Change Of Plans

ok, so I decided not to turn the frog tank into an aquaponics system. It's going to be too difficult. So I scaled back even more. Just a regular tank you can purchase new for $20, and air pump ($10), and a bag of cheap goldfish ($5). I will later pump the fish water to a plant bed.

Goldfish are good because: 1) they are cheap, 2) extremely hardy fish, 3) will eat anything. This keeps my costs and problems to a minimal. The frogs environment will not change at the moment.

Hydroponics Architectures

there are 3 firebelly toads in the tank. the tree frog doesn't like them. they are gregarious and the tree frog is mellow.

There are many ways to construct an Aquaponics system. I've tried none of them :). I've also never seen a working Aquaponics system. This is a kind of experiment to see how easy or hard it is. Just to give the reader a gauge here, I do have some science education (Math and CS primarily). I know basic chemistry and physics, but little university level biology. I'm picking it up as I go along. I would say that you do need to be somewhat astute, but you don't need college level education to do this.

The architecture I will try first is a continuous drip system. It's the easiest to construct. As the name suggests you simply run the effluent (outgoing fish water) into the plant medium (which will be some kind of gravel). Most experienced people suggest instead setting up a periodic wash system, but for now I'll just do it simply. The hydroponics bin (in which the plant lives) will drain directly into the tank. Pretty darn simple. All you have to do is take some precaution that the effluent gets distributed throughout the medium, and doesn't soak it, nor leave any areas dry. The plant medium must stay wet or the precious ammonia and nitrite fixing bacteria will die (more on that later). All of this stuff will be contained inside of the tank. The tree frog will temporarily lose his plastic vine home but he will soon have a new and improved living vine home. The tree frog is pretty anti-social. He doesn't interact with the other 3 bullfrogs at all. He's above them. He's a very aloof frog.


here is an article on drip hydroponics vs. ebb-and-flow as they call it (Ive heard it called many things).

I also expect the tank to stay much cleaner and fresher once this is up and running. I am interested to know if it will reduce the maintenance to zero.

Beginning

This blog will document my efforts with Aquaponics.

Aquaponics combines Hydroponics, or soiless gardening, with Aquaculture, or fish cultivation. Its appealing to me because I live in Arizona and water is scarce, but space is not. One primary advantage to Aquaponics is that it uses very little water because the water is recycled. The figure I read was that Aquaponics systems use 2% of the water of traditional farming, which I think is a reasonable number given what I know about it.

So Im starting small... I bought a second-hand aqaurium with 4 frogs and a bunch of goldfish ($25). Its a 20 gallon tank and it sits on a table near a window sill. I also purchased a small pond pump that will move the water into the plants which will sit on top of the aquarium. Hopefully I can set it up so that the plants are also an environement for the frogs. Total time spent on this project is about 1 hour.

Eventually I want to set up a vegetable and fish garden in my backyard. I want to make this house virtually self sufficient to 1) prove it can be done, 2) increase the value of the house, 3) make a nice home environment, 4) promote sustainable and appropriate technologies. It is possible to set this up to meet all the food needs of a family of six, and its power requirements are relatively low. A/C is my biggest concern at this point, the system has to survivie 100F+ temperatures in the summer. It think my best option is swamp cooling. Eventually I want to run the solution all over my property and make the whole thing green using only one water unit.