Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

t/y TCL

good to see you also , missed ya

i will have enough aeration (hopefully) with 2 air pumps (4 stones) and 2 returns splashing about

at least something running with some cold weather leafys will be just fine...

Welcome back, Johnny!


That should work, but I really like having the fish tank highest, growbeds next, then sump. This way the solids never need to go into the pump and there is much less chance of clogging. Still, lots of folks pump solids (including one of my systems), so it certainly works.


The bacteria will colonize anything that is dark, moist, and nutrient rich. The only issue is having enough surface area, but you will probably be fine.

hey man

good to see you brother hydro

being by my sicky self makes moving large things a tough task. i got the smoking illness now too and just digging the sump tank hole was a real chore and its easy digging here except for the tree roots thats always right in the middle of said new hole.

cant get cam to work so ill try to describe things like i did last time. east and south wall has the 2 shallow beds running along them east wall is above south walls bed. south walls bed drains into FT also on south wall and half of west wall. this is my small behlen poly tank 500 g (the 1000 g FT is still outside of GH on west end). also on west wall (inside GH) is start of the 3" pvc at about 6' up and sloping to north wall. then there is 4 runs of 16' of same pvc
pipe in a zigzag run terminating into a buried 55 g screw top pickle barrell now known as my ST. ST is just north of FT but still close to west wall as i can get it without GH support being disturbed.

along the north wall is a framed in raised soil bed , i have pet kunekune piggy (charlotte) and she kindly and generously mounds pig poo up for me in nice orderly pile. i purchased a little gas mini tiller from sneers and its perfect for small beds. so i plant to starts seedings in one section and maybe a tall growing veggie on the taller ends of pvc runs (north wall east end)

smallish GH but im trying to maximize my space use from start. its the only wtg. i have a good sump pump and
3 other water pumps including a venerable old mag drive , 2 air pumps and my digital timer. i found an old dart board or maybe its pool ball holder cabinent i will put the timer and test kit and note pad inside of it as GH command center and build little desk or shelf

should be fairly neat little system (for a semi sighted brain injured tard like me) i also have 3 runs of shade cloth now for summer heat sessions and asap i will extend GH to house large FT on west end

i cannot get a break since last i was here my sick woman friend has totaled out our good truck (paid off 3 weeks before) then she fell down and broke her foot , had another back surgery , i got diagnosed with this tbi called arnolds chiari malformation and also emphysema. cant find any work around here as a healthy young man much less unhealthy older man. so yeah the GH will be a fine place to hide out. an just plant me in there cause i sure feel like pig poo too lately hahaha

well im off to ssi and hrs so they can deny me some more. one would think a clear pic of ones brain hanging out the hole in ones skull would be proof enough for at very least to see a public health doc but its not. they not even wanna see my proof. or try to understand the pain im in 24/7 now. today i think is good time to pee of their floor

love and respects to you and all my friends here, johnny

well its not new its an evolution i guess , new gb's to replace the old homebuilts that finally failed

i did not have enough rocks to fill all the beds plus one gb did not show up on the truck

im wondering if i can use the beds i dont have rocks for yet with maybe some net pots and some sort of media like coir or ? and just jack the pots up so they barely touch water as it fills gb?

hard to believe i used to be a network coder and cant even crop and load a pic now

amyway i only can see about 10% now so everything is a prob or wants to be , this system testifies to ease of a/p if i can do it anybody can

its a chop pist type flood and drain rig , i have another nice ft its a 1000 gallon i plan to do one of those large on the gorund growbeds with it in summer only as this 350g is in small nice homebuilt gh

ill try to get more and better pics as my cam saves them too large for board and sizing and convereting formats is not easy when one uses screenreader (orca) with ubuntu - it will not speak settings or tab for settings.

i have a good bit of both net and hard clay pots i thought about placing on food safe plastic racks just barely in the high water mark until i get money for more rocks. limestone is king here and hard rock is not easy to find except in bags from walmart that i loathe spending my money with them.

even as wonky as previous evo was it grew immense amounts of leafys and large amounts of okra too , this turn will be better all around its taller and easier on me too

i think im gonna try some coarse sand in pots IF i can find some fabric to contain sand not just net pot or hard clay pot

im running a trash type pump but sand in any quantity is no pumps friend , i need to search forum as by now someone has to have constructed a alternative (possibly extruded plastic) media

i can barely lift rock now except in small amounts so an easier media might be the way to go next turn of system

oh yeah i found easier way to wash filthy rocks too , i bought this dump cart used from a nice lady that was moving , its called a "gorilla" cart and it dumps so i would dump two bags of rocks and then i had a stout pipe on end of water hose and just move them around then dump the cart as the back of it is angled and it made things easy to dump dirty stuff out and retain rocks like panning for gold almost hehehe

i washed more rocks in shorter time than ever before and they were much much cleaner too . i like the cart even better now

If weight is an issue you could try scoria if it is available in your area. It is a volcanic rock with lots of air holes so it is quite light. Alternatively if you can afford it clay hydroponic balls are very light.

all of its rare here , im in a place time has forgotten and like my pale white Jamaican friend says

"if you not bring it here m'han , then you will surely not find it here m'han"

its 50 mile round trip for a bag of river rocks for me. 4.00 usd for a .5 cu ft. bag from the ever greedy walmarts garden center . sometimes lowlifes i mean lowes has them on sale a bit cheaper

i probably need another 35 bags to finish these new beds. but its all on hold now as my gal pal has heart surgery in the morning at 5am

i was just wanting to use the new gb's if i could without being full of rocks

nobody ever dev a low cost lightweight extruded plastic media yet?

i was hoping some recycled something would appear by now ...

Johnny

If you live near a plastics recycling plant you may be able to get soft drink bottlecaps (preferably recycle code 2 without inserts) Plastic molders occasionally stuff up with the colours or moulding and so they have to be recycled.

I use them in my system; just a couple of things they are not suitable for flood and drain only Constant flood or Continuous flow (SG of about .95) and planting seedlings in them is better as broadcasting seeds is a bit of a hit and miss affair.

much thanks

ill ask around i did manage to get another 20 bags of small river rock today

so ill just get some each month until all new beds are full