My aquaponic NFT system.

[Laurie]

This is my aquaponic system, which only goes through a bio-filter,no grow beds. I am using an NFT system growing herbs & lettuce. The fish are Barramundi.

[fishfood]

hi laurie looking good is that some auto pots i see there also where did you get your nft channels

[GaryD]

Hi Laurie,

I like your plants.

Is that container full of bio-balls your only source of nitrification? How big are your Barramundi and how many do you have?

Gary

[Laurie]

Hi, Gary.

The container is full of bio-balls as you can see, it is the only source of nitrification.

20 Barra & they are 10 1/2" or 27 cm. bought them as 5cm fingerlings.


Laurie.

[Laurie]

Hi, Fishfood.

They certainly are Autopots, I have all the autopot systems. I am an outlet for them, but I'm not a business. The NFT channel is from a supplier in Melbourne, who I have contacts with. If you look up www.autopot.com.au the inventor of the Autopot is doing aquaponics using totally autopots. He is a personal friend of mine. On his site, click on his aquaponic section, he has a printable leaflet. The cucumbers in one of the pics is of mine, every flower is a cucumber as the flowers are ALL females.



Laurie.

[fishfood]

Hi, Fishfood.

They certainly are Autopots, I have all the autopot systems. I am an outlet for them, but I'm not a business. The NFT channel is from a supplier in Melbourne, who I have contacts with. If you look up www.autopot.com.au the inventor of the Autopot is doing aquaponics using totally autopots. He is a personal friend of mine. On his site, click on his aquaponic section, he has a printable leaflet. The cucumbers in one of the pics is of mine, every flower is a cucumber as the flowers are ALL females.



Laurie.Thought so i have some also havent put them in the system yet still building and now extending into my glasshouse [ see my system in established systems]

[Murray]

Laurie,
How is that the cucumber flowers are all female. I have observed with my Lebanese Cucumbers that it varies from bush to bush.
Some bushes are almost all male and some almost all female.
Is it a nutrient thing perhaps, or is it peculiar to that variety of cucumber?

Re the link to Autopots, It is amazing the number of possible variations to the Aquaponics concept.
I really like the idea of the Autopot, but they are expensive to purchase......aren't they?

The NFT attached to the wall is a great idea. I might do that on one wall of my new greenhouse.

Muzza

[fishfood]

I reckon that channel with the removable top is the way to go [easy to clean]

[GaryD]

Hi FF,

I prefer the Ell-Gro NFT channel. It's food safe polypropylene and it's UV-stabilised. You can clean it easily with a large bottle brush and some bleach......and it has better end caps and other accessories than the stuff with the clip-on lid.

Gary

[Sunshine]

Hi FF,

I prefer the Ell-Gro NFT channel. It's food safe polypropylene and it's UV-stabilised. You can clean it easily with a large bottle brush and some bleach......and it has better end caps and other accessories than the stuff with the clip-on lid.

Gary

Gary,

I rang Ell grow today to talk about their home tables and whilst they were trying to sell me a variety of measuring devices as well as the growing systems, would you like fries with that, when I said I was going to use aquaponics as a nutrient source I was told it would not work.

Obviously I was not talking to one of the converted but it does begger the question. How sucessful is the NFT with aquaponics, say compared to growbeds?

I want to set up lettuces in an NFT system.

Chris

[Murray]

I have run some Boxsell channel here with moderate success. I know where I went wrong.
The water flow has to be continuous. I had mine coming directly from the fish tank on the same cycle as the grow beds. The lettuce grew ok, but it would work much better if you pumped to a header tank and fed the NFT by gravity continuous flow, or something similar. Another way would be to have a small pump and take the water from the sump just before it goes back into the fish tank. In my system there is still nitrates in the water at that point.
I have confidence it will work fine if you follow the rules for NFT, that is constant small flow of nutrient rich water.
As I said my lettuce and Basil grew ok, but I know it can be better.

