Aquaponics-Success Story

I am a professional Aquaponist. That is I set up aquaponic systems for people. This is using aquatic animals like fish, that produce waste, which is broken down by bacterias into uptakable n-p-k. This is all organic, and my brand new prototype needs no water removal, no flushing, no cleaning, and it is totally self-sustaining. All one does is feed the fish and top off every 3 weeks. I even have automated fish feeders.

I'm a medical marijuana patient, and I've decided to use my system to grow cannabis. I found a cutting-edge way of injecting organic bloom ferts into the lavarock pots without killing the fish, but still maximizing p-k. Micronutes abound because it is a topped off with hardwater; perfectly loaded with micronutes. I got frogs, Goldfish, Cichlids, Koi, snails, self-sustaining duck weed that supplements feed, worms, ladybugs, dragonflies, and a few Mollies. My nitrates run at about 1200 ppm, all organic, and I have the ability to inject direct nutes into the root system using my own technique.

I also have a leaching/flushing technique through a seperate system.

This is all organic, self sustaining, and I grow tomatoes, parsley, basil, lettuce, squash, various bog plants, strawberries, and a few others. This system feeds me, and provides me with very potent medicine. My last harvest of Og Kush (will post pics), and Grandaddy Purple (Will post pics), smoked better than any of the top grades at the local dispensaries here in California. It was high yield, organic, smooth smoke, massive trichomes, and rapid growth.

I'd be happy to answer any questions reguarding my 3 years of research in the field of aquaponics.

Early vegging shots. Optimal water temperature with self adjusting ph. No matter how much hard water I added, the ph just stayed at 7.1. Nitrites dropped off to nothing and high nitrate levels. The tomato plants exploded to 12 feet tall in 2 months. Cheeze vegged fast with the organic frog poo. 10 percent of the water wasted with hydro or farming.

Still no maintenance to the system. Had to nurse a Koi. The plants were blooming vigorously. Added extra fish tank, and continuous direct organic bloom injections into roots, every 3 hours.

Taking some microscope shots to get optimal harvest point. Super resin production, very very sticky.

Check out this girl! She is soaking up the Cichlid and North American Bullfrog poo. She is also getting biobloom directly injected into roots every 3 hours. Expected yield: 1/4 pound. I haven't done much but just feed the fish...

I put a kitten in my res but it died, I think.

Check out these pics of Cheese, G13, and Og Kush grown with fish. I'm in the process of harvesting and yields were heavy. Yield from my 1 Cheese plant was a little over 3 ounces dry processed bud. Will post pics soon, top shelf dense big buds...

Just harvested, half of the Cheese is dry. 1 plant got about 3 ounces, organic aquaponic baby.... :jointsmile:

Check it.

Is this root injection method something you can share? Not too many people grow this way but it's reputed to get great.

I use a special method to get bloom nutes in there. They are at super high levels and the aquawater only supplements during bloom.

I use small tubing, which is drilled into the sides of the pots. The method is no secret but the tolerances are insane. I inject approximately 100 ml of high concentration organic bloom nutrients every 3 hours to each blooming plant via a separate 25 gallon container which has its own air pump.

Its automated and I fill the reservoir every week or so. The amounts have to be just right, I overshot it first and got nute burn and lockup on 1 plant. I dumbed it down and I had to experiment with the mixture for awhile. Now I get optimal ppm; in the lavarock itself where the roots are it reads around 1400 ppm bloom, and the water is around 750-800.

I'll post pics of the unit later, its rather simple but like I said its in the mixture, amounts, type, and intervals of delivery that make all the difference.:rastasmoke:

please excuse my spelling...

i have read about this science and have done some experiments with the crap that came from my 6ft lake malawi ciclid tank. also with pirhana. by just adding it to the pots but.....

i can instantly see the comertial benifit of this type of system and i can also see the benifit to people in 3rd world countries where added nutrients are hard to come by...

to make it a succes all you have to do is set up a measured system. by this i mean one that people can buy, set up and run with virtualy no training.

i would think that at the moment this system needs constant care and attention... youll say it doesnt because you have become an expert in this field and have a feel for what needs to be added/taken away by instincked.

but i would probable kill the fish and the plants in weeks...

for example.... if you could write an equation which showed X amount of a certain type of fish getting fed F amount of food in T amount of time will provide enough nutrients for P amount of plants. which will yield Y amount in weight.

as certain types of fish are used in different countries as food stocks, you would need to work out which fish produce what sort of nutes and in what sort of quantities.... so potential customers could cost effect the differing types of systems you had on offer.


mate i think your on the edge of science with this. dont stop pushing and get this system out on the market....

if you could incorperate vegitarian fish into the mix that eat fallen leaves, old roots, or algy. you might just have a self sustainable food source not only needed in space travel but also in china and other place where food or space is tight...

could you base the system on algy. the sun is usaly availiable at any place on the planets surface or in space and its free... if the base food was a fast growing algy. then off you go...

i suppose your could be called GOD now lol as youve made a 100% self suffient ecosystem.



wowowowowowowowow......

have you call NASA????

