I'm a newbie to both your forum and Aquaponics an wanted to introduce myself my name is Robert I live in south east part of Florida in the USA I have never really been a successfully garden (hate pulling weeds) well except for my pineapple garden. I decide I need to do something to supplement my monthly grocery bill which seems to be increase yet we seem to get less food
I have been researching on the web goggle articles to read and of course watching youtube videos attempting to get a good understand before I start buying materials and I still have plenty of unawsner stuff still to research
around here the IBC tote are around selling for $195 each , then there other choices like rubber made oval tanks etc etc I haven't priced it out yet but I'm almost thinking it would be just as cheap for me to buy a couple of sheets of aluminum and build some 10' long tanks anyway I am still a few weeks away form doing that
OK so far this is what I want to do(or think is what I want) I am unsure if I have to keep a AP system in a greenhouse or screen enclosure or just in the open yard so I am going to use my screen porch and have two areas about 10'-12' long to put AP systems there is shade but plenty of sun light and our average temps are warmer then most though a few nights a year we get freeze warnings . I want to use "floating beds" most I have seen use Styrofoam but one guys used wood floats and I am unsure if I add bedding materiel to the insert cup or just put the seed in there? (more research) . the reason I want to use the floating bed is so I raise fresh water prawns in the top grow beds as they need to be keep separate form the fish form what I have read , unfortunately they don't produce enough waste for the plants so I still need fish tanks I was thinking about perch or trout I'm personal not a big fan of talipia , hopeful this will provide a balanced AP system I am also unsure at this point how much I would have to feed the fish and prawns ? or how to package the eggs for later use in a hatchery ??????
For water pumps I have a 110v pool pump but don't want to pay the electric bill so I wanted to try some 560gph 12v submersible pumps I have and use a harbor freight solar panel to charge the battery and a electric float charger if the battery gets to low at night.
For water heater I figure I could find some cheap used solar pool heater panels around here and maybe build a waste oil or a electric water-heater for a back up
I'd also like to build a couple strawberry towers out of PVC to tie into the main AP system .
I am horrible with proper names of stuff and that effects my information searches often so if anyone has suggestions for proper names of things to goggle please post them up
also if my line of thinking about what I want to set up please speak up now before I start buying stuff .
