| Autopot Aquaponics
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What is Aquaponics?
Aquaponics is a hybrid between Aquaculture and Hydroponics. That is you get to culture both the fish (or other aquatic organism) and plants (crops such as lettuce) in a synergistic relationship whereby resources such as water and nutrients input (can also be in the form of feed) are being shared. This a classic case of 1+1 = > 2.
Conventional Aquaponics may appear simple. But, in reality, it is a lot more difficult to manage than what we have been led to believe. However, Autopot version of Aquaponics is a lot easier. It is as simple as letting the water first flow into the fish tank and then pump the fish water to feed the plants via the Autopot systems. |
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* It eliminates the need for monitoring of water qualities for the fish and the crop
* You do not need to keep the plants at close proximity to the fish tank.
* It is not important to match the number of plants to the fish.
* You do not need to provide structures (pipes etc) for the return flow.
* You can use almost all kinds of growing medium. |
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Cick this link for related article on Autopot Aquaponics vs Conventional Aquaponics |
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Monday, 25 January 2010
Barramundi Feeding Frenzy tank no.6 |
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Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Netting out Murray Cod from tank no. 1 for review. |
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Sunday, 8 February 2009
Right - video on Sleepy Cod 22 months later.
(Note: If you are having problems with the videos, please use Microsoft Internet Explorer to log in.) |
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Sunday, 8 February 2009
Right - video on Jade Perch |
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Monday, 15 December 2008
Click to view enlarge version of the diagramatic illustration on extended application of the Autopot Aquaponic concept. |
| Autopot Aquaponics Display At GardenSmart - Melbourne |
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| Thursday, 31 July 2008 |
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After picking the brocolli flower-head, the rest of the plant was put to good use - feeding the Jade Perch. The picture on the right shows what was left of the plant 4 hours later. |
| Tuesday, 29 July 2008 |
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Cabbage on the left was tossed into the 1,000-litre fish tank containing about 100 Jade Perch (average wt. 650gms). Picture on the right shows the result a day later. |
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| Monday, 10 December 2007 |
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The first batch of Jade Perch on average is weighing around 200gms each. With 150 of them in each of the 1,000 L tank, we are really pushing the aquaculture units to the limit. We need to do something about it soon.
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We have been feeding the Jade Perch with substantial quantities of raw vegetative feeds (discarded from our display), such as sweet potato leaves, bak choi, Madeira vines, water cress and lettuces. The negative aspect of using raw vegetative feeds is it also generates a lot more fish wastes than pelletized feeds. |
| Saturday, 17 November 2007 |
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With the onset of warmer weather(late Spring), we have cucumbers grown in hanging baskets along both sides of the wire mesh. Soon we can expect to see cucumbers hanging from the wire mesh. By using non-toxic sprays, we are able to control pests & diseases without hurting the fish..
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| Monday, 2 April 2007 |
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Top pic. - now we have 4 x 1,500 L tanks and 2 x 200 L tanks stocked with Jade Perch (top right) and Sleepy Cod (right). More tanks will be added over the next few months.
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At the moment, our Autopot display (at Gardensmart) is very extensive (over 500 meters apart) - feeding up to 1,500 plants from a 12V DC 8 amp battery operated pumping and dosing unit (Smart-pump set). The plants are consuming on average 1,500 litres of water a day (no wastage) at this time (summer) of the year.
Since the installation of the Autopot Aquaponics system about two months ago, we have been making use of the water for our fish first before feeding it to the plants. If we allow a 10% daily water change in the aquaculture tanks, we should be able to culture up to 15,000 litres of fish tanks which can be translated to mean a potential stocking rate of 1,500 heads of fish such as Jade Perch. |
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Sweet potato plants in Autopot window box overhangs the fish tank. An excellent food for the Jade Perch. |
Note the sweet potato plants are heavily infested (intentional) by caterpillars - most of which ended up in the water and consumed by the fish. |
Underwater lighting for attracting insects into the water at night. |
| 8th June 2007 |
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Jade Perch fingerling - first day of arrival from hatchery. |
Jade Perch - a month later. What a great improvement. |
Sleepy Cod - has grown to 260 gms as compared to 140 gms three months ago. |
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Automatic Feeder used. |
Airlift pump and simple bag filter. |
Transfer pump - automatically feeds fish water to the Autopot Systems. |
| Updated 20th July 2007 |
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| Starter pack for Worm farm - 1,000 worms. The idea is to provide as much as possible of this type of natural food to the fish. |
Can-O-worm farm - 600mm dia. 3 stacks can produce up to 500 to 1,000 earthworms per month. |
Earthworms - doubling its population every two months. For our current fish population of 500, we require 5 units of the worm farm. |
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Wastes from our hydroponic crop and our Auquaponics set-up are food for the worms.
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Collection of worm juice is easy and convenient. Juice drain the tap from the bottom tray of the worm farm. You can get on average about 1 litre of worm juice per month from one unit.
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Liquid waste from the worms is food for our vegetables. With the Autopot Systems, you can feed the worm juice directly to the root zone of the crop - as shown.
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Friday, 5 October 2007 - We have been operating the Autopot Aquaponics for 6 months now and have not made any water quality checks for pH or ammonia level. There is no necessity to do so in our case because our water exchange (equivalent to the uptake of water by hundreds of our plants) in the fish tanks is occuring continuously at the rate of 10 to 20% a day - thereby conforming to the Autopot KISS principle.
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Sleepy Cod - Oct. 2007
Jade Perch - Oct 2007
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| Friday, 5 October 2007 - Marble Goby (a close relative of the Sleepy Cod) costs RM180.00 a kilo in a Malaysian Restaurant - equivalent to Aus $65.00 per kilo. |
Click here to download Autopot Aquaponics Brochure in pdf format.
Hydroponics Made Easy
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Plan Driven Concept
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The Smart Valve Mk2
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Why plants grow so well
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Autopot Aquaponics
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Autopot Working Principles
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Benefits of Autopot
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Growing Tips
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How to get started
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Start of a growing fascination
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Waterwise Gardening with Autopot Systems
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