I was looking for old howtos on aquaponics that Breeder Steve hinted me when I’ve visited him in Switzerland… Unfortunately I had came just when he was starting another room and the system was not setup yet…
I was given some articles and instructions, some of them are lost and I’m trying to recover and gather resources about his Sweet Water Aquaponics system. This is partly archive from Overgrow discussion back in 99/00.
-Joe
From Vic High, 1 Dec 1998
Hey guys, just back from Vansterdam. Finally got to meet with Breeder Steve. He’s quite a generous guy with his time, and boy can he roll big joints! He rolled a J of brand X that must have been a whole 8th! Rope will get me stoned, so that was way out of my league.
What did get my attention was his aquaponic setup that he calls “The Sweetwater System”.It employs a double res setup, one typical, and one being a fish tank loaded with fish. Water in the two res’s are exchanged regularily (something like every hour). He says he never cleans his fish tank, as all the plants and bottom feeders use up all wastes. Plants are fed with drip emmitters via the typical res. pH doesn’t fluctuate and the ppms remain between 300 and 400.
Now these drip emmitters fed two setups. One was a traditional “dutch pot” system. You know, the one where each plant is grown on a 5 gallon pail? He used a 5 or 6 inch basket that was 3/4 filled with those red balls (I think they are an expanded clay called “hyrotron”?). Steve then covered the red balls with 1" layer of a blend of worm castings and “Steve’s Special Blend”. The Special Blend (2-6-5) is an organic mix comprised of green sand, rock phosphate, fruit bat quano, feather meal, steamed bone meal- regular & fine, kelp meal, sunflower seed hull ash, canola seed meal, cotton seed meal, alfalfa meal, langbeinite, corn gluten meal, pyro clay, diatomaceous earth, and calcium peroxide. Initially, the low nitrogen surprised me, but then after I thought about it, I realized that the plants were probably getting all the nitrogen they needed from the fish tank. I believe there was an air stone in teh bottom of each pail. Seven weeks ago Steve planted tomato seeds into the medium and now the plants are 3 feet tall and have softball sized green tomatoes on them. WOW!
The second setup was basically a large table, 4’ high, covered with something like 1/4" dense plastic. Holes were cut in it to hold the 4" or 5" net cups. Again the cups were filled with the reddish clay balls and topped with the special blend and worm castings. Again the net baskets were fed with drip emitters. What interested me is what happened under those net cups.
A large pond liner tarp was suspended under the net cups to catch the water and funnel it back into the typical res. There was about 3’ between the bottom of the net cups and the bottom of the tarp. And you know what this means??? LOTSA ROOM FOR ROOTS! Big roots equal big buds in my book. This feature had me totally stoked!
I’m one that has had little respect for the hydroponic side of our hobby for some time. I’ve watched others playing with the large numbers of clones and shaken my head (legal risk). I’ve watched them fight pH drifts and shaken my head. I’ve watched them fight root rot and shaken my head. I’ve watched them lose entire crops due to pump or power failures and shaken my head. I’ve watched them pumping in the chems (hurting the environment) and shaken my head. I’ve watched them be proud of their 1-2 lbs per light in their high intensity gardens and shaken my head. Well I’ve stopped shaking my head for this one. Steve’s way of working with the Dutch Pot system seems to take care of all my hydroponic concerns. I just wish I wasn’t too stoned to have asked him what he fed his fish and why his emmitters didn’t clog.
Topic: aquaponics-ever try it?
Posted by steve on October 31, 1999 04:40 AM:
The smoothest smoking buds ever are the result. I kid you not. The plants grow beautifully, not a burnt tip anywhwere. The only way for me indoors. Much more to come on this subject, believe you me. A delicacy!
Posted by s.bl3nd on October 31, 1999 04:47 AM:
hey steve,
yeah i’m pretty interested in that aquaponic setup you have…
do the fish actually give out enough ppms to feed the plants? you would think that the nutes would be really low for the fish to survive.
it does make sense in one way though, if the fish are happy then the plants would be happy…
hope you can post more about this…
.blend
Posted by minty on November 01, 1999 01:06 AM:
Have pondered this theory once upon a time. Cool to have a proven follow-up.
