Aquaponics Digest - Thu 03/30/00




Message   1: Re:duckweed data
             from Tony Cooper 

Message   2: 1st time hobby setup.
             from SCHUCH IVAN 

Message   3: Re: Alaska
             from Pete Peschang 

Message   4: Re: Alaska question
             from Pete Peschang 

Message   5: Re: Alaska question
             from Pete Peschang 

Message   6: Re: Alaska
             from Adriana Gutierrez & Dennis LaGatta 

Message   7: Re: Re:duckweed data
             from "TGTX" 

Message   8: Re: Re:duckweed data
             from "bennett" 

Message   9: Re: duckweed data
             from Adriana Gutierrez & Dennis LaGatta 

Message  10: Re: Alaska question - compost re
             from Sunpeer

Message  11: Re: 1st time hobby setup.
             from atkindw@cwjamaica.com (david w atkinson)

Message  12: Re: fish waste
             from CAVM

Message  13: FIsh & Wood & Hot water
             from "Melisa Wennerholm" 

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| Message 1                                                           |
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Subject: Re:duckweed data
From:    Tony Cooper 
Date:    Thu, 30 Mar 2000 14:52:44 -0800

>Tony, what you reported there was the standing crop biomass at a point in
>time, but how long did it take for each of those plant types to acheive that
>biomass (net biomass production per unit time = net productivity)?

>Just curious.

>Ted

Ted,

The only way i have been checking growth rate is the doubling time per
area unit which right now is about 2-3 days for Duckweed and 3-4 days 
for Azolla.
The Azolla responds well to a weak hydroponic nutrient solution while
the Duckweed does well on on both nutrient and tilapia tank water.

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| Message 2                                                           |
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Subject: 1st time hobby setup.
From:    SCHUCH IVAN 
Date:    Thu, 30 Mar 2000 08:52:30 +0200

Hi, I am a new subscriber to this list. I want to start a hobby setup at
home. I have 2x300L fish tanks that must be connected to a recirculating
system providing nutrient for drip fed rockwool grow blocks. As I am totally
new to this subject (I saw it mentioned on the hydroponics mailing list) I
need some information (URL's welcome!) on the following points:

1) What nutrient must be provided for the plants, if any?
2) What food must be provided for the fish?
3) how does the fish/plants benefit each other?
4) Can Koi-fish be used?
5) Are there any pictures/schematics available of successful systems?

TIA
Best regards
Ivan schuch
Pretoria
South Africa

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| Message 3                                                           |
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Subject: Re: Alaska
From:    Pete Peschang 
Date:    Wed, 29 Mar 2000 23:30:37 -0900

Mark and All,

My apologies for rambling on this morning.  I'll try to be more concise
in my response tonight.  Since most of you on the newsgroup have
expertise in biosystems and mine is primarily human systems, I want to
offer some thoughts on what I think it would take to make a project like
this work from the human systems angle and then I'll fade back and get
some Eyak/Cordova folks involved in this discussion.  So, for what it's
worth, here are my thoughts.

There are compeling reasons to do a project like this and I'm betting
that there's plent of material available as well.  There are canneries
up and down the coast with fish waste and our Tribal Council President
just told me that there's a fair volume of waste generated here during
the winter months of cod and pollock.  The city sewage treatment plant
is another possibility.

If the primary obstacle is power generation and methane generated from
fish waste is a viable option, my primary concern is whether your system
is environmentally friendly?  Our tribe's environmental program recently
conducted a fish waste study that documented the problem and other
tribal members have been doing biosampling of sea otters that are dying
from  parasites they're getting from the fish waste.  There's definitely
a problem but people won't get excited about a solution that creates
another problem.

If a project like this is feasible and it's the right thing to do,
here's what I think it would take for the human systems to make it
happen:

1.  It has to have a positive effect on the environment.  While most
Alaskans were hurt by the oil spill, folks in Cordova and other costal
communities had their hearts ripped out.  Doing something positive for
the environment would go a long way to healing some of those wounds and
be a strong motivator.
2.  It must have the support of all the major subsystems (tribe, city,
corporations, evironmentalist, processors, utilities, state, Feds, etc.
etc.)  In short, leave out one group and it becomes the virus in the
system that kills the project (okay metaphor?).
3.  Rather then just solving an environmental problem it needs a strong
economic development component.  That gives it a push/pull in the same
direction.

With that, I'm going to cc this discussion to several Cordova people and
invite them to participate.  My last question, is this of interest to
the whole newsgroup or should it be a subset?  Please
advise.........pete

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| Message 4                                                           |
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Subject: Re: Alaska question
From:    Pete Peschang 
Date:    Wed, 29 Mar 2000 23:36:18 -0900

Don, that sounds like something even I could do.  Would you send me some
info on it?......pete

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| Message 5                                                           |
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Subject: Re: Alaska question
From:    Pete Peschang 
Date:    Thu, 30 Mar 2000 00:45:01 -0900

Don, sorry, I misread your post the first time.  There's a sawmill close
to my home in the interier and I was thinking about your comment about
heating water.  In terms of Cordova, it is rain forrest and a lot grows
here but wood and biproducts are kind of a sore subject.
I do have a question for you though.  If I may go back to my place in
Kenney Lake.  I have 60 acreas of heavily wooded area.  I am constantly
fighting the diamond willow that grows everywhere.  I keep thinking as
I'm clearing that if only I could come up with a use for this I could
probably become self sufficient.  So for hours upon hours I have
wondered if new growth diamond willow could be used to make methane.
Any thoughts?