BIG RESPECT DUDE... OH BY THE WAY IM SURE SOME ONE WILL COME ALONG AND SAY THEY HAVE HEARD IT ALL BEFORE AND POST LINKS TO SPOIL YOUR FUN. BUT YOUR ACTUALY RUNNING THE SYSTEM SO SOD THEM....


what reasearch have you done in terms of finding the most productive fish.
and in terms of the most productive base food source????

also is there any way to limit the water losses even thurther to make this usable in drought prone areas???

actualy if this was in a bubble you could recycle the oxygen, co2, food, nutes, moisture in the air.... every thing. as there is a plant or animal on this earth for everthing you would need...

ps... do the fish like bud hahahahaha

peace out foggyman...:hippy:

I have more information reguarding my research, I've released it on youtube and its pending approval. I will post the link as soon as I get it. I'd like to create some interest here so when I do get specific you guys will see it.

Stay tuned....:thumbsup:

Check out this video on youtube:

YouTube - Aquaponic Cannabis

:cool:

Check out this related video on aquaponics:

YouTube - Aquaponics -- Grow up to 10 Times the Plants in Half the Time

:rasta:

Got an amazing harvest of medicine. Cheers.

Hello, i was wondering if we could meet up to discuss aquaponics and if your services are available. Cheers, StheL

sure :) message me

Check out these new pics of the last of my harvest. I'm going to be setting up a new aquaponic system which will be downsized and more efficient. The water volume is important to keep up, and I will try to maintain at least 500 gallons in the system for stability. It will be designed with the intent of low-maintenance. I'm going to shoot for a 4 week no-maintenance period with fishfeeders and 45 gallon excess ballast-res type system with double redundant spill-tubes.

I want to be able to set up a system, cycle it, monitor and take readings, then leave it up for a month without having to do anything. I can simply set this up remotely and have it work on its own. I'm also thinking about growing catfish or perch, as Tilapia are illegal in my area.

Continuing on with Aquaponic research. I'll be updating this forum regularly and am in the process of moving my grow operation. Good luck and thanks for reading my posts.....
AquaponicHerb - Aquaponic Grower

Very cool stuff dude..I believe Breeder Steve of Spice of Life seeds got into this years ago that's when I first heard about it. Supposingly it was the best smoke ever and obviously very natural, I think he used tilapia first and then african cichlids if my very short term memory serves me incorrectly.

I also tried a kitten in the res one time back in the day but sadly it died also. Was a strain called "Cat Piss" mmmmmmmmmm :wtf:

:rastasmoke:

j/k

Good grow man! Big up ya'self. :rastasmoke: :hippy: :thumbsup:

what's the best way to get in touch with you? I'm also very interested in your research and may have an opportunity that may interest you.

I just sent you a message on Youtube (found you there before I found you here).

Would love to chat about your system!

Say "when" and "how"

Thanks

Great...!!! F.U.C.K.I.N. AMAZING!!! You are my Idol...!!! Self contained ECO SYS...?!?! Perfection...!!! JUST DO IT...!!!

I will be posting a couple of new grows using new technology.

What a great read Amigo! What a wonderful and natural way to go about it!
You otta be nominated for a Nobel prize!!!

Hoping to do more work with aquaponic cannabis. I have a grow I'm currently working on...

yeah man!!! im experimenting with aquaponics right now. im doing a dwc system with aquarium water and the regular system. my plants love this stuff. i love the fact that its organic and easy for me because i have alot of fish aquarium around.



keep up the good work ma!!!

PEACE!:rastasmoke:

missing aquaponics. doing passive hydro now and the chemicals burn the leaves a little no matter how diluted you make them it seems.

cool man, a design or pictures of construction of such a system can help a bunch of ppl out ... meaning me.... ;-)

Hi, first off I have to say your system is great and your buds look great. I to have a love for aquaponics. So much so I spent a lot of money on a University of Manoa minor in aquaponics, lol. I thought i might share what I know.

