Anyone wanna help me set one of these up later in the winter?

[Benjamin Davis]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IryIOyPfTE&sns=em

[Richard Frankum]

On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 10:29 AM, Benjamin Davis
<davis.be...@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IryIOyPfTE&sns=em

What are you hoping to grow? And do you have the space for it, indoors?

--
--Richard Frankum

[Benjamin Davis]

I have endless space, though it's far from Tokyo. Could also try something like this at hacker farm. If it goes well, I'd pitch it to my university to do one on the roof there.

As to growing, fish and plants, duh. ...but seriously, greens seem to be easiest. Lettuces, kangkong, kales, other brassicas, etc. Tomatoes, eggplants, other solanaceae will probably work too. Not sure about root veg in hydroponics, but I'll look into it. (Issues with over wetness or exposure to fish poo, perhaps?)

Also gotta grow fish food, so maybe duckweed, azolla, that kind of thing as well? Not sure where to get them in Japan yet, but will start looking soon.

Also also want to try charcoal as a growing medium along with the rocks to lighten poundage.

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[Akiba]

Ahh, actually we have a project planned for aquaponics at hackerfarm. Chris
H has a friend in the area that's doing it and we're going to meet up & see
if we can help automate certain process variables.

Akiba
FreakLabs Open Source Wireless
Web: http://www.freaklabs.org
Shop:http://www.freaklabsstore.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/freaklabs

[Chris Harrington]

Benjamin,

I'd definitely like to ultimately see something like this happen at
the hackerfarm. I got in touch with a guy doing it here in Chiba, and
I'm meeting up with him in early November. I'll be discussing the
possibility of helping him setup a project in central Chiba over the
winter as an opportunity to learn.

http://www.japan-aquaponics.com/

Chris Harrington
chris.har...@gmail.com
http://chris.harrington.jp/
http://gplus.to/chrisharrington
090-8812-8911

On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 10:29 AM, Benjamin Davis
<davis.be...@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IryIOyPfTE&sns=em
>
>
>

[Akiba]

Hey Chris.
How about for a November trip out to Kamogawa, we take a couple people with
us to hackerfarm and then meet the aquaponics guy and check out the setup?
If this is cool, let us know when an approximate date would be and we can
set it up over here.

Akiba
FreakLabs Open Source Wireless
Web: http://www.freaklabs.org
Shop:http://www.freaklabsstore.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/freaklabs


> -----Original Message-----
> From: tokyohac...@googlegroups.com
> [mailto:tokyohac...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Chris Harrington
> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 7:44 PM
> To: tokyohac...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: [THS:20689] Anyone wanna help me set one of these up later in
the
> winter?
>

[Akiba]

Oh, not sure if you know this but Ben is running a farm out to Takao.
Ben: Hope I didn't get that wrong.

Akiba
FreakLabs Open Source Wireless
Web: http://www.freaklabs.org
Shop:http://www.freaklabsstore.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/freaklabs


> -----Original Message-----
> From: tokyohac...@googlegroups.com
> [mailto:tokyohac...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Chris Harrington
> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 7:44 PM
> To: tokyohac...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: [THS:20689] Anyone wanna help me set one of these up later in
the
> winter?
>

[Torsten Wagner]

Hi,
Seeing this I was wondering if it could be scaled down (size and
technically) to home-usage.
A standard ornamental fish tank (with ornamental fishs) combined with
a mini aquaponic (window-farming?) to grow herbs and small amount of
veggies.
Albeit, I actually never saw a fish tank in a Japanese home ;)
However, they should exist, since they sell ornamental fishs in pet
and DIY shops.
It would have to be very easy to set-up, rather cheap and a no-brainer
in operation. Space would be an issue too. Maybe a way to stack
fishtank and aquaponic.
Could be a nice educational think for kids too.
If you ever had to clean a fish-tank filter you look-out for better solutions ;)

Totti



On 24 October 2012 19:43, Chris Harrington

[Benjamin Davis]

Fujino, actually - but yeah, it's near Takao.  And I don't get to call it a farm until the chickens arrive. :P

Sweet, I'd love to meet the Japan aquaponics guy.  My november is pretty open, excepting the 17th.

