Aska Aquaponics 2 0!

After countless failures experienced from my previous setup, i decided to make a new one... The problem with my previous setup is that it was placed under a shade thus receiving very little sunlight and the pump was weak causing the siphon to fail frequently when it gets too clogged up... Due to its small fish tank size, water temperature and pH levels fluctuates a lot causing massive guppy deaths many times... Aeration wasnt good either...
Heres a pic of my first setup:

And now, presenting my second aquaponics setup! This time its bigger and better...!
Heres some pics:

The setup was based on Affnans Tilapia Breeding Homekit. The idea of using slotted angle iron as growbed stand was inspired from Mahfudz aquaponics and En. Ahmad Hayan Radzi setup.

The pic above shows the growbed. The two small plants are seedlings of a nearby tree. Ive also inserted a curry plant cutting there. Its difficult to root curry plant cuttings, their leaflets turn black if it stays wet for too long. For the purpose of this photo taking session, Ive removed the plastic bag covering the curry plant cutting used to protect it from drying out.

The angle iron stand is painted with blue outdoor paint; Only on the outside! You can see the inner sides were still gray. The reason is the paint took too long to dry that i lost my patience and just went ahead to fix the stand. I may cover the stand with plastic sheet for extra protection later...

 Heres a photo of the "big" fish tank. You can see a lone Plecotamus (Malay: Ikan Bandaraya) by the dark corner there. That pleco has been with me since I first started aquaponics. Im using an Astro 3000 pump which is very powerful so i have to divert much of the water flow back in to the tank. This will be room for Tilapias in the future...

 Heres the "small" fish tank. Those are my little guppies from my previous setup. They always rush towards me whenever I approach them as if they havent eaten for days. This tank was actually the growbed of my previous setup. The overflow pipe in the middle was a standpipe previously. That green plastic bush ball on the right is a hiding place for their tiny fries... White stuffs at the bottom left are coral rocks to buffer the pH...

Oh look, the siphon is flushing!

Ill post an update soon... Thanks for reading!

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Aquafarm 2 0 Review

A little while back, I was contacted by Alejandro from Back to the Roots.  He had seen my first Aquafarm review, and appreciated the review.  We chatted about our similar ideals and regenerative food production goals, and he offered to send me some updated parts for the Aquafarm.  The updated Aquafarm is in stores already, and included several improvements.  First, there is a new pump.  This is a water pump rather than an air pump.  It’ more efficient, and quieter than the air pump was.  There was also a new upper grow tray to accommodate the different pump and tubing.  Also included was an updated grow medium.  The new rocks are white in color, rather than brown, and they are more porous than the original grow media, allowing for more beneficial bacteria to turn the fish waste into plant food.

Overall, the update greatly improved the Aquafarm design.  I would hesitate to recommend the original design because of the loud pump, and the fact that the air pump died after a few months.  This updated version is definitely one that I’m now comfortable to recommend.  I’ve had great success growing basil and purslane under a daylight color lamp in a bedroom.  Here’s a quick video review of the updated Aquafarm 2.0 from Back to the Roots.  You can buy the updated Aquafarm at Petco stores, on Amazon, or directly from Back to the Roots.

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Another Herb Spiral

After seeing photos of the herb spiral that I built for my parents, my girlfriends parents wanted one as well.  While they were in Europe on vacation, we built one in their backyard.  Heres some photos of how it turned out.

My parents, and my girlfriends parents both expressed concern about how to harvest and use the herbs.  Im putting together an information packet that will describe harvest time, how to harvest, and how to use all the plants in an herb spiral.  Ill be posting that on the blog when its finished.

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