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

Assessing the Cost of my Aquaponic Greenhouse Garden as a Hobby

Wow, I can honestly say that I'm quite shocked by what this worked out to show!

There are lot’s of different hobbies that I have gotten involved in over the years and they've all been fun but most of them were eventually set aside because they were just getting to expensive to continue with.  The RC trucks for example got way out of hand, as did the paintball equipment before it.  For the most part we've gotten rid of most of the clutter from those pastimes but there are still a couple of pretty sweet RC trucks in the attic that I’ve been thinking about getting down lately …

As some of you who follow my outdoor channel & blog are aware I have recently gotten back into more ‘manly’ hobbies like fishing & hunting.  Although to be honest there are a LOT of women that are taking an interest in these activities now as well so … sweet.  Anyway, equipment for either or both of these hobbies is kind of costly as well but it’s different because these both provide meat for dinner.

Aquaponics falls into that same sort of ‘grey area’ of spending as a hobby because it has that same bonus.  There are costs to setting up an aquaponic garden but as it turns out they really don’t have to be that much.  Please keep in mind that prices will be different for EVERYBODY building an aquaponic garden because we all shop in different stores and have different levels of urban foraging skills but basically here we go.

What I most commonly refer to as my greenhouse is, in fact, just a poly tunnel hoop house with delusions of grandeur.  Since it’s not heated, or really environmentally controlled at all, it sadly doesn't count as a proper greenhouse.  Well, not in my thinking anyway but I want to have something more like a conservatory anyway.  Ideally.  For now, I have built this little hoop house and it cost about $60 so far.  I’m okay with that compared to say several hundred for a smaller, but premade, garden greenhouse.  DIY is fine by me and Chox doesn't seem to mind either so … perfect!

Inside my little hoop house I am currently running two separate aquaponic gardens, as I discuss in the video on YouTube Assessing the Cost of my Aquaponic Greenhouse Garden as a Hobby.  The first garden has some of the older & more expensive pieces in it so it totalled out at $244 as I recall, the second garden was built with a little more experience and I was able to put it together for $168.  So the total cost of this is some $472.  Not bad.

Now, as I already said, the price of setting up your aquaponic garden will probably be different from that.  I was brought up to salvage lumber & reuse the nails, things like that tend to lower costs somewhat.  If you look around I’m sure that you can put an aquaponic garden together for WAY less than that.

So, for less than $500 I've been able to keep myself busy in the back yard growing herbs, fruit & vegetables for my family that are clean, fresh and healthy for them to eat.  Nice.  How many wives would gladly pay more than that to keep their hubbies happy and within eyeshot?  I feel confident to say that with all of the better than organic herbs we have stored away in the house from that garden, the countless green salads we've eaten, the heaping bowls of tomatoes that have come in and that Malabar spinach that was so excellent for sandwiches that we've gotten WAY more than our money back from this little garden.  What’s even better is that it will just keep on growing more food for us, all year round, year after year … oh ya.

What do I think after assessing the cost of my aquaponic garden in the greenhouse?  I think that money was darn well spent and if I had the space I’d double my greenhouse!

3 Years into the Aquaponic Garden Experiment

After 3 years of gardening with aquaponics I am so completely beyond hooked on the idea it’s a little bit nuts.  Everything’s going to be just fine though, we know what to call it so therefore … we can find a cure!
 
Obsessive Compulsive Aquaponic Disorder, it’s real and I have it.  Okay maybe it’s not really real type real but it’s pretty real all the same.  If it holds water I will, at one time or another, ask myself how it would work for an aquaponic garden.  Is it deep enough?  Does it hold enough water?  Would the fish like it?  Oh ya, I've got O.C.A.D. and I'm proud to say it!  Have you got O.C.A.D. yet?  Go ahead, it’s just gardening … just give it a try!

Seriously though, after these last 3 years of testing theories and trying new and different foods just because they would grow in the system, I really think there is something to this aquaponics thing.  My garden is not the biggest or prettiest or fanciest or most expensive or any of that crap but you know what it is?  It’s proof that anyone who really wants to garden with aquaponics can do it with very little expense or knowledge.

From about 1 year into Aquaponic Gardens
(the fish pump was a bad idea)

When I first got involved with aquaponic gardening, about a year or so before the YouTube channel started to document everything, my system didn't even have a pump.  I had some old coffee cans with little drain hoses into a wading pool from the neighbours.  Very kind of them.  If I went into the garden area I would refill the cans and they would slowly drain back into the pool.  No pump, no power.

As primitive as that system sounds, it worked.  It worked well enough I  have spent the next 3 years finding out just how much I could grow and how little I could spend.  In that time, this little aquaponic garden has produced foods I can't even pronounce and herbs with flavour depths I'd never imagined from what I was used to.

The truth is, the experiment is over and now things are getting a little more serious.  Hard to believe from me I know but all the same I’m gonna try.  I set out to find out if it works and it does.  Simple as that really.  What now?

