Ghana Ponics 21

 Still carrying on.  

We cleaned out the site office system a few days back.  Quite a nice group of Tilapia. Gave them to our Chine contractor.  They had them for dinner.

 Then we refreshed the tanks with some baby catfish.

Ban Muang Aquaponics "Food for Thought"

I just in my last post talked about air lift pump tests.  All good stuff I know but I got to thinking about the more simplistic side of aquaponics.  Walking around with my camera I stopped to photo/video the fish we had just put in our tank.  I call it a tank. Just outside the kitchen we have a concrete pipe on its side with a concrete base.  We set it up there several years and we filled it with water Lillys and some small fish.  Main reason was to locate the pipe somewhere useful !!!
I got to thinking.  This is really a small aquaponics system in full balance.  We add water as the evaporation requires if the rain does not do it for us, and throw in some food time to time. No measurement of grams per fish weight or water volume etc,  and indeed I suspect when we are away, in fact I very much doubt if anyone bothers to check on our tank or look to see if anything needs feeding. Bit of a pun coming up but "Food for Thought !!!!"

Fish Feed Rates

Just added a few tables on the other page "Our Feed Rates"to keep track of fish feeding and growth rates.

Progress 5th June 2013

Quick update.  Things are improving.  Must be Wanna doing it and me being away.  Sure a good logic to that as I keep adjusting everything in sight....

Still no complaints.  I've also been working on updating my feed calculations.  Should be done tomorrow. My main problem/delay is messing round with the files to get them uploaded.

Fish looking good. Plants improving and only down side is the shard cloth.  Could be I installed it a bit tight at the beginning. More slack with the wind etc. Still all coming right slowly. Will start to weigh fish a bit more often now.  We'll check on dead ones as well but they have already lost some weight. So not so accurate.

New System Part 7

Just added a couple of 500 gram Tilipia as the bio level based on using my Hyrdoponic trunchon read 8.3 (initial system is reading around 14 and seems OK with the plants looking a little weak.) so I need more nutrients in the system to maintain my plants. Hopefully these two big fish should add something to all this. The fish actually were caught in our pond a few days ago. We left them in our other system until we were ready for a Bar B Q. Guess they got a reprieve....

Sunday Progress

Nothing much of interest to report.  I've left the testing to give it a week to settle down. Don't want daily bad news anyway....

Two more dead cat fish in the sump tank. Not so surprised as there is little nutrient but a lot of crap in there. Again I'll leave them for now.

In my concern for more veggies I have added in some Paw Paw I found starting in the garden, also some onion cuttings and some herbs again from the garden. Should help the plant side a bit.

Progress update.

All seems to be going OK.  Just checked the Ph sitting at about 7.2.  Looking very good.  Having a bit of a problem with the siphon in one of the beds. I think following Murray Hallum's advice I'll add an elbow to the outlet and see if it helps things along.

We seeded some Morning Glory which is doing well, Bak Choi and the coriander have yet to sprout. In the smaller tanks we have Thyme and Rosemary and another type of Bak Choi. All doing OK. We did add in some Pawpaw but these may take a bit longer. The two banana plants appear to be OK. Early days for them as any change to their condition will tame a long time to show.

I also added a kilo of small cat fish to my overflow/sump tank. Logic being that some food is spilling over and they will act as cleaners. Wait and see. That's it for today.

Close To The End....Well For Now...

All good things come to an end or is it that all ends are the start of something new. I believe the latter. As an engineer we are always building something and then moving on. I seem in fact to have been constantly on the move. Well now is no exception.

Time to go to anew project and set up a new aquaponices system. The next one is going to be bigger. Not necessarily better. I have had so much fun with the Barrel Ponics System so a massive thanks to Mr Travis. Without him I would never even ha

ve considered starting out on this path. Thanks.

So one last look at the system before it goes....The sound in the section of me talking underwater is not so clear. Not so surprising I suppose.

So this posting is about closing up out existing system and putting it away till next time. The fish. I know we should be showing the cooking and providing the recipes etc. Not this time here in Thailand. We are returning the fish to the local lake about 50 meters from our place. All on video. We're doing it today as it is the official Queens Birthday here and it seems appropriate to to do now and not in a few days time.

So video of the draining of the system and setting free a few Tilipia!!!

It is in a sense a good thing to move on and start something new building on what we have learnt. A lot for the various aquaponic web sites and again Mr Travis.

Where ever we are next there will be fish and we will be growing.... So mark this spot and come back soon.

Disaster

Disaster. That's right a disaster. I went to Laos for four days only to get back and be told by the guy looking after the system that over night (last night !!!) it, the system had somehow run nearly dry. I suspect it is the local cats playing around on the top, maybe the pipe from the pump to the reservoir had become dislodged. Can't think of anything else or any other way it could have happened. I had noticed the cats around before but though little of it. So the result of all this is that bigger Tilapia died. That's 7 of them leaving me with 4 small ones. I'm am really disappointed but am taking it as part of the learning curve. How quickly things can go wrong. One day all is good and the next?..... Well I am really down about it.
I had been so excited to get back and plant the new seedlings. Probably still can plant them and maybe just maybe it will be OK but, ...not sure on the balance of fish and veggies any more.
Must get some more fish ASAP.
Imagine if it had been a fully commercial set up. A whole crop lost.... Well I am planning this weekend to add a few more small spry and see how it all goes. Major disappointment all the same.