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| Message 6                                                           |
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Subject: Re: Alaska
From:    Adriana Gutierrez & Dennis LaGatta 
Date:    Thu, 30 Mar 2000 07:17:10 -0500

> If the primary obstacle is power generation and methane generated from
> fish waste is a viable option, my primary concern is whether your system
> is environmentally friendly?  Our tribe's environmental program recently
> conducted a fish waste study that documented the problem and other
> tribal members have been doing biosampling of sea otters that are dying
> from  parasites they're getting from the fish waste.  There's definitely
> a problem but people won't get excited about a solution that creates
> another problem.

Pete,
The guy you need to get in touch with is Jacky Foo .  He
coordinates a lot of international research related to this.  What you
probably want to investigate is setting up a biodigester to generate
methane gas from the fish waste.  Good luck, I can relate to the burnout
associated with community service/activist roles.

Adriana

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| Message 7                                                           |
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Subject: Re: Re:duckweed data
From:    "TGTX" 
Date:    Thu, 30 Mar 2000 06:12:08 -0600

> Ted,
>
> The only way i have been checking growth rate is the doubling time per
> area unit which right now is about 2-3 days for Duckweed and 3-4 days
> for Azolla.
> The Azolla responds well to a weak hydroponic nutrient solution while
> the Duckweed does well on on both nutrient and tilapia tank water.

O.K., so does that mean 20 grams of duckweed grows into 40 grams of duckweed
in 2-3 days, whereas 70 grams of Azolla grows into 140 grams of Azolla in
3-4 days?
(wet weights here).
If so, that is about 8 grams new growth of duckweed biomass per day per
square foot?
And that is about 20 grams new growth of Azolla biomass per day per square
foot?
Do those figures/assumptions sound about right to you?

Ted

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| Message 8                                                           |
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Subject: Re: Re:duckweed data
From:    "bennett" 
Date:    Thu, 30 Mar 2000 20:00:26 -0500

Is it okay to use aluminum, such as eves trough material or roofing, to make
the hydroponic grow beds that would feed the fish tanks?
    D.Bennett - just starting out here

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| Message 9                                                           |
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Subject: Re: duckweed data
From:    Adriana Gutierrez & Dennis LaGatta 
Date:    Thu, 30 Mar 2000 20:01:47 -0500

 
> Is it okay to use aluminum, such as eves trough material or roofing, to make
> the hydroponic grow beds that would feed the fish tanks?

The aluminum has to be coated.  My growing beds are aluminum roof pans
which are coated with a baked enamel finish.

Adriana

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| Message 10                                                          |
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Subject: Re: Alaska question - compost re
From:    Sunpeer
Date:    Thu, 30 Mar 2000 20:25:50 EST

In a message dated 3/29/00 11:54:27 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
holmessec@humboldt1.com writes:

<< fish silage and wood shavings and saw dust as a very
 fast compost. In and out in 30 days and created in excess of 180 degrees in
 the process.  >>
Greetings:
Would you share some of the details or your system.  I am in the preliminary 
design phase of a system which will be used by the Dept of Corrections to 
supply produce and fish to a food bank.  Handling  the waste & by-products 
are a major concern.
Did your heat generation provide heat for fish growout?
Regards 
Monte
Sunpeer

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| Message 11                                                          |
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Subject: Re: 1st time hobby setup.
From:    atkindw@cwjamaica.com (david w atkinson)
Date:    Thu, 30 Mar 2000 21:50:49 -0800

Welcome Ivan,

David A 
(From JAMAICA WI in the Caribbean)

At 08:52 AM 03/30/2000 +0200, you wrote:
>Hi, I am a new subscriber to this list. I want to start a hobby setup at
>home. I have 2x300L fish tanks that must be connected to a recirculating
>system providing nutrient for drip  snip ...,  snip ...

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| Message 12                                                          |
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Subject: Re: fish waste
From:    CAVM
Date:    Thu, 30 Mar 2000 21:55:31 EST

Monte,

We are basically a composting company and can give you some advice on waste 
composting but if you have enough waste material from food type products we 
can process it into animal or fish feed which could be worth a lot more than 
compost.

Fish waste from processing for human food could be a fish meal plant if you 
have 50 tons a day of waste.  If not, it can be combined with other food type 
materials to make a feed ingredient.  Even post consumer food waste can be 
used.

Regards,

Cornelius A. Van Milligen

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| Message 13                                                          |
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Subject: FIsh & Wood & Hot water
From:    "Melisa Wennerholm" 
Date:    Thu, 30 Mar 2000 20:34:12 -0800

Pete & Monte

My "system" was crude and very experimental however  it went some thing like
this,  3 parts carbon to 1 part fish. (the carbon was wood shavings and the
fish was fish carcass all feed through a shedder. than put in to a 4x4x6
foot box build with wood frame and chicken wire. This mixture reached 180
plus degrees in about 24 hours and stayed there for about 7 days. at which
point I mixed it by dumping and stirring and re packing. temp. rose to 180
again this went on for appox. 30 days out came good high N compost. during
one of these 30 day trails I used coiled 3/4 in hose in the pile and ran
water through it there were some problems with the stirring of the pile with
the hose. However the heat did transfer to the water very well with out
cooling the pile much.
My though was to make long piles of this mix and run the pipe in it so it
could be moved at the for mixing and then replaced.
How dose this tie in to Aquaponics? well for the first 3 or 4 days maggot
can be collected from the top of the piles. The smell is strong but can be
mellowed. At one time I used some apple pulp from a cider place in the mix
and that almost smelled good.

Hope this did not bore any one

Don


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