Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm Really looking forward to that!! I hope you post plans soon so I can drool.



Gotta ask a few things because I am planning on raising rabbits in the distant future: How long have you been raising/cleaning rabbits? Was it difficult to clean your first one? I know I would have a hard time killing a bunny, however, my wife would not even be able to tolerate eating a bunny we raised. Hell, we can't even order crawfish bisque at the pub because we have "pet" crawfish at home. Did you have to face any of these challenges? I don't mean to sidetrack your aquaponics thread - sorry!

Found a floating trout today...probably my fault. I've been neglaecting things around here for a while. I lost the cards for my test kits, so I need to get some new ones and see what is going on.

On the development front though, we start pouring concrete on Monday. Monolithic pours for FT, 2 growbeds and the sump (or pond as I am calling it). Along with pours for a 10x12 Greenhouse footing and them some smaller pads that will end up being either raised beds, or perhaps another system. That will take more work from me at a later date.

So this weekend I need to move a bunch of my wife's plants and a bush or two and then dismantle and move the mower shed. With luck I can get the system cycling and ready for spring tilapia!

Rabbits...it's is a long story - will try and write it up one day.

Good luck with the pour Deja, we're rooting for you, show that concrete who's boss

Thanks abdul - I'm sure it will al go smooth (no pun intended).

I got the shed moved, I wished I had recorded it. My father inlaw came over to help. We ended jacking it up, putting some wheels on the front, and pushed it to the other side of the yard with a dolly. Not really a trivial task and appearently ammusing. I could hear my wife laughing and I usually do not entertain her - so it must have been good.

Below I am posting probably one of the last photos of my IBC system. It will be dismantled soon, but before I do I wanted to show a picture of a sagging growbed. I'm not sure if this is or will be an issue for others using IBCs. I used two IBC with the lids cut off and flipped over for growbeds. One of the lids has started to sag under the weight of the gravel. The other growbed that is supported up on blocks does not have the same problem. So those that are going to use IBC lids for growbeds may consider some extra support under them. Anyway - with any luck, the fence line system going in should be up and running and I can retire this one soon. I'm also putting in a greenhouse, so perhaps it will get reused in there somehow.

The concrete guys showed up today to get started on the fence line system. Seems to me they are over-engineering the tanks some and under-egineering the forms. Anyway here is the layout of the system from left to right:

8x3x4 Fish Tanks
8x3x3 Growbed