Replanting and general progress

Been busy just doing nothing... Watching fish grow is not so exciting. However this weekend I decided it was time to clean up the reservoir tank. I try and make a habit of doing this every weekend. This time there was no internal filter tank have removed a few weeks back. The reservoir was full of green algae and suspended fish waste. So rather than remove it I stirred it all up.

Then I opened the flush unit and let it flow into the gravel beds. Works really well. We had also the same day removed several Thai herbs and chili plants from the garden and placed them in the system. They seemed to thrive almost immediately. I had expected some wilting but actually very little. Checking this morning (Monday) all looks good and the fish water is clear.

I also planted a a small tray several chili, tomato and Chinese cabbage seeds. We'll see how they do later in the week.

As a small note my air blower/stone finally gave up on Friday last week. I opened it to see the rubber plunger had perished. Its lasted 5 months at a cost of Baht 300 so approx 150 day. That's 2 Baht per day. At 34 Bath to the dollar I am not complaining!!!

Earlier we had eaten the Cat Fish but I did not post any photos. Dead fish do not make for good Photos but here goes... From-tank-to-grill

April 24th 2010. progress

Well... Progress. nothing much to report. All going well and no major problems.

I did have a minor difficulty with the flushing system. Seems for no apparent reason to stop 'flushing' and just act as an over flow. Made me loose a few plants which dried up and died as a result. These were leaf plants but the tomatoes and chili plants survived. However it was an easy fix done by reducing the size of the outlet pipe at the bottom of the bottle outlet. Worked well since then.

We ate 5 cat fish a few weeks back and left the Tilapia to carry on in the tank. All fine and seem happy enough. Interestingly the amount of solid waste has reduced considerably. Not surprising as I had reduced the Bio mass by approximately 50%. (I.e removing the cat fish). So much was the difference in water clarity that I decided last week to dispense with the filter system and see if it made any difference. It consists of simple netting and some old geotextile I found laying about on my construction site.

So after 1 week I checked the pH. It was 7-7.5 today so that's OK. I do suspect that the plants are a bit short of nutrients as they appear a bit pale. But that could be me and my imagination just looking for something..... Produce has continued with chili, tomatoes and greens. My single paw paw is still hanging on in there. I really need to make a separate container for it to enable the roots to grow better. New project.

Recently I planted some coriander and last week some new narga super hot chilies. Will wait and see progress.

From Tank To Grill

We removed the Cat Fish and gave them a quick blow to the head. That prepared them for the Bar B Q. It is never nice to kill something whatever the circumstances. However these fish were bred for eating so here goes.

First Fish Harvest

Had a very successful day. Did some really through cleaning up of the system and then rounded all the fish. Time for a weighting session.
We have 20 fish comprising 5 cat fish and 15 Tilapia.
Cat fish weigh 950 grams so about 250 grams each. Not bad for 3 and a half months.
15 Tilapia weight 1200 grams which again was not bad given the fact that only 5 were from the original batch and the other 10 added later. So 5 big and 10 small. Total mass 2.1 Kilograms. Generally accepted growth as far as I was concerned. For my set up I had estimated a total weight of something in the region of 2.2 to 2.3 kilograms so no complaints. So all in all a good result.
I'll be honest I am actually very very pleased!!!!!

We put the Tilapia back in the tank and the cat fish went into a holding tank.
So the Tilapia will live for another day till they get big enough to eat.
However the catfish are being ‘cleansed’ in their own separate tank ready for the Bar B Q on Wednesday evening….I doubt they are looking forward to it as much as me!!! Photos of the dinner to follow.

Major Smell

Got home last night and the smell from the fish tank was high!! I mean high. No dead fish but several gasping for air. I also noted they had not eaten the food I had put out in the m0rning. So mentioning this to Wanna, "Yes I fed them this morning", 'So did I' chirped in Owen. Well they had had a good day in terms of food. Three times more than necessary.
Only problem is too much food is no good for them. I recalled that Travis in his manual stated if the water smells stop feeding. Done....
I removed the uneaten pellets and also the various leaves etc which had been added.
Later in the evening I decided to also remove the water. Yes the water. Pumped away about 80% and refilled with fresh tap water.
Seems to have worked OK as this morning the water was clearer and the fish still swimming, (the right way up!). I tried a few pellets but not much interest so will lay off the food for a few more days.

Progress To 8th February

Progress Update

A week last Sunday I had planted some seeds in the barrels. Corriander, Basil, Spearmint and a couple of Thai Herbs. So checked up yesterday on progress. Thats 10 days on and we're doing OK. Also the tomatoes and egg plants aer doing well. These we had put in earlier. Tomatoes are not red but getting bigger. I do think they are slow but cannot be sure. Just me in a hurry as always.

