.

Credit to 'fukuoka_farming'

Greenhouse growers and farmers are taking note of aquaponics for several reasons:

• Hydroponic growers view fish-manured irrigation water as a source of organic fertilizer that enables plants to grow well.
  
  
• Fish farmers view hydroponics as a biofiltration method to facilitate intensive recirculating aquaculture.
  
  
• Greenhouse growers view aquaponics as a way to introduce organic hydroponic produce into the marketplace, since the only fertility input is fish feed and all of the nutrients pass through a biological process.
  
  
• Food-producing greenhouses — yielding two products from one production unit — are naturally appealing for niche marketing and green labeling.
  
  
• Aquaponics can enable the production of fresh vegetables and fish protein in arid regions and on water-limited farms, since it is a water re-use system.
  
  
• Aquaponics is a working model of sustainable food production wherein plant and animal agriculture are integrated and recycling of nutrients and water filtration are linked.
  
  
• In addition to commercial application, aquaponics has become a popular training aid on integrated bio-systems with vocational agriculture programs and high school biology classes.

Credit to 'attra.ncat.org'

In addition, i've updated the Aquaponics Extra page's Special Topic: Permaculture.
Permaculture and Aquaponics can combine and focuses truly sustainable closed-loop
systems that provide all the needs for the system with in the system itself.