I’m very happy to see you’ve found a method that works.
I’m quite interested in hearing about the basic setup.
I hear ya on the plants thriving if the phish are.
Same holds true with earthworms in soil.
Solid work my friend.
breed the trees,
mint
Posted by junior-botanist on November 01, 1999 06:02 PM:
i tested my aquarium water once it was 1100ppm, but what was in it don’t know(ratios) how much is uneaten food and how much is waste from the fish. i dunno.
breed the seed and overgrow the world. good growing to you.
jb
Posted by Vic High on November 02, 1999 11:16 PM:
Ahh now this would be the life, could actually convert me to a hydro head, haha
Just think, sit back amongst yer plants, smoke a fatty and toss a line in the res, fishing in paradise!! haha.
Steve, I shared what little I learned in my visit with ya, but it was defiantely lacking. So quite teasing us and teach us buddy. I missed points like whether you worry about monitoring NPK ratios as the crop progresses. Do some fish give better nutes than others?
Persoanlly, I saw a large table sharing a common tarp and a few bucket systems. I prefer the idea of the bucket system due to it’s flexibility and allowing the grower to maximize the density of his/her canopy. Any thoughts on this?
I also noticed that both setups you had on display allowed for large root systems. A few of us are big believers in the idea that big roots equal big flowers. Any thoughts here?
I have loads of questions, but I’ll stop short here for now, haha.
got my email?
Posted by minty on November 03, 1999 04:08 AM:
wooooooord
heheh,
mint
Posted by Wadsworth on November 04, 1999 06:47 PM:
From what I’ve read Carp or Tilapia are the best fish to raise this way and you can eat them. Catfish probally would work. Of course the stuff I read was on raising fish to eat and using the water for gardening. This technique also requires several hundred if not thousand gallons of water. A large fish tank should be able to support some plants. The concern would be the hardinest of the fish more than the plants.
d;^)-~
Posted by steve on November 06, 1999 02:46 AM:
Typical aquarium owners change 30% of the water every week. This is to protect the fish from the accumulation of toxic waste in their habitat. I’m talking about their own waste choking them. Aquarium enthusiasts are all ready familiar with the nitrogen cycle, for the rest of you here it is. Ammonia is the most poisonous of the nitrogenous compounds to the fish, it is also the first to accumulate in the water as a result of the fish waste. As the ammonia level rises during the first few days of operation, and given the proper conditions (ie aerated surface area), beneficial aerobic bacteria called nitrosonomas begin to feed on the ammonia converting it into the less harmful compound nitrite. This is still toxic to the fish, but not as toxic as ammonia. As the nitrite level rises, given the appropriate conditions, another species of nitrobacteria (nitrobacter) colonizes feeding on the nitrite. This reduces the nitrite to nitrate, the least toxic of these compounds to the fish. The aerated surface area is known as the biofilter, an integral part of this technique, for this is where the good bacteria colonize. This cycle takes twelve days to control the degradation of ammonia-nitrite-nitrate. For this reason most people begin with a few small fish and gradually add more after two weeks, when the biofilter is bacterially balanced. As you know these three nitrogenous compounds are essential to the health of your plant, which will readily suck them out of the water. A foliar feed with this water will green up any plants, guaranteed. By bathing the roots continuously with this water, the plants are sponging the nutrients out of the solution hence cleaning the water further than the filter. When the water returns to the aquarium it is heavily aerated, which is of the utmost importance to the health of populations of beneficial aerobic bacteria. These bacteria not only process nutrients into a plant soluble form, and clean the water for the fish, they also inhibit the proliferation of destructive bacteria by a process known as competitive exclusion. Once the solution is dominant with good bacteria monopolizing the available food sources, bad bacteria is unable to gain a foot hold. When one spore of bad bacteria comes in contact with a sterile hydroponic solution, it multiplies rapidly and disaster is the inevitable result. In a healthy aquaponic system that spore is a snack for more established helpful bacteria. The plants are protected and fed by the beneficial bacteria. The only supplemental nutes given are organic and used sparingly. It is definately a less is more scenario. I use Earth Juice Catalyst for PH down. PH up is merl mix, ground oyster shells and special lime. I top dress around the plants with a tbsp of castings. Repeat as necessary. I fill up the foot of nylon stockings with my special blend of guanos, ashes, mineral rock, kelp, and feed meals. I drop this in the aquarium for added bloom food. Rapidly algae starts to eat at it, and a horde of algae eaters attach themselves to it reducing it to plant soluble food. Any and all deficiencies in any garden can be rectified organically.
