DIY Home Aquaponics in Manila, Philippines

[Romy Venes]

Hello Guys!

I just want to share with you my DIY home aquaponics system consisting of:
- a 2000 gal FT (with about 2 dozen Koi, 12 adult Oreochromis Tilapia, one Shubunkin Goldfish and thousands of Tilapia Fingerlings)
- one 8ft x 4ft x 14in. F&D Gravel Bed with 20mm pea gravel
- two 8ft x 4ft x 14in. hydroponic beds (intended for raft hydroponics) which are currently filled with duckweeds and various aquatic plants like Amazon Sword, Red Tea (Ludwigia), Green Tea (Hygrophila), Bacopa Coroliniana, Hygrophila Difformis, Cryptocoryne Wendtii, Green Cabomba, etc.

The F&D GB cycles at a rate of 3 full cycles per hour. I have two kinds of Kangkong: a Local variety (which grows very well in my GB) and Chinese variety (which initial did well but later started turning yellow). Can anyone give me an idea what's wrong with my Chinese Kangkong? The water quality in my FT is very good: clear and clean water all the time. All the fish are healthy and I haven't had any fish killed for the past 6 months.

Another problem I have is that every 2 weeks, each of the 6 adult female Tilapia breeds more than a thousand fries each! I keep on harvesting fries to no end! When I do get to harvest the Moms that are still mouth-brooding her youngs are used as feeders for my adult Angel Fish.


Photo of the Fish Tank (It's under the 8' x 4' duckweeds tanks)
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Photo of the Flood and Drain GB with 20 mm pea gravel
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Kangkong and Tomatoes
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middle photo show 2 duckweeds tank
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DIY Bell Siphon made from junk PVC pipes and clean out cap
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Solid separator - I use an old egg crate with plastic wool or synthetic cotton used (sofa cushion material) as filter media
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Materials used:
1. 9mm flexiboards as walls and base and lined with used tarpaulins for the hydroponic tanks (GB and Raft haydroponic).
2. angle bars as frame for the edges of the flexiboards.
3. For pump: I use a Resun SP-6000 220V/60Hz, 40W, 2800L/Hr w/ Hmax of 2.5m and pump outlet of 13mm.

[GaryD]

Hi Romy,

That's a great looking system that you've got there.

Can you describe your solids filter and its operation?

Gary

[Romy Venes]

Thanks Gary!


Can you describe your solids filter and its operation?
Gary

Since the Fish Tank is at the lowest point in the entire system, water is pumped from the deepest part of the fish tank to the the solid separator. The tank bottom is surprisingly clean at all times perhaps due to the 1 degree gradient of the floor inclination.

As for the solid separator, it's just an old box, with lots of holes, used for transporting eggs made of hard plastic basket which I lined with synthetic filter wool (the kind of material used for making sofa upholstery), which costs something like US$1 per yard of 2 meters width. It functions as a mechanical filter. I use it as a cheap and easy to wash solid separator. Since my system is small, it takes around a week for it to clog. So replacement can be done every week. Since the material is so inexpensive and available, I keep stock of around 3 sets of it for replacement. The material can be washed with a light pressure washer and reused up to around 5 times.

In the future, I would like to add a trickle bio-filter into my system. I am sold to it after reading your article in your other website.

[GaryD]

Hi Romy,

Your solids filter arrangement is a good example of cost effective and easy solids removal at work. Congratulations!

Gary

[kellenw]

Hello Romy,
Too often, people completely neglect the need for solids removal. Great to see you've got it in your system.

[Romy Venes]

Thank Kellenw! I just thought that it would be simpler to do regular maintenance cleaning on one small part of the system than having to shovel out the entire gravel bed every so often which is messy and requires a major work plus it could upset the existing beneficial bacteria in the GB. The other more important reason is that I think that the GB if kept clear of sludge can be more effective in being a bio-filter than if it were full of sludge.

[kellenw]

Romy,
You are exactly right!

[squareroot]

Hi Romy, Kabayan,

I am just starting to research on aquaponics. Since I have a Koi pond, I wanna utilize the nutrients of the waste generated by my kois. Right now, I am getting water from my pond to water our garden. I tried planting pechay and lettuce but aphids keep eating them. I am now trying the soap and chili spray to shoo them away.

Anyway, Most Koi enthusiast get rid of Nitrate via Bakki shower or water garden and maximize their water quality. That's where I got the idea, why not use the nutrient for veggies instead of lilies?

How's your project going? Any updates? if you can post new pics, it would be appreciated much.

Cheers!

Square

[vihalvor]

hey square root greetings from Makati.. there are several of us aquaponicans here.. in makati i know of 2, then we have erwin and madodel across the river, and a few more i believe :D

where in manila are you from ?

[Pugo]

Welcome to the Aquaponics HQ.. Kmusta

[squareroot]

Hi guys! Thanks for the welcome.

vihalvor, I'm from across the river. Im from Mandaluyong.

I will post my project soon....

[Romy Venes]

Hello Squareroot! Thanks for your post.

