Growing in Aquaponics Sand Beds - iAVs Style with Dual Root Zone / Wicking Bags

how's it going folks uh up at Owen's place again today to talk sand beds for all you folks who want to learn a little bit more about growing in sand with your aquaponics so we're talking sand beds today but we really need to start the story off here inside the shed with the fish they're in this tank here it's a bit hard to see them at the moment but there's 50 uh barramundi yep and they were what did you say they're over half a kilo aren't they yeah about 650 grams to about a kilo so it's almost two pounds or a bit over two pounds here folks in the um us now the water is picked up from the system here all the solids and whatnot and we'll um let Owen tell us where it's all landed all right basically your simple radial flow filter the water comes out of the tank I've got an external slow instead of random One internal I run One external and it comes out of that and into the radial flow filter from the radial flow filter it flows into the move and bed bio filter so that's all where all your clean water ends up in this Behemoth yes not a problem very impressive if you want to see um other aspects of Owen's video or system I should say check out the link down in the description there's a full walkthrough so we're just concentrating on the sand side today all right so in the radial flow filter I've got a 5 000 liter per hour pump and it sucks up all the Poo that's deposited in the bottom and moves it outside to the sand beds basically this is controlled inside and it's on a timer the timer operates every two hours for 15 minutes not a problem so it's it's pretty clean down on the bottom of the drum there you don't either have to go in and clean it out at all picks it up all of it uh about 70 of it uh once every two weeks or so I do give it a quick brush out just for a bit of cleanliness sake and um that gets picked up by the pump and delivered to the beds as well or yes yeah so what I do when I do a bit of maintenance on it I just open the valve up so the water goes down so I'm I mean every single bit of water that goes out of the beds is reused but just to make the process a lot simpler and easier I just drain it down to about this level give it a sweep with the old broom and turn the pump on because most times they have an override on it so you can just click the override and away it goes out to the sand beds and this little tank down here has just got the Jade perch and a few tandanas left in it hasn't it yes not a problem but anyway we hear about sand so we'll go out to the sand pit now all right the pump inside comes through the side of the shed and along here and then diverts to the two sand beds it'll come on every two hours for 15 minutes I'm only running mine during the day just to save on a bit of power because it doesn't need it at night and I noticed in this bed here you actually have two inlets you've got one this end and one up the other end as well so can you just explain why you pop those in for us because I've got the Dual root Zone ones in here it does restrict flow a little bit and I did notice the 15 minutes wasn't putting enough water throughout the bed so I just added the second one on there just to even it up so it's a true hybrid system pretty much it um it follows all the rules uh but it's just done a little bit differently well if you don't experiment you're not going to make any advances are you that's it yeah it's uh trial and error and the other bed though it is set up pretty much all standard um sand bed the inlet is over the end there yep and the drain itself is down in this corner here yes can you explain the drains as well uh the drains are pretty simple it's not too much different to what you have in your standard bed or at the bottom of it there's a bulkhead fitting I've pretty much re-utilized from my old beds the bulkhead fitting so the bulkheads in the bottom and goes underneath and I reuse the Shroud that you usually have a bell siphon in the only difference instead of having a nice standpipe in there I've cut it off so it's flush with the bottom of the bed and that's just wrapped in our Geo fabric isn't it just to keep the sand out ah this one is this one was my first one and I was a bit iffy on how it's all done this one's a stand pipe with the slot cut in it then around the stand pipe I have Geo Fabric and then shade cloth on that okay and then because I wasn't sure about flow and sand going all in the system and that kind of thing I put 40 mil rocks then 20 mil rocks and just built it up yeah built it up from Big to small to try and stop any sand getting through then I found out later after a few tests with it that nothing got through so this one is basically a stand pipe with shade cloth wrapped around it and that's it that's it makes it nice and simple yeah yeah so don't bother with all that Geo Fabric and different size rocks and just get your standpipe have the slots in it and then just wrap it in the shade cloth that you're done excellent I like what you've done with these inlets here house going through the PVC then it's hitting the pouch there and then dispersing along the end here have you did you have problems when um you first started out with it running or eroding the sand