Murray Hallam's new flomedia hybrid aquaponics system is installed

Aquaponic Education in schools is taking off around the world but its not often you see a new hybrid technology installed that combines two very different aquaponics systems – floating raft and gravel media together in the one system.

This  aquaponics system pictured was recently installed at Freshwater Christian College near Cairns, Queensland.

FloMedia

It features Murray Hallam’s new FloMedia system that he devised that allows you to grow a variety of plants in the one setup.

Murray says he’s been testing his Flomedia technology for over a year and the response has been sensational. To make his fish tanks more accessible to the school kids, Murray created a fish viewing windows in his 2 x 1250 litre fish tanks.

The fish tanks are hooked up to 4 x media beds and 2 x raft beds. Murray says the fish tanks have half a dozen large Jade Perch in one tank and some ornamental Goldfish in the other tank. On top of the windowed fish tanks are smaller fingerling tanks which children can get a closer look and feed a variety of smaller decorative freshwater specimens.

Science Award

Murray Hallam was recently honoured with an award from the Science Teachers Association of Queensland. Murray says the teachers were “on fire” and incredibly enthusiastic about aquaponics. He says the feedback was so positive, teachers were explaining to him how aquaponics education can fit into the school curriculum.

Apart from learning life skills, teachers say Aquaponics can be integral to teaching students about Physics, Animal Husbandry, Water Chemistry, Horticulture , Aquaculture, General Science, Electronics and practical skills. They also get to eat fresh vegetables at the school canteen thanks to the fast growing salads the system produces.

Murray Hallam

Murray says his FloMedia system is powered by his CHOP2 method which he revealed and explained  in his DIY Aquaponics DVD.

CHOP2 allows the home builder to allow his tanks to be built on uneven ground and individual grow beds regulated independently with nutrient flow.

It also makes life easier for the various auto-siphons that regulate oxygen flow to his gravel grow-beds.

Murray says developing the dual system of aquaponics food production using FloMedia means heavy nutrient feeding plants like cabbages and tomatoes can be grown and supported in his gravel media bed systems while lighter feeding plants like lettuce and basil can be grown on floating raft. Combing the two systems together seems like a stroke of genius. Sorting out the water flow and pump issues is where Murray’s FloMedia technology solves these problems. Murray says that there is no better way to grow lettuce than in Floating Raft.

The only problem he says, is that for an average family running floating raft, they will grow so much of the stuff, they wont know know what to do with it all. An ideal solution for a school system.

Murray Hallam and Gina Cavailero in her Aquaponics Greenhouse

There’s been a lot of interest about commercial aquaponics recently and some discussion about how big should such a system be to become viable? Big is always best right? Not necessarily. If you envisage one of those broad acre hydroponic farms that seems to run for acres and acres off into the distance then you might be surprised that this is not the solution or even the future of aquaponics.
Speaking with Murray Hallam recently about commercial aquaponics, he sees this future very differently. Murray is big on small scale aquaponics that offers a secure future to the mum and dad operators running their own relaxed lifestyle but selling their produce not to big agri-business food chains, but directly into the community. Farmers markets, produce sold directly to restaurants, even food sold to other local food suppliers that redistribute your produce directly to the community.

This method seems to be the way to go forward.

Gina Cavaliero from Green Acre Organics is one such person doing the direct to restaurants route. If you thought the process would be difficult to secure a contract of direct sales like we did, then you are in for a surprise. Gina cannot supply enough food to meet the need in her local community. It seems fresh produce in peak condition is a much sought after commodity.

One of the smart things Gina did was to first build a mini micro aquaponics system. In her backyard you will find a very small floating raft system connected to a round outdoor pool fish tank. Here Gina is able to cleverly test out a range of produce from herbs to lettuce to test and discover what grows well in her neck of the woods. Living in Florida helps too. But until you test a range of of boutique produce you will never know exactly how well those greens will grow based on your climate conditions. A micro floating raft system gave Gina the necessary clues to what would work well in her larger system.