For best results use only one aquarium for your entire garden, mothers, clones and all stages of growth. If your garden is staggered you balance the demands on the water, as the plants have varying nutrient requirements at different stages of growth. I keep the most diverse range of creatures in the aquarium to fill all the niches. The more lifeforms, the greater the balance. I could go on and on, I’m writing a book on growing cannabis this way. Your questions are important to me. Some other nice things about this are that you never have to change your solution, just top it up. The plants sprout and finish with an average of 275ppm. Remember that the probes that measure dissolved salts only give a very rough picture, they cannot measure life. I’ll check back here if anyone wants more information and has specific questions. Yes Vic, more roots=more plant. Cheers!
Sinserely Steve
Posted by la.bud on November 06, 1999 08:27 AM:
hey steve,sounds like “Jaws”{g13xgws}would fit right in …lol …i’ll have vic get with ya in a couple weeks i’m currently running an organic room and an aero room http://genhydro.com/index2.html using GH’s aero flo
2 …what benefits do you get vs a standard organic setup? and is root waste a problem with your setup?..nice to see ya around…
Posted by steve on November 06, 1999 10:20 AM:
In response to some excellent e-mail questions I told the person I would reply here. I thought that I may as well answer here as more will share his questions. Water temperature and fish types? As the primary reason for our system is the highest quality cannabis possible the water temperature must be optimum for the cannabis. I find this to be between 22°C-24° Celsius. Most tropicals are all right with this, the feeder goldfish are fine, until chow time, which is all the time. To the surprise of my fish dealer I keep fish together that theoretically won’t live together due to differing PH preferences, ie hardwater cichlids from some of the best ganja producing lands in Africa, (calcium rich soils around Lakes Malawi, and Tanginyka, PH 7.1) These hardy fish do quite well in a tank with southeast asian and amazonian varieties that prefer something around PH 6. In general the grass likes 6.2. I let it move around a little because in my superstitious mind that allows the freeing up of things I barely understand. If it has risen to the high sixes I will bring it down, even with apple juice or coffee, unless I feel it needs a boost of fert, then I give it a tbsp of EJ Catalyst as I mentioned earlier. I have little freshwater crabs, lobsters, snails, eels, and a huge variety of “suckers”. All of these keep the tank clean. Instead of just feeding the fish flakes and pellets you will likely derive much more pleasure and taste from your garden if you keep a small auxilliary tank for raising feeder guppies. I keep the fancy guppies whom are now referred to as gourmet guppies and scoop out a bunch for the main tank before I plan on watching the cycle of destruction and renewal. Get a book on aquarium layout to maximize the aesthetic of your tank with well arranged rocks, driftwood, and aquatic plants. I’ve been sucked into one aquarium for two years so far. Much better than TV.
Yes, cooler water = more oxygen holding ability. Too cool or especially too warm can also mean root problems. Measure the temperature of your root zone and adjust the aquarium cooler or warmer to keep your roots healthy. We’re here for the grass.
