My System is IDLE

Many thanks to those who kept on visiting my blog.

Unfortunately the aquaponic system I setup at my brother's house has been shut down.

The good news is, I'm planning for an upgrade to be built at my own place in Puchong soon. The system will be upgraded to multiple fish tanks and a sump tank for the fisheries. For the veges, the plan will merge traditional 1 foot deep growbeds for fruiting plants, the gutters for leafy greens and also vertical towers for herbs and perhaps flowers!

Oh yeah, it's worth mentioning that I'm got married in April. Together my wife Ereena and I will be moving into our own place in Puchong around August. So construction will begin as soon as time permits us to do so.

At the moment, there has been a few people contacting for advices and thoughts. I'm working with Mrs Annie Low to setup a small system as well as a huge one soon. I've put together my revised plans for any and will update this blog with some pictures soon!

Until next time!

Update #9 - September 9th, 2011 - My System Went Crazy!

Hello fellow bloggers!

Over the course of Hari Raya celebration, my aquaponic system has absolutely went crazy. I kid you not but when I came to my brother's house to take a look at the system, I was growing so well I couldn't believe my eyes. I'll let these following pictures explain...

The fishes are fine, water is crystal clear. Water pH was not tested but it has got to be absolutely perfect seeing the plants went bezerk! The same could be said for nitrates.

Lets take a look at the system...

 The first set of growbeds have nothing but kailan (Chinese Broccoli) except for one okra plant that is only growing its new shoots.

 The second set of growbeds are pretty much just asking to be harvested, which I did after taking these photos. I had to make some room for the other plants because some plants are just taking too much space!

Jeez, it is getting quite cramped in there...This why I like this setup...I can move the plants around and group the youngs and the olds by simply rearranging the pots...very versatile indeed!

 These are kailans that have been harvested with the cut-and-come-again method. They have grown successfully. The one on the right shows how we harvest the previous plants, just cut em and come again later.

This, is the biggest kailan I've grown so far. If I can remember, it is about 8 weeks old and is only beginning to bolt. Honestly, I've never grown kailans this big and has never seen any this big either. The stem must be super juicy!

Flower buds coming off the kailan.

This one is also a giant...I can't wait to have the harvested kailans for dinner tomorrow!

This one is 3 weeks old. Unsurprisingly, they grow much quicker than the previous batches.

 Pennywort (pegaga) has also went crazy. It is now trying to invade into adjacent pots. It's gonna be a war between the pennywort and the kangkong and carrot neighbors...

 Kangkung is going crazy too...First they went for the ground, then it kept growing by climbing itself back up again...what a crazy plant...

 Remember the hongkong kailan. They are about 6 weeks now. They are not as big as their other variety of kailan that I have...I think they grow slower than the other variety as well...

 I harvested the mint last time...3 pots of mint I have, after a bit more than 2 weeks, they went crazy again...this time I harvested all but one pot...

 Butterhead lettuce seems fine now...I plucked one leaf and it was crisp and sweet!

The mint that I harvested...Goes to three mothers that I know for mint tea and cooking...

 One of the jumbo kailan that I harvested. This one went especially for my mother! Kinda like saying, thanks for raising me up Ma, I raised this kailan for you...

Until next update!!!

So, what actually happened to the system? I'll tell you, before I left for Hari Raya I've accidentally left the timer to continuously 'on' and not using the timer. Secondly, I've also increased the bypass flow from the pump straight back to the fish tank to reduce the flow to growbeds so that neither of the siphon could start. What this did to the system for almost two weeks is that it ran with the continuous flood method.

Wow, I swear I never knew it was gonna be so different. Among the inputs I got from Backyard Aquaponics Forum is that many plants like it better with either continuous flood or flood and drain without siphons. The champion of it all can be seen at the BYAP Trials where they tested the three common methods to irrigate the growbeds.

So, I've activated the timer again but I didn't activate the siphon. Thus the system will now be running on flood and drain but without siphon usage. I believe the plants need a longer soaking of the fish water to absorb nutrient sufficiently. Thus this setup of 1 hour flood and 1 hour drain will be sufficient. Or at least, this will be another experiment...I know my fellow friend Izham Wong will be so interested in this experiment...


Things I observed/learned:
1) Though I changed the irrigation method by accident. This proves that you must conduct some trials to see what works best for your system. Though I found that the continuous flood method amazing, I'm now fiddling around with the flood and drain (without siphon) method. In 2-3 weeks I'll report again...

Thanks for your continuous support!

Update #8 - August 21st, 2011 - Kailan Oh Kailan

Everything seems to be running fine now except that I'm still not seeing the growth rate that I imagine an aquaponic system would have. In conventional farming, it'd take kailan 45 days to grow to edible size. Lettuce takes around 50 days. I may have not really keep track with my plants but I guess after 3 weeks, my lettuce aren't that big. Edible, but far from market size. Perhaps next time I should try and keep track of a plant from day 1 till harvest time. Well I have no complaints because the system is stable and running well...

Here's a quick capture on one of the three-beds set. All kailan except one okra plant which it's shoot was severely damaged by aphids so I chopped off the plant and left about a foot and a half of the main stem so it can grow new branches.

 This kailan can be harvested now, just look at the size of the leaf I'm holding, that is amazing. Well my brother harvested it just after I took this picture.

 A row of the kailan that was harvested with the cut-and-come again method. They grow new shoots that are pretty good for harvest now.

 This is hongkong kailan, two in a pot.

 The kailan stems have grown to new thickness I've never achieved before even with the hydroponic project my mom and I had around 15 years ago. The stem is the jewel of kailan plant as they're very tasty.

 These are the lettuce at 3 weeks. They were flattened by the torrential rain about an hour before I took these photos. They will rise again tomorrow!

 The only carrot plant is sitting next to pegaga (pennywort). This is just an experiment planting to see if it works with carrot because I've never planted carrot. The left most pot house some kangkung (water spinach).

The mint jungle as I'd say (this is from a single pot), also a bit flattened by the huge rain we just had. In the foreground is another kailan plant.

See you next time! Thanks for reading!