Will This Work For Your Homestead?
Our system in a nutshell
Four years ago we went through some considerable expense to build a 20x40 greenhouse that would contain a very large aquaponics system. The fish tank capacity was 1000 gallons divided into 4 different tanks. Each tank serviced its own set of grow beds made of barrel halves.
Each of the 4 fish tanks had its own pump system that was powered by 1000 watts worth of solar panels.
How does Aquaponics Work?
Aquaponics and how it works is actually very simple. Fish live and grown in a tank where daily they contribute their body waste. The water from that fish tank is pumped out every hour and flows over a set of grow beds where plants are growing. The grow beds full of helpful bacteria are constantly breaking down the fish waste into usuable nitrates and nitrites that can be absorbed and used by the plants growing in the beds. What you end up with is a perfect ecosystem of fish supporting plant growth and bacteria filtering out water that in turn returns clean back to the fish tank. It works wonderfully.
We ran our system for 3 years with the best growth happening in year 2 and 3. It takes a full year for the bacteria in the grow beds to get established and so it's slow going at first. But you can still grow lots of leafy greens as they don't require a lot of dense nutrients like other plants do that grow heavy produce.
Year 2 and 3 saw fantastic results at growing sweet corn, loads of delicious peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach varieties, peas, onions and lots more. We were very impressed with how the system was working out.
Growing The Fish
Aquaponics has the added benefit of growing fish. Most people in warmer climates or with climate controlled facilities will usually choose Tilapia simply because you get the quickest bang for your buck. A tilapia fish will grow into an adult sized fish in as little as 10 months with a regulated high protein diet. This was our first hurdle we had to overcome.
Because we are off grid, we could not keep the tanks warm enough, long enough to keep tilapia alive. We are technically in the south of North American but not south enough. Temperatures will sometimes drop below 0 degrees Fahrenheit and -17 Celsius during the winter months. It's not often but it does happen. Tilapia will die when the water temperatures reach below 59 degrees Fahrenheit or 15 degrees Celsius.
So instead of Tilapia, we chose to grow hybrid bluegill fish. Hybrid bluegill are a natural cross between a bluegill and a sunfish. The result is a very large fish but it takes about 2 years to reach the large size you will want to harvest.
Why It Didn't Work Off Grid
The biggest issue was that the water consumption was too great. When the system is at peak performance, you basically have 1000 gallons of water in the fish tanks. And you have another 150 gallons spread out in the flood tanks or grow beds at any given time.
When the temperatures in the green house reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit or above, the water evaporation becomes so great that you basically are losing an average of about 250 gallons of water each week. Now that many not sound like a lot of water but when you remember that our water sources are two ground wells that will run low in the peak of summer, that then becomes a big problem.
An on-grid operation will not have a problem and can refill the water being lost. But for us, it meant to have to transfer about 250 gallons of water each week in summer to top off the fish tanks and keep the system running. Many times our wells cannot handle that kind of water transfer on a weekly basis and support the homestead water needs in other areas.
The Fish Problem
The other issue was the fish and this can simply be tossed up to the learning curve. At first we over stocked our tanks with 75 bluegill in each tank. This was way too many. As they grew, each fish and its oxygen consumption began to grow as well and pretty soon, there was not enough oxygen to support the fish population even with air stones working in the tank. They were getting by ok and then one night a mouse chewed thru the plastic air hose that goes out to the tanks and by morning, we had a massive fish die off on our hands. So we had to start again. The solution, don't overload your fish tanks.
What Will We Do Now?
The plan is to remove 3 of the 4 grow bed sections and fish tanks. We will keep one in operation next year to sprout seeds to be transplanted. But the rest of the greenhouse will be used to grow fig trees starting next spring.
Conclusion
Don't get me wrong. Aquaponics works! It works amazingly well, however it's better suited for an on grid situation that has plenty of access to water in case of evaporation. It also has a lot of fail points. Meaning that if any one thing fails, you could have a disaster on your hands if you don't catch it in time. So I would consider it high-medium maintenance. It requires your daily attention. Checking on your system once or twice a day is fine but you need to keep an eye on it nonetheless.
HAPPY GROWING!
Have you tried aquaponics? What was your result and experience? Post a comment below and let us know.
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THIS POST AND EVERYTHING INSIDE POWERED BY SOLAR
Great concept butI see it needs daily maintenance and supervision. The system works but there is also a lot of variables that come in that can affect results. The system needs a controlled setting with monitoring and supervision to account for variable factors that can set in.
One day a pvc line came apart and allowed the water for the grow beds to leak out and empty the fish tanks. I caught it in time but if i hadnt......
I've been 'planning' my aquaponics for at least two years now. I thought I might try it out with something small. Maybe a small indoor setup with pet fish and some herbs. Then once I get the hang of it, increase in size. Thanks for sharing your experience.
My personal experience has been that larger systems are easier to maintain. My largest system has a 500 gallon fish tank, 200 gallon sump, 150 gallon radial flow filter, and a 4β wide by 32β long deep water culture bed. It uses goldfish as the growing engine and it produces 72 heads of lettuce per week.
We are planning our greenhouse and aquaponics setup now, and hoping to being the build by early fall. I am planning to have a "red neck" geo-thermal setup in the slab of the greenhouse, to help with the winter heating. I will likely have a wood burning stove also.
I am planning to power the Aquaponics with Solar, although we do have power available, I plan not to use it if I can manage it. We also have water available. Do you have any pointers or suggestions that I should keep in mind before building this out, or during the startup of the system?
