Whats up everyone, I wanted to start a grow journal for my home made aquaculture. I already have a hydroponics grow journal over in the other section but since this grow is organic I wanted to post it here. I had always been a soil w/ synthetic nutes grower from back in the day. About 2 years ago I got into organic live soil and really enjoyed the quality of buds, the yield/growth not so much. So a year ago I dove into deep water culture and built my own RDWC system which produced absolute monsters with great results. Cost of nutes and constant upkeep where not always appreciated but I was ok with it. After learning about Aquaponics, I realized that I could get the best of both worlds and have a super easy grow to manage. I took an 8x8 tent, stuck a 4x4 80 gallon kiddie pool in it, and added a tray stand with a 3x6 flood tray. I used a pump to feed water from the pool up to one side of the tray, and a drain returning water back to the pool on the opposite side. I filled the tray with hydroton to make a grow bed. i also have 6 12in air stones along the bed to ensure the water is plenty aerated as it passes through the bed and roots love fresh air. i have a canister pump that I use as a solids filter. The pool is filled with Koi and I have some air stones in it for aeration along with a little led bar above it for some light. The grow bed drain is set at the lowest setting so there is only an inch or 2 of water at a time that flows from one side to the other like a stream. I filled the bed with a couple hundred red wiggler worms and they love the fish mum that comes through the bed. Ive already had one successful grow with this set up but I only planted half the bed because the tank wasnt fully established. This time around i have filled the bed. I have a 550V2 right now, but one more on the way so I can get this sea of green going! I run an 80 pint dehumidifier to keep the humidity where it needs to be considering I have a pond in my tent. I use a 6in carbon filter to create negative pressure and bring in cool air from outside the tent. Of course to handle the smells as well. At this point, I only pay for fish food and seeds. The cost of running this grow is virtually non existent now that I have it set up. The quality of the weed is second to none in my opinion. Im hooked. Next up is GDPxGumberry, Blueberry Bliss, OG Kush, Bubba Kush, and Lemon Zkittles. I wanted to share this grow because its the way to go! You could use tilapia and even have your own supply of fresh fish. Heck, smoke the weed, then make some fish tacos when you get the munchies! For those who may be curious but dont have alot of space, I built a single plant aquaculture that I have in a 4x2 tent. It only takes up half the tent, so it can be done in small spaces. let me know if you would like any help or have any questions setting one up for yourself!! Cheers everyone, Han
yessir I hope so! Here are some Kortana buds from my first harvest. The last pic is red poison. Sent from my SM-G975U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Hey Smokey, glad to have ya over here, I almost did the 10x10 but I would have no way to get to the backside of the room to turn on my AC unit in the wall. With the 8x8 I can slide through all around the tent to access wall sockets and for cleaning. I can also walk around to the back side of the tent and open the curtain to work on the grow bed. that way im not trying to reach over 3ft of bed lol. Im technically only using 4x8ft of it for the grow. I have my dehumidifier in one of the corners.
your grows are always interesting to watch! yeah, i figure with a 10x10 I can extra room for the "equipment" like fans, humidifiers/dehumdifier/ walkways thru the tent to get to different areas, etc and still have plenty of room for actual plants. no way I need that size for meds, but thinking of it fort my indoor veggie/herb/flowers tent. thinking of going up to a 4x8 or 5x9 for my med plants - like the 4x8 size and 5x9 would again give that that extra room to work
Go as big as you can it will be easier to control the environment. Not as prone to temp and humidity swings if you ask me.i love the extra space in my 8x8. Please excuse the dirty prefilter I need to swap out out with my clean one. I have plenty of room in here. Sent from my SM-G975U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
biggest problem with a big tent..... lots of money to fill it with lighting! i'll have to go one section at a time as i can afford to light up different areas when i can.
Ordering quantum boards through Meiju lighting company has saved me so much. The one 550V2 board I have in there at the moment was 325 shipped. I think that would cost at least a 1,000 plus shipping from HLG. Sent from my SM-G975U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
true. my first boards came from Meiju actually. I wanted the 132 boards but they were backordered from HLG so i ordered up what was than the just released 288v2 boards in their 260w kit version. 2 weeks after getting them the qb132 boards were back in stock so got them from HLG. honestly, I prefer them over the 288 boards, but I agree with you that getting them thru alibaba can be significantly less expensive.
Nah, that's got tomatoes, tomatillo, Carolina reaper, ghost pepper, serrano, okra, and mini watermelons. It's the salsa station with a few extras lol. Sent from my SM-G975U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I've been upping the feed on the fish now that they're getting bigger. Water tests are still coming back great. I'm considering stocking the res with a few more koi. Here is one of the Lemon Zkittles. Sent from my SM-G975U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Ladies are doing well, fish are getting bigger, I still think I need a few more but so far so good. I cant find any Koi for now so I'll have to wait. Here's a pic of the same lemon Zkittles from the last post. I've also got some trellis netting on the way. Sent from my SM-G975U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I ran into my first hickup and it could have been a bad one had I not finally figured it out lol. The way I had the system set up was allowing slime to build up on the bottom of the tray table and develop anaerobic conditions. Because I had the water level set so low kinda like an NFT, the air stones I have in the bed were not aerating the water enough. My plants all looked like they had root rot and were very deficient. They were basically suffocated by the slime. Apparently with NFT aquacultures the water entering the system has to be filtered first. With DWC it is recommended to filter as well but isn't required if you have enough surface area in your media bed to act as a bio filter. In my case I do. To remedy the situation I flooded the table used an air hose to break all the slime loose, and I cleaned as much as I could that floated to the surface and that drained down to my pond which has a solids filter. I set the water level to around 5 inches and added 40L more hydroton to ensure the top 2 inches are dry. I made sure and positioned my air stones through the bed for optimal aeration. I also added a foam filter to my pump to try and limit the amount of solids being pushed through the bed. Plants seem to be bouncing back but I got one poor girl that really suffered and I accidently damaged the roots while cleaning the bed. One other issue I had was that I did not have enough fish in the system. I have been doing alot of research on fish density and formulas to figure it out and I have come to the realization that my density is too low so I have since added more fish almost doubling the density. I really hope the adjustments I made get these plants back on track. This has been an interesting learning experience to say the least. Sent from my SM-G975U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
The Ladies are bouncing back nicely, it appears that the cleanup, and added depth along with aeration really helped. I'm debating defoliating the older deficient leaves. All the new growth is a healthy green. Sent from my SM-G975U using Grasscity Forum mobile app