Building a small micro-system first is a clever inexpensive thing to do. No sales person or marketing guru can tell you exactly what to grow in your climate. You will need to do your own homework first. Some level of filtration is needed on even a basic small system like this.

The plants and fish are a litmus test to the experimental nature of determining the optimal growing conditions for her test plants. Of course in her main greenhouse the usual rules of filtration apply. Gina features even a degassing tank to heavily oxygenate any methane present in the system before the water is sent off to her floating rafts. But building a micro system is a terrific idea before taking the heavy investment in up-scaling to a larger more expensive commercial system.

Gina even lightly stocks her big tank with tilapia. There is no problem with the fish supplying enough nutrients to keep the plants well fed. Lightly stocking your tank with fish can also be less stressful to the farmer should something break down resulting in heavy fish losses which seems to have a compounding problem in heavily stocked tanks. Heavily stocked tanks also require critical attention to filtration and fish oxygen demand. Sometimes a lighter approach to aquaponic farming can be less stressful and more therapeutic and still yield good plant growth.

Incidentally Gina Cavaliero along with Sylvia Bernstein and Murray Hallam will join forces for a small scale commercial aquaponics class next April in 2012 in Florida. Murray Hallam will also reveal how to build a hybrid media system he calls FloMedia right into your floating raft system. The idea is that for the small commercial farmer wanting to grow a broader range of plants and vegetables, even root crops, FloMedia can be expanded to use fish nutrients along with your conventional system. This raises the opportunity for farmers to trial a broader range of fruit trees and larger plants in their locality.

Murray Hallam addressing the 2011 Aquaponics Association meeting held in Orlando Florida

Its a long 16,000 kilometer flight from Brisbane Australia, but we finally made it with Murray Hallam to Orlando Florida to attend the 2011 Aquaponics Association Conference. The three day event organized by Sylvia Bernstein and Gina Cavaliero was originally meant to attract around 100 people interested in learning more about Aquaponics.
That figure quickly doubled to make it a truly international event with around 255 people packing the ballroom of the Holiday Inn at Disney World.

Small Scale Commercial Aquaponics

The theme that we quickly got from attending the conference was the developing interest in small scale commercial aquaponics.

People packed various workshops to hear talks and watch numerous power-point presentations on growing and marketing your own produce and how to earn a dollar from it.

If there was any doubt in your mind that aquaponics had a future as a viable small commercial enterprise, all doubt was removed when speaking to attendees at the conference.

People wanted to start their own small scale systems. Most were small businesses, the mom and dad type people looking to make the transition into a commercial  floating raft systems powered by Tilapia.

Most people attending the event were of course Americans and had already sourced interest from various Farmers Markets and Restaurants in their local community. Established food businesses were already eager to jump in on the “localization industry” and were keen to market and sell locally grown fresh food free from chemicals and pesticides.  More Americans were keen on eating clean food free of pollutants. Aquaponics fits very nicely into that equation so its a no brainer why people were fired up and ready to learn more.

Gina Cavaliero is expanding her 1,000 square foot floating raft system to cater for demand

A year ago Gina Cavaliero and her partner Tonya Penick, victims of the economic building contraction in the US, decided to build their own 1000 square foot commercial system after attending a workshop run by Friendly Aquaponics in Hawaii. Today they are growing a variety of green lettuce all powered by Tilapia on their farm called Green Acres Organics outside Brooksville Florida.

“We’ve developed a niche market.” explains Gina. “We don’t have to sell to the big grocery store chains. We sell right to the end user which are chefs clamoring for our product.”

Green Acre Organics have also created a buying club in their community to supply food to people on subscription.

“Right now,” says Gina, “We’re in the black. We have the clientele, we have the demand. We can’t keep up with the demand.”

