Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

First off I want to start with saying. JEALOUS OF THIS. that is one sweet set up. Deffinetly wicked jealous. I have two questions. I will admit I am guilty of "skimming" through all the words. As reading was never my strong suit haha. But having said first question will be what aqua life will you be supporting in this system? Also my next question being, under the float trays will you also be adding fish to the long grow beds? Deffinetly have to say you did an amazing job and may have to incorporate some of your ideas into my next system.

Thanks.

right now i have channel catfish in one fish tank and a mix of bluegill and red eared sunfish in the other. I do mostly native type fishes. Another species i dont have right now but will probably raise from time to time is hybrid striped bass.


I have been feed training some crappie in my garage and they will be moved to the ferrocement fish tank later this week.

i keep minnows in the DWC grow beds for mosquito control... when i was planting rafts last night i noticed a lot of snails already starting to invade so i may put a couple of red eared sunfish (shellcrackers) in there for snail control.. but generally speaking no, i dont prefer to put fish in grow beds. I want the fish waste and food particles to be filtered out before the grow beds otherwise you risk clogging suffocating the roots. The fish i put in the grow beds are for practical purposes but insignificant to my overall fish load.

baby steps ... a little progress every day... thats meno (Me No) patrolling at the end of the bed

nikita was so impressed she brought me a present

Thanks for the fast response! Once agian gorgeous system! I love the use of native fish in your system. The use of red ear to control the snails is deffinetly a good idea! Those snails would get cleaned out rather quickly. Best of luck on the system, I can't wait to see how this turns out!

Its feeding time.. I feed twice a day. One tank is only channel catfish the other tank has a mix of bluegill and red eared sunfish.

I try to coexist with the predators so i try to feed around the spider blocking the opening to the bg-res tank

Nice system

"But i will stop pretending like people read the text and just let you look at the new pictures..." I for one love the words, but then again I make file names which describe what the picture is just to be certain readers get the best notion of what I mean.
Where is the Ferroconcrete system in comparison to this new system?
The MBBR you built is killer, not to mention the dual mineralization tanks, wow!

Lookin' pretty cool! That's going to be alot of greens!

you got me boss... i admit, i was intentionally situating the camera to leave off the ferro tank for the time being. Truth be told it was not yet planted, shaded, aerated and i still need to add some filtration before the grow bed.

But i got it shaded and planted this weekend. Its filled with tropical type plants and trees. Last year i dug out all the trees and brought them inside and it was a complete hassle with the roots going everywhere. This year i am experimenting with the grow bags keeping the roots more manageable and easier to yank up the bananas and bring them indoor for their dormancy/winter. I figure worst case the roots grow through the bags but it will still be a good boundary to cut roots if i need to

my back yard slopes so the grow beds are close to the house and the water drains back down to the sump.

The picture didnt come out well, but i am using one of web4dev's bell siphons and a picture of the inlet to the fish tank that comes from the sump tank.


i am just taking a break right now. The next on the agenda (hopefulky complete it today) is to add a settling tank and sand filter between the ferro fish tank and the grow bed to keep solids out of the grow bed. I also want change how the water comes from the sump to the DWC beds. Instead of straight there. i send the water to the ferro fish tank then after the sand filter half goes to the ferro grow bed and half to the DWC beds. I think this will polish the water and keep more solids out of the DWC .

BTW. info to all the dallas area people. All of that green shadecloth i am using is second hand and was no cost to me from a local PGA tour golf tournament that is happening this weekend.... so NEXT week watch craigslist. The people who clean up sometimes give out the carpet and shade cloth for free. Its all brand new except for the 1 weekend of use. The only flaws are sometimes some SMALL tears where they rip down the shade cloth which was pined up with zip ties.


picture is from last year... i filled up my car passenger seat... back seat and trunk...

When i was in college, i built a 3 stage homebrew station. I made lots of beer with that rig. But alas, i have not used it in over 5 years. The copper was turning green and the plastic on the motors was cracking. Its time to either clean it up and repair it or throw it away and since i dont use it there was really no decision to be made. I was staring at it trying to figure out if i need to call bulk trash pickup or if i can cut it down into small enough pieces to fit in a can... when i was like... why not reuse it. The structure will last forever.. so, i unmounted the motors, cut off all the copper and turned it into a seedling starter table. Which can also be used as the first stage to harden off plants i started indoors. On the side of the house there it only gets 3-4 hours of direct sunlight every day (at most). The roof is really intended to keep the runoff/drip from house from pelting the plants not so much for shade.

If you have watched my threads you have seen that i have lost fish in the past due to power failers and when gfi/breakers trip... 

i have no doubt i have lost several hundred dollars worth of fish over the last 3 or so years.... as i ramp up, it was really important to me to mitigate this risk. just think 9 months form now i could have about 100 2+ lb channel cats and 500 bg/res/crappie at .5-.75 lbs... if i was to buy fish of that size it would be over a thousand dollars.. not to mention the emotional loss of spending a year raising fish and them all being used as compost.



So i have invested in a two part strategy for monitoring....

1) there is an audible alarm that sounds if the circuit goes down

2) I found this little doodad online that will text me when there is  a power outage...It was actually made to detect flooding in basements, but it also alerts when it loses power... So i have it on the same circuit as my aquaponics and i put the sensor next to my hot water heater.. So as a bonus i have it keeping an eye on that for extra value... its a couple hundred dollars and the cell phone subscription is about 50$ a year but i think its easy to tell how worthwhile it is given the value of what i am protecting.. When it loses power it text my two cell phones, one of which also sends me emails.... 












if i am at home and asleep i probably wont hear/wake up to a text and an email but i the audible alarm is definitely loud enough... If i am at work or not at home when my power goes out (it always seems to happen during the day/morning when the cable company is digging, amirite?) i should be able to get home and handle the situation. I have higher density than most but it's not really that high.. i should have 2-3 hours to get home and get the generator running before things go really bad.. Maybe only an hour in the hottest days of summer, but i work only 35 mins away....

The golf tournament finished last week and again there is copious amounts of gently used shade cloth and carpet (and other stuff) available for free pickup..

if you are in the dallas area and interested check out "Shelgeyr's Systems" thread

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