I used to have aphids eating up all my plants. They they all disappeared when I started planting some Basil in portions of my gravel bed. Right now my aquaponics system is the heart of my hatchery's circulatory system. All the aquaria in my hatchery are being fed with water coming from the last stage of my aquaponic system. Most of the plants I have are aquatic plants except for some vegies (Kangkong, Camote Tops and Basil) I have in the gravel bed. The GB is a 1 cubic meter FD system that drains into a series of 3 tubs of 1 cu meter each hydroponic beds full of Cabomba Caroliniana, Hygrophila Polysperma, Hygrophila Diformis, Duckweeds, Bacopa Monieri, and Star Grass. Nitrite and Nitrate in my system is almost constantly near zero. The test kits I use are from API. The fishes I keep are: Koi and mostly Malawi Cichlids and some Platies.

Recently, I started toying with the idea of window farming. So I am about to incorporate airlift pumps into upside-down hanging plastic bottles with plants on coconut coir media as a variation of my aquaponic system. I am preparing this for a demo system for some of the students in the University of Asia and the Pacific -the school where I teach as I have been invited to lecture on Aquaponics for a few sessions in the class on Environmental Science and the class in Biology. I will try to take some new photos of my system and post them next week.

[vihalvor]

i run my system on my veranda (see my thread) in my apartement in bel-air1. I have a 120x60x40cm gb, made of marine plywood and lined with fiberglass.. all DIY.. my fishtank is a 160 liter plastic storage box i reinforced with a fewlayers of ductape....works like a charm... i had 4 koi and 8 red tilapia... the last koi died fat and happy yesterday... im thinking the tilapias assasinated itas itwas the fatty of the group.. the tilapia are all nicely pink, and sems very happy...

The gb is now overgrown with pole sitao, tomato and cucumber... the zitao i think is sterile.. grows like crazy but no produce... the cucumbers flowe like crazy but no produce.. only an eggplant has ONE fruit... but... im happy nevertheless...

[erwin]

Good to hear more people are in aquaponics in the Phil. Mabuhay!

[Romy Venes]

Thanks Erwin! Thanks for your post too Vidar! one of my 2800 L/h sump pump finally conked out after two years of continuous service. It's one of those cheap made in China Resun pumps you could buy in Cartimar (a mall with lots of fish stores in Manila). I think I want to replace it with something a lot more dependable this time.

Here's an update on my system. The tarpaulins I used as liner for the GB, and 2 Hydroponic bed are still functioning well (no leaks yet). These were scrap tarpaulins that were discarded after an event in the University where I teach. I have already harvested several batches of tilapias. I just started with 5 tilapias which were caught from a fishing excursion 2 years ago in Valenzuela Bulacan. Since then they have multiplied many times over. There's no knowing how many they have produced (but definitely more than ten thousand fries, or even more). I've harvested many batches of lettuces from my system. I stopped planting lettuce as there was a period when caterpillars started attacking my plants, then followed by aphids. I solved the caterpillar issue by enclosing my growbeds under mosquito nets (my grow beds were 8ft x 4ft x 1 ft in dimension and fits very well under a mosquito net.) I was able to solve the aphids issue by planting Basil in my grow beds.

Currently, most of the plants in my growbeds are decorative plants for the aquarium. I am doing this because it is faster to grow aquatic plants hydroponically than immersed in water. Incidentally, I love planted tanks and I am planning to set up more planted tanks in the future. The ph in my system is stable at around 7.2 to 7.3. My kois are growing very fast - too fast I think. They started at around 5 or 6 inches when I got them 2 years ago and they are anywhere from 1 ft to more than 1 and ft now. I recently bought 50 pcs of Golden Tilapia or otherwise known as Kingfish. They were only 2 inches when I bought them 2 months ago and are now 5 inches on the average. 3 days ago, I harvested about more than 50 fries from one mouthbrooding kingfish. I guess more are to follow in the coming weeks.

I tried aquaponics not only for the vegetable farming asI was interested both in its promise for a sustainable way of producing food and as an excellent way of reusing water. Most of the time I use only rain water to add water into my system. Whenever it rains hard, my pond and growbeds get filled with water. I allow the 1st 15 mins or so of rain to pass before I start allowing the rain from the downspout (which is collected from an area of around 250 sq m of roof) to come in to my ponds. So far the system can manage quite well with this. I notice though that the Kois and Tilapias can handle the rain water well but I get some casualty from my Marigold Platies. All the other Mbunas (Malawi Cichlids) handle rain water very well, with a few caualties though (anywhere from 10 to 20 out of several thousands of them in my tanks and aquaria). At times I add salt into the system after a strong rain as an aid to preventing the outbreak of disease.

Right now 2 of my 3 Hydroponic beds are covered with duckweeds with verious aquatic plants growing under. Ammonia is 0, nitrite is almost 0 and Nitrate is close to 0. I have more than a thousand mbunas in my tanks and ponds not to mention, Tilapias, Kois, Platys, Ciprinids and Characins. My aquaponic system is serving me quite well as a filtration system for my hatchery of more than 60 tanks and 5 ponds. Aquaponics had more than exceeded what I expected when I started 2 years ago.

[squareroot]

Wow! nice to hear your developments guys!

Right now, I am still tinkering and planning what should I do. Concrete or tarp gb.... the biggest % of my planning is how to incorporate the gb system esthetically to my koi pond. I dont like it looking awkward just for the sake of having an aquaponics.

Thanks! I will post my thread once I start my project.

Cheers!

[vihalvor]

... sry.. erred post..