Affnan's Aquaponics

Tilapia Between Flushes

An underwater video of my Return Tank Tilapias, this is to see whether flushing will disturb them. It is a nine minutes video.. don't watch if you have no interest in Tilapia.

Thank you for watching.

Saddle Valve - What Is It

Made Saddle valve to divert water in case there is excess for growbed. Never document it properly, there are posting of it here but that is all.

This valve is made for one purpose only, that is to divert excess water from a growbed at the lowest cost and as simple as possible.

What you need is cut a piece of the delivery tube and make a slit lengthwise this is the saddle. Then place it over the delivery pipe and drill one or two holes or more through both.

That's it that's all you need to make a saddle valve, you can either rotate or slide it up or down the saddle to regulate water diversion. This valve is meant to be use within the fish tank since it is not water proof.

With this valve you don't need to buy extra hardware like a ball valve to do this job.

That's is it that my saddle valve.

Seedling Rack

If we want to be serious about planting our own vegetables, we must have a steady supply of seedling for planting. Getting seedling from nurseries are expensive in the long run and choices may be limited.

Vegetables seedling are not readily sold in most places due to their short lifespan of around 1 month before requiring transplant. Sowing our own is cheapest and can ensure a steady supply as we requires.

To get seedling going we require a place to start them out to ensure shelter from heavy rain, extreme heat from direct sunlight and pest.

Sowing in small scale as below is okay if we are doing plants like tomatoes, okra etc.. but for leafy vegetables like kailan, sawi, salad etc we need to sow in larger quantities and a good shelter to ensure they do well.

For few plants we can use temporary shelter, but its not as good as having a dedicated place to put all seeding as they grow.

Seedling will not survive if no shelter given to them, its either very hot sun or heavy rain will damage those fragile plants. I decided to build myself a seedling shelter or racking to ensure that I can have a place get seedling a head start.

What I need are few pieces of angled iron and make a 4x3x2 racking for the seedling to grow during the first 30 days of their life.

All cut up from hardware store there are 4 off 48 inches, 7 off 24 inches, 10 off 36 inches and few angled plate and screws. Once assembled this is how it look like, below still few parts missing and will complete the work tomorrow.

Top row is for seedling already germinate and bottom for those yet to germinate.

Each rack can hole two of this sowing tray with drip tray at the bottom or 3 of this 50 cup sowing tray as below.

Its not complete due late in the evening and I'll put PVC mat underneath the tray for support and netting to protect from sun, rain and insect.

To be continued.

Affnan Aquaponics

Hi All.

My new blog address is http://www.affnanaquaponics.com

The old blogspot address can still be use but will be redirected to the new address, that I had purchased for the next 10 years.

Cheers.

Bettas BT 6000 Energy Saving Pump

It is important in Aquaponics to keep energy usage at it lowest. This is one reason why I switches OFF pump at night. My Resun Penguin Pump is old and it's not as efficient as later design.

Bought in 2009 can't remember how much I paid for it but was a good pump at the time. It's a 110 watt at 4500 Liter/hour rating. You can hear it operating, not that loud but it can be significant at times. This Pump uses permanent magnet rotor making it works like a synchronous motor.

Today I got myself a better pump, its Bettas BT 6000 power rating 75 watt and at 6000 liter/hour. The power rating is about 40% less with increase of output by 30% as compared to the Resun Penguin and it's much smaller in size. Resun is rated at 4.0 meter and this Bettas at 3.5 meter max head. Not that important to me because I only need to transport the most to 1 meter height.

Olde Resun out and in goes the Bettas BT 6000, above Resun done its job well just that it is inefficient. Need to be replaced by a more efficient pump.

In the fish tank silent in its operation and rotor of this pump is not made of permanent magnet, more of an alloy or stainless steel, so it is an induction motor kind of principle hence more power to the rating. I removed the strainer and put a 20 mm PVC fittings with an elbow 20 mm ~ 25 mm forming the inlet facing downward just so that it is able to pump at very low water level.

Bypass installed since there are more water that needed for growbeds. This pump can be installed outside fish tank but need a feed from bottom of tank, it will not self prime. This will make this pump able to run on very low water level as long as the inlet is not letting air in.

Neem Spray

Neem Spray, testing because those white flies (Bena Puteh) is coming.

This spray is organic and won't kill my fish. There are also kitchen concoction that will kill these white flies like mixture of Cili + Garlic + Onions + Cooking Oil + Baking Soda + Water... :)

Tilapia Fry Too Soon

Too early for them to breed, these few fry in my Feeder Tank and those fish are about 5 months old. Its not good to have fry too early, they will grow into smaller Tilapia.

The Fry are in the yellow circle.

These fry are too small, I leave them here and just let nature take it path.

BTW I place 9 Cray in here.. and now only two left.. what happened ? No sign of empty shell. Do they climb those wire and air tubes and head for freedom ?

I had remove most Tilapia from this Feeder Tank and leave only these 5 to do mosquito control and keep those Cray busy trying to play catch.

Kuchai The Final Saga

Gave up trying to plant Kuchai or Chinese Chives from seeds, it never grow. Why on earth those retailer sells this plant seeds. Ever since last February I had tried and it never grow, so finally I manage to get live Kuchai plants, yes folks live Kuchai plants..., short of kicking its ALIVE.....

Above, my boss gave me a pot of kuchai and so happen I manage to locate a nursery that sell these plants in potting bag on the same day.... ironic isn't it...

Above plants are Chinese Chive or Garlic Chive with flat broad leaves, below is flowering type, these are not for consumption. Their leaves are thicker and flowering either white or reddish pink. Their leaves do not have the garlic smell. Be careful when buying for your kitchen garden.

So straight from work, I did what's necessary and get those plants into my Aquaponics growbed. Below row of Kuchai after I remove them from the pot for transplanting to growbed.

Being in the onion family, this plant may not like to get their feet wet. I just wanna try and see... let just see what happen.

Above freshly planted kuchai.

BTW that bag beside the electrical box is covering the light sensor causing the Aeration pump to operates, I do this occasionally to run aeration pump during the day if I disturb water pump or major work on growbed.

Update 25th May 2013

Slow progress over this last few months, I have added about 100 more Tilapia in the Right hand return tank hope this will beef up nutrient that is lacking in my system. Need to do water ph test tomorrow and adjust as required.

Plants grown and few already harvested for own consumption, photos that follows are taken last 2 days and some from today's shot.