Not sure where you are located but if its north of me, have a barrel stove installed in you greenhouse. It worked great and was cheap.
A rocket mass heater works even better. I considered Aquaponics but living off grid as you pointed out does not make this a viable option. For us it was simply a matter of power for the pumps. We could not guarantee we would ahve consistant power to run the system.
Great read. I just came to your page because I notice that you upvote my content pretty often. I figured that I come to your page and see what you're about. Great content indeed. Followed/upvoted!
Thanks jetiknight. Love your bitconnect vids. Found you through craig.
I appreciate that man. Slowly but surely will be expanding the content as I kinda settle in with Steem and getting to know my audience more. :-)
Nice post! Up-voted and followed! Check out our recent post on aquaponics, we all got to support the gardening community! https://steemit.com/life/@steemtobefree/one-hell-of-a-way-to-grow-the-best-food-our-trip-to-the-aquaponic-ouroboros-farms-in-half-moon-bay-california
Thanks! I'l check it out!
what about aquaponics on a barge?
THAT'S IT!
just wondering
I'm rebuilding a houseboat.
it could push a barge.
I have been using aquaponics for 7 years and have to agree off grid on large scale is tricky and I think the best way to go is on grid. I have killed off lots of fish trying different methods including airlift pumps, solar power, and combination of both. Back up power is a must and yes you have to watch your system close because stuff happens. I still prefer over dirt gardens thou
There is no doubt in my mind that aquaponics beats dirt any day of the week and twice on sunday. Like you said, it's just tricky off grid and for me more than I can do with everything else on my plate. If I had on grid water, I could handle it.
Nice article followed you hop u follow back and check out my blog
Hey Zak. Would something like a Kratke method work in the greenhouse? It uses much less water and is pretty easy maintenance. And I would think you have plenty of resources for compost tea. It worked great for me for leafy greens albeit on a much smaller scale. Mhpgardener has some great info on his channel.
Another awesome learning curve on how to do it! Resteemit!
Aww man, that sucks!! But also a great learning experience and an excellent teachable moment. I really really really dig your set up. I see how water availability and evaporation are big issues, but perhaps you need shadecloth in the meantime? Or is it possible to just fully open the Greenhouse? DIY off the grid is one dilly of a pickle, but it looks like you just had a hiccup and have a bit of fine tuning to do. Would also be curious to know how much power it takes to move that much water and air. Is it on a separate system or micro grid tied to the house too?
Nope, its a completely separate system. We are going to break that system up and power up a drop freezer at the house. We will still have enough power to keep one grow bed functional. To be honest, we get really amazing growth from the garden that having the aquaponics is kinda redundant. I think the aquaponics grows stuff faster though. Like I said, we will keep one set of grow beds for sprouting plants to be moved into the garden. Works great for cabbage.
Man I wish I had enough power for a deep freeze! I hear you there, the aquaponics is a love/hmmm relationship for me. Not that I've dabbled, but I study it a bit and keep wanting to give it a go, but all the issues you present have me nervous, doubly so if I didn't have grid connections... rainy season and you can barely charge your laptop here! But I don't have power hungry toys anyway so I literally make due with a crummy old 75W panel on loan from a friend. The biggest thing though that really appeals is the water saving, if you fine tune it I guess. But it would be interesting to compare the water efficiency of Aquaponics vs say hugelkultur beds or deep woodchip compost like Jean Pain would do. I hear stories of people getting one rain in the start of summer and it lasting 8 weeks or more! Who knows? maybe the power'll be better used to freeze produce anyway
I had been wondering why you haven't started up the greenhouse again. Thanks for the update. Steem On!
Very interesting. What is the financial investment in a system such as yours? Do the fish reproduce in that kind of environment?
Mostly the investment was in the framing of the beds and the greenhouse. It was costly. We may try and sell the part we dont want to keep. The fish wont reproduce in those tanks. You would need to have a seperate breeding tank.
I have bred Tilipia in smaller fish tanks and the grow out the babies in doors during the winter months and place them out in the grow out tanks (IBC) until the water temp gets too cold for them then they go to freezer camp.
http://imgsafe.org/image/4d8e88bddb
Did you have regular pumps or air lift pumps? Air lift pumps use alot less power, and don't require as much maintenance.
The pumps we had were low power. That was never really a big problem. I think each pump was lesa than 50 watts.
how does it differ from hydroponics?
Hydroponics is when you add the nutrients to the water. Fish provide the nutrients in aquaponics.
good stuff rusty
Sweet post! I've been debating with myself about setting up an aquaponic system on my roof, albeit a smaller one. There are a lot of issues to consider, and water is a major one. Also, the question as to which water to use? Tap-water or rain? Here in Mexico City each one has its own drawback. Sure the chlorine can evaporate, but the pipes supposedly carry all sort of other stuff, but so does the rain, once it has fallen through the smog layer. For my plants, my worms, and my spirulina I've been using both, and they seem to be thriving in any case, but I don't know if an aquaponic system would be less resilient.
Of course a possible solution would be a solar distiller... yet more infrastructure to build.
So, what is the difference between Aquaphonics and Hydrophonics? Is the basic difference that one the plants are grown in soil versus water? We are growing plants in a hydrophonic system and they are doing extremely well. We do mix our own nutrients and add to the water. We aren't off-grid either. We have plants growing in separate small containers according to the size of the plant to allow for root growth without compacting them. We have airstones in each container as well, which seems to speed growth by at least 1.5 times than without. It has been super fun expermenting and being successful and watching the amazing growth of the plants.