The supplemental sources of P,K and micros are all natural, and can be applied easily to specific plants in the garden as a topdressing of blended guanos, ashes, meals, and unrefined minerals ie seabed deposits, langbeinite, rock phosphate, etc. By topdressing specific plants their roots hold the dressing in the rocks, largely for the use of this plant. This makes it possible to grow a variety of plants off of the same reservoir. A bit of an organically derived tea is gradually released into the water as a result. This benefits all the plants. I keep over three times the recommended amount of fish in my aquarium. One inch of fish per gallon of water is the traditional aquarium formula. The reason for the standard formula is that the water is dirty too fast and the fish suffer. However the traditional aquarium is not filtered through an 8000 watt grow room full of weed at all stages. The aquarium/reservoir is 90 gallons. The one I am setting up in Europe is twice the reservoir for about 24 000 watts of grow space. You’ll see how it goes. Most of the grow gurus were decidely skeptical when I told them what I’d found, too many of their friends sell chem nutrients. These grow groupies are now the ones that offer to blow me for .5 gram of aquaponic grapefruit (not for sale) The reason is there is no finer way to grow palatable cannabis indoors, good soil is good, but not better. As far as quantity of harvest there is one thing to remember, that chem salesmen say all the time, “The plants don’t care about the source of their nutrients, they’ll use whatever is available to feed on.” Which is my point exactly, as long as everything necessary to feed the plant is properly provided for it will feed just as fast. It may take you a little practise to be certain that your organic fert is plant soluble on schedule, compared to the soluble salts you are conditioned to using, but it’s worth it. Even if profit is your only motive, when you achieve the same yield with better pot you can still charge more. I don’t feed my plants chemicals for my sake, I’m the one that is going to taste it. Someone was recently telling me the old “Well the plants can’t tell the difference!” and I was about to reply the usual “Well I can”, when I told them “If your dog is getting into some really foul garbage, ie eating someone’s vomit, you would pull it away wouldn’t you, because it doesn’t know any better, but you do or should.” I’ve met the proprietors of many hydro chem companies, I scare the shit out of them. The owner of the largest American hydroponic nutrient company was telling an audience how his new formula more closely mimicks nature. “More like it mocks nature” I told him afterwards as I presented him with the opportunity to smoke some incredibly sweet ganja and after visit the bio aquaponic garden it came from, his eyes went wide and his face had the stunned glow of someone caught with their pants down. If the glistening bud in my hand scared this old timer, just imagine if he smoked it and saw a healthy garden indoors in organic hydro. It wasn’t very nice of me, but it was amusing to see this very self-assured man go from strut to split. I’m still laughing at him. What a shyster, he even admitted he eats organically produced food, for the taste. Sells you cancer. But he is a bit player in the grand scheme of things. See if phosphate poisoning is a problem in a water source near you. Identify it’s source, and then see if you can pour your excess wasted nutrients down the drain everyweek with a good conscience. Food for thought, eat good food! Ciao for now.
Sinserely Steve
Posted by raydavies on November 06, 1999 11:16 PM:
Steve,
Wow. When is the book going to be available ? What would you say to someone whos only grown in soil and want to switch. Great work.
Be KIND,
RAY
Posted by steve on November 07, 1999 04:36 AM:
Practically all systems are convertible including tubes and soil. Soil requires a larger volume of water than a recirculating system. Try a kiddie pool with gravel and young koi, as they age you can appreciate them, breed them, or sell them. If you have a lot of plants to feed, start off with plenty of frogs and turtles as well as fish, etc. The diggetty doo for the ultimate boo!
Sinserely Steve
Posted by steve on November 07, 1999 11:59 AM:
The book will be at least a year and will have plenty of pictures. HT article in 3 months with pics and diagrams. Fair enough? I’ll be doing a grow seminar talking about it, and answering questions at the cup. This is good practice.