Anyway I do something similar to what you are doing but with vegetables of various sorts and 100% organic. There is a problem that commonly occurs in 100% organic aquaponic systems, there is no Potassium or Phosphate or micronutirents and in long term systems there is not enough iron chelate. There are several solutions to the problems in aquaponics. It is also possible to close the entire cycle of the system...where the only input is food waste.

chickens over fish pond- chickens shit in pond and the shit is great npk and dissolves well right out of the chicken and into the pond, and you get eggs too...can you say wake and bake omelet :jointsmile: (In china they use pig manure from pork farms in massive scale operations.)

bat guanno- Same as chicken except you have to pay for it and you get no eggs :( I use bat guanno because I haven't bought chickens yet, or a cage.

wood ash- I have one of those new charbroil infrared barbecues, it allows you to cook your food with wood chips in the bottom really easily. The wood chips turns to ash, and i put it in a womens nylon stocking and place in the fish bin. Wood ash has potassium phosphorus an magnesium. Alternative method for making wood ash...campfire.

vermiponics-there are many ways to intergrate worms into aquaponics:

a. compost your food with worms, put their casings in a nylon stocking and hang the stocking in in a bucket right over the top of an air stone. This leaches nutrients into the water and provides beneficial bacteria that prevent most diseases when used as a foilar spray. Dump the rest of the bucket into the pond, or set up a peristaltic pump system.

b. worms can be trained to not die in an ebb and flow system if the cycle of water is short and they break down the muck that eventually clogs your media.

c. worms can be fed to your fish as food.

Black soldier fly larvae- buy this, Protaââ??¢Culture & The BioPodââ??¢ - Advanced Composting Using Black Soldier Fly: The Future of Food Waste Diversion & Recycling, it composts food scraps at insane rates and self harvests the larvae for consumption by your fish, (and possibly chickens). It also works with milk and meat, which will kill worms. The resulting byproduct can then be fed to the worms, which make compost tea for your pond and more food for fish (and chickens).

azomite- provides micro nutrients from lava. you may have to buy this...i get it off the volcano i live on

add iron chelate-(ok maybe not 100% organic ;)) iron chelate keeps your leaves very dark green an prevents chlorosis, yellow and light green plant leaves. )

I love the direct injection of nutrients its an biological engineers pipe dream, however its technical overkill just change your fish species. Selection of fish is crucial to easy maintenance. Catfish are ideal. Asian catfish preferably. They are invincible fish. They have proto lungs and gills; theoretically you could grow catfish on your floor as long as you keep it moist... :stoned: We had one flop out of a tank in the lab and it lived over the entire weekend on the floor, it was really dry though and almost died, but nonetheless it ultimately lived. I dissected a catfish an severed its spinal cord and its heart still beat with no tissue connecting the body to the head, very hardy indeed. I personally hate talapia, too much maintenance and they over breed in a massively food rich environment (overfeeding just adds nutrients and cat fish can gulp air, so don't worry about them). Rainbow Trout are good if you want to eat your fish, but are SOOOO easy to kill. Thus, catfish are the best for cannabis growing (they can survive inorganic fertilizer too but I would not eat them...). Catfish love high density as well. We got up to half cat fish and half water in a 10 gallon fish tank with an air-stone and coke 6pack rings for biological filter media that the fish can swim through. The tank needed a cafeteria tray with a brick on it to keep them from jumping out. Make sure to fill the tank with 2 inch PVC in 6-12 inch lengths for them to chill in. The more fish per gallon the more concentrated you can get the nutrients per square foot of grow space.

Aeroponic aquaponic has also been done at the lab with tomatoes. You just use a bunch of ultrasonic misters on floaters in a fish pond with plants hanging over the top. This set up would most likely destroy the entire structure that contained your gro-op if your indoor tho. Humidity gets insane and destroys your house (but cools the area :D free A/C).

Aloha from Maui

Wow. This stuff is really inspiring. Not having the means to experiment like this, I really admire and appreciate the work you guys do in this field. If humans ever do any terra-forming your knowledge will be useful for creating closed-systems and micro habitats. I love the elegance of getting vegetables, animals, eggs and waste all in the energy cycle and working for you.

Keep up the good work.

those were all great ideas man. Some I've read, some not. Right now I'm not doing the kind of work I could be doing with aquaponics, but rather focusing on venturi technology at the moment. I should be up soon with another aqua grow.

Please keep this forum alive. I have still had the best smoke from the aquaponic system I designed.

