Archived Aquaponics
The Dallas Makerspace approved $400 dollars to create an aquaponics system, this pages documents the process of building it.
Contents
Current Setup
(This section is to document the specs of the system.)
Grow Bed & Reservoir
- Bigfoot Kit (donated by Mark): http://store.amhydro.com/Bigfoot-Hydroponic-System-p/91048.htm
- Bedding tray
- 25-gallon reservoir
- We are using Hydroton as Grow Media: http://aquaponicsusa.com/Aquaponics_USA_Hydroton.html
Lighting
- This Lighting Calculator says we need 400 watts of light (if we were using traditional lighting).
- Mark purchased this 240W light (by G8LED): http://www.amazon.com/240-Watt-Grow-Light-Flowering/dp/B005MWHI56
- The actual wattage of this light was measured to be around 140 watts.
- Other LED lights with an actual output of 100W seem to sell for at least $300.
- This website compares the actual wattage of several LED grow lights: http://www.compare-led-grow-lights.com/
- It may be overkill for the current 2x4 foot setup, since the small Growpanel 45's advertising says it can be equivalent to 300W of traditional lighting.
Pump
- Paul purchased the following pump from Harbor Freight: http://www.harborfreight.com/264-gph-submersible-fountain-pump-68395.html
- The recommendation for pond filters seems to be up to 10x the amount of gallons which it will be pumping. This may be different for us since we are pumping vertically into another container.
- We may get another pump and run it inline as a backup. Currently a failure will not hurt anything, so we will probably wait on this.
Research
(Important things we learn about aquaponics go in this section.)
Plant Considerations
- "Herbs, lettuce, and any other leafy crop would be your best bet with indoor lighting."Reddit