Murray Hallam and the power of aquaponics celebrity

Keynote speaker Murray Hallam

Sylvia Bernstein the organizer of the event wanted something light and entertaining for the audience to listen to on the Sunday evening so who better to entertain the audience than Murray Hallam. The audience had already had a grueling all day session being focused on Aquaponics so a moment of light frivolity was needed.

Murray being ever so obliging had many stories  lined up to entertain the crowd – mainly of his failures. An audience can always relate to accidents gone bad and Murray was happy to oblige, rattling off a list of experiments and fish kills gone bad that kept everyone amused and laughing.

We decide to create this YouTube clip showing a montage of bloopers by Murray from his recent Aquaponics DVDs to Introduce him to the audience. Fish are notoriously slippery and have a tendency to wriggle and leap out of your hands – just when you want to show them to the camera.

Check out the clip below.

Someone in the audience yelled out “We love you Murray!” to which Murray would snap back, “A heckler! Security – throw that man out!”

And so it went until the auction. Murray was to auction off a aquaponics system and greenhouse. I’m not sure if the reserve was met but someone yelled out for a $5 contribution from everyone to assist the formation of the Aquaponics Association. People dug generously into their wallets and by the nights end the table in front of Murray Hallam was piled up with American dollars. The next day it was announced the donations had amounted to $2,237!

The Aquaponics Association

The following day was the official formation of the Aquaponics Association with various chapters created in the United States, Australia and the rest of the World. Gina Cavaliero was elected Aquaponics Association Chairman, with Sylvia Bernstein elected as US Chapter Chair. Murray Hallam was elected by the 255 members as Australian Chapter Chairmen. Charlie Price from Aquaponics UK was elected Chairman of the Chapter at Large covering the rest of the world.

Dues were calculated at $1 for the reminder of the year rising to $45 per annum next year.

We caught up with Sylvia Bernstein to find out what benefits membership to the Aquaponics Association would attract and recorded this 6 minute interview between her and Murray Hallam.

Murray Hallam speaks to Sylvia Bernstein about her company, her new book and the formation of the Aquaponics Association and the benefits to members who join the association. 6 minutes mp3 file

Aquaponics Field Trips

One of the highlights in attending a conference like this were the number of different aquaponics systems you could visit and take a closer look at.  Fortunately Orlando has a cluster of of systems nearby. A visit to the Green Sky  Growers Roof garden was certainly a highlight when it comes to seeing how to grow fish intensively.

Tilapia grown at high stocking densities

Three large tanks stocked tilapia at extremely high stocking densities. Imagine growing fish at 1 pound per gallon of water? This is not for the feint hearted either, as the water is heavily oxygenated with injected liquid oxygen to keep the fish alive.

Oxygen was sourced relatively cheaply we were told – courtesy of the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral. Fish waste was eliminated with an expensive drum filter which was designed to trap solids as small as 60 microns. A human hair is about 100 microns.

The event was very well put together and participants to the conference all praised the efforts of the organizing committee. Next year’s Aquaponics Association Conference will even be bigger and better. We hope to feature some of the speakers in future blog posts.

Crikey! He’s larger than life and into growing fish and vegetables – together!

Now he’s jetting off overseas! Australia’s Aquaponics Guru Murray Hallam will be winging his way over to Orlando Florida in September as a special guest speaker at the Aquaponics Association Conference to be held in the US.

Murray is a popular speaker in his regular workshops as well as appearing on TV around Australia who just loves talking about fish and plants and so do his fans!  They can’t get enough of him.

“Its crazy really!” says Murray working in his warehouse and taking a break before packaging off another Aquaponics kit for an overseas destination, “We have all sorts of people from the government visit us, overseas delegations from Africa and Asia regularly come to see us.”

“ Government people watch our DVDs and then they send a delegation here to look and see if this Aquaponics thing really works.”

“They run their fingers over the lettuce and ask me if it’s real – can you believe it?”

“Of course its real.” I tell  them “Its just because Aquaponics grows vegetables without stress and with a full complement of nutrients – everything grows so well.”

