Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

You ap setup is great looking. not your average ibc painted tote or industrial tank. love it.

That is some fine woodwork there!

Howdy fellow Wildcat. Neat system. How goes the expansion? As someone that has dug plenty of holes in our miserable desert ground, I sympathize with the work involved.

I have been tinkering on so many projects from Aquaponics to Rainwater fed food forests in urban backyards. Life is good when you invest time in your interests, and when your focus is on growing food the rewards are delicious and sometimes unusually delightful. After a year or two of hosting and eating sweet potato greens I finally checked for some tubers. To my surprise, some interestingly shaped yet lovely tubers had grown deep down in my lava rock filled media bed. I had no idea that this experimental sweet potato vine would yield more than delicate tasty greens.

Heres a pic of the tubers freshly pulled. They smell like worm castings due to lots of worm activity in the media bed.

Who said Aquaponics is only applicable to growing greens and peppers? I've done well with melons cucumber okra and sweet potatoes. But yes greens and herbs grow wonderfully in AP.

My 9 months of Saturday aquaponics volunteerism at my local Hindu temple and ashram have begun to bare fruit. A large aquaponic system in excess of 14000 gallons is flowing smoothly. Comprised of one large 8000 gallon mature koi pond, one large solids filter, one large in ground algae grow bed, three large in-ground media grow beds and a 300 gallon sump tank, this system may be the largest privately funded aquaponic system in the Tucson area. It is certainly the largest i have constructed so far. the system was designed and built to be thermally insulated using the sunken earthen beds and heavily mulched with wood chips. The design also includes worms, saprophytic fungi, volcanic media, and best of all an algae bed or aquatic plant and invertebrate grow bed to provide food for the koi fish in the form of worms snails shrimp duckweed and azolla.

I know it's old now.. But how is it all going..?
and how/what was the Fungi for...
..
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its going great the first round of lettuces have been eaten and a whole lot more is to come. The fungi play the same role in the AP system as they do in nature. Yet another component of nutrient cycling and filtration, the fungi are excellent companions to veggies in the garden supplying trace minerals that the plants may be unable to mine for themselves.

wonderful builds, sure would love to see a few pics of the large system

Yes please.....just sending a bump for an update