After much research and planning, one of Haygrove’s valued customers have decided, in conjunction with Haygrove South Africa, to set up an aquaponics growing system using Haygrove tunnels. He will be one of the first farmers in South Africa to have a commercial aquaponic growing system. This system is uniquely different to other systems in that it is designed as a self-sustainable system with little to no waste products being released into the environment.
It is my intention to document this process so other potential farmers or hobbyist can learn from this experience. Haygrove want to create a system that they want to offer to commercial farmers that is interested in Aquaponics.
Aquaponics is totally organic, the process of Aquaponics is a natural interaction between fish and the plants. Both the plants and the fish contribute to the cycle – the fish provide the nutrients for the plants and the plants filter the water so that there is no buildup of toxins. Natural chemicals and the fish food are the only additives to the Aquaponics system.
Cobus has already assembled 3 Haygrove Solo Series production units to start the set up. The sizes of the tunnels is 8.5m wide and 30m long
He is planning to farm tilapia and create a growing system in which lettuces will grow. He will use the nutrient enriched water flowing from the fish tanks to fertilise the lettuces, the lettuces will in return filter the water before it is pumped back into the fish tanks. The system is completely organic as it feeds on it self.
His 4 week old tilapia fish have just arrived and he is growing them in smaller tank units until they have reached the desired size for the bigger tanks. He has created a smaller homemade system mimicking what he is hoping to achieve in the bigger system.
In the smaller system he has 2 tanks being fed with water from a small river that flows through his property. This is a closed system so the water does not get pumped back into the river. The river water gets pumped into the fish tanks as the water levels in the tanks drop due to condensation, or other water loss in the system. The water enriched with biological wastage from the fish excrement, gets pumped to a tank where all the solids get filtered out. The waste product that is removed from the solid waste filter will get fed to a composting earthworm farm, which he will use to breed earth worms to use as supplement feed to the fish.
The nitrite enriched water without solid waste is then pumped to another tank where it runs through a bio-filter which converts the nitrites in the water to nitrates. The nitrate enriched water is pumped to the deep-water culture beds where it provides nutrients to the lettuce plants which are grown in net pots in floating rafts.
The now purified water is returned to the fish tanks and the cycle begins all over again…