“ I always tell them its 100% Organic because it is!” He grins.

Working with pumps and plumbing and watching water swirl around in a recirculating series of tanks is something Murray delights in.

“I love watching how water flows and interacts with the fish. I take great delight in small things like that.” He says laughing.

That’s the thing you notice about Murray is his great sense of humor. What you see on his videos is what you get in real life. So where is he off to next?

“I’ve been asked to speak in Finland and South Korea on Aquaponics.” Says Murray. “I had to look on a map to see where some of these Arab places are!”

Murray laughs at the way interest has skyrocketed in aquaponics. “I love talking Aquaponics. I think it’s a wonderful solution to feed the planet. I really do. There are so many innovations and ways we can build Aquaponics designs in third world countries – that’s where we want to go next. We just need to shore up the power systems to work off the grid and go totally on solar. But its still far from perfect.” He says.

Murray has an array of different solar panels stacked on the shelves with various batteries and wire hanging in his warehouse. You instantly know he’s onto something big. It’s an important feature that he’s developing.

“Sustainable solutions like this is what we’re planning for the future.” he says pointing out a Murray Hallam prototype that is under wraps in the corner of his greenhouse, “we are looking at small systems like this that can feed families anywhere in the world. Isn’t it fantastic?”

Murray’s enthusiasm in infectious. He shows us various designs and different 12 volt pumps that he’s trialing.

“We need to test for a long time before we’re confident enough to release our systems. I’ll have more to say about this at the Conference.” He says.

Murray’s systems produce so much lettuce greens and salads that he constantly gives them away to visitors.

He is never happy resting on his laurels, redesigning and improving his systems, running trials and altering the plumbing to refine his sturdy designs.

“We’re working on some secret things I can’t disclose.” He adds, “ and we’re always discovering new ways of improving things. Murray’s designs and improvements filter down to his aquaponic systems, considered by many in Australia to be the gold standard in system design.

Murray Hallam in one of his greenhouses standing on a step ladder next to his papaya or pawpaw grown in Aquaponics.

“Nothing’s bulletproof,” says Murray “Pumps fail and electricity can be cut off. Human error is a big factor in systems failure.”

“We try and make our systems work for everyone so they can successfully grow fish and vegetables together without any problems.”

“People want easy solutions, so we simplify the fail points and make them work day in and out for years.”

We ask Murray to tell us about the Orlando Aquaponics Conference. What tidbits will he be sharing?

“Some of our recent discoveries and Aquaponics innovations I’ll be revealing at Sylvia’s Conference.” He says.

Sylvia is the US Aquaponics evangelist, Sylvia Bernstein who has created one of the best Aquaponics forums and websites in the US and Murray and Sylvia have forged a deep friendship over the years. Murray will be a guest speaker at the conference and will reveal a few new things not mentioned in his DVDs.

“The thing is people think I’m some kind of guru in Aquaponics.” Says Murray, “But I just test and refine things that were created by others. Along the way, occasionally we discover new things and include them in our designs. Its not rocket science.” he says.

“Some of the best ideas were given to me by others who share their discoveries.”

“That’s all I’m doing – just passing the torch to others.” Says Murray.

Murray is very interested in looking at US Aquaponics systems and how people have built their designs.

“The US have a totally different climate to ours, I want to look at indoor systems and the way they light their greenhouses in Winter.”

“We have such mild winter in where I live in Queensland. In many ways we Australians are spoilt when it comes to Aquaponics. We have a great climate and great variety of native fish suitable for Aquaponics. When I’m in America I want to look at as many systems as possible and learn from the Americans. I get so inspired meeting people over there. I think I have more fun than the audience do. That’s why we do it.”

Its humility like this that leads Murray Hallam to be such a well-respected leader in Aquaponics around the world.

Ecofilms will be over at Orlando Florida with Murray. We hope to bring you some great interviews and inspiring video clips with some amazing people sharing what they’re doing in Aquaponics today.

