Here’s a couple of photos of an Aquaponics system our friend Floyd recently built in Thailand. His brief was to provide fish, herbs and greens for the staff of an island-based business, on a site that was not exactly prime growing medium (read: sand)…

Floyd designed a system where the growbeds sat directly above the sump ponds, which were submerged in the sand. The outside of each ‘crop circle’ was then clad in logs.

From Floyd:

There is only 1 water pump, and 1 air pump….these and the round grow beds were the only brand new items purchased….the pump is connected to a largish solar array that powers some other things around the place… so our power is ‘sustainable’ in a limited sense if we must use that word…

The fish are tilapia and we have successfully bred them in the system We have a 2000L fish tank as the main tank, and a 700L nursery tank. All salvaged items…after our initial purchased of 100 fingerlings, we now have our own ‘sustainable’ supply.

Of course it is most necessary to feed the fish. I feed them as much kang kong and duck weed as I can, which is harvested out of a nearby storm water drain. We also feed vast quantities of worms and BSF larvae. This dramatically reduces the amount of pellets used (which are made from by products of the Thai aquaculture industry)

Pellets are not nice, I agree, but in the early days until a local homegrown solution can be reached, they are necessary. As Ive previously mentioned, we try to use as much home grown feed as possible. In fact the system has been operational for 1 years now, and has only consumed 30-40kgs of pellets. This was mostly in the first few months while things were getting established…in the first half of this year only 10kgs have been used… bear in mind we have grown over 200 plate sized fish and several hundred kgs of veg,,,,

Also, the fancy and somewhat complicated design and aesthetic was a request of the client due to the high profile location of the system, and also as a means of engaging and interesting a wider potential audience to inspire….and it worked….shortly after this system went online, locals were putting together their own far simpler versions…

sooo….we make our own power, grown our own feed, and breed our own fish….not bad for a new system in a place thats never had one before…

oh, and the round grow beds just happened to the only containers I could easily source that gave me a deep enough zone to grow veg, and experiment with fruit trees….they currently have pawpaws and limes growing in them as a mid to over story….so form is following function, and the form looks good.

Oh, and absolutely no issue with mosquitos or any other pests breeding up in any part of the system. The water is constantly flowing, with absolutely no where for it to gather and stagnate, or accomodate pests and larvae.

Also, some fish have escaped from the main tank into the sump tanks where the pump is located, and if on the incredibly off chance some larvae managed to survive and hang around long enough, the fish would most certainly make a meal out of em….

Apparently the system has been a great success, far out-producing the raised beds that the staff also grow some of their greens in, and providing meals of fresh fish as well…  so it sounds like this aquaponics system was a good solution for the parameters at hand…

If you’d like to learn the basics of Aquaponics in order to confidently build your own system, we run weekend aquaponics courses.

>> More posts about Aqauponcs how-tos and resources at Milkwood.net…