Now it becomes about getting other people into aquaponic gardening & spreading the word.  Now it’s about bringing back the idea of ‘Victory Gardens’ which so many of us all over the world would benefit from.  Now it’s about inspiring others to find new places to turn into aquaponic farmland when it was just industrial wasteland before.  Now things are just getting started to get growing.  Now it’s about insuring that as many families as possible start their own little aquaponic gardens and feel the freedom that growing your own food can provide.

What now for you?

Best regards,
JT Bear.

What is Aquaponics?

Here is a quick look at the introduction to aquaponics that I have in the beginning of my little eBook.  I hope to have a version I am happy to post on the FundRazr campaign as a 'perk' for peoples kind donations.  How does this look to you?  Please feel free to share any thoughts on writing style or general content.  Thanks for your time!

What is Aquaponics?

Basically, aquaponic gardens and farms are attempting to re-create the system that nature uses. In an environmentally controlled area, such as a greenhouse, these systems are used with great success to raise both fish and plants in a closed loop waterway.  As the fish live, breathe, eat and make waste their water can become quite toxic to them if left untreated.

Aquaponic gardens, however, clean and filter that water for the fish before it returns to them.  As the water is pumped through a system, it will travel through both bio-filters and plant roots, each having a very important part in keeping those fish healthy.

The biofilter, aka your happy bacterial colony in the growing media, are a two part team.  The first part converts the raw ammonias from the fish pollutants into nitrites and then the second part  finally converts those into nitrates.  Once these previously toxic elements have been naturally converted they become a healthy source of nutrients for the plants that are growing in the aquaponic garden bed.  The plant roots are eager to get any source of extra nutrients that they can find, and as such, they will rapidly deplete them from the water rushing by.

It is by taking advantage of this natural bacterial cycle that aquaponic gardens are able to do so well for food production almost regardless of the gardeners personal skill level.  It is my opinion, that aquaponic gardens might just be the much needed answer to providing food security for individuals as well as for entire communities.

When edible fish and plants are used they can provide more than enough food in return to cover the initial cost of setting it up.  If you think of your garden as an investment, it’s the best returns you can find on the market without breaking the laws.  Think about the price of a packet of seeds when compared to the price of some produce!  It’s even more when you use the price of ‘Organic’ foods for your math and I feel that aquaponic foods are probably better for you anyway.  Did you know that ‘Organic farms’ can still use fertilizers and pesticides as long as those products are ‘certified’?  Using anything like that in an aquaponic system would cause massive damage because they are designed to use technology to simulate nature.

Nature doesn’t have those type of products … just saying.

Are Koi a Good Choice for Aquaponic Gardens?

There are really two reasons to raise fish.  The first being, obviously, for food and the second reason being for profit.  Regardless of why you are keeping them, fish are an essential part of the aquaponic garden set up.  Based on that, there are really two different types of fish that you can raise.  Edible and ornamental.

Raising edible fish is a fantastic for of insurance for your food supply.  Clean, healthy protein is always a good idea but what if you're not worried about that?  Say for example you prefer beef, or maybe you don't even eat meat but you see aquaponics as a great way to grow better than organic fruits and vegetables! What would be the point of edible fish in your garden then?

Raising ornamental fish in your aquaponic garden can be a great way to build a steady, home based, income if you go about it correctly.  For example, let’s discuss the four beautiful koi I have added to my system recently.  You can check out the quick HD video I posted to YouTube if you would like a look at them.

These four fish cost just over $70 total at their current size.  In a year or so, after they have grown 8-12 inches, each of those fish could easily be worth that and more!  Pound for pound, my research suggests that koi are one of the most valuable fish that I could fuel my garden with.  Once they are between two and three feet in length, any one of those koi could sell for enough to pay for a whole new backyard greenhouse.  In time, as they mature enough, these koi could become brood stock for my own breeding program at Clean Valley Farms!  Granted, I will be selecting from far more than just four when that time comes but they could easily be in the running with some of the qualities they possess.

We all have our aquaponic gardens for our own reasons.  Since I am lucky enough to live between two well stocked freshwater lakes, edible fish is not one of mine.  On that note, check out Talkquaponics.com for our coming online koi auction page!  The videos will be updated weekly so that bidders can see exactly how their desired koi is doing and know exactly what they are buying.  One of these four will soon be listed for bidding so be sure to check often.

Happy harvests everyone & blessed be!
JT Bear

Selecting Plants for a New Aquaponic Garden

Setting up a new aquaponic garden can be a very exciting time!  After getting all of your equipment collected and taking care of putting it all together, the urge to plant in the new garden can become somewhat … overpowering.  You're all ready to go, but what to plant?

While results will be different in EVERY aquaponic garden there are some plants that will do better than others in the beginning in almost every case.  When selecting your starter plants you must think about a few different things.  How large will this plant grow?  How demanding is it for nutrients?  Will it be productive enough to be worth the space in your aquaponic garden?  Is it a fruiting plant or more of a leafy green?

