Tomer from Karkur

[Tomer]

Hi Gary
advice worth it's weight in gold, as always.
i'll get into some research about the UVI system, and the BC.
thanks again

[Tomer]

Hi everyone
been too long since my last posts.. but i did keep busy. just finishing off the construction of my second system, that is already circulating on fish waste from the first system. in about a week i plan to load about 100 fingerlings of Tilapia & Grey Mullet in both systems.
the first system is a CHOP model, flowing from the fish tank to the growbeds. the new system is reversed, the fish tank water being pumped to the growbeds after passing a solids settling tank (in blue). i got a mate who's a welder to construct the frames for the growbeds, while the growbeds themselves are cement-mixing tubs i got in a hardware supply shop. a 3000 lph pump seems to be about right for the job. the new system is a lot less massive and cumbersome, which is a big advantage..
wife's been planting lot's of bok-choy, lettuce, leek, cucumber, peas & salad greens.
posting some pics..

[Tomer]

and some more pics..
the Tilapia was 890 gr. great dinner..

[Tomer]

ok, last set.
our most recent house hold member - the lady in pink - named bella
the mini balcony wood system and a small barrel system
mates trying their luck angling monster Tilapia in the fish tank (poor success)
and a visitor in the duckweed tank..

[GaryD]

Hi Tomer,

Good to hear from you again.

Bella is beautiful......life is not complete without a pig or two.....and I like the little koi system.


Gary

[Tomer]

Hi Gary
growing a pig in Israel is not an easy task it seems. the animal being un-kosher, together with the overall un-clean reputation they suffer from makes public opinion heavy on the negative side. but that we just have to live with, and maybe we can change a mind or two..
the Koi system is a product i am starting to offer to people as a balcony bio-decoration concept. people really love it.
another question, if i may - i got a call from a guy who has a 20,000 ltr pond, wanting to start growing fish for food. in such a scale, is it advisable to use floating raft systems as the vegetable growing method?
regards

[GaryD]

Hi Tomer,

Sorry......I overlooked the fact that your home is largely populated by people who don't eat pork.

....another question, if i may - i got a call from a guy who has a 20,000 ltr pond, wanting to start growing fish for food. in such a scale, is it advisable to use floating raft systems as the vegetable growing method?

When you speak about a pond, I'm assuming that you mean something like a swimming pool as distinct from a hole in the ground with an earth bottom.

In that case, with a capacity of 20,000 litres, you could use any growing system but, for the sake of practicality, raft would probably be best.

If it is an earth-bottomed pond, I wouldn't connect it to grow beds at all - too many prospective complications and too little capacity to control the variables. You could, however, use the water from such a pond to feed other growing systems like wicking beds.

Gary

[Tomer]

Hi Gary
I assume the pond is constructed - i haven't seen it but by the dimensions (4 x 2.5 x 2) i assume is is structured and not just a hole in the ground.. but i will ask of course.
i should also i guess find out what he wants the veggies for - if for sale or private consumption, in which case in the media beds you can grow a bigger variety of plants (i assume)?
and in the raft systems - is it a practical solution for a small scale home grower who is (not yet at least) a keen aquaponics practitioner?
hard question, i know. and i am not sure which model to follow in the planning of one; the systems that Murray and yourself built - are they adequate for these volumes of water? or is it the UVI system (which is much more complex?)
in our house hold pork is consumed with pleasure, but in the surrounding neighborhoods there is less tolerance.. we shall see what challenges await us.

[GaryD]

Hi Tomer,

i should also i guess find out what he wants the veggies for - if for sale or private consumption, in which case in the media beds you can grow a bigger variety of plants (i assume)?

You can largely grow the same plants in either media-based or raft systems - although raft is probably better suited to the production of salad crops.

and in the raft systems - is it a practical solution for a small scale home grower who is (not yet at least) a keen aquaponics practitioner?

Raft systems have a number of advantages.....including the fact that they are less risky, more resilient and more stable (from a temperature perspective) all due to the greater volume of water in them. Their only complication is that they demand solids removal where lightly stocked flood and drain systems may get away without solids removal. Personally, I feel solids should be removed and treated externally regardless of the system type.

A combination of the two types of growing system is sometimes used...where the water goes through the flood and drain grow beds before passing into the raft tanks.

hard question, i know. and i am not sure which model to follow in the planning of one; the systems that Murray and yourself built - are they adequate for these volumes of water? or is it the UVI system (which is much more complex?)

Dr Rakocy (from UVI) has developed a scaled-down version of their large commercial system and it's not terribly complicated. Grow tanks can be very simply and inexpensively constructed using wood, plywood and a LDPE liner.

....in our house hold pork is consumed with pleasure.......

In ours, too.

Gary

[DaveOponic]

Great photos Tomer. Looks like you are doing well with the Aquaponics now. I still have Tilapia, most now are second or third generation bred of the original dozen or so I bought over two years ago. We have enjoyed many good feeds of Tilapia, usually deep fried, barbecued and more recently smoked. I find the Tilapia is an excellent smoked fish. I use mango wood from the tree to smoke in an old weber BBQ.

I also now keep Barramundi as they are easily and cheaply available here from a hatchery. They are a much better eating fish than Tilapia, although not as hardy and have an incredible growth rate. I have grown Barra to over 1kg in less than a year. I now plan to build a new system especially geared to barramundi. they love clean water and lots of aeration. Have finally worked out a good swirl filter and bio filter based on the good ole 200 litre drum and have had two of these in operation for months now.

The Tilapia certainly produce a lot of poo. I use a strong submersible pump in the centre of the rectangular fish tank. This pumps to the 200 litre filter drum and gravity feeds back to grow beds and then back to tank.

I still haven't used sumps as I can't really see any advantage apart from a constant water level and that really isn't an issue in the 1000 litre tanks that I use. It may become a problem or become necessary though as I intend to expand the grow beds in the next system, so will have to experiment with the equipment I've got.

Bugs are the biggest problem here in Borneo, along with squirrels, monkeys etc. So I am thinking of making a screen house around the growbeds to provide shade and keep pests away.


Dave