Hydro/Aquaponics
I want to setup a very small indoor system to get a feel for this. I'd like to see how much plant matter I can grow from that. Probably just basil and oregano.
???
- How much can I grow?
- What grow medium
- lava rocks
- perlite
- gravel
- expanded clay - this seems to be preferred
- Do I need a filter between the fish tank and the plants?
It looks like the ratio is the gallons of grow bed to gallons of tank it's somewhere around 2:1.
If I make it look good, it might be nice to keep in the front room.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTg3eQZaR5E
- 60g-100g of fish feed per sq meter of plant area per day
- 3% of fish body weight per day in food
- test for nutrients (calcium, potassium, iron)
Components
- Fish tank : I have the old 10 gallon fish tank, though it may make more sense to try with a plastic container.
- Pump
- Beds
- bell siphon : simple to make from pvc
- auto feeder (for fish)
- Lights : I'd like to use LEDs because that's what I'll want to use in the long run.
- Timers
- secondary tank ??
- heater
- air pump
The fish tank is the primary tank. It over flows into a secondary tank. The pump uses half the water in the secondary tank. Water recirculates right back into the fish tank.
I'd like to run everything right through an Arduino or RasPi. The later would be better to log data.
The plants benefit from a warmer environment, so it may be worth setting up a thin plastic container over the plants and maintaining air temperature in there as well.
I can get a ph sensor to monitor the system. I should also set up power monitoring so I can figure out the real cost.
Lighting
It looks like the ideal color spectrum is 6000K-7000K
1W and 3W LEDs are really cheap and I can run them with a simple switching power supply. Forward voltage is about 3V, so for 1W it's 0.3A. So call it 10v plus a resistor for 3 or 20V for 6. And they can be wired up in parallel. A 12V 30A costs about $20 and could run 270 LEDs.
Versions
1.0
A hydroponic unit. Fairly small, probably one basil plant. The exercise here is to get the parts, get it built and configured.
LED lights, probably on flexible copper wire so they can be positioned close to the leaves to promote growth without needing a lot of lighting. Small pump can circulate the water.
Upgrade Criteria
- 6 months
- Test lighting: how close can LEDs be, how do they stimulate growth
2.0
A small aquaponics system. A 10 gallon tank and however much grow medium that supports. Probably just goldfish.
Upgrade criteria:
- 1 year
- auto-water quality in place (not a criteria for starting)
- monitor light levels to use sunlight, LED only when too dark
3.0
An aquaponics grow wall cabinet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAUv5YxIkS4&list=WL&index=33&t=0s
I would like this to be constructed as a nice cabinet. The fish tank would run along the bottom and the grow wall along the top. This would both look nice and make it easy to do climate control.