Years ago there was an old expression applied to computer industry surrounding software programming – “Garbage in – Garbage out!”
That expression of what goes around, comes around can equally be applied to aquaponics and the biofiltration mechanism that keeps the whole system flourishing along nicely – the growbeds.
The filter system where the billions of bacteria survive can eventually get clogged up with fish solids and “dead zones” appear that turn the system nasty and unfriendly to growing plants or fish.

The question was how long will it take for the fish solid waste – the sh*t to build up to the point where some maintenance was needed and the system filter material the clay beads or hydroton or stone gravel media would eventually need to be taken out, replaced or cleaned?

Profile of a 5 year old gravel grow bed that has reached the end of its life

It was generally thought that the amount of fish solids and waste build up without any supplementary solids filtration would take around 18 months depending on fish load and growbed size and so on.
But with the introduction of compost worms that period for many aquaponics enthusiasts seemed to extend the life of the system and go on from one year to the next.

Worms are efficient to a certain extent but they are not the entire solution. The eventual question amongst members was how long before the system would crash and fail?

Maintenance
Every year was another milestone for Murray Hallam who builds some of the best Grow Beds in Australia from durable 300mm deep fiberglass.
His troughs are large solid and deep constructions and seemed to go on from one year to another without maintenance.
Many people felt that aquaponics system once running correctly were bullet proof and no maintenance was needed. But this is not true as Murray was the first to admit.

“Maintenance is required right through a well run an aquaponics system.” said Murray, “For example, we had a client return a pump that had clearly been run “dry” and was badly damaged. Became agitated when it was suggested that the pump had been run dry. “How can it be run dry when it is submersed in the fish tank????” he shouted with colourful adjectives.

“Easy really, the pump filter screen had never been cleaned, therefore the underwater pump was getting next to no water flow and in effect running dry. Terminal damage to the pump was only a matter of time.” Same principle applies to the growbed.

Fish poop and muck from 5 years of service

Anaerobic Dead Zones

Anaerobic bacteria begin to colonise parts of your growbed in areas where oxygen is not being delivered. The good aerobic bacteria are replaced with the other sort. A good tell tale sign is the pH will give you warning signals. Instead of creeping up gradually becoming more acid as it does in a healthy aerobic system, the pH drift will halt and reverse and become more alkaline.

This is what happened in Murray’s five year old growbed system.

“This particular system has, over the last few months started to show a slight rise in pH instead of the typical slow drop,” said Murray, “which is a pretty good indicator of anaerobic areas in the system somewhere. I suspect one or two “dead” areas in this bed.”

The solution was to dig out the media and wash it. Murray decided to replace the entire gravel media and use this old media to fill in pot holes in his driveway! Nutrient rich potholes!

Lee Sykes levels new gravel into the old bed

Replacing the Gravel
Three quarter inch gravel was used to replace the media in this old bed. “The new gravel was shoveled in and leveled, then the water turned back on to start the fill and drain cycle via the auto siphon.” said Murray.

Altogether about two hours work for Murray and his assistant Lee to replace the gravel. This new bed will take a number of weeks for the bacteria to reestablish and begin another 5 years of productive service producing an endless supply of vegetables and fish.

According to Murray, “Nothing is “self sustaining” or maintenance free in this world.”

“Everything requires some work and if I really have to dig up a (grow) bed once every 5 years, I reckon that is darn good.” he said.

“What other gardening method can give 5 years clear service of just planting and harvesting?”

If you want to learn more, get Murray Hallams Aquaponics Secrets DVD which takes you into the fascinating world of bacteria, growbeds and fish health in more detail.

How quickly does time fly? Since building and testing his innovative toteponics system based on CHOP2 technology we caught up with Aquaponics guru Murray Hallam to ask how its all been going? Murray immediately lights up with his usual enthusiasm, “Can you believe it – its 18 months since we built that first system and its still functioning perfectly well, day in day out.”