I'm doing a grow right now with some different ideas and concepts. I'm trying to combine some concepts in hydroponics in a way that hasnt been seen using venturi style oxygen enrichment. I have some vortex prototypes that deliver oxygen to levels I have never seen; not because I can measure it, but the oxidation "fizzing" and milk colored water from the 5 micron bubbles. The bubbles stay in the water for about 20 minutes, they dont float to the surface like airstones.

Here it is:

http://boards.cannabis.com/hydroponi...lue-dream.html

I know this technology is out there, but once my prototype is perfected I hope to call this the 5-20 micron venturi adapter by aquaponicherb.

Hi AquaponicHerb [and other dedicated growers]! Insane systems you have engineered. I hope your work on the Venturi technology research is as fun as the other systems you have gotten to work. I am a noob trying to get the basic aquaponic part of my system to work, and appreciate all that you have posted. I read the posts, checked the pics, watched your videos. One word describes it all: siiiiiiiick.

My objective is not exactly to grow da ganja, but more to model and develop an integrated system people (in regions of scarcity) could use to grow their own food. It's a personal hobby that's become a dedicated area of personal research. I fix computers for a living, and use all the profits of my one-man business to fund it. I dream of publishing my findings under a public license... so no company could make money off of it, and it could serve people.

An overview of my system and objectives are here: http://www.chiros.net/niche.html

I've found this type research happens at different universities... but, in my opinion, the most innovative and hard core work is here. For this reason, I decided to sign up.

I seem to be hitting two problems:

1) pH. My trusty swimming pool testing kit says water pH is around 8.2. Can you (or any others here) recommend the most fish friendly way to lower pH to the level for optimum plant growth?

In my system, I am using filtered, non-city drinking water, and added fish + duckweed. I have a gravel-filter with a lift tube. A pump in the tank passes water into manifolds with 1/4" drip system tubing (dripping the aquarium water over bochoi seeds/rockwool/hygroton rock). Helical light bulb (box said emits wavelengths used for growings) provides the light. That's it.

2) Potassium/Phosphate deficiency. What are the most cost-effective ways you have found to introduce these nutrients into the system?

I am observing the stunted growth [you, BobGod85 identify in the above postings]. Since I have not added any - I suspect potassium/phosphate deficiency.

Any help or leads you're at liberty to provide is much appreciated.

Hard water with very high ppm off the bat, at about 8.0 and lots of calcium. I just let it sit and filtered it through nasty layers of lavarock before it made it into my system. I never had problems with micronutrients because I topped off every week with very hard calcium buffered water. I also allowed debris to rot and settle in there because of the design, as I wanted it to break down with the rest.

I've heard of micronutrients and metals being a problem. There are some feeds and such you can give them, and metals exist naturally in certain types of rock.

To answer your question, focus on keeping the fish alive. If you have to, just buy distilled water, and give them 30% water changes. I would take a piss in your aquaponic system and dump some bacteria in it to start a couple weeks before introducing fish. Oh ammonia works too. :P

You dont want to overdo it. Like 1 part urine to 20 parts water. And add bacteria, keep it warm, and circulate/cycle it. Try to grow plants in it....

Then try a few fish at a 50% system solution 50% distilled. Keep an eye on your ph, but once the system gets running ph wont be a problem unless you got something unusual in there.

Rocks, piss, and water: Doesn't get much more simple than that!

Seriously, thank you for the pearls AquaponicBob. Life and growing be provisioned in the details. If I get something worth a picture, I'll post it.

Always happy to share my experience with one of my many passions, Aquaponics.

Heres some pics of some of my setups in the past...

:):)

Hi there my friend...

I use a Aquaponic system too, have malauy cichlids for vegetation with ph in 8.0 and other tropical fish for flora, with ph in 6.8. this is my passion, im love to see the cannabis and other plants like letuces, tomatoes and some herbs growing fast and beauty...and the water return clean to fishes, without nitrits...

But im still have problems in Flora - low levels of iron and photassium, high levels of humidity and the hot water in summer...im live in Brasil so the water in summer reach over the 30º Celcius. so im cant get a big bud yet...

Im do my registration only to say for you - Grats!

Thank you my friend for show your plants and system, you inspiring me to continuos my aquaponic garden... sorry for my inglish...hope you can understand.

Send some love from Brasil!:hippy:

Aquaponic Poa.

Thanks for the kind words. Good luck to you :)

moving my research to grasscity forum because of lack of interest on this forum