or is that just yeah it really eroded the sides of it at first I had an ongoing battle keeping the Mounds that they say to keep in it so what I did is made sure the flow was a bit more dispersed and not as heavy going into the bed which is a good thing for these dual root zones so use it as kind of my buffer so it flows nicely around yep and I noticed there's really not a lot of debris there I mean around the edges you see some scattered solids down the side there is that just something you've noticed that really doesn't tend to stay on top and oxidize like I've seen others ah no see because we're not running poo factory tilapia and we're not running a thousand of them in a tiny little tank at once you don't get the same build up this actually breaks down quicker than what you see other people who are running the different fish you do see it like if I give the tank a bit of a brush out like you can see some coming out there now but you can see it yeah and in all honesty this this is a little bit of a fakery here because Owen went in and turned it on so it's just finished a cycle and we've turned it on straight away again so there really won't be a lot of poo in there at the moment anyway so it looks like he got quite a selection of plants in there what's your best recommendations or what plants have you found have done best for you out of the system here uh fruiting and root crops okay uh the leafy stuff doesn't seem to enjoy its time in there I've had a lot of trouble with your lettuce your kale Your Spinach that kind of stuff doesn't seem to enjoy the sand but anything that fruits or you eat the roots on goes gang buses and the carrots have been absolutely awesome you did show me when I first turned up there you you are getting some deficiencies in the system what what nutrients are you having issues with in the system keep in mind folks there's um the J uh sorry the barramundi the 50 large ones that are running the system at the moment moment plus there's also the Jades and tandanus just clean water from there tank goes in here so for the amount of grow beds Owen has too many fish we'll put it that way so there are some inherent deficiencies creeping into this system so back to Owen okay so what I did I wanted to leave it for a month and just see where the system sat at how it went with deficiency and see what I really need to add obviously nitrogen isn't a problem but I do have magnesium and iron deficiencies at the moment yeah we'll go in and check out your passion fruit hey all right so your tips are looking oh I know you can sort of see they're sort of starting to go so yeah yeah it's both iron and magnesium on this one so that's the um chlorotic intervenyl chlorosis on the new growth as well as you can see down here on the older growth as well so the older growth is magnesium and the new growth generally shows up an iron deficiency when you see those little bits of yellowing chlorotic patches so you can see there's a slight iron deficiency there yeah so that means these ones are a definite yeah magnesium magnesiums yeah so sorry the camera doesn't pick it up all the best it's only a phone folks and it just died so what what we're adding in the system to try and um keep everything nice and balanced nutrient wise well I was adding the plain sea salt in the white bottle to begin with but the amounts that I was having to put in it I really didn't like from the point of view they have that water cifunction in it and it really Foams and Bubbles up they say it's all right for the fish but you know when you start getting what looks to be you know a foam party on the top of your tank yeah I'm uh not keen in using it anymore I then shifted to the green sea Soul um but that shot my ammonia through the roof I just did a dog in each bed uh left it for about three hours come back and tested it and the ammonia was at about six oh wow so luckily you run a cool enough system and low enough pH there's no dramas yeah yeah I was I was lucky but I still had to dump half the water and then top up again just to let it go through the only thing that saved me was that giant bio filter in there with the iron how do you add the iron into the system I've got an auto doser in there that does my pH basically but I also add all the stuff I want to add in there as well so it all mixes up and does it at once so I don't have to bother about going to bed to bed to bed okay and the reason you are seeing that those iron deficiencies like you said earlier is because you've just let the system run run as is yeah extras pretty much wanted to see um just what kind of breakdown I was getting nutrient Wise from the sand bed yeah and then I know exactly what I need to dose with that way the less you have to add the better it is the cheaper it is to run yep and it's a lot easier than just playing the guessing game of or something starting to look like it could be and we all know at the start of nutrient deficiencies it looks like six things at once yes just back inside the shed here and this is the dosing tank anyone was talking about so how's it running mate like a dream I basically only ever touch it when I add stuff to the docent tank so how's it run what sort of equipment have you got there okay I've got the Milwaukee it's the mc122 