The DIY Aquaponics DVD that features how to build this system in detail has also been tremendously successful with aquaponics enthusiasts right around the world enjoying Murray’s laconic style of instruction. So successful that Murray has started building kits for those people who want to buy a CHOP2 system pre-built with all the fittings ready assembled.
You can buy the fitting directly from his website in Australia or from Sylvia Bernstein’s Aquaponics website in the US which has American plumbing parts that are slightly different from the Australian fittings. But both fittings will work just the same.

Murray Hallam in front of his CHOP 2 System

“We’re selling around three IBC CHOP2 kits a week, going out our door here in Australia!” says Murray.

Murray has a two to four months back order for his quality line of aquaponics system built from fibreglass. Murray says Australians love building and tinkering on weekends with Aquaponics. “Most people with a little handyman skills like to assemble it themselves,” says Murray, but there are others who want everything delivered.

“We cater for everyone.” he says.

“The only thing if you buy our IBC CHOP2 system that you will need to source yourself are the concrete blocks and timber sleepers to hold the tanks in place. These things can be found in any hardware store.” he said.
But are there any problems with assembling the kits? Murray says most people that ring him usually have difficulty locating the pdf instructions that come on the DVD. “We usually explain where to find it and what software they need to view the file on their computer.” he says. “But the response has been great.” Murray says he continually gets fan mail and thank you emails in his inbox.

“If people follow the instructions they will build themselves a quality Aquaponics system.” said Murray. “But they have to follow the instructions. All the measurements and parts needed are on the disk.”
“And if they don’t want to build it they can buy just the parts they require from me.” he said.

Murray clowning around with "Gary" his talking fish!

Murray has recently created a special CHOP2 Toteponics forum on his website where owners of these systems can upload photos of their systems, shoot the breeze and ask questions. “I gives people tremendous confidence to see their own system producing great vegetables and fish at home.”

When Murray Hallam launched CHOP2 he wasn’t alone from some critics who said his design was flawed because he recirculated the water in the system in an unusual way. “Some people said that the fish would go blind!” laughed Murray, “It’s a total furphy because some of the suspended solids get returned to the fish tank!”

But all the solids are eventually filtered through the growbeds as normal and 18 months later the fish have been harvested and the vegetables replanted.

“We currently have lettuce, asian greens, a mustard bush, tomatoes and an aloe vera plant transplanted from one of my other systems.” he said.

Being an innovator Murray has begun testing the juice from black soldier fly larvae as a source of nutrient for aquaponics. “I’m using it in the same way you would add worm-juice to a system.” He adds. “I want to see how well it performs.”

So are there any secrets under wraps that we can divulge to our readers? Murray teases us with his mischievous grin. “I got a new Aquaponics system design based on CHOP2 – and its a little beauty, but I can’t say anymore!”

Like a lot of Murray’s inventions – he wont release any more information until he knows it works.

Murray Hallam speaking at Permaculture Noosa on Aquaponics

Hope to see you there.

Whilst in Sydney we’ll also be filming a few backyard gardens with Geoff Lawton for the Urban Permaculture DVD. Many thanks to Permaculture North’s Penny Pyett for organizing the locations.

We’re also looking forward to seeing Murray’s new Aquaponic banners to be unveiled at the show. These are 6 foot high retractable screens that we created for his display. Murray had found a supplier late last week and eagerly contracted to have the banners printed – only to discover later that the supplier was located in China! Too late – the order had already been processed. We were assured that the banners were on their way and surprisingly enough made their way to Brisbane today. “Just Add Fish!” is my favorite. We know aquaponics is a little more complicated than that – but once you get it going properly perhaps we should have added “Just Add Fish – and pick your vegetables!”

