Aquaponics system. Need people to critique my system

[helomech]

A little update. Fish are doing great, the 25 I moved to the big tank all seem to be doing fine at least none are floating.





Banana trees and sugar cane plants.

[helomech]

And I added a grow bed and a swirl filter to my green water tanks.

[bacpacker]

Looks good helo. Lots of progress since the hole in the ground.

[helomech]

Thanks bacpacker. Hoping to pour the concrete next time I am off, but I am not sure I will make that deadline.

[helomech]

Well as some of you know the wall collapsed on my system. Got it put back up and will be pouring concrete on Monday.




In the mean time I have everything moved to this location, and also going to try out a DWC tank. I added it today, now just to get the material (any ideas are appreciated) to float on the surface, and some net pots.



This tank is going to be a DW (Deep water tank). It is going to have a floating raft on the surface of the water, with the plants sitting in net pots and the roots hanging into the water. The water is dirty, because I cleaned out a grow bed and stirred up all the sediment.

[Grumpy Old Man]

Looks good Helo!

[bacpacker]

Helo, Have you had much problem keeping your systems in balance? Any problems with plant die off? Fish kills? If so what have you found to be the problems that caused it? About how much time per week would you guessimate you spend keeping the system up and running?

[helomech]

Helo, Have you had much problem keeping your systems in balance? Any problems with plant die off? Fish kills? If so what have you found to be the problems that caused it? About how much time per week would you guessimate you spend keeping the system up and running?

No not really, never had any issues with my plants. I have had some fish die, but I think it is because of the temperatures, tilapia can't handle cold temps (I had bass in the system for a while and never lost a bass). As far as weekly maintenance, there really is not much. Trimming yellowing leaves, and feeding the fish is about it. Now every now and then the grow beds need cleaned out, had to do that for the first time this week. Had one grow bed that was not draining properly and had to clean out all the roots. That was not fun, but it has been almost a year and a half of running time. I believe it was the sugar cane that caused my problems, and I won't be planting sugar cane any more, way too much root system on them.

[bacpacker]

Thanks Helo. I had jist been wondering about it.

[helomech]

Well the wall is fixed and the concrete is poured, should not have to worry about the wall falling now. Going to start building the green house next time I am off. Need to do some math to figure out how long the pipe will have to be to span 30 feet and to give me the height I want.