Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Don't worry, the walls won't be anywhere near air-tight. I was thinking I'd hang the foam board from the rafters, and kinda keep them together w/a rope or something.

I bought some LED grow lights this weekend. I'll give more info about how I set them up, etc. as I go along.

My butterhead lettuce is peaking out! I need to get my setup set up so I can put the plants in their final home!

What about using Solar Tubes for lighting?

My house isn't very well configured for solar tubes. I'd love to use them, though.

Getting closer to finished!





Tomorrow, after the silicone has set, I'll see if the system is watertight. Then I'll start cycling!

(p.s. could a superdooper admin add a subtitle to this thread with 'using LED lights' or something similar?)

Cool, Where did you purchase your hydroton? I am almost finished with my barrel system as well. Fish are supposed to arrive on the 28th.

I bought my hydroton at a local hydroponics shop, www.interiorgardens.com. It can be bought cheaper on-line, but with the shipping costs, I wasn't sure I'd save, and besides, I didn't want to have to deal with boxes that big.

What fish are you going to use, and where did you get them?

Karen, you can change the title of your own threads, by going back to the first post and editing it, change the title there.

I think I am going to use catfish to start with. I was just going to use goldfish, but the catfish are not much more. Orchelens Farm and Home Store have Fish Days like their Chick Days. They have a minimum order of 25 fish. so the rest will go into a stock tank for now.

Channel Cat .39ea, bluegill hybrid .39ea, black crappie .85ea, Redear sunfish .50, largemouth bass .80ea

Thanks, Jaymie. I thought I'd tried that, but I guess not. PEBKAC.

Alot done this week.

Thursday, a friend assembled the grow lights, and we put the stand up on cement blocks.



Friday I tested the water-tightness of the system. Mostly good, but had to do some adjustments on the growbeds (1/2 lids wasn't cutting it, I had to use full lids. This wasn't a surprise, but I was hoping!). The manifold dripped, though. And I had to adjust the plumbing, because my barrels aren't exactly standard.

Saturday I plumbed. Got the pump set up, with bypasses, and a loop back to the fishtank for aeration. I finally figured out how to make good hoses! Also much time spent at the hardware store these various days.

I started today resealing the manifold. Gotta wait 'til Tuesday to check to see if it's a solid seal. If not, I think I'll abandon the barrel, and get a rubbermaid container (they're on sale at Home Depot) and use that, instead. Flatter surfaces!

After that, I started to build my heat/light reflectors. The hardest ones were the ceiling ones, of course, so I started with those. Heat/light reflective mylar on polystyrene panels.




Once I had those hung, and the spaces for the glowlights cut out, I washed my hydroton and put my seedlings down there.



I plan on adding side panels as well, but those can wait for a bit later. But now, most of the hard physical labor is done!

Notes:
1) When you need to trim your polystyrene, or cut holes in it, do it before you staple on the mylar. Much easier that way.
2) Washing hydroton by sticking it in a large barrel 1/2 full of water works pretty well. Haul the floating hydroton out with a collander, and voila!
3) I probably need to support the polystyrene panels in the center. I'll do that a bit later.
4) If I were to do this again, I would hang the polystyrene by inserting something all the way through, then holding it on the bottom side. I know there is a name for that kind of hanging-thingie. Looks like an upside-down T. This time I just screwed in hooks, re-enforced w/duct tape.

There are more pics and a bit more explaination at the flickr set, here:
Swanberg's aquaponics flickr stream.

Oh, my aching back! Time to watch Ashes to Ashes...

Tuesday, assuming no more leaks in the manifold, I'll start cycling!

Well done! I hope you have a good pair of sunnies when you go in there!!

Well, I joined the ranks of fish killers last night...

I bought a few minnows to see if the system was at all viable, and they were all belly-up this morning. I don't have my test kit yet(1), so I'm not sure what went wrong. I won't be able to get any more test fish 'til at least Wednesday.

I was hoping my dog would eat the dead-uns, but he's skeptical...

(1) www.aquariumguys.com is a great place to buy inexpensive stuff, but their shipping is *slow*.

Swanberg,
That upside down T thingie is called T Bar and is used for suspended ceilings.
There are accessories which allow the ceiling to be suspended from steel rods (3/16" IIRC) and they are adjustable to get a level ceiling.

Keep up the good work - Do you have sunnies for your fish?

Tony

Swanberg,

How much Hydroton did it take to fill two half barrels? your barrels are 55gal right?

Thanks,
Steve

Tony, heh. T -bar makes sense. I was close!

Clovis, I think it took 3.5 of the large bags. Yes, 55gal barrels.

What are sunnies? Sunglasses?
I don't think they make them that small!

One of the great things about Minnesota, USA, is that we have a top-flight
public radio station. One of the mid-morning talk shows did a thing on
urban agriculture today.
(http://minnesota.publicradio.org/displa ... dmorning2/)

One of the guests, Will Allen, runs a sustainable urban farm in Milwaukee
(http://www.growingpower.org/index.htm). On the show, he didn't say
"aquaponics" directly, but he did say they were raising a bunch of tilapia
and silver perch. Their page mentions aquaponics and aquaculture, and
teaching workshops on them.

I'll take any hint of advertizing we can get!

--
Still working on the plumbing on my system. Tested a bit yesterday. My pH, on standing water w/o fish, is 7.4, Ammonia 1.0 (?? w/o fish??)

Haven't tested the water straight out of the tap yet.

Hopefully I'll plant and put fish in this weekend.