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Sunday, 27 October 2013

Affnan's Bug Fountain

Another one of my crazy idea ! It's a "Bug Fountain", what is suppose to do is to attract insect at night with a glowing water stream and hopefully wash them down into my fish tank. That's the theory anyway. It could be another blunder :)
This is conceptual, I don't know whether it will work or not. Fountain Head below with LED attached.
Break down of fountain head. That holed down spout may not be needed.
Upper cap, where I drilled a 5mm hole for the LED. I may need to use T10 Blue LED which is more powerful.
Bagful of goodies, LED Amber in colour and some load resistor from previous project. It's hopeless I need Blue LEDs.
Testing LED in the cap, amber and it's not bright enough.
Here it is on test.
And here it is in the dark, no way an insect can see it. May need to do some other way. What if I use those car waterproof light strip
The video below.

Wonder if I dangle this light strip below will attract insect to the water.

Fresh Fingerling - Tilapia & Jelawat

Went to International Aquatics for some fish, this is closest to my place so it's most convenience. My intention was to look for some Crawfish but they don't stock any at the time. So get myself few Tilapia and Jelawat.
Jelawat is Hoven's Carp as it's called in English got a few today for my Aquaponics setup. I will mixed these with Lampam. This fish requires the tank to be covered, they are notorious for jumping.
They labeled these Tilapia as Gold Tilapia, looks like the normal Red Tilapia to me, bought a few and it's slightly bigger than the normal 1" fingerling.
I placed the Tilapia in my CRAFTS feeder tank, here they are in their new home.
These fishes is adding to my present fish due to few fish died due to aerator pump failure. 

Tuesday, 15 October 2013

Perng Leng Chuah High Rise Aquaponics System

This setup belong to Mr. Perng Leng Chuah of Aquaponics Malaya group, it is in a Condo setting on its balcony. This setup was done in June 2013 and has been running with a single water pump and an aeration unit.
It is a small setup, with 2 growbed over a fish tank. This is what we consider a basic media base setup but sufficient to provide all the knowledge of a bigger sets.
Aquaponics is one method of planting that is suitable on high rise building and fish that comes with it is an added bonus. It's a good way to let kids get involved in planting and fish keeping even in with limited planting space. These next few photos is a joy to see, when we could give our children these activity.




So those living in high rise don't let space hamper your ability to plant and fish keeping, Aquaponics is the way to go in Urban Surrounding.

Photo courtesy of Perng Leng Chuah, check out his post in Aquaponics Malaya Forum

Thursday, 10 October 2013

Update 10/10/13 - Replanting My Growbed

Redo all my growbed after last disaster with aeration pump causing me to prematurely harvest a lot of Tilapia. Luckily the fish was scoop up in time before they perish. This time I allocate each growbed to a single type of plant with short term and long term plants to easily care for their growth.
The far most growbed I planted Cekur Manis as below, it's a simple plant easily grow from cuttings. This plants will provide abundant vegetable for own use.
The next growbed has Turmeric, this plant is for their leaves and root use in Asian cooking as flavouring. They are yet to recover from too low water within the growbed. I forgot to put an extender on my siphon standpipe :)
Then the center growbed has mixed herb for daily use.
Then there is this empty growbed, this is for short term vege like kailan, Bayam and etc. below growbed already sown with Bayam and Kailan seeds.
Final growbed is filled with Kuchai or Chinese Chives. This growbed was a replacement for the one that I sold off for an exhibition, it still not fully mature and the Kuchai show sign lacking of nutrient. It will recover but will takes another month or two.
I will need to tidy up, keep everything neat and just harvest what ever produce. There will be slight adjustment needed to the spacing of these growbed to make it uniform in its spacing.

Fish, I added more Lampam (Tinfoil Barb) in the Return tank nearest and in the further Return Tank all Tilapia. The Feeder tank (centre) I only left few Tilapia to ensure no mosquito breed. I am considering to use this tank for Cray, but I need to ensure it has a good covering. Crayfish will climb up and escape if it's not done properly.

Right that's it for now.

Siphon Siphon Everywhere

Making few sets for this month delivery. It is quite difficult for me to do overseas order because the postage is very expensive. Each siphon with packaging is about 1.5 kg, and the postage will cost more than the siphon.
I am trying to find alternative means of sending overseas order.

Unclogging a Growbed

Occasionally I will have problem of growbed clogging, this mostly due to pebbles that is small in size was use in my set. This smaller pebbles will cause fish solids to get trapped and eventually compromise the siphon water supply.

A quick way of rectifying this is by making a "Brick Barrier" and filling the inner part of it with larger pebbles and finally top it up till full growbed height.
Above is a temporary measure if time or situation did not permit full growbed overhaul. There is also occasion where I use this Brick barrier as a replacement for the strainer itself, arranging it more tightly using the narrower part of the brick or less number of brick used.

Wednesday, 9 October 2013

NASOM Installation

NASOM is The National Autism Society of Malaysia, this is a non government organization (NGO) that do charitable work for people with Autism.

Recently they contacted me, and are interested with Aquaponics as a source for therapeutic and stress relief for Autism and normal people alike. That part of Aquaponics never look at by anyone and I guess it is a very good idea from them.

So without much hesitation I agree to assist, they procured most parts with list that I gave and I made a couple of siphon for their installation.

Installation was done on 5th October 2013
For a start I am setting up a basic set, which is a two media filled growbed over a fish tank. Each of the growbed drained via siphon into the fish tank. This is the most basic to start with, and as they progress we'll see how it goes.
NASOM staff and Assistant General Manager En Osman Teh (far left) busy with rack installation. The angle iron are very well cut by their suppliers. Its a small setup but just nice as a starter and great to get others introduced into Aquaponics.
Typical siphon installation for their growbed.
Washing and putting hydroton on one of the two growbed.
Completed set above.
Tilapia provided by Mr. Shashi Kumar of Aquaponics Malaya FB Group.
Tilapia in the tank.
Mr. Shashi Kumar, Myself and Mr. Osman Teh after set completed. I'll let them run it for few weeks and make a visit again. However if they have problem then they are free to give me a shout.

Will post their progress from time to time.

Note : Some photos I pinch from FB Aquaponics Malaya courtesy of Mr. Shashi Kumar.