Pro Controller with the dosing pump so that's a Milwaukee they're a paired unit yeah they're a paired unit they come together or you can buy them separate but it's about a hundred and fifty dollars extra if you buy them separate I believe actually I was one of the first to order it from the United States um they only did a European plug at the time so I've had to use adapters on it but they are doing an Australian model okay and it'll have the Australian plugs on it I was just uh wanting to be the first to have a crack at it and at a third of the price of the other units their competition I won't say who but uh at a third of the price and for what it does you can't go past it so the calcium from memory is calcium hydroxide which is the brickies lime you know what else do you pop in there other than the iron you mentioned before uh the potassium bicarbonate yeah it's the same stuff as we use at home as well yep and what I do is to keep the ratio nice is I put in three parts of the line to one part of the potassium okay and that's the winning ratio for the two and because it's all meted out by the little Dosa there it's not like there's a big whack of anything going in at once anyway is there no I've also cheated a little bit yeah um I have a pump down in the bottom here and it keeps it nice and mixed and rotating so as it's sucking it up yeah it's nice and mixed yeah and for anyone who's I'm going to say that Owen's system uses a lot of power you really haven't seen your solar upgrade wait how many kilowatts are you running on the house now uh 26.2 kilowatts of panels 20 kilowatts worth of inverters and 22 kilowatt hours of battery so there you go it really is an off-grid system it does pay to have this moving constantly so having that little pump in there is definitely a bonus just keeping it all moving and suspended I suppose we should talk about where it goes I mean I can I have a guess yep yep I'd say it goes straight down there which is a collection Port from your bio filter and everything and that little pipe there goes out to your sump which is on the other side of this door here is that right certainly is simple very simple we did touch on earlier the reason why Owen has these pouches in the center but they are a dual root Zone meaning they are a soil blend and the water Wicks up from the bottom and hydrates the soil so the plants can actually grow out through the pouch into the hydroponic area or stay within the soil and grab what they need now have you noticed any advantages obviously these sweet peppers or capsicums are loving it have you noticed any other advantages or disadvantages between the two methods of the sand and the Dual root Zone um I hate to say it but it grows better in the sand than it does in the soil um I I thought honestly thought it'd be the opposite way around uh if you have a look at the corn for comparison both the corn in the jewel root Zone and the sand beds the bigger ones were planted at the same time that's just pouch here and these ones next to it oh wow and as you can see already the pouch ones even though they sit taller are a shorter plant yeah they uh don't seem to don't seem to grow as fast or as high or as thick for that matter than the ones that are direct buried in the sand and the cobs as well you've thought the cobs were a little bit bigger yeah they're carbs let's have a look while I'm here take one off why not we'll uh I'm sure it won't go to waste at all no no it uh oh I got the ant having a chew but yeah as you can see oh that's beautiful and let's have a look at the normal ones and as you said these were all planted at the same time weren't they yeah these are all all planted at the exact same time right ready mate don't pull it off if it doesn't feel ready um well let's do for comparison anyway okay it's uh it's only going to get eaten yeah so I'm sure if you don't want it the trucks will have it that's it so there's your sand bed one and here so as you can see it's nowhere near as developed oh yeah still edible yeah but uh yeah to nowhere near as developed or as thick yeah when you put them side by the side thickness itself yeah yeah if you have a look there's a distinct difference between the sand bed and the Dual root Zone pouch so just wrapping up to leave and Owen decided to have a bit of a taste test of these two the stuff that's grown in the dirt actually has a slightly better flavor profile to it okay and the one in the sand beds um but as you can see the difference between them yeah it's not look you know I'm I'm a little bit fussy when it comes to taste so you can taste just the slightest the difference between the two but if you're at the supermarket that's the one you'd pick up the the other yeah yeah well this tastes better than the supermarket anyways yeah you can't really so I can see the pouches having like I could understand maybe running a mint in a pouch in a sand bed doesn't make sense to me because I wouldn't want to dig all the mint Roots out of the sand but um yeah I suppose it's different plants for different yeah purposes basically the stuff that doesn't like the sand I'd put in the Dual root Zone how did the lettuces you had going last time uh well they didn't they got to got to about so big and then just died off same in