Murray Hallam's colourful banners to adorn his Sydney Aquaponics Show

We’ve had our Aquaponics system running continually now for over two years and the system has matured very well over that time. Wandering around the system this morning and taking a careful look at the details, the crevices between the hydroton -the clay ball pellets that make up the bulk of the media in the growbeds, it becomes apparent at the wealth of small animal life that become attracted to your aquaponics system. But its not on the the floor of the bed or in the fish tank that supports a wealth of life. Its on the vegetable plant leaves that you’ll immediately see a living constellation of organisms visiting your system.

You can’t see the organisation of bacteria and funghi with the naked eye, but larger invertebrate life-forms are all interacting in a web of activity. For most part – we become blind to that activity and only notice the negative impact on our plants when and if they are invaded by mites or aphids or when our plants and leaves suddenly get attacked by larger insects like grasshoppers.

And indication of a healthy system is the number of diverse insect and life that become attracted to your system. In our case, this morning, we noticed something leaping from one leaf to another.
A Green Tree Frog, native to the area had made his home in our grow bed.

Here he is in these photo montage below wedged in between the stalks of a zucchini plant.

Its only when I snapped off a few more photos with a macro lens that I noticed other elements appearing in the photo that I couldn’t normally see. A fine spidery web is next to the frogs arm. Its a great place to ambush small flying insects like the tiny drosophilia fly and get a quick bite. You realize that there is more life here jumping around, predators eating smaller bugs and getting chomped on in turn by something much bigger.

Over the last two years a wander around the aquaponics system with a camera and tripod can yield an amazing dynamic of tiny life – not all of it beneficial – but a balance between predators and prey at work using your system as a backdrop to their daily activity.

Aquaponics is an Ecosystem and one that mimics the natural world. Biologist Dr Wilson Lennard addressing an audience at a Murray Hallam Aquaponics Workshop explains the microscopic life that is in the growbed amongst the compost worms living in the fish tank and plant roots.

If you decide to get into Aquaponics, sooner or later you are going to realize that your grow beds that you originally thought were too big to go into that tiny confined courtyard space have now made a liar of you. The plants are taking over the place and you are slowly running out of valuable space!

They call it “the madness” in Aquaponics – when you suddenly realize that your need more and more space to grow more and more fish and plants because Aquaponics by its nature is Rampant! Plants go berserk once they they experience how good this stuff is.

But don’t take my word on it – look at the pictures.

This is our system at Ecofilms just outside our office and what a welcome break it is to go outside and feed the fish and admire the growth of the plants.

If you spend some time feeding your fish you’ll tend keep an eye in the tank and forget about the vertical space above your head. A while back I had a number of cucumber seedlings that I knew would only grow one way and that was – up!

Today I suddenly looked up at the roof guttering and noticed a couple of dangling cucumbers. How did they get up there? Well the plant is a vine and it snuck up the trellis that I put in for some tomatoes but it didn’t stop there – it snaked up the line and ran along some roof guttering and is still flowering – leaving a trail of cucumbers bobbing in the wind like Christmas ornaments.

With Aquaponics – if you get it right – stuff like this will happen.

A good tip is to use your grow bed space wisely and plant your climbing plants in the corner of your grow beds – fully expecting them to either climb up – or trail over the sides and go straight down. You did want a garden of Eden in your back yard didn’t you? Well take advantage of the space above your grow-bed and the space below and you will get it delivered in spades so watch out!

Cucumbers hanging in the guttering!

The big photo above shows you a clump of courgettes or zucchinis as they are known in Australia. Rather than have them spill inside the grow-bed and take up valuable space for other plants, we decided to plant them in the corner so the whole plant will tumble over the edge. Thats a great way to use space that would normally be never used. We’ve used this same principal when growing a number of vegetables like eggplant and cherry tomatoes.

