The system.

Last week at the Asia ECHO conference I was talking with a colleague who runs a fish hatchery and development project supporting villagers farming tilapia fish.  We’ve been looking for some projects to do at ISDSI, specifically related to urban sustainability since our office is, after all, located in the city of Chiang Mai.  He mentioned “barrel-ponics” as a way to do it in an urban setting, so I jumped on google at the break and looked it up.

So I found the website F.A.S.T. and the manual for building a barrel-ponics system, along with lots of great information elsewhere online. The author of the manual, Travis W. Hughey writes:

First let me explain that you do not have to have a college degree to be successful with aquaponics on the home level.  Just like you do not have to understand the chemical process that goes on during combustion in the engine of your car to successfully operate it you do not need to fully understand the complexities of the biochemistry involved in aquaponics.  You do need to know a few things though just as you do to operate your car.  If you get the chance to attend an aquaponics course or seminar I highly recommend it.  If not there is always the school of hard knocks.  Just be sure you start small.  That’s what this manual is all about.

That sounds about right for us!

The system is great — fish supply nutrients to plants, which then filter the water for the fish.  Built using simple technology, this could easily be built in Thailand in urban areas using local resources and know-how. It would be easy enough to hook the pump up to a small solar cell and battery.

So we’re hoping to start one at ISDSI, and hopefully as a student project which we could then monitor and learn from.  We’re also working on a worm bin as well as urban chickens.  We’ll keep you posted!