It Grows Fast! But...

In the “another simple system” post, I described one of my tanks with NFT in the hydroponic part. One of the great things about using this kind of systems is that everything grows really fast, even for me.

This aquaponic system has a lot of plants, more than I could think it can maintain safely, but I used every hole in the pipes to start all the plants at once; problem is, they grew faster than I expected. The idea was to use the complete system as a started while I was setting up the other one and then redistribute the plants, but it seems they got me beat.

Sorry, a lot of things to do. Anyway, I can use this as an example for two things. The first one is that everything grows fast; this plants are only a little more than a week from the previous post. The other one is that you can see the great difference between the plants in the upper pipe and the lower one.


These plants look green and healthy, with a steady growth. The root system (not visible) is white (which is good) and they seem to be doing fine.


As you can see in these ones, the yellow in the leaves is bad news. Normally the lack of magnesium and iron, this color says that the water has not enough nutrients to maintain all this plants. I was supposed to change that last weekend, but there is always something, right?

DIY Aquaponics requires testing. Some commercial acuaponic systems already have a history and can be a little predictable, but you just will have to test. Use “fast” plants like lettuce for your testing. Since they grow in less than two months, you can have a very good idea of what is going to happen.

Once you have a couple of plants, you can find out what you can do and when. This information will be great for your future planning.

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A Small Aquaponic System

Although aquaponics can be a big deal, with costly and efficient facilities, it can also be as simple as a tank and some PVC piping. You can have most of this in every hardware store, you don’t need any special tools and some can even deliver everything to you doorstep. You can’t say you don’t have time.


In this system, I am using a NFT hydroponic installation. In case you don’t know, NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) is a pure hydroponic system (no substrate) that submerges the plant roots on a continuous flow of nutrient solution. You can do this with the PCV 4’’ pipe. In this case, there is no need to use nutrient solutions, since the water is already fertilized.

Since there is no substrate, this aquaponic system must rely on an external biological filter that will clear the ammonia in the water and turn it into nitrates. There are other aquaponic systems that use substrate as a biological filter, but this is not the case.

The piping is wrapped with newspaper to prevent sunlight on the roots. Although you can use paint, newspaper is a fair insulator, You can use other materials, but newspaper is a cheap one to get things going. The sun can really get things hot inside the pipe. Although plants can thrive on warm water, fish may suffer from that.

There are certain fish like tilapia that can live comfortably in warm water, but that depends on what you have. Aquaponics has more variables than pure hydroponics, but that’s the fun part.

As you can see, it is an easy way to get started. The plants are just starting and those are melons, so they grow quite large. If you are using small plants like lettuce and spinach, you can stuff more plants in there. I cut this pipe so it will fit on the wall without messing with other aquaponic installations.

That’s the magic of DIY aquaponics, you can make your system fit your needs. If you live in the city, there are few aquaponic systems that allow you to make modifications so it will fit somewhere.

Also, this aquaponic system is dirt cheap, so make your fish pay for the food. Another advantage is that you will no longer use activated carbon or any other filter, since the plants and the biological filter will take care of business.

If you are not familiar with hydroponic system, try How To Hydroponics. Unlike other books that have a lot of theory, this one is a DIY little book that goes to the point and is almost half the price of a more elaborate work. Download it here.

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Something Important About Crayfish

Yesterday I wrote about my fishing trip and the new crayfish living in my tank. Well that was nice, but I forgot to mention an important fact about this guys and I also forgot to put my “countermeasures” in place last night. Well, I was a little tired… I hate getting old… Anyway, one of the crayfish “had a good one”.

One thing about crayfish is that they are very resourceful creatures that can escape from a lot tight places. If you add the ability to survive for short periods of time out of the water, then you have a little Houdini in your tank.

After the crayfish’s demise, I put in place a piece of wood to stop them from climbing. Well, not much for opportunity, but we humans tend to be like this. Anyway, if you have crayfish, they can climb your air hose and the cable for the pump. In a regular tank, you can just place a cover and that will be it, but here you need to have an entrance for the clean water that comes from the hydroponic part of your aquaponic system, so you will need a “do it yourself” solution, like making an additional hole to your tank’s cover.

This will depend a lot on your aquaponic system and it’s layout, but it shouldn’t be a problem. If you plan to have crayfish, you should be careful about this. By the way, the one I have is a Procambarus Clarikii, a nice little pest that has invaded almost everyplace where humans (again us…) has taken them.

Although is not exactly a problem in Florida, Illinois and Ohio, it has colonized a lot of territory in Europe, Africa and Asia, at the expense of indigenous crayfish. Not a pretty sight, but getting back to the ones you can rear, this “pesty” capability of the crayfish can be used to your advantage.

They grow and breed quickly, so you can have enough of them in a few months. In Louisiana, there is a millionaire industry with this crayfish, so you can take a part of it too. They are really delicious and you should not miss the chance to taste your own.

After all, if you feed them right and take the proper care, you can have your own source of a delicacy that can be quite expensive in a good restaurant.

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