From my experience, and from many other gardens that I have watched grow over the years, it is impossible to resist the temptation to plant either tomatoes or peppers into the garden bed.  I can’t even count how many times I've seen that.  These plants are wonderful, productive and beautiful BUT they require a LOT of nutrients in order to reach their maximum potential.  Often new aquaponic gardeners will plants these before their garden has matured enough to support their high demands and the end result is feeling that their garden wasn't as good, or worse yet that they themselves had failed at aquaponic gardening.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  These plants do amazingly well in established garden beds where the bacteria have really taken hold.  This can take up to a year in some gardens, longer in places where the grow bed is subjected to temperatures at or below freezing.

In that first year you can still grow a wide variety of different plants and see a very healthy return on your garden investment.  Leafy greens and kitchen herbs can be grown to surprising size quite quickly, even with a brand new #AquaponicGarden.  Spinach, kale, chard, watercress and lettuces (which variety depends on your temperature more than your garden) will show you results to keep you very happy.  Growing mint, oregano, sage, thyme, basil and more has never been easier than since I've started my little aquaponic greenhouse.  As I sit to write this, I can’t even recall the last time we had to buy any of those.  In fact there is a rather large box behind me stuffed with paper bags that are still filled with these herbs from last year!

At the end of it all, what YOU are going to plant in YOUR garden is up to you and I wish you the best of luck with your aquaponic adventure!

Selecting Fish For Your Aquaponic Garden

When selecting fish for your aquaponic garden there are a great many things you will need to consider and they will all have an effect on your overall system.

Water temperature is vital to many fish species and failure to comply with those needs will result in tragedy.  Goldfish and koi will live in much colder water than say … tilapia.  That doesn't mean that you can only raise decorative fish if you’re not in a financial position to heat a large fish tank but they do become a serious option.  Look into the species that live in the local bodies of water for ideas.  For example, trout and kokanee salmon can deal with some cooler waters and live in the lakes nearby my garden.  Perhaps someday I can use my aquaponic garden to help repopulate the dwindling sport fish numbers …

Cost of heating is however, something to think about.  The monthly costs to heat a large body of water and maintain it can be staggering.  If you don’t believe me, ask someone with a backyard hot tub what’s cheaper, buying it or running it.  My money is on running it, I've asked a few hot tub owners myself.  Sure you aren't going to need to keep your water quite that hot, but you will be heating more water and moving it around where it has many chances to shed heat that you paid for.



Edible fish will have different dietary needs than ornamental fish, so a different food source will be required depending on which you choose for your garden.  Will you be growing duckweed to supplement the diet of your fish or will you be purchasing something factory made for feed?  If you’re growing your own fish food you will need to be certain that all the nutritional needs of your fish species are met, there are a host of good websites and YouTube channels to help you with this.  If you've decided it would be better to buy premade fish feed you will need to make sure that it is food safe, if you plan on eating those fish or not!  The food that gets left in the aquaponic system will break down and begin to feed, or poison, the plants depending on how much of it there is and what it’s made of.  Even if all the food is consumed, it still needs to be food safe because when it comes back as waste … it becomes food for your plants.

How large will your fish grow and how much space will each one require to get to that size?  Different species of fish need different things.  A general recommendation for tilapia is as many as 1 per gallon, which seems crowded to me, whereas people will recommend a minimum of 10 gallons per koi.  If you’re going to put all this effort into your aquaponic garden, why not do just a little more research first?  My goldfish have somewhere around 2.5 gallons of water in the system per fish just because that’s how it worked out but they were just fine with only 1 gallon each before …

If you plan on marketing your fish, is there a market for this variety?  What will these fish be worth to you after the cost of feed, pumps and the rest of your overhead?  When you are getting involved with aquaponics on a hobby level this doesn't really matter quite as much but if you plan on making a business with aquaponics, this may make or break it.  In some regions the fresh produce will more than cover the entire running costs, however in others the really big money item will be the fresh fish.  I can’t say what’s going to be better where you are, but I will remind you to look into it before you get started.  Ah, the joys of a hobby garden … my fish are just helpful pets but if I were to sell them I suspect I would get enough to replace them with at least twice as many!

Once you've begun to establish what you require for a fish species, you can begin to design your aquaponic garden to meet those assorted needs and grow nice, healthy fish.  In the example of my garden, goldfish were selected for a few simple reasons.  First off I did not require fish that I could consume, and getting edible fish would have meant a great pile of paperwork to try that locally.  Secondly, goldfish are sturdy.  Temperature changes that would kill many decorative aquarium fish are of little concern to these hardy little goldfish.  Thirdly, even at their largest, a goldfish will only reach about 12 inches in length.  That meant I would be able to have larger numbers of fish, in a hobby sized garden, without overburdening the bio-filters or stressing out the fish.  Fourth and finally, as I have mentioned in many of my YouTube videos, goldfish are CHEAP!  I mean really cheap.  I could get one good quality koi for the same price as about 40 feeder goldfish so …  In a starter system, it still seems like a solid financial choice to go with a more affordable option.

Just a few things that you will want to bear in mind when first selecting your aquaponic fish!
Share & enjoy!
JT Bear                                                                                                        #JTBear