the soil as well uh no the soil ones they got harvested that's why there's nothing a couple of empties because I did have them in here as the comparison so that was the last time we were over yeah yeah last time you were over and those ones died out and those ones got eaten I'll keep that in mind lettuce in the dirt and the rest in the sand and what about I know we've saw the carrots dude really well last time we were here what about other things other root crops what else have you tried uh onions yeah I harvested a bunch of onions um I've got the marrows I'm giving them a test out at the moment because there's not huge amounts of space I'm just running through it as uh the weather permits but Ah that's right yep we have uh something around the other side something around the other side that's right I nearly forgot about these so I'd been asking for ages about potatoes in sand beds and um pretty much the word was it doesn't happen or they're not very successful so I thought why not I'm I've got the space I'm just crazy enough to do it I'll give it a go so yeah basically this one hasn't been in for as long as it should because the weather isn't correct for it but it gives me an idea if I'm on the right track when it comes to growing potatoes in sand fair enough we just have to wait for um either late winter or late summer for hours don't we to go in yeah yeah we if we wait wait till the end of summer as soon as summer comes on basically it kills them kills them off yeah so we gotta watch what season we're doing it but this was to give me an idea whether I was on the right track so basically what this is is just one of those plastic tubs oh yeah with the with the bottom of it cut out so it still sits in the soil but this way I could build it up so I can see with the potatoes that allow you to build it up if I was going to be successful in growing them in an upwards manner if this works out and we're going to see in a minute I'll be doing it in this fashion so I'll just basically do it like Lego so I stack it up and up and up and as you can see it's pretty stable in there yeah cool let's have a look let's have a look everyone hold their breath a good thing about sand as well is if it gets on the ground it doesn't kill your shins when you hit it with a mower oh oh you've got a spud oh you've got a couple there you go it does work cool so that's three do you reckon they would have gone down much deeper or um probably not due to the time that I planted them I love a dig and we'll see but at least with Santa be pretty easy to tell yay now there's nothing down there but it's something I planted so late you'll be pleased with that it's gonna work yep Lobby that's the surf for you to put tonight anyway yeah yeah well I wasn't meaning to actually grow a dinner with it it was just a test yeah exactly thanks for the game today that's all right I've got a couple of uh questions that have popped up on the old video if you wouldn't mind running through them before I Nick off yeah I'll answer what I can sweet I brought a printout with a couple of questions for you don't need my glasses I don't think um Callum has asked where in Queensland did you Source the sand for the sand bed and what type is it okay I exhausted from a place called River Sands and it's used for their horse tracks it's called an RS course and that fits the bill of everything that the iav method says uh sand wise particles all the bits and pieces excellent um and Stanley asks where can you find those sock filters he's been oh hang on I might be able to help you out there yeah yeah in Rob Bob's Store yeah I've started to after I saw Owen have them here and how good they worked I thought I'd grab a couple so I do have some in my shop there is a link below Shameless plug and also um some seaweed powder that I may have given Owen a packet of as well so if you want to check them out I feel really dirty now but anyway well no it's all good I've got these deficiencies to fix up let's see how good this gear is yeah the um seaweed uh Peter's asked what does Owen use in the growing pouches just plain compost soil sterilized mix and do you add any nutrients other than the fish feed which we've sort of already covered okay um basically it's sand in a third of it and then I use a blended soil compost mix I've got a couple of compost bins that are over the other side of the system so I just lift them up a couple of Scoops into your standard big green stores uh everyday Bland potting mix and go from there basically that's the only thing I'll give them besides the supplements that get thrown into their tank um so that's it for the plant side of things I mean there was many many more but like I said before the full tour of Owen's system is on another video there'll be a link under this and we'll pop up here somewhere as well go and suss that out and and look at the questions down below because there's been loads of questions and no one's been a real champ thank you and he's got down there and answered a ton of them so you if you do have any questions you might find answers for them over there but anyway that's enough rabbiting on about that we'll go and talk about The Purge tank alrighty one of the big complaints I've seen a lot of people have about aquaponics systems