Quote:
Originally Posted by Ahmabeliever
I can help you produce easy tidal tanks and ponds. I've been into Aquaponics for several years and use auto siphons to run ebb and flow systems.
The most basic of these designs is a loop siphon. Here's one
Siphons - Aquaponicswiki.com MediaWiki
The pipe in a pipe is good too, really good for aesthetics. I don't use the u bend at the bottom or the wee piece of hose off the side to assist the siphon to stop, mine stops. The depicted arrangement is different though, my pipe in pipe design has my garden directly above the tanks, The authors garden is to the side.
We could take this subject up elsewhere if you wish just start a thread and notify me where it is. |
Last night the ABC had al ittle segment ("filler") lifted from its usually conservative, "
Landline" programme about rural issues.
This segment was about a farming family in WA who are 100K from the coast growing seaweed!
It seems that after chopping down all the trees, this area N. of Perth, has a soil salinity problem. Long trenches of salt-water have been built below the drainage? line.
In these and in dams enterprising farmers are growing seaweed.
They have a family picnic & surf at the coast and bring back heaps of seaweed in Eskies that they then seed into their salt water dams and drainage channels.
As the clip was probably from an old show I can't find the segment on the ABC site (which is VAST!)
But a little while ago I mused/speculated that agar might hep 'wee beasties' and 'critters' in the soil; as this was what laboratories grew bacteria on in petrie dishes.
The chemists said "Great idea MikeA but it is too expensive"
Well can farmers produce their own agar + charcoal?
I did find this one reference on the ABC site
Quote:
Fed Govt backs mid-west seaweed scheme
Posted Wed Dec 20, 2006 11:46am AEDT
The Federal Government has thrown its support behind an initiative to breed seaweed in salt affected inland areas of mid-west Western Australia.
The Shire of Morowa and the Morowa Farm Improvement Group have obtained $130,000 to fund the pilot program.
A 12 month trial to breed the seaweed species gracilaria will be staged in two dams on a farming property.
The trial is only the second to be held in Australia, with another project in Victoria about to start phase two of its trial program.
Shire chief executive officer Gavin Treasure says the funding will ensure the mid-west trial proceeds next year.
"Its' ground breaking in terms of what we're trying to achieve," he said.
"It's just great that the Federal Government has seen the means to support us in our proposal.
"We're looking forward to having some people on the ground in the new year to start the work off, get the ponds prepared and plant some seaweed and see how we go."
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Fed Govt backs mid-west seaweed scheme - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Quote:
Farmers turn their salinity problems into profit
PRINT FRIENDLY EMAIL STORY
AM - Friday, 4 March , 2005 08:32:00
Reporter: Rachel Carbonell
TONY EASTLEY: Salinity is one of Australia's biggest environmental problems. Each year it costs farmers tens of millions of dollars in lost agricultural production.
But a group of farmers in Victoria's north-west have found a new way to harness salinity for the greater good. They're using the salty ground water, which has ruined much of their pasture and wetlands, to grow a product which is in short supply around the world.
Rachel Carbonell reports.
RACHEL CARBONELL: The township of Donald in north-western Victoria is one of the most salt affected farming regions in the state.
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AM - Farmers turn their salinity problems into profit
Quote:
WA Wheatbelt tries seaweed as cash crop
Posted Thu Jan 11, 2007 2:17pm AEDT
Farmers in the Western Australian Wheatbelt town of Morawa could soon be growing seaweed as a new cash crop.
It will be grown in drains used to catch hyper-saline water run-off from salt-affected farmland.
Project manager Cameron Tubby, who is organising a large scale trial, says the dried plant can fetch up to $1,000 a tonne for use in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
"The original results we've been getting, is somewhere between six and eight tonnes of dry seaweed per hectare, per year, so at this stage we are putting in half hectare ponds," Mr Tubby said.
"We need a target growth rate of 3 per cent per day and a small trial we did a bit over 18 months ago now, in the middle of winter produced a 2.5 per cent growth rate per day, so we're not too far off it now."
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WA Wheatbelt tries seaweed as cash crop - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Lots of other interesting links if you are REALLY interested
Seaweed linked to possible cancer treatment
13 Oct 2003 - 234 weeks ago
Seaweed-coated insulin offers diabetes treatment hope - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Seaweed spray extends shelf life of apples - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
