Compliment Success: Aquaponics Mini Project

Hi friends,

I've been working on a small aquaponics project because I love the idea of sustainability that it brings. In theory, it's a self-sustaining perpetual system that provides green plants and fishes for my consumption. If you want to know more about aquaponics, I think this website gives a good explanation on it which you can find here.

I found a secondhand system in the market and it came in with the complete set albeit with a few quirks. Overall, still happy that I got them for only RM250 compared to brand new set being RM380.

One major drawback from this purchase is that the system's siphon tube doesn't work. I still don't know the cause of it but I suspect that it's because that the siphon tube is slightly slanted. As a result, it doesn't drain as it should when the water level reaches the targeted height. Instead, the system just continuously overflows the water out from the growbed. Not exactly ideal but it still works.

The expectation that I had coming into this project was that I only have to provide the food for the fishes and let nature run its course without my intervention. However, after one month going at this I quickly realize that it's not as hands-off as I hope. There are a few challenges that I'm facing and they are:

Clogged water pump
Mosquito breeding ground
Low germination rate

For the first challenge that I faced, I noticed that the leftover food by the fish will eventually clog the water pump that feeds the water into the growbed. This leads to two more undesired situation which are slow turnover rate for the water in the growbed and lower drain rate which causes less oxygen for the fish. These are undesirable mainly because a slower turnover rate in the growbed will suffocate the roots of the plants with no nutrients water. The most ideal case is that the roots should always receive a healthy flow of nutrient rich water for it to grow healthily. Also, since I mainly rely on the water drain from the growbed to the fish tank as the main source of oxygen for the fish, I need the drain rate to also be strong. A strong water drain into the fish tank will create more splash and thus, increasing the oxygen in the water for the fish.

The best way I know how to overcome this challenge is to clean the pump. So far, I've cleaned it 3 times in a month. I'm guessing that this is the way to go no in order to maintain a healthy water flow in the system.

Challenge number two is to overcome a build-up of mosquito larvae in the growbed. I noticed that a slow water turnover rate kinda creates a situation where the water is stagnated in the growbed which is a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. I've yet to find solution to this but hope that I'm wrong in saying that it's a mosquito larvae. Because some sources pointed out that the larvae might belong the the midge fly. If that's the case, it'll be less of a worry for me because midge fly is harmless.

Last challenges I've faced so far is having low germination rate for some of my plants. So far, I've planted 4 plants which are cherry tomatoes, water spinach and spinach. Only the water spinach has the highest germination rate while the others are not doing so good. Probably the way to go about this is to germinate the seeds on a moist kitchen towel first before transferring them on the growbed.

In general, there are a lot more work and attention that needs to be put in this project. Not really what I expected but I'm still loving it. At least, when the day comes, I get to harvest the plants and eat them!

Here's some progress photos on the growbed.

Day 0