Aquaponics - New system bits

I got this.

Which is a 500L grow bed.

And looks like this from the inside.

And I got this.

Which is a 500 litre bucket.

And a stack of bags of this.

Which is around 500L of expanded clay ball grow media.










And now I need to figure out what to do with it.

I was giving some serious thought to getting rid of my aquaponics system, because we need the space for a business venture, and there really isn't anywhere else it (the aquaponics or the business venture) can go.

So I bought all this extra stuff.

This will take my grow bed, and thus filtration capacity up from around 300L to more like 800L

And depending on what I do with the gigantic bucket, I might fill that with media as well and take the capacity up to 1300L

That would mean I could actually have enough fish that it would impact on my diet.

Which is nice.

120 Things in 20 years - Busy with new aquaponics system bits.

Aquaponics - Absurdly low energy system test

I started work on my absurdly low energy test system and it looks a little bit like this.

Actually it looks exactly like this, because this is it.

And that's all there is gong to be until tomorrow at least.

The grow media this time is a product from Germany called Hydroton. It's clay balls that are puffed up like popcorn and are really nice to work with.

They are very clean, so all they needed was a quick rinse rather than the hard work that washing scoria was all about.

They are also great to work with.

Scoria was very sharp, and hard on the hands, but this stuff is a very different story. You can push you hand right to the bottom of the grow bed. I'm surprised it's stable enough for tall plants, but it doesn't seem to pose any problems.

I've read that it can float for a while, and mine is sitting in a half full tub, so perhaps it will settle a bit in time.

Because I've been feeding close to the maximum my system would allow, I should be able to compare scoria to Hydroton from the point of view of the bacteria colony. If I cant double the feed within a few months, it means the scoria is better, it will be interesting to see.


120 Things in 20 years, where sometimes, eventually, stuff like an aquaponics, absurdly low energy system test can start to take shape.