The Auquaponics Revolution
I have gotten interested in experimenting and constructing aquaponics system. For those who are new to this, aquaponics is a form of farming that combines hydroponic plant growing and aqua-culture fish growing. The basic idea behind an aquaponic system is the fish waste and respiration is wonderful food for plants, and plants are happy to return clean water to the fish in exchange for this nutrient rich food. The trick is to balance a system where by dirty water is introduced to the plants and clean water can be re-introduced to the fish. There are many systems that you can buy or build but I decided to document the systems that I build. I try to build with "found items" whenever possible. I will outline the complete construction of a system that will grow vegetables and fish that you can harvest for food. I live in Alabama so our temperature considerations and growing seasons will differ from areas further north.
I am also an electronics "maker" and am integrating electronic automation into my experiments. I am prototyping a controller to manage temp, water levels, pH, and feeding of the fish without help. My plan is to also make the controller solar powered to make the system as autonomous as possible.
First Backyard System
These are some pictures of my first system. I used a printer table that was donated and storage bins. I had to buy the pump new, but I am looking for new sources for pumps now.
As you can see, the water from the fish below ( this system has Koi ) is pumped into the grow container on top. Then the magic happens. You cannot just let the water drain as it is pumped into the grow bed else the plants would not have time to absorb the nutrients. Actually there is bacteria in the grow bed rocks that absorb the nutrients first, but more on that later. So the magic item that makes this system work is the bell siphon or auto siphon. This ingenious device allows the grow bed to fill up completely, stay full briefly and then siphon all of the cleaned water back into the fish tank. This means that you do not need valves or timers to allow the bed to fill then empty. It is a beautiful system. I will document the construction of the bell siphon and it's operation and tuning on this blog.
Based on this design, I improved the system and went about building everything from scratch. I documented the process and I am including the process on this blog. I want to provide a step by step instruction so others can build one like mine, or hopefully improve the design and share their findings here.
