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Metz

In a related project these guys have a free manual for raising food via aquaponics.

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/component/content/article/180.html

Jiff64138

Thanks for the link. IBC can be had for about 75-250 dollars,pretty cheap, question is what they had in the container before hand.

Metz

true, the CEB (with 10% cement)blocks if covered in stucco cement and a waterproofing compound or lined with vinyl will work to make a IBC system. I have a cement block water fountain constructed in a similar manner as a IBC for fish

DreamBuilder

Metz that a good manual! This link is also well known http://www.aquaponics.net.au/ good idea the backup switch, fish die real quick with no oxygen.

I have studied Agriculture + Aquaculture and am involved with Certified Organic / Biodynamic farm certification. My hope is that persons doing aquaponics realise some important points. None of these systems or materials is allowed under Organic Certification for very good reason!

NB: The world is full of oestrogen mimicking chemical compounds. These change animal + human endocrine systems. Alligators in Florida cannot copulate because of minute genitals, trout in Europe produce sperm too early in the season; because of these compounds from plastics, plasticisers etc. The trout issue was found to be PVC drainage pipes!!!!

IBCs polymer in aquaponics is a 'food grade' HDPE (5ppb allowed to leach out of material= FDA) the IBCs do break down in UV in time (painting will help), the PVC swimming pool plastic pipes used are not for 'potable water'. That PVC is usually blue for mains water. PVC exposed to sunlight should be UPVC.

So system sellers might sell Aquaculture HDPE tanks (with UV inhibitors) allowed to food production but the rest of the system is not up to any standard.

There are PP (polypropylene) food grade heat fusion pipe systems available (need acrylic paint on outside exposure) or the black PE pipes used in farming would be better that PVC. The glues used in PVC joins are toxic.

Metz

For Africa a more suitable material would be recycled materials simply due to cost considerations. Cement containers, clay, steel, recycled glass bottle formed into pipes. You would be amazed at the vast amounts of recyclable trash strewn across Africa. Africa in many places is a trash strewn slum. It is likehaving money at your feet and throwing it away. You could make a fortune just by setting up a scrap yard and collecting the 50 years worth of steel cans, aluminum cans at the port of Djibouti.

jerryshaw

thanks to Dreambuilder for those comments... i've been looking into aquaponics myself and was wondering about issues like leeching in plastics and such.

It should also be kept in mind about offering multiple alternatives with harm reduction as the main goal... there may be alot of solutions which have notable compromises to health or safety and such but if the alternative is say starvation, no food, homelessness, freezing to death, then perhaps a bad solution is better than no solution. It can sometimes make the difference of surviving or not surviving just long enough to allow someone to then upgrade to the 'proper' solution once the other crisis taking their money has passed.

I have been (and will continue to make) other posts that are mostly of interest to those under more severe poverty but which other designers may consider to be a distraction or unnecessary compromise because it's substandard... for myself as an example substandard is all I will be able to afford for quite some time and yet I still need access to these technologies myself. For my aquaponics project for instance i'm hoping to raise my own fish "no worse" than what is bought at the store to start, and to move to something with no plastics anywhere as soon as it's possible to do so or/and i've verified that yes I can keep the fish alive and otherwise surviving for instance. I'm hoping I wouldn't have to have less than perfect fish for more than 2 or 3 years at worst.

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