Just dropping an introduction thread to start things off. Me and a few of my friends have been doing a lot of research on this method of growing.
I am looking for others in the Alabama area that are running systems that dont mind a newbie to visit or give advice on starting out with supplies and such.
Here is the long introduction...
I currently have a 1/4 acre garden that my wife and I start as soon as we can, I am located in Northern Alabama near Gadsden. We started harvesting many of our earlier growing plants like Peas and Yellow beans a few weeks ago and the wife firmly stated that she does NOT want another winter of us not having fresh veggies, here comes a green house...
I grew up in North Dakota and besides having our farm, we had 4 250 foot greenhouses that we grew European Burpless cucumbers and vine ripened tomatoes. I learn a lot about maintaining these 2 plants and they are our main food source during the summer now for my family. During the summer we pick around 20-30 14-16 inch cucumbers a day and 10-20 lbs of tomatoes and we eat them all in my family of 6.
I had planned on making raised bed dirt growing in the green house since they are easier to maintain, not bending over so much, but after seeing the aquaponics I was really excited about it. I could live on fish and veggies and would love to if buying fish at the store wasnt so darn expensive. I still plan on having 2-4 48x40 raised beds for plants that I am not sure will do so well in a continuously wet environment, like peppers, and then 4-8 aquaponics beds.
I have done some CAD designs for how I want my system to be laid out. I am in the process of buying 8 of the 275 gallon square containers and going to be hooking them in sections of 4 and putting them 75% in the ground to help maintain water temperature as well as ease of access and eliminate the need for the cage around the fish tank. I will have hoses hooked to the outlets for draining if needed serviced by an old pool pump I had from an above ground pool.
I have changed the design a bit from the video making the planting tray travel on a linear bearing system so that it can slide in and out for ease of access. (I am a Production/Design/Mechanical Engineer and I sit around all day thinking of ways to make things easier, more efficient and more effective)
A friend of mine located 4 VERY big swimming large pool and filers that a local pool had thrown out when they updated their system. I had planned on using these to catch rain water from my house downspouts Each still has the plumbing and I am doing a bit more research on the filtering required and may use them in the system if it is required. (I have cleaned them extensively)
Backyard Aquaponics