Sinserely Steve
Posted by Blazer on November 07, 1999 06:51 PM:
Steve! Incredible 1st. of all. We have a few common friends that have been trying to get Me to Your place to check this out. I’ve been dabling w/ aqua, bio, and hydroponic hybrid systems for a little while now and have visited a couple aquaponics farms in the midwest US. I’m soo glad to see some1 w/ Your capacities sharing all this “Top Shelf” info. I’m a huge buff of both the grow and aquarium stuff Myself w/ a lil goldfish farm using a towering type delivery system trickling through growrock. It’s merely a huge wet/dry filtration system on steriods allowing 3 fold plus on the amount of creatures in the h2o w/o any amonia problems. Now the 1 and only grow shop in the metro wants 1 in there window as does My fish supply buddy. It’s great of You to share the method of achieving propper nute ratio’s via juggling species and additives. That’s been the missing links here. I also have great luck combining species that aren’t intended for thses ph ranges. I’ve spent more time keeping the the fish looking happy than focusing on the plants as it’s been just a new way of filtering really, I didn’t know how/what to alter for the plants and the fish are in the window too and must look presentable. Man o man I cannot wait to apply this new knowledge to the hobby arena full tilt! I’m very grateful for Your willingness to share Your outcomes etc. w/ Us rather than guard it w/ Your life as the chem. guru’s try to do. I can only imagine that man’s face and I was almost laughing to tears visualizing His potential future there dwindling at Your “mocking nature” comments and backing it up w/ product to boot! Balls, brains and common sense is something lacking big in this world today as a combined package(You) and thanks again for sharing it! I look forward to future info bigtime and will keep everyone posted on what I come up w/ as I begin this journey Myself.
Peace and keep up the great work
Blaze
Posted by Blazer on November 07, 1999 09:36 PM:
Steve I’m wondering if You started w/ the African species named Tilapia? I know it’s the trend around here for aquaponics, but it is also for meat production too. I know they are a very hardy fish that can handle different temps, ph etc… I’m wondering if most have chosen this fish for its ease of care or if it has much if anything to do w/ proper nutes? I never knew enough about true organics to understand why You use what kinda poop,quano etc. and how that may tie into the choice of Tilapia fish for thier aqua units excrimate wise. Is it along those lines or merely just a very easy fish to farm for profit along w/ thier top notch greens/herbs for all the trendy restruants in the Ozark’s.
I have found in My hybrid bioponic/nft system that the taste, flavor, pest resistance and overall appearance is outstanding. We(You) are essentually duplicating the most beneficial micro-organism’s ability to interact and exchange beneficial acids(humic etc.), enzyme’s and antibiotics at the plants root levels resulting in like You said…The most incredible(not for sale) treats known to Our community IMO.
Man I just returned from a vaca in Your neck of the woods and sb or Vic threatened to introduce Us and see the man in action. I did get to BC for almost 24 hours before having to race home to Kansas for an emergency damnit. I think You were in Europe at the time anyhow sadly.
I have been dying to talk w/ someone on this level of understanding for the longest time and My limited resources have shut mine down for the moment. Since We haven’t been introduced and You probably hear soo many different webnicks I’d like to say I’m Blazer. A 31 year old parapledgic that has run out of western medicine options at the moment for the massive back reconstruction. Well they failed Me 4 times and I now have 3 breaks instead of 2 that pinches nerves on whats left of My severed spinal cord. I also have incurable/uncontrollable muscle spasms in every part of My body that I no longer have control over(chest down completly). The herb hasn’t helped w/ the pain alot, but flat kicks ass over any perscribed muscle relaxer’s that just eat Me guts away everyday now. I’m searching for the most effective and easy means to accomodate My want/need for med. use and use whatever is left to pay the out of pocket exspense of accupuncture treatments that do more good than any western doctor!
Well that’s My lil Bio. I just didn’t want You to think I was wanting to try and market YOUR project or the like, I need it for Me personally. If I can drop the chems totally it will make My paralyzed ass MUCH easier! Just top it off w/ fresh h2o, check ph and be on My way.
Thanks again Man
Blazer
ps. Keep in mind at the moment I’m all kinds of pie eyed and just on a rambling/brainstorming kick after reading the posts. Although I know I’m just a lil off center so maybe I did get a lil bonus head injury along w/ the spinal cord! ROFLMAO