and freshwater aquaculture in general is there's a bit of an off flavor to the fish and Owen has this neat little Purge set up which you reckon pretty much will solve that problem yeah it pretty much takes away all the foul taste I've really noticed using the feeds that I do are the heavy aquaculture feeds really gives them a murky taste as well as your high nitrate water that can give them a bit of a it's not a fair taste but it's not a pleasant taste basically what I used to do is not feed them in the main tanks but then you lose growth for all your other fish so you're wanting a few fish to harvest and if you're running multiples you can't feed your other fish because the big ones are greedy and they'll come and hit the food first basically what I did is got an old rain water tank because I didn't didn't know what had been in this one I'd used it myself for years and years but I had bought it secondhand uh I wasn't 100 what's in it seen as I'm going to be feeding it to my family I decided I'd make it a proper Purge tank but that's um that's actually one of the first questions I've got in regards to the perch tank what paint do you use to make sure it was food safe okay um this is a crumbling Pond sealant basically anything you see in the blue the cream or the clear in the crumbling is food safe they I ended up calling them and after weeks of back and forth so I got the go-ahead that it was actually food safe to use not a problem so yeah with anything you'd use folks do your due diligence to make sure it is food safe before you're whack it in the system that goes for fertilizers and other additives as well and I will be leaving links down below to the sand and any products that um someone has mentioned including my own uh right on to the next one uh Jay Roberts said really interested in The Purge tank setup how long do you leave the fish in there okay um minimum of two days I tried one day I've tried to speed it up um basically bare minimum two days and if you want it done in two days you need to Salt it so extra salt extra sauce which was another the next question he had was how much salt do you actually put in the tank okay for species like barramundi that'll take up the sea water basically I'll add to a five 100 liter tank I'll add four kilos to it for the barramundi for the Jade perch and the catfish I'll add two kilos per 500 liters that's that's good actually because uh Gilly asked if you put the other species through there as well so you do I do everything now that I go to eat goes through this tank I've noticed too they take on smoking flavor a lot better after being in the purge tank than to just pulling them out so just your normal everyday sea salt that you can pick up from your pool supplier or Big Box store that's the one a lot cheaper than that pink Himalayan stuff hope you enjoyed that little bit of a catch up just on the sand side thank you very much again for having us back mate that's all right as I said I do have the seaweed and yeah thank you very much a bit of a thank you for having us around that's all right well uh you'll be able to see how this goes I'll post some pictures oh that'd be sweet gotta give you a bit of a plant as well to experiment with because I like to do that that there is black turmeric um it's not really a culinary one it's a lot more bitter than normal turmeric and it's grown for its medicinal qualities but it's also a fantastic looking piece of greenery I can turn it into composter mulch in that and I want to know how it's going to go under sand bed all right well let's put it in we'll put it in so which van this one here this one Old Faithful this one's been operating the longest not a problem pulled the most out of it can go and throw it in here excellent all too easy easy peasy with sand yeah no more uh fighting rocks an Old Post um update picks on the community tab for you YouTube folks to um just show you how that goes you know and post photos online if you don't mind me flogging them no that's all right go right out too easy well thank you very much mate I really appreciate it thanks for coming and um we'll be keeping us updated as I said with the um the seaweed and also the black turmeric and um I'll be posting those updates over on my YouTube Community tab if you want to check them out before I go thank you very much for coming along and sussing out the videos and to all you folks who are supporting us on the other different platforms thank you and don't forget to check out my beginner's guide and my store links below something will pop up at the end I'm going to wrap it up cheers folks have a tough one so it's too easy

Channel: Rob Bob's Aquaponics & Backyard Farm

Views: 55,794

Keywords: aquaponics, aquaponics Australia, aquaponics setup, rob bob aquaponics, rob bob's backyard, aquaponics systems, aquaponics system, how to aquaponics, نظام الأكوابونيك, aquaponik, ਇਕਵਾਪੋਨਿਕਸ, acuaponia, アクアポニックス, 鱼菜共生, aq, aquaponics diy, diy aquaponics, അക്വാപോണിക്സ്, akwabunik, Аквапоника, Akuaponik, iAVs aquaponics, iAVs, Sand beds, Aquaponics Sand Beds, sand aquaponics, aquaponics systems design, aquaponics filter system, aquaponics filter system diy

Id: ogj-yNQJVUs

Length: 28min 22sec (1702 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 04 2023