Gary D has the same Boxsell stuff as mine, we purchased it together and split the channel 50/50 and he is running it right now. I am sure he will comment.

[GaryD]

Hi,

I am running an Ellgro NFT system....growing lettuce.

We planted the seedlings (good large ones) two weeks ago tomorrow.

The photo was taken two minutes ago (sorry 'bout the quality)....and it shows the mignonette and cos lettuce as they are now.

This system runs off a nutrient reservoir which it shares with our square foot garden. We use fish tank water.....and there's probably some nutrient run-off from the SFG.

Since we our principal interest is in growing food to eat, we're happy to add something (like worm tea or compost tea) to the tank if that's what our plants require.

GaryD.

[nick]

they are pretty inmpressive for this time of year. Are they looking like they might bolt to seed or is the shade cloth keeping them happy?

[GaryD]

Hi Nick,

The mignonette lettuce will be OK under the shade cloth. We'll start eating them from now on.

The Cos are more inclined to bolt but, as Murray mentioned earlier, they can be treated like picking lettuce.....a few leaves at a time. If they do bolt, your fish will be appreciative.

GaryD

[twintragics]

Sunshine there are 2 main issues with nft in aquaponics. The flow rate had already been mentioned by others. The second issue is in solids removal. Pump to a header biofilter and drain as per Gary's suggestion. You will remove the solids that clog nft and keep the water flowing. If u really struggle bang some airstones in along the channels every now and then. Laurie the author of this thread is a hydro expert so would be able to give u further info.

[fishfood]

I have run some Boxsell channel here with moderate success. I know where I went wrong.
The water flow has to be continuous. I had mine coming directly from the fish tank on the same cycle as the grow beds. The lettuce grew ok, but it would work much better if you pumped to a header tank and fed the NFT by gravity continuous flow, or something similar. Another way would be to have a small pump and take the water from the sump just before it goes back into the fish tank. In my system there is still nitrates in the water at that point.
I have confidence it will work fine if you follow the rules for NFT, that is constant small flow of nutrient rich water.
As I said my lettuce and Basil grew ok, but I know it can be better.

Gary D has the same Boxsell stuff as mine, we purchased it together and split the channel 50/50 and he is running it right now. I am sure he will comment.
Murray what you describe is exactley what i do small pump in the return sump

[Sunshine]

I received my Boxsell Home table yesterday and put it together today. Its a tidy unit, quite light and a complete kit with vermiculite, chemicals etc.

My plan is to get it up and running on the chemical mix and then convert to fish water when the chemicals are used up. I will set up a bio filter on the continuous hydroponics pump and run the flood cycle from my fish into the tank for the table on an overflow return to refresh the water feeding the NFT.

[Laurie]

Don't you just hate it. I just did a reply to this thread & when I went to send it, it tells me I'm not logged on. grrrrrrrrrrr
So a shorter answer.
I have been using NFT for many years, 24hrs a day at first, then later in life, I changed to using a timer, 15 minutes on & 1 hour off. works fine. This was using hydroponics, which really is the same an aquaponics. At the start of this thread, I posted pics of my aquaponic system. I pumped straight from the fish tank without any problems of blockage, through NFT growing herbs & lettuce. With hydroponics, we DON'T use chemicals, we use nutrients (Trace elements) 6 macro & 6 micro, 9 of which we have in our own body. When you have a blood test, these 9 are the ones they check. Sorry, I get on my high horse when ppl say chemicals.
If anyone needs more info, please ask.
Now I'll see if it sends this time.
Laurie.

[Sunshine]

Laurie,

Oops, I obviously pressed your buttons by not having the technical jargon right. If it's any consulation I have got hold of "Simple Hydroponics" by A.C. Sunstrom and will read it to get my hydroponic speech correct.

Just one stupid question though. How do you secure the seedling in place in the hole whilst they are small so they dont float away or end up in the tubing?

