Road Block Encountered

Was finally able to secure a growbed liner and order the gravel. The gravel i used was 3/4" construction gravel, which i later found out to be called "blue steel" in the backyard aquaponics forum. I ordered three truckloads or 6 cubic meters of the gravel to fill up my growbed.

Gravel all in place. Depth of the growbed is around 10 inches. The gravel is contained in the yellow liner. Piping is also in place.

Another view of the growbed.

The water pump that i bought is just right for my application. The flow is continuous and just right, it fills the entire growbed in aroung 25-30 minutes. For the water outlets, there was some kind of misunderstanding with the instructions i left with the laborers. They imagined a different concept with what i had in mind. The outcome was this.

It became some sort of a sprinkler system. I haven't seen any system that has an outflow like this yet. I might have to re-pipe the outlets and remove the sprinkler effect.

The water jets are 2-3 inches.

The time to plant and stock the pond with fish is near, however I'm having problems with my auto siphon. The method that I'm using is the flood and drain method but my pump is not on any timer, it just runs continuously until the growbed is filled up with water. Technically my outflow should be greater than the inflow. The problem that I'm having is that my auto siphon won't start by itself. I have to prime it to start. But when it starts, it outflow is good since I'm using 3 inch pipes. I need to read more about auto siphons, i don't fully understand it yet. The water inside the outer pipe does not go beyond the shorter standpipe. To prime the siphon, i need to raise the outer pipe around 2-3 inches upwards to increase the water level inside.

Good water outflow

I have a few points that i need clarifications with the design of the siphons.

1. Should the standpipe be shorter the the growbed medium?
   
2. How do i ensure that the water inside the outer pipe will be greater then the water outside

Pond Pump

I went to China Town today to buy a pump. I saw rows and rows of stores selling pumps. I went to a few stores to canvass for the lowest price for 1/4 horsepower pump. Unfortunately there weren't any 1/4 HP pumps. There were only 1/8 ,1/2 an 1 HP. I saw a shiny stainless steel Asahi brand pump rated at 1/2 HP for a good price. I had it tested at the shop to see if it was ok for my needs. I tested it and it seemed that it was too powerful. In the end i opted for the 1/8 HP one. The 1/8 HP pump casing was a bit of a letdown to me, since it was made out of plastic unlike the 1/2 HP and 1 HP which was stainless steel. Hope this one lasts a long time...I'll post pisc of it running when its all setup.

Brand: Kawasaki made in Taiwan
Capacity:70 liters a minute or 4200 liters an hour
Max head: 8 meters

Looks CheapThis is what it looks like. Hard Plastic casing

Almost Done!

A few days have passed and the progress on the aquaponic system is going smoothly. The construction is almost done. The growbed and the pond is done. Only the gravel for the growbeds and the pipings are needed to be done. So far so good. As you can see in the picture,i essentially have one huge growbed. I don't know if this is the ideal setup, but this one is the most practical setup for me. There are a lot of things that can be improved on based on this first attempt at urban farming. Hopefully all of the things that i have learned based on this first attempt can be incorporated in farm number 2. I would want to change some minor things on this design but for this iteration, I'm pretty satisfied already.

Hope that this would work come the planting phase...: >

Growbed pic,one big growbed 32 feet by 16 feet. Kinda worried that the sun is blocked on the end part.

Another view,again kinda worried that only a little sun reaches that end.

Fish pond
Closer view on the fish pond


City Farmer

Start of Construction

Today is the start of the construction of the aquaponics setup. I chose to construct the pond and the growbeds using concrete. Constrcution materials here are relatively cheap, but the price of construction materials at this time is pretty high due to the construction boom every summer time.

I thought of using blue barrels, but i for an aquaponic setup this size, i need a lot of blue barrels (40-50 halves) :my estimate. My other alternative was to construct the growbeds using 3/4" plywood constructs and coating them with marine epoxy. However, i need to have metal stands fabricated for them which are very expensive. Metal here is very expensive because of China. Almost all metal production here goes to China, thus bringing the price sky high. So in the end, i opted for concrete and hollow blocks. I need to find a better/cost effective design if i want to build a bigger system in the future. But for now, this will do. Here are some of the construction pics.

Aquaponics under construction:pile of construction materials


Gravel pile for concrete mix
Growbed constructionongoing: 4 stacks of hollow blocks.The idea for this is that it needs to be higher than the pond so that the water will use gravity in flowing back to the pond thus eliminating the need for a 2nd pump.


Growbed progress looking good.


Here is the pond. I used some steel rebars for the pond bottom for support.

Front View

City Farmer

On This Site Will Rise the Urban Farm

Today Started the clearing of the urban farm site. I had to clear up the space, right now it's still messy and there is a lot of junk to be thrown out. I was very sad during this day because there were 2x 20-30 foot trees that i had to cut down for for the aquaponics site. The site used to be a plain grass garden and an old fountain setup that has been neglected for years and has become a stockpile for junk. Oh well, in order for progress to be made, some things must be sacrificed. Good bye trees...

The space where the hose and the cat is will be the fish pond.(16x12 Feet)

View from the other side,Growbed Area(32x16 Feet)

Another Angle


Still nothing to be seen yet.Lots of debris. But this small step of clearing up the space is a good indication that the porject is coming along smoothly.


City Farmer

The City Farmer

Welcome to City Farmer PH. Join me in the progress of my small urban farm setup. The urban farm is a small prototype located in Metro Manila. The farm uses the Aquaponic System.

At first i wanted to try a hydroponic setup, unfortunately a lot of hydroponic nutrients and materials are not available or are very expensive in the Philppines. The quest for more data led me to aquaponics. A more straight forward answer to the more complex hydroponic setup.

Late March 2008,i decided to build my own aquaponic setup right in front of my house. The total aquaponic system area size is 30 square meters.

This project is very interesting for me. It is my first urban farming startup. I do hope that this prototype will be the start of bigger things. In the future, i'd like to try a bigger sustainable integrated urban farm. Enough of the future, let me show you the present. Let the simple life begin!





City Farmer