Urban aquaponic farming for food security

Fish tank and media bed with plants growing

Adding a new species to the system: A catfish, "Schilbeidae" family

8 sqare meter growing space: Media beds and NFT-system

Urban aquaponic farming: Soilless and landless, but productive!

Upscaling the aquaponic system
We are currently upscaling our aquaponic system for more production. In total we will have 8 square meter of growing space, and 500 liter water volume. Various growing methods are applied, such as media beds, NFT-pipe system as well as a raft system to raise seedlings. 

The aquaponic system get additional tanks and pipes

Connecting the pipes and tanks

 Wood is used for the foundation of the growbeds and tanks

Plumbing the overflow to feed the growbeds

 

Aquaponic system comes back alive after re-stocking with additional Tilapias

 After only 4 weeks of growth, the peanuts in the aquaponic system starting to flowering, which initiates the growth of the nuts below the surface. A few more weeks left and we will harvest some of them already.

We have added a few more Tilapias catched in nearby streams in order to improve the performance of the system and the nutrient supply. We still don´t have enough fish, therefore we need to go out again and catch more... The need of a professional fish fingerling supplier is crucial for Sierra Leone!

A big chili pepper plant showing already fast growth. Other plants like spring onions, ground nuts, tomatoes and cucumbers are also sprouting up.

Tomatoe plant showing strong growth in soiless media beds. (gravel)

The veranda system: We will reshape and extend the system in the coming days and include a NFT-system to it. In total we will have a 500 liter system, powered by a 10w pump on a total area of 15 square meters growing space. When fully running, the system shall produce at least 50 USD income per months. The overall costs of the system, including the labour, is expected to be around 300 USD. We will put the whole system under a locally constructed greenhouse to enhance growth. Stay tuned for upcoming developments!

 And a very important factor in aquaponic production is the human resource: Our aquaponic ladies Rachel...

...and Hawa are talking care of the plants. We heard plants grow faster if you talk to them nicely... ;)

Lessons learnt: 
The aquaponic system we recently started showing slow growth due to lack of fertilizer. We stocked 25 Tilapia fingerlings in a 200 liter barrel of which the majority had a fungal infection of the fish sails. The health of fingerlings is crucial in aquaponics and a threat to the wealth of the whole system. As there are no commercial fingerling producers in Sierra Leone, we had to rely on local fishermen catching fingerlings in the nearby fresh water streams. Out of the 25 fingerlings, only 4 survived. This amount is too small to produce enough nutrients for the system. We will re-stock in the comming days, and this time carefully watch for any signs of infection or desease. Although we lost many fish due to the desease, we can still see a healthy filtration and a clear water... We will take it from there and improve on the system within the next days.

 3 out of 4 fish which survived the infection

 Groundnuts (peanuts) doing well in the aquaponic system

Spring onions from the first start and a new pepper plant. 
 In the next days we will include a sump tank as well as a NFT-pipe system and a floating raft system to our system. We want to maximise the output of this 10 watts aquaponic system by producing as much plants as possible. Stay tuned!
 

 Barrel aquaponic system with spring onion cutting

 3 days after planting, spring onions show fast growth

 Aquaponic in urban Freetown

Fast growth of spring onions in the aquaponic system

3 days after planting spring onion cuttings in the aquaponic system, we can already see a fast growth in the plants. An aquaponic system take time for all useful bacteria to establish, so in the first 3 months we will mostly plant leafy greens like salad and spring onions and gradually shift to vegetables like tomatoes and sweet pepper, once the biological balance is established in the system. Stay tuned for upcoming updates on growth.

Aquaponic: A business case for women?

 

Aquaponic system at the Salone Aquaponic office

 

Aquaponic is a good way to promote female empowerment and employment through economic integration and training. Salone Aquaponic is promoting gender equality and encourage women to start business. Aquaponic can be a profitable source of income especially for women when growing fish and vegetables in a closed loop system.

 Spring onions newly planted in the aquaponic system

 2-barrel aquaponic system using a 10w pump

 The growbeds with spring onion cuttings

 The other growbed with the freshly planted spring onion cuttings

 Spring onion cuttings

Piping and water drain in the barrel aquaponic system at Salone Aquaponic office, Freetown

Salone Aquaponic has finalized the new small scale aquaponic system at the office premises in Freetown Sierra Leone. The system is powered by a 10 w submersible pump and using only gravel and fish feaces to grow any type of vegetables... Stay tuned till the first harvest!