This Sustainable House

Posts Tagged ‘Hydroponics’

One of the food production systems that I have been dying to try for many years is the concept of Aquaponics. Aquaponics is quite an advanced system in which we combine the best of aquaculture, growing fish and/or crustaceans, with hydroponics, growing plants in a soil-less culture. The reason that it works so well is that the plants feed on the wastes of the fish, essentially filtering the water before it returns to the fish tank. In fact, it is a touch more complicated than that (involving bacteria converting ammonia to nitrites then nitrates) however that’s the gist of it. The diagram below demonstrates the general principle.

Basic Aquaponics Cycle

The reason that have always wanted to try this system is because I feel that it can offer a lot of opportunities to the small-holder, or even householder, as one can grow a lot of food in a relatively small area. Read the rest of this entry »

So far so good…

It has now been about a week since the trial was started and already the plants a visibly growing. Wonderful!

The issue to do with gurgling was addressed by reducing to flood cycle to one cycle per night. This means that though it still gurgles it’s not causing too many problems with my sleep patterns. The more long-term solution is the insulated base but that will have to wait till the ‘alpha’ is completed.

However a new issue has arisen, something that is more of an aesthetic problem than anything else… The direction of light.

As was originally hoped, it seems that the light entering through the window is more than adequate for sustaining the plant growth so far. The plants are growing well with no signs of spindliness (is that a word?). However the plants are ‘leaning’ into the light which kind of makes sense when one considers that the light is only coming from one direction. As noted, this gives the plants a slightly odd look in the garden but doesn’t seem to be affecting their growth.

A potential solution is to place a reflective source, at least 30cm tall and the width of the bed, on the southern side. This should bounce back the light that pushes through and provide some stimulation to the cells on the southern side of the plant.

To test this concept I have attached a piece of corflute, a type of rigid plastic with a reflective side, to the side of the bed. At the moment, as can be seen below, this is only temporarily in place but should the trial proceed into ‘production’ then a more robust frame will be built.

Perhaps making the ‘mirror’ movable, ie up and down as well as angled, would add value?

Well it has been less than 24hrs and the first ‘issue’ has arisen. Location! To explain…

The best location for these gardens is on the second floor of the house as this location has the most available light resources, affords excellent opportunities for maintainence/supervision, and is naturally the warmest part of the home. However, the second floor is also the master bedroom and our flood & drain table gurgles as it drains. Dag Nammit!

At this stage it’s not too problematic, there are only 2 cycles throughout the night and the gurgling only lasts a minute or so. However should the trial prove a success then an insulated base would assist with muffling the propgation of the sound. If worst comes to worst, the master bedroom can always be moved.