The cat fish are another story.  We put them in on the 16th Dec, they were tiny back then. And now 5 weeks later. they are big Difference in size is amazing. My wife will probably give them a few more weeks before they do a one way visit to the Bar B Q....

When we purchased the Cat fish back in December they were about 6-8 cm long. Now I estimate them to be about 12-16 centimeters. Only guessing! If I was a real fisherman I would be telling you 30 centimers!!!! As would any other self respecting fisherman.  Thats me on the right with the newly bought Cat fish.

But seriously, the next time round the system is going to be very closely monitored and recorded. I want to get a real feel for costings. I know a small barrel is not the final solution but its a start, a very good start.

One Dead Fish And Some Tomatoes

Never nice when things die, and that even goes for my nameless fish!
He was a small one (probably from the second batch we bought). And he appeared to have some sort of infection around his eyes, watching him I had noticed the cat fish attacking him a few times. Not a good sign. I took him out of the tank and had a more detailed look at him. No energy, and he did not seem bother to suck in the air,  and on putting him back in the tank it was clear he had lost interest in life. What to do? I was worried he would infect all the other guys so unfortunately he had to go. Where you ask? Over the wall. Finished. Sadly.

The tomatoes on the other hand are doing OK. Minimal disease and only a few white fly to worry about. Interestingly around the flood pipes to the grow beds where we have put a small mesh to stop the water flowing too fast it is attracting numerouns bees. Seem to be the water which they are after. Maybe also to whatever it is thats in the water.

Also planted some seeds, 5 different Thai herbs, so will wait and see how they develop. Interesting.
And might even get some red tomatoes in a  few weeks. Watch this spot.

23rd December 2009 and all that......

Time flies. Last week saw me buying 20 more Tilapia and 10 small Cat fish. They cost 5 Baht each. That's 15 US $ cents each. I bought them at the market on South Road Pattaya. Even got 4 free packets of fish food.

The market has a small stall which sells all manner of fish and an assortment of frogs turtles and various other mammals. Why do they sell them? Well the stall is across from a Wat where people go to pray and make merit. One aspect of making merit is to offer up live fish and mammals. So the stall is a good place to pop into and get my bits.

2 Tilipia have since dies which is a pity but it could be down to stress or some earlier inflicted damage. The remaining ones seem quite happy enough swimming around in the tank.

I've also added some bean seeds and a few additional tomato plants. Whole ssytem seems to be doing OK.

One thing I decide d to do and it was as a result of reading about DO 'dissolved oxygen' in they system was a 'sort of' sprinkler. Easy enough I used a short piece of blue plastic tubing and cut a lot of slits into it. Then placed it at the discharge end of the return water flow. Does it work? I really cannot tell if it has any effect as I do not have any way of checking O2 concentrations in water. It's time for me to sit down and do an internet search and see what's available.

Next target is to add more plants and then once established start learning about fish food quantities and growth patterns etc. So much to learn from this small experiment and so much potential to expand the system and enjoy.

Construction Episode 2. And Commencement

We've added in the flush pipes into the grow beds and now all seems complete and all going well. So you can imagine my satisfaction when it all worked so well. We decide following advice to initially not to add vegatables, just fish and let the system 'settle'.
Wanna had yesterday bought some fish. And they appeared to be doing OK and the flood and drain system has up to now, as I write, continued without any short comings. Well I did do some initial changes, as explained earlier, about replacing the water bottle (counter weigh to the flush) as the original one kept overflowing. Hardly a major issue.

We bought two more larger fish at the market on Saturday. These additional ones were big Tilapia 'ready for market' type. Almost dead ready for eating.... We had to rush home with them before they died on us. Which we did, but they must have been pretty stressed. This later was confirmed as they did not like the new environment. Both died yesterday. But the little ones we had put in earlier remain swimming around and seem to be eating what we feed them. Just hope they grow...
We had left it like that, with only fish for a few days and yesterday afternoon after loosing the two big fish  added some vegetables. Wanna for some reason known only to her added some Water Hyacinths and then we also added in some tomato and chili plants. Only thing left for us to do is feed the fish and watch the plants grow.

I think this evening or tomorrow evening depending on time I'll do a short video explaining what we've made and how the system should work. I know, you can check out 'youtube' and you'll find several probably better explanations but I want to do my own!!

So, to summarise its going well and we're happy with the start up and intial progress. We'll keep checking and over the next few weeks after it has had time to settle down and work out the few odds and ends, we'll provide an update. No bugs I hope.

Aquaponics in Thailand and beyond

I've started this blog to be about my home system but there is so much more out there that I am also going to use this Blog to record some of the more interesting stuff both for me and indeed for you to be able to read and follow up. I'll most probably keep all the bits I find linked primarily to Aquaponnics in Thailand but also where I think a good idea I'll add in articles on other things as we go along in this journey.
First up on other ideas was the web site I came across yesterday. Fish farming based in Thailand. Seems to have the lot on fishing here except aquaponincs!!!!!
Gave me so many new ideas.

Nam Sai Fish Farm

I've already written to them asking to visit and requesting to know what courses and possible assistance they can offer. Waiting for their reponse. Will let you know how it goes.