Recirculating Hydroponic System with No Water Change
by Kaushik Patel
(Montreal, Canada)
I am going to try DWC for the first time, but with Zilli Tilapia's and bioballs, which is use to convert ammonia to nitrates. Basically, it is an aquaponic system which recirculates the water. Now, if I add nutrients to my system, will I have to change the water every so often? And /or will my Tilapias provide enough nutrients to my system (which I don't think will happen). Also, I will be having different stages at one time....will having a high ppm hurt my early stage roots? Or do I have to have different systems for different stages? Thank you Guru for lots of info you provide!
Answer: Kaushik- this type of recirculating hydroponic system, using aquaponics to fish-farm, is a little outside my expertise. Anyone who has ever managed an aquarium can tell you that high nitrate levels will begin to kill your fish. I have talked with at least two other visitors who are trying aquaponics, and this seems to be the biggest sticking point in the whole operation (balancing the Nitrate requirements of the crop with the Nitrate requirements of your fish).
Most crops you would like to grow require Nitrate levels that are too high to be healthy for your fish. The fish, on the other hand, would prefer very low levels of Nitrates, but will tolerate medium-low levels without too much of a problem. If you are serious about bringing this type of recirculating system into perpetual balance and harvest, this leaves you with a handful of crop choices. The most common ones I have seen are micro-greens, lettuce, spinach, and herbs that produce vegetatively....which include rosemary, basil, oregano, mint, sage, thyme, and others.
Running a small worm farm is one option I have discussed with another visitor. Tea made worm castings can add Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium to the water in your system, but does not seem to bother the fish as much as other Nitrate sources. Also, the redworms can be used as a supplemental food source for the fish.
Having a high ppm will hurt your fish more than it will hurt your younger plants. Be sure to do a little more research into what levels of Nitrate (and other plant nutrients) your fish will tolerate before deciding to add any additional fertilizer to this type of system. In a recirculating hydroponic system, growing the crops I have mentioned above, a balance can be achieved. Certain Nitrate levels can be maintained that do not affect the fish negatively, but which allow for several crops at different stages to be grown and harvested simultaneously.
One of my other visitors was actually using 1 1/2 inch thick styrofoam, similar to the lids made for this system in order to float each different crop as he added them to his system. He was also farming Tilapia, using bioballs, and was growing many different lettuce and micro-green varieties in a perpetual, recirculating fashion without any water changes. I hope this gives you some good ideas Kaushik. I would love to hear how it turns out....and Happy Growing!
Comments for Recirculating Hydroponic System with No Water Change
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AffordableGarden Design&Setup
Hi everyone, Jason from Jason's Indoor Guide here. When I got started with hydroponic gardening more than 24 years ago, my first garden used rockwool cubes and B.C. Nutrients....and I remember thinking to myself yeah, sure, there may be a lot of advantages to gardening with hydroponics, for example there are very few pest problems, therefore very little pest control, no weeding, no plowing or tilling the soil, no soil testing or having to add things into the garden soil, no watering the garden....but for someone who just wants to grow their own vegetables and have more control over their food supply and the quality of the food that they eat, the cost of constantly having to buy grow media and hydroponic nutrients makes this an expensive hobby for most people...
Epic Nutrient Change
I suppose when you take into consideration how much money you save NOT
having to buy food at the grocery store, it is surely cheaper to grow
your own food hydroponically even with the cost of high quality
nutrients. Nevertheless, I didn't have a whole lot of money to work with
and I needed to make my efforts as affordable and effective as
possible....and in the last 24 years I HAVE learned a thing or two!
As you browse through Jason's Indoor Guide, you will notice all of the
systems that I use personally are homemade systems. As I got 3 or 4
years of experience under my belt, I quickly adopted a preference to
standing water systems and systems that use expanded clay pellets or
lava rock, because the media is re-usable and it eliminates a huge
operating expense. So once a hydroponic system is built, garden
maintenance is minimal- check and adjust the nutrient solution daily,
and to change it completely every 2 weeks....and the biggest operating
cost is the hydroponic nutrients. (and the electric bill, lol)...
Homemade Cloner
And, regarding the cost of the nutrients....I experimented for about 3 years with making different compost teas and nutrient teas, but there is still a lot of expense $$$ associated with making high quality nutrient teas....like kelp meal, liquid seaweed, rock dust, bat guano, un-Sulfured molasses, worm castings. You can eliminate a lot of this expense by becoming an expert at making high-quality colloidal humus compost, and use your properly made compost as the basis of your hydroponic nutrient solution.
Unfortunately, I have been gardening for over 24 years and I have only
just recently mastered this difficult skill....and even then, only
because I happened to find a very easy to follow, high quality technique
and decided to follow the instructions to the letter. I produced more
high quality compost in just one week than I was able to use in a whole
year! If you can master the technique, I highly recommend it. It is one of the top 3 things you can do to
increase the productivity of your food production efforts, while at the
same time decreasing the amount of effort required to grow all of your
own food, and decreasing the total cost of operating your food
production system.
And when I say decrease operating costs, I mean decrease them to almost
ZERO, especially if you are producing your own nutrients...
High Efficiency
Hydroponics
The ultimate solution to eliminate the cost of your hydroponic nutrients: Imagine a hydroponic system that does not require you to buy any nutrients, does not require you to make your own compost, and does not require you to brew your own nutrient tea. Seriously! No cost and no effort as far as providing nutrients to your plants! Plus, at the end of the gardening cycle you harvest all of your garden vegetables, PLUS YOU HARVEST FISH from the system--->
Aquaponics
This solution is aquaponics. If you are serious about producing all of your own food and being self-sufficient, this is the ultimate solution for reducing expenses (as much as possible), reducing the total amount of work required, and maximizing the productivity of your gardening efforts. I have been gardening for over 24 years, and it is the perfect food production solution in my opinion.
Besides mastering how to make high quality compost, learning aquaponics is one of the top 3 things you can do to increase your garden productivity, reduce your total costs, and reduce your total work. The product that I learned from is called Aquaponics4you. With all of my hydroponic gardening experience, the first time I came across the Aquaponics4you product I knew immediately that it was something very special! Place an aquaponics system outdoors and use the sun instead of grow lights, and you have reduced every garden expense to nearly ZERO!
The Same System/ 10 Weeks Later!
