More Fry

They just keep on coming, must be few hundreds in this nursery tank.
Close up shot
There are more fry in the bottom tank.

Youtube Members Video on Siphon

Youtube members chengaun, new cycling system with DIY Affnan Siphon..

Aquaponics Malaysia - En. Ahmad Hayan Radzi Setup

It was a pleasure to visit someone else Aquaponics set up, give me new ideas on how different arrangement Aquaponics can be practice.


Encik Ahmad Aquaponics located in Shah Alam, about 30 minutes drive from my place. He is using his koi pond as water source for the Aquaponics..its a medium size pond with its own filtration in place.
Water from this pond delivered to 4 growbed utilizing same pump as existing Koi installation, therefore its using surplus capacity that already there.
Water return via sump tank, since its about 20 ft away to pond. He has manage to fine tune the siphon so that its works with this long return.
The red plastic box above is sump tank for 2 growbed. He use hardware angle iron as support and fibreglass tank  as growbed with about 12 inches of granite.
Its still relatively new about a month old and give another month or so it will mature and start to support those plants.
He's slightly worried about granite size, some of it are very small and might cause water clogging. Only way is to monitor and see how it goes.
Another pair is in the front part of his yard, almost same arrangement and he's putting some shade to protect those young plants from the extreme sun.
All in all En. Ahmad is on the right track and he knows what he's doing, good to see and I gain some knowledge after seeing his set.
A very nice elderly gentleman En. Ahmad feeding his Koi, he's keen in replacing it with some other variety. In this pond its already teaming with few species of fresh water fish.
As usual Amir will be around to keep me on my toe. I'll visit again to see how's thing going with this set and learn setting Aquaponics on such a setup.

Time Out - We Crashed.. :)

Once in a while its fun to get some fright, this is the Airbus 330. Have some training flight on it.. and yes we did crashed.
Luckily, we are still at ground zero in the simulator .. :))

Live Fish - Anyone ?

Just back from Tesco for our groceries, snap few picture of their live fish.
These Red Tilapia look sick
Seriously do they expect anyone to eat these sickly looking Tilapia, not me.. not even for free.
Water is dirty not circulated, only filtered to some extend. Those fishes in there and they'll be contaminated even worst in these condition.
Some fish even have those slimy algae (don't think its algae) on their fins.
Will they ever learn to keep these fishes fresh and clean, only then its will be attractive enough for people to buy.
yuck.. !!!
and more yuck !!!


If this is the condition of live fishes kept, imagine those dead ones frozen on the shelf.. how was those reared.


Give me these below any time.

Diner - Tilapia

Having mature Tilapia in smaller holding tank makes it convenient to catch if we decide to have them for diner.
Catches a few about 10 minutes ago, I pick all the bigger ones and average about 750 ~ 1000 gm each.
Fresh Tilapia, it cannot be any fresher than this.
Total 6 big ones, plenty more in the holding tank and a zillion more fry waiting to be raised.

Cherry Tomato

Cherry Tomato is the smaller variety of tomatoes, it is determinate type of tomato where they grow, flower and fruiting at same time or within same period of time. This tomato pruning is not required and their average life span about 4 months.
Above cherry tomato planted traditional way, mature plant bearing fruit. 
Seeds collected from this plant are sun dried and use for planting.
Seeds sown directly onto growbed, if sowing tray available then its can be use. Germination occur after about 5 days.
Another 2 weeks they should be ready to be transplanted or rearrange within the growbed. On the average I waited for the seedling to be around six inches before transplant.
Too small, they are fragile and can be damaged easily, too big they may not survive the transplant or may require longer period to recover.
Cherry Tomato do well in Aquaponics, they are more resistance to white flies. Having said that, however they are not totally immune to it, just that white flies will takes a longer time to attack these cherry tomatoes.
They will start to flower after about 45 days from sowing, this depends on how fast they recover after the transplant. On average its 45 days.


Staking are required since they are soft stem, and 3 or 4 poles require for each plant. In the fields they use string as support, however in my growbed I use plastic pipe.
Flowers below.
After pollinated they form fruits and it will be another month to month and a half for it to ripen
Once they started to flower and producing fruits there will be plenty, and they all ripen within a month.
Plenty of Tomatoes for the family.

Daun Pandan - Pandanus amaryllifolius

Daun Pandan - Pandanus amaryllifolius is a plant belong to the Pandan family. It is use widely in Southeast Asia cuisine as flavouring.

Growing it in Aquaponics do not require any special care due its naturally from the swamp anyway.
Young plants taken from clusters from nearby patch planted into Aquaponics growbed.
In no time these Pandan start to colonize the growbed, they have to be trimmed to a manageable size.
On an average household one single plant is enough and can be grown in a growbed.

Ulam Raja - Salad for the King

Ulam Raja (cosmos caudatus) is a popular herbal salad among the Malay. This is an annual plant that flower then die off. It has good medicinal properties, suppose to be anti ageing probably due to its anti oxidant properties.


These plant the young leaves are eaten raw with sambal and its help in reducing bad breadth and body odour.



Flower below pink in colour about 40mm in size 


After flower pollinated they produce these seeds below, approximately 20mm long each. 


Seeds dried on the stalk and fall to the ground germinated into seedlings below.


Below after about 1 week its leaves start to appear.


Planted few of these ulam raja on my Aquaponics set,




and it does grow without problem.



Below young leaves that we normally pluck from the plant to be eaten raw. Ulam Raja has a pleasant and refreshing smell.



After young leaves plucked, new shoots will start to grow just below the cutting giving more young leaves for the taking.



Older leaves not suitable to be consumed raw, they have a stronger taste slightly bitter.



Below some of Ulam Raja plant in my Aquaponics set.



Fresh young leaves below picked from my patch with Mengkudu leaves underneath it.