Chris

[Laurie]

Hi, Sunshine.
I use what is called 'Net pots' that go into the hole & place perlite around the roots. No need to apologies, a lot of ppl call it chemicals. My partner & I are sort after guest speakers on the subject of hydroponics / aquaponics, using a slide show presentation, which goes for an hour followed by questions, we cover the trace elements in that so as ppl know they are not chemicals as such. Please don't take offence, but we have a combined 62 years between us. I wasn't having a go at you.
Cheers.

[GaryD]

Hi Laurie,


This was using hydroponics, which really is the same an aquaponics.While I agree with this observation in principle, for the sake of novices I'd make the point that, for aquaponics, consideration of the impact of bio-film is important. I don't use 6mm tube for anything except air line.....it blocks up too quickly when used for the delivery of nutrients.

I use a minimum of 12mm and I adjust the flow through the use of small plastic valves. Flushing these lines is as simple as opening the valve up to flush any build up.

Removal of fish solids is a good idea for most hydro growing systems (except flood and drain grow beds).....to prevent a build up of solids around the roots.

The other false assumption that people sometimes make is that fish water (of itself) will meet the nutritional needs of most plants.....in all hydro systems....where it often doesn't.

GaryD

[Jonty]

Hi all,

Just had a quick read again of your posts. I am about to plumb up my system so I will take heed of your advice.

Regards
Jonty

[Outbackozzie]

Even 13mm tubing is pushing it for long term use, unless you have a lot of pump force behind it. Especially if the tubing gets sunlight. The film tends to build up more in the warmer parts of the pipework.

[Jonathan Dyer]

The other false assumption that people sometimes make is that fish water (of itself) will meet the nutritional needs of most plants.....in all hydro systems....where it often doesn't.

I agree but would like to add some plants may grow with little addition of nutrients in an aquaponic system but there will be nutrient deficiencies regardless, and hence, the nutrients lacking cannot be passed on to the consumer. Additionally the plant doesn’t grow to the same extent reducing productivity.

Sunshine, I have just yesterday in fact finished reading that same book, my aunty recently died and it was in her collection and up for grabs, in my opinion a book written over 20 years ago about hydroponics are hard to come by and this book is a sound and practical guide to hydroponics for low-tech low-cost production it really is a credit to A.C Sundstrom for writing this book when hydroponics was just getting off the ground and more widely used. Well worth several hours to read it thoroughly a good book, and now we are able to utilise more technology while using some of the same base principles in the book it is possible to improve designs and further improve productivity.

Laurie, its true all nutrients have a ‘chemical’ make up and form compounds the combination of two or more elements (H2O 2 parts Hydrogen to 1 part Oxygen the composition of water) and when these compounds are applied to plants they are put under the category as ‘fertiliser’ and I have found that when the same thing is given to animals they are put under the category as ‘salts’ but it’s the raw elements in these fertilisers/salts that is being consumed responsible for growth and development of plants and animals to sustain life. When a combination of these fertilisers/salts are dissolved in water they are referred to as a nutrient solution in hydroponics.

I have frequently heard many people say that hydroponics are full of chemicals and believe that it is ‘artificial’ and the plants will not be the same or as nutritious as those grown in soil. Which hydroponic production is completely the opposite. Mind you a great deal of those people were pot smoking ‘hippies’ and coming from the point of view that hydroponic marijuana had a much stronger effect (probably laying them out for days) than that of the ‘bushy’ grown, hence, under the impression that there was something unnatural about it. Don’t ask me I have never smoked that stuff so I can’t do a personal comparison for the crowd. But I guess the point is that there is nothing ‘artificial’ about hydroponics and hippies suck. :p

[daddykirbs]

I'm stepping into the AP world with a NFT system. I have a submerged pump that is fed into a biofilter where the water rises through the bio media. The NFT takes what it needs and the excess water flows over the top of the bio filter. It's just a start for me... We'll see how it goes :rolleyes: