What's the BIG DEAL with Aquaponic Gardens?

So there are a LOT of folks out there wondering just what is the big freaking deal with aquaponic gardens these days?!?  Is this some sort of new crazy hippy fad or what?  Well, yes and no ... let me explain.
The shortest way to say it is that the planet is in trouble.  Big trouble no matter what new feed you read, the news isn't pretty.  That's part of WHY aquaponic gardening is becoming such a popular way to provide for yourself and spend a little time feeling better.  How do these things relate to each other?  Easy.
One of the biggest issues we hear about, aside from people killing each other, is how people are starving all over the world.  Even in so called first world countries the citizens can be seen on the streets clearly in need of better food sources.  In second & third world countries the situation is even worse.  Growing food for large numbers of people requires damaging huge patches of land, in many ways that's just all there is to say about it, but it doesn't NEED to be that way.  Many of us that are growing with aquaponics are only too happy to speak of the many benefits that go along with it.
First would either be the health benefits of locally grown food but second would undoubtedly be the water saving nature of the gardens design.  If you were to look at an aquaponic garden for the first time you may be asking ... just how does this massive pool of water use less water than a soil garden?  To be fair, that's a reasonable question.  Allow me to answer it for you.  Aquaponic, and hydroponic, gardens recycle the water in a loop that ends up back at the source.  Any water used, is returned.  Quite simple really.  In soil gardening the water is often lost to gravity draining it down and away before the plants can even really notice it, let alone benefit from it!  With aquaponics the garden bed is waterproof, or at least it should be, so the water drains into pipes and back to the filters & fish tanks.  Not wasted.
Another place that traditional gardens tend to loose a fair bit of water is to simple evaporation.  Before the water can soak into the soil to pass by the roots it must battle the heat of the surrounding environment or risk becoming a future raindrop.  In aquaponic gardens the top layer of grow media is kept dry to help prevent this loss of such a valuable resource.  The end result is a garden that uses water without really loosing it.  Water is still consumed by the plants and expelled into the air via the leaves but otherwise it just stays in the system!
Having all of this water moving past the roots helps the plants to thrive and in doing they produce amazing flavors.  The taste of aquaponic basil simply cannot be beat in my opinion!  Raising fish in the aquaponic gardens, the source of all the good stuff for the plants, is a secondary bonus that traditional gardens doesn't provide.  For folks such as myself, raising goldfish provides for the plants and saves me a fortune in therapy.  For others, raising edible fish provides another chance to save or make some money and provide for the ones they love.  Either way, good deal!
So what is the big deal with aquaponic gardens?  They are the answer to a big chunk of the worlds problems.  Don't believe me?  Try it for yourself, you'll be telling folks to try it in no time!

Starting to Build the New Aquaponic Garden

   So, to begin building the new aquaponic garden out here I needed to look and find out what I still had to work with before I got too committed to any given plan.  As it turned out, I'm in pretty good shape for supplies!  That said, the first place for me to start seemed like building a nice solid frame for that old 2 x 4 garden bed.  While it's true that I never cared much for that while it was in the old system, I'm delighted that it made the trip so I can, once again, start to build a better garden with it!  

One of the first things I was going to need to build was a nice sturdy table to support a plastic garden bed that I know for a fact to be a little ... flimsy.  A few quick measurements and I was off to the Co-op for my lumber.  It turns out that a 2x6 would be perfect for the sides and some classic 2x4s could easily take care of the rest.  I've decided to use 3 inch woodscrews to secure it all and that seems to have resulted in a very solid table indeed.

After the 2x6 sides were squared off and attached I was set to try the table for a final fitting.  I'm pleased to say that it fits!  More or less ...  Looks good to me anyway!  The next thing an aquaponic, or hydroponic, table needs is good solid support under the grow bed.  It's shocking how many people are surprised when their rock, water & plant filled garden is too heavy and falls through the frame they used.  In my opinion, frames are good but tables are better.  Just saying ...

Best Crops for Aquaponic Gardens

Over the years I have been asked many times about what crops I think are best for aquaponic gardens.  At the end of the day I figure it comes down to two key factors.  First would be, how established is your garden and second would, of course, be what do you like to eat.  Since the second is entirely personal I will focus on the first for the sake of this discussion.
From what I have seen in my own aquaponic garden trials, the first year should be devoted to favorite herbs & leafy greens.  Mint, for example, can be an ideal starter plant simply because it is so hardy but basically any small leaved plant is a solid choice for the first few months.  Larger leafy greens are also usually somewhat successful during the first year while the system develops & grows.  Many gardeners will choose a type of lettuce at this stage but I have switched to kale for a couple of reasons.  Number 1 being that it's so darn healthy, when grown safely, and number 2 being that it will grow in my greenhouse during the cold Canadian winter and the heat of our crazy summers.  If you simply can't resist planting something that will produce fruit in that first year then I would recommend strawberries.  Easy to grow, hard to kill and nothing beats a fresh picked aquaponic strawberry.
By year two an aquaponic garden usually has a much more developed internal ecosystem and should be prepared to host a different set of plants.  Now you can start to think about crops like peppers & tomatoes that will produce fruit, but there is a warning here as well.  These plants are greedy and can be quite good at removing any & all micro-nutrients from the system.  For sustained success with fruit & flower producing plants you may need to find safe ways to reintroduce elements such as calcium and magnesium but fear not, nature has answers for all of it.  A little research as to what your crop requires will keep your plants producing & your fish healthy.  It is worth mentioning however that if you start adding things to boost fruit production it is wise to move herbs & leafy greens into a different system so that they don't go to seed and loose their true flavor.
Well, I hope this helps to point you in the right direction and has answered a few questions for you.  Thanks for your time & best of luck on your aquaponic adventure!

Expanding the No Power Aquaponic Garden for Larger Settings

The idea of the no power aquaponic garden is a lot of fun to play around with but the basic truth that needs to be stated up front is that when you are saying no power you are committing to personally do a lot more work.  Not a real problem for some of us, when I got started I was not working anywhere at the time so that left plenty of time available to me, but when it is a problem it is a big one.  If you can’t get to your garden every few hours during the day, more often during the heat of summer, this might not be an option for you.  Remember, if you have access to steady electricity I STRONGLY recommend a more advanced system with a pond pump.  You’ll thank me for that later on …
Let’s take a look at what needs to happen in an aquaponic garden for everything to keep on living, growing and producing for you.  Obviously the plants need to be watered, that’s a given, and the fish need to be fed.  Regular feeding of fish produces waste products that will build up over time and kill your fish.  It’s not pretty or fun to see.  So the first big problem that needs to be solved is removing the waste from the water to keep those little critters happy, or at the very least … alive.
Now, if you’ve even looked into aquaponics at all you’re probably saying to yourself, ‘well, don’t the plants do that?’, or some variation on that theme anyway.  If you are, then you’re right but there’s more to it than that.  Successful aquaponic gardens are populated with a few naturally occurring bacteria that are essential to that success.  These tiny workers need somewhere to call home and conditions that benefit their reproduction.  Just like everybody else, they are looking for a safe place to call home & a steady food supply.  Providing them a home is the easy part.  Anything non toxic with surface area in the water will do quite well for them, mine love it!  This is why you will see so many different things being used in aquaponic systems that are all generally referred to as the bio filter.  I’ve seen everything from lava rocks to lego, clay pellets to river rocks and even some fancy scientifically engineered stuff to be ‘better than nature’.  That’s a bad joke but we’ll just push past that issue for now.  Building a basic bio filter into a no power aquaponic garden isn’t that difficult, but it does need to be done.  I could make a whole playlist of video options for this but just be creative and it will probably work for you as a starting point.
So now that we have a bio filter in our garden the fish will be safe right?  Nope.  With a completely no power garden your fish face a few other dangers that all need to be looked after as well, or they will die.  I’m not going to sugar coat this for you, that’s just how it is.  Some of the other concerns include, but are not limited to: dissolved oxygen levels in the water, pH imbalances, ammonia spikes from low bacteria levels, greater risk of water borne diseases such as ich plus a few other issues I’m probably forgetting at the moment.  Some of that is as easy as the bio filter, in fact if your bio filter is almost always getting a ‘fresh’ supply of dirty water it will take care of a few of those for you.  Dissolved oxygen and ammonia spikes at any rate.  So here is the next big question.  How do we keep water flowing without electricity?
It can be easily said that there are vast numbers of ways to make this happen but they are all varying degrees of annoying, unreliable or just plain hard work.  One of the first solutions that comes to my mind is some form of a water tower to do the trick.  This adds its own difficulties and challenges but hey, we’re building a large scale no power aquaponic small farm here so it’s not going to be quick or easy.  Just saying.  To avoid the water tower one could perhaps make use of a very basic wind turbine and use that to drive a rope pump.  Another solution with its own unique issues and challenges.  Let’s take a better look at both of those options, shall we?
What are some of the issues with the first option of a water tower?  Well, as a tower that suggests it will need to be built to some height and moving water uphill is a problem for nature.  Gravity doesn’t really play that game.  Another issue is the large amount of water that it removes from the fish tank all at once.  Rapid raising and lowering of the water level can cause the fish huge amounts of stress and stress is a killer.  Best to avoid it whenever possible.  Good life strategy right there but back to the topic.  Creating an overflow drain in the fish tank, more on this later on, that goes to a secondary sump tank can solve this problem if done correctly.  I would think a sump tank that holds at least as much water as the tower plus half again would be about the right size.  This will ensure that your fish have a steady ceiling height at all times and keep them a little happier.  Happy fish are healthy fish!  The height of the water tower is basically easy enough to deal with as well, just make sure the bottom of the water storage on your tower is above the top of your growing beds and make sure they are taller than your fish tank that has it’s sump tank even lower down.  Gravity will do everything but put the water into the tower for you, not bad.  Just make sure you build that tower base strong, water is a lot heavier than most people think.  Options for getting the water from the sump to the tower are unlimited.  Buckets, rope pump, DIY piston pump, cast iron cistern pump (old west style can pull water up 25 feet!), water screw … I could go on here but I think you get the point.  Next!
The other solution mentioned was the use of a wind turbine and a rope pump.  Again, any style of hand pump can be made to work here with some creativity.  While there is a very typical picture that comes to mind when we think of windmills or wind turbines that doesn’t mean they are the only ones, or even the best ones for that matter.  In my library of previously loved books I have a copy of ‘Practical Projects for the Handy Man’ that was first published back in 1913 by the editors of Popular Mechanics Press.  In this gem of a book is a simple windmill that works no matter which way the wind is blowing but doesn’t swing around like ‘standard’ wind turbines do.  I’m not going to explain how to build one here but if you’re interested you should definitely look into them, very cool & super basic.  1913, enough said!  If you build something along those lines it would become fairly simple to attach a pulley for a rope pump and let the wind do the work for you.  Wind moves the water up & gravity moves it down.  Excellent, no electricity so far!
Next we need to get that water moving into, and out of, those aquaponic garden beds or why are we building all of this?!?  This is a good time to start thinking about installing the bio filter.  As the water leaves the tower and runs into the garden is a GREAT time to make sure that it’s been converted from fish waste into plant food!  Now is also a good time to figure out what style of grow bed you will be using since that will make a big difference to how you want to deliver the water to the plants.  For a floating bed or raft system simply allowing the tower to drain, through the bio filter, into the beds at a set rate would be fine.  Adjust it as needed to keep the water moving all day, or at least in between times you can refill the tower, and you’re good to grow!  More or less, we’ve still got a couple of important points to go over so don’t run away just yet.  If you are growing with a flood and drain bed in mind then water control will be your personal nightmare from here on out, just my opinion.  The easiest way out of that trap is a quick fill with a slow drain.  Our three main goals with the water are to keep the plants hydrated, but not swamped, and to keep oxygen levels up while keeping the waste levels down.  With a quick fill of the beds the water gets plenty of oxygen as it rushes through all of the grow media, and it gets even more with the slow drain out as it will always keep the top of the fish tank in motion.  Waves = oxygen for the fish.  This type of bed also provides a second area for bacteria to live which will help prevent those evil ammonia spikes.
Getting back to the overflow drain in the fish tank for a moment here if I can.  These sound more difficult to make than they really are.  There are many great videos out there on exactly how to make them but the basics of it are simple enough to cover here in the blog.  The goal is to collect all of the solid waste from the fish, the poo if you prefer, and to draw it away from the main tank.  A good goal, after all nobody wants to swim around in poo.  Some aquaponic gardeners have attached various fittings to aid in the collection at the bottom so explore your options and see what you like.  Since my fish are all fairly large I simply leave the bottom of my drain pipe open and it seems to collect most of the waste.  The top end of this pipe needs to be attached to a ‘T’ fitting so that the water can be directed through the sidewall of the tank and into the sump while still leaving the top of the drain open.  As for getting the pipe through your fish tank sidewall I prefer the rigid nature of bulkhead fittings while others seem very fond of Uniseals.  Whatever you can find that’s non toxic and does the trick … works!  If this is setup correctly, it should create an overflow that draws the water and debris from the bottom of the tank while not making the vacuum suction that would drain the fish tank entirely.  VERY important that the top of that upright drain pipe is open, that’s not a fun mistake to make.
The last couple of things I should mention here are water changes and fish food.  Both of these are often overlooked in many aquaponic systems but vital to the overall health of your garden.  In the case of a ‘No Power’ style aquaponic garden, your fish are basically in a fishbowl and as the water evaporates not only do levels of the fish waste become more concentrated but so do the levels of assorted hormones that the fish release into the water as part of living day to day life.  Not a problem if you are trying to keep your fish small but it can become an issue if you want significant growth from them.  Sure, a top up of the fish tank will thin things out again but none of it is removed so ultimately it just keeps adding up.  As often as your water supply will allow for, you should remove at least 10% of the overall systems water BEFORE adding more fresh water into the system.  If you must use tap water, try to allow it to sit in the open for 24 hours first to naturally remove the chlorine.  That stuff can wipe out your bacterial colony so fast it will make your head spin, avoid whenever possible.  The final thing is, as I stated above, fish food.  Let me just leave you with this thought about your choice in fish food.  What they eat becomes what feeds the plants that you eat.  Anything that goes into that water could make it’s way into your food …
Thanks for taking the time to check out my thoughts on a larger NPAG for small farms.  I hope it helps or at least entertained you!  Blessed be & many happy harvests to you!
JT Bear