Totti - Yeah, sure, I don't see any reason why you couldn't do this smaller scale and save yourself the trouble of tank cleaning by eating the fish poop transmuted to tasty leafy greens.  It's apparently a bit fiddly to get the chemical/biological balance right at first (you might kill a few fish), but it should totally be possible.

[Chris Harrington]

Akiba,

I'd definitely have to check with Aragon about his schedule, but in
all likelihood he should be showing up to a hackerspace meeting in the
next couple of weeks, so you'll be able to discuss it with him
directly, I hope.

Just to reiterate, Aragon (the aquaponics guy) is in Tokyo on weekdays
and Chiba on weekends, so it should be easy for you guys to meet with
him. I can ask him to contact someone if you want?

I'm certainly open for a November visit. My wife has a dance event for
her students on the 11th, and I might be busy helping out then, but
otherwise I cannot recall any plans.

Chris Harrington
chris.har...@gmail.com
http://chris.harrington.jp/
http://gplus.to/chrisharrington
090-8812-8911

[Akiba]

Remind me not to have the fish poop salad at Torsten’s house.

 

Akiba

FreakLabs Open Source Wireless

Web: http://www.freaklabs.org

Shop:http://www.freaklabsstore.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/freaklabs

 

---

From: tokyohac...@googlegroups.com [mailto:tokyohac...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Benjamin Davis

Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 8:36 PM
To: tokyohac...@googlegroups.com

--

[Chris Harrington]

Ha ha, you'd better not eat anything down here in Kamogawa then. Wild
pig and monkey poop is in everything.....(especially my water supply)

Chris Harrington
chris.har...@gmail.com
http://chris.harrington.jp/
http://gplus.to/chrisharrington
090-8812-8911

[Taylan Ayken]

We all know that you want to grow your own weed, tsck tsck...

---

From: Torsten Wagner <torsten...@gmail.com>
To: tokyohac...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 7:53 PM
Subject: Re: [THS:20692] Anyone wanna help me set one of these up later in the winter?

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[MRE]

Several wondowfarmers have ran closed loop farm/fish tank set ups.
usually works pretty well.
As you said, getting the chem balance right is thw hard part, and a lot of fisg die at first.. OR plants suffer. But the best prevention is daily monitoring.

Generally, the tank ends up near the floor though. But this has more to do with tech linitations of folks than any system requirement. Plumbing can get tricky.

[TheNetImp]

Just saw this on Make's website, looks easy enough to build.

http://makeprojects.com/Project/Indoor+Aquaponics+System/2609/1#.UIrfGrTrZSU

James

On Wednesday, October 24, 2012 10:52:23 AM UTC+9, Benjamin Davis wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IryIOyPfTE&sns=em

[Benjamin Davis]

Just saw this on Make's website, looks easy enough to build.

http://makeprojects.com/Project/Indoor+Aquaponics+System/2609/1#.UIrfGrTrZSU

Cute, though the growing space on this one is kinda itty bitty. I think this version is supposed to be a class project to just illustrate nutrient cycling or something, not necessarily to seriously produce food. Not to say that education is not a valuable yield, nor that if you wanted to have fish anyway that this wouldn't be a nifty add-on, but I think that if you're gonna invest the time, money, and steady supply of electricity into one of these things at home, you should create a system that can actually meaningfully supplement your food intake - not just give you a single lettuce every few weeks. (And is that the hope of a strawberry someday that I see hiding behind the lettuce?) 

Problem is, it's not just a build-it-and-leave-it thing - you'll actually have to keep an eye on it, feed the fish every day, and keep feeding it electricity constantly too. And if you get bored, you have to give away or kill the fish.  And if you're coming at it with anything like a sustainability perspective in mind, you have to get enough yield out of it to justify the embedded energy (and financial) costs.

Though to be fair, the photo in question wasn't packed in as much as it could have been... I wonder if you could vertical stack somehow on that base? Maybe packing it with mini-tomato plants and basil might bring a more worthwhile yield? Trellis something off the sides of the container?  (Or like Totti said, if you wanted to have fish as pets anyway, I suppose that's another yield...) 

Anyway, I think I'd want to at least double that planting area in size before making one - even for a tiny Tokyo apartment.