Week 137: Macadamia cutting finally germinated!

[@iAVs-Sandponics]

Here is a system breakdown:
Sand
One of the beds uses sand that is used underneath synthetic turf, it is sized at .2mm to 1mm and is not recommended. The other bed uses a coarse sand, used for underneath pavers, it is sized at .4 to 1.2mm and is highly recommended.
Water
From November 2023 to June 14 2024, our daily water use was only 0.01% per day due to the fact the our grow beds were not covered, and we had fairly consistent rain over those months.
pH
We check it 3 times a week but after this system matured (in about 5 weeks) the pH never changes and stays at 6.4.
TAN
We check it 3 times a week but it has never been an issue.
Fish Food
We use properly formulated commercial feeds of floating pellets and feed the fish twice a day to satiation. It costs $15 a kilo (we plan on getting it in bulk to bring the cost down)
Fish
This system was meant to be temporary and so it ran on about 10 goldfish until April 2024 when we replaced them with 118 jade perch fingerlings.
Air Pump
We have an air pump with built in battery backup in case of power and/or water pump failure. It is 12 watts and it runs 24 hours per day.
Water Pump
Our water pump has a digital controller to set the flow rate. It currently runs at 12 watts for a total of 2 hours per day and is a DC pump so we can connect it to solar.
Timer
A mechanical electrical timer is used to set the irrigation schedule for the water pump.
Irrigation
The grow beds are irrigated for 15-20 minutes (until the sand is saturated) every 2 hours during the day, there is no irrigation at night. Each irrigation cycle should pump 25% of the volume of the fish tank.
Fish Tank
1000L in a catenary shape, lined with a food safe EPDM liner.
Heater
We added a 50W heater for the months of June and July as it is too cold for the fish. It runs 24 hours per day.
Grow Beds
2.4m x 1.2m and 30cm deep. Sloped 5 cm towards the drain.
Diary
We keep a diary to record our observations and track pH and TAN tests, daily temperatures, feeding rates and any other notes.
Plumbing
Some hoses to irrigate the water, 2 valves to set the flow rate for each bed, and a puddle flange for a drain on each bed.
Costs
With Australian electricity priced at about 30c a kilowatt, this system costs $3.17 per day, or $13.60 a month.
We are looking for a better supplier of fish food, we are currently paying $15 a kilo, we will calculate the costs and update this soon.....
Solar
We are in the process of setting this up and will update with all the details when we can.
Bell Syphon? No!
There is no syphon at all.
Extra Filtration? No!
There is no extra filtration.
Supplements? No!
There are no supplements.
We learned about this from www.iAVs.info