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Easy DIY Clean Air Intake for the Greenhouse

Hi there everybody!
While I don't yet have a picture to share of this there will be a video in the next week or so, basically once I get paid, showing how I will be putting mine together.  If you already watch my YouTube channels then you will have some idea of just how simple this project will be, otherwise just trust me and know that you can probably do this yourself.
First let's just quickly talk about why you want to make one of these as much as I do, and you already do or you wouldn't be reading this would you?  When it comes to our greenhouses there's usually not a lot that we wouldn't do to keep it safe, clean and producing the best fruit and veggies you could ever hope to tease your friends and neighbours with.  A well running greenhouse is a thing of beauty!  Even a poorly managed one, take mine for example, is capable of some pretty impressive stuff.  Don't get me wrong I try to look after my greenhouse but it was built, and is still managed, on a very tight budget so it lacks in some of the more expensive details.  Such as real windows but let's carry on shall we?
Any greenhouse, no matter how it was built, does a few basic things to help improve our overall gardening experience.  Basically it's all about climate control.  Hmm, that sounds kinda familiar ... anyway, we are regulating the temperature while in total control over the soil, water and air our plants get from that point on.  Playing god if you will.  If we forget to water then those plants are basically screwed.  Forgot to make sure the plant had enough nutrients in your soil, or 'ponics, and they're headed for the compost.  See where I'm going with this?
One of the things I enjoy the most about the artificial environment created by my little greenhouse is the basic level of protection from airborne pollution.  Since I do live in the middle of town, granted it's a smaller town, there is just about as much road pollution here as you can get in town.  As a special bonus we also live directly under the 1 of 2 routes to the local airport so that's a bonus sprinkle from above isn't it?  Then, moving up a bit more, there is also all of those planes leaving the very straight clouds behind them.  You know, the ones you can watch slowly falling and spreading out as they do until they become a haze up above?
Here then is the reason why we both want to make something that can provide our personally managed environments with clean, fresh & moist air at little to no cost.  As always that will depend on what you have laying around.  I, for example, will need to wander off and buy some pipe and fittings that are the right size.  Half inch PVC pipe just isn't going to do it for this project or there would be a video by now!
It's at about this point that I want to thank all those hippies who have worked so hard to make sure the next generation had access to this kind of technology.  Basically what we are going to build a water based filter for forced air.  To use a more relaxed phrasing, we're making a bong bro!  No, really, we kind of are.  So here's the plan, do with it as you will but if it works please post a video to YouTube & share with the whole class.

