Not less steps; this is the OG aquaponics method and has been around for hundreds of years. Everything else is just refining for efficiency and space limitations.
Agreed. This community has been more active lately and I love it! I just hope it means people aren't spending their time here instead of in their garden!!
I was going to comment on the first post but there's nothing to add here. I don't even understand how 6 floor mats tossed in a pond with zero foresight or research got the number of articles it did. Someone saw a post on Instagram and thought "we can put flowers in the pond!". "Because of algae"
Is there anything that can eat the algae? Nahhhh
Are the native bank or aquatic plants that will suck up the nitrates? Nahhhhh
Are there viable floating hydroponic systems growing plants suitable for hydroponics? Nahhhhhhhhh
Yes, this type of foam is used for docks, boats, sports, and more importantly... this is what the original papers used. All of the parts are rated for water, temperature, and UV resistance.
That was my first thought, along the lines of 'how much plant mass will you need to significantly reduce N in the water, enough so that it has sufficient reduction of unwanted photosynthesis'? I look forward to reading of your progress.
The projects they are doing in Florida say they are targeting 10% surface coverage, that would be unrealistic in our situation, so we're just going to do our best and balance cost/looks/effort with effectiveness.
Interesting, so less than 10% might be sufficient for your needs? That dosen't sound too onerous. I was at Fairchild Tropical Garden in Miami, FL some years ago. They had a small pond, roughly 20X30 feet more or less, with Amazonian plants. Initially the local algae was interfering with the Amazonian species, so they put black dye in the water to inhibit the algae. At the time, there was also a showing of Dale Chihuly's glass work in the garden, including several 1-2 ft. multicolored spheres floating the the black water of the Amazonian pond; looking like alien planets floating in the darkness of space. It may well have been this pond, pictured.
Well, to get to 10% coverage on this pond, we would need 700 of these islands (assuming they were all the same size), which would mean we needed to prep around 37,000 plants every winter to install every spring.
We'll probably shoot for a more realistic target to start with.
Unless you’re securing the sections together beyond the interlocking bits I’d expect to eventually run into a scenario where everything breaks apart too.
I didn't look very close at the growing medium, so the "spill" looked like deer poops and I imagined a deer was tricked onto water and literally all the shit was scared out of 'em when they fell in
Happy to see your garden was salvaged and improved, but a little sad that my deer theory wasn't accurate
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