Hello everyone! Greetings from Southern California. After several months of research and lurking these forums, I have finally ready to get started.
At first I had a hard time deciding what fish to grow in my climate (it varies widely, 50s in the winter to 80s in the summer), but I finally settled on Tilapia in a greenhouse. Maybe catfish in the 2nd tank along with feeder fish, or freshwater shrimp if I can maintain high enough temperatures.
With the help of a family friend who happens to be a carpenter, we were able to finish the frame of the greenhouse in two days.
(here is the completed frame shot from the front)
(from above)
So I've spent the last couple of days trying to finalize my design and here is what I have come up with. The way that the the ground slopes is to the right and slightly forward if you are looking at it from the front. However, my design is going to require a little bit of grading on the low side because that is the spot I want the fish tank to start and flow down in the the grow beds. But other than that, thus far, this is the design I've come up with that seems to provide the most space.
Here is the layout I have in mind. (Google Sketchup is really cool!)
Top View from the Front
The models arent 100% complete, but I think this should give you the basic idea. The pictures are roughly to scale and the dimensions of the greenhouse are 18ft wide and 20ft long, about 10 ft high in the center.
Edit: Ok so I am trying to figure out this picture hosting thing, will post pictures as soon as I can figure it out.
Backyard Aquaponics