Bad lighting picture from a video camera, what do you do?
Breaks the 'wall of text' somewhat though ...

Into the lid for a fresh storage tote we will use a hole saw, that's the big circle drill bit that kinda looks like a bent saw blade for those who didn't take shop class, and drill two holes that are just large enough to pass the pipe through.  If you have to push a little that's okay as it will help make for a tighter seal.  You will need to measure and cut 2 lengths of pipe to insert at these locations.  The first should reach almost to the bottom, about 1/2 inch away is good.  The second should just barely go into the lid, 1/2 an inch is more than enough here.  Be aware, as weight is added to the lid it may sag and change these distances so checking from time to time is advised.  Attach the 2 curved 90° fittings to the pipe ends that are sticking out from the top of the project tote facing in whatever direction you like.  Makes no difference yet.  Believe it or not, we're almost done!  Almost.
After finding a suitable location in the greenhouse the tote will need to be positioned so that the longer pipe is closest to the wall and the shorter piece isn't.  This is the part that sucks.  We now need to cut a hole into the side of the greenhouse that we can pass some more of our pipe through.  That fresh air has to come from somewhere!  If you can, choose a place where the air intake will usually be covered with a shadow as this will help to naturally bring the coolest air available into your building.  Now comes the hardest part of the whole project, the forced air.  Since I would wager we will all be using different fan shapes and sizes I will simply leave it at saying you need to attach the pipe to either side of your fan and seal it well.  Oh ya, and make sure that it's blowing towards the tote, not the wall!  Since I will most likely be using a computer fan I suspect this should get interesting, can't wait to edit the video and see how I pull this one off!  Anyway ... after installing the fan and sealing the greenhouse wall around the intake pipe this project is just about ready to fly!  Pro tip - keep your powercords safe and clear of water danger because getting shocked sucks.
Now you can attach the pipe in the wall to the pipe that goes almost to the bottom of the tote.  Check to make sure that it's still close to the bottom but not touching.  If you are so inclined then attach something decorative to the fitting on the short pipe to pretty it up a bit.  Otherwise just leave it open as an easy way to fill the water in the tote!  Next step, fill the tote with water.  I recommend about halfway between the 2 pipe ends for the average greenhouse.  Plug in, or turn on, the fan and you should have fresh air pumping into your greenhouse from outside!
So basically how this works is that the outdoor air, filled with who knows what, is drawn into the intake by the fan and forced through the pipe into the water.  Since it is lighter it will naturally travel upwards towards the open end that leads to the greenhouse.  As the air from outside passes through the water much of the offending pollution is removed before it ever gets close to our beloved plants.  The water can be changed when it becomes too nasty and it will also help to keep the air reasonably humid for the plants!  Want more humidity?  Try adding a bit more water!
So, there it is ... the whole plan so far!  This may, or may not, be a new idea but I say share it freely since I just stood here and typed this whole blog entry I know the work is original at least.  Assuming you find this on the talk-qua-ponics blog on blogger anyway!  Post videos of your projects and the results, I'll be getting my DIY video posted on the JT Bear YouTube channel about an hour after it's built, editing & coffee take some time you understand.
Anyway, thanks for checking out the idea & seriously please give it a try or tell me why I shouldn't!
Have a great day everybody!

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