You will need to be careful when growing plants in vertical space. There’s a good example on Murray Hallam’s Aquaponics Secrets DVD where he had constructed a timber scaffold above his system to accommodate all his tomato vines. The problem he discovered later was that the timber scaffold when heavily planted with tomatoes would effectively shade other plants in his greenhouse and stunt their growth. So do take a careful note of where the sun travels over your system and plan any vertical growth to take advantage of as much sunshine. Plants love at least 6 hours of sun so design any vertical trellis or timber supports away from the light and allow the shade to fall away from other plants. We’re lucky because our system faces North East it captures a lot of sun and any shade tends to fall onto our house or window, shading the office in the hot summer.

Get ready Sydney as Aquaponics  is about to rock your town! One Day only!

The one day workshop with Dr Wilson Lennard, one of the world’s leading scientific experts on Aquaponics will be flanked by SBS-TV Gardening Guru Costa Georgiadis and our own Murray Hallam. You all know Murray Hallam of course, an experienced Aquaponics Kit manufacturer and presenter of all those great Aquaponics DVDs that we make at Ecofilms.

This rare event is scheduled to be held on Sunday 17th April at the CASULA POWERHOUSE Liverpool, Sydney from 8am till 5pm.

Book Now. Seats are limited. Click here to book your place.

You will learn:

• Both the theory and practice of Aquaponics will be discussed.

• How to understand and manage your own Aquaponics system.
• A brief history of Aquaponics and how it fits in today’s water scarcity situation, and localised food production.
• Important considerations when building or procuring your own home system.
• The plants and fish that can be successfully grown in Aquaponics systems.
• System management, water quality, plant health, pest control, the nitrogen cycle.
• Hand out lecture notes to take home with you.

Speakers are:

Costa Georgiadis

Costa Georgiadis is an Australian landscape architect and television personality, best known as the host of the SBS TV gardening show, Costa’s Garden Odyssey
Costa initially studied languages in an Arts Degree before finding his true calling and transferring to the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree at the University of NSW. His final year thesis titled Green Cities of the Future: Ecology, Sustainability, Awareness and Responsibility for the Enrichment of Human Settlements was the road map upon which Costa moved out into the world. Settling in Austria and Prague as his base for 6 years, Costa found work in the landscape industry working for a Vienna based company specializing in ‘eco’ swimming ponds and rooftop gardens. On returning to Australia he then worked as project manager for Sydney based landscape architects Urban Landscape Projects. He also undertook additional studies in Freshwater Aquaculture at Armidale TAFE, and Catchment Management at Macquarie University. Costa has also installed Aquaponics systems as featured in his popular TV show.

Dr Wilson Lennard

Dr Wilson Lennard (PhD), is an Australian scientist, commercial aquaponics systems builder and researcher with a PhD in Applied Biology, specializing in the optimization of commercial aquaponics systems. Dr Lennard has studied and worked with Dr Jim Rakocy the world’s leading scientific authority on Aquaponics  as well as consulting, designing and building aquaponic system for clients around the world. He has also featured as a guest speaker on previous Murray Hallam Aquaponic Workshops held in Brisbane Australia. Dr Wilson is an engaging speaker with a no nonsense approach to Aquaponics. You will learn a great deal from his very open and frank discussion on building and running backyard aquaponicss systems.

Murray Hallam

Murray Hallam is an Aquaponics systems builder for home, schools, farm and commercial enterprises. As well as presenting Aquaponics through his popular DVD’s that are enjoyed around the world, Murray has conducted Aquaponics seminars across the east coast of Australia and the USA. Murray has pioneered the production of Home Based Aquaponics Premium kits which are sold across Australia and more recently exported them to the USA, Bermuda and other places. An inspiring and entertaining speaker, Murray ability to explain Aquaponics simply without mystery and his genuine warmth endears him to people around the world.

This is a rare event to listen, learn,  take notes, ask questions and plan your own backyard aquaponics system from the leaders of Aquaponics systems design in Australia.

Sunday 17th April at the CASULA POWERHOUSE Liverpool, Sydney from 8am till 5pm

Book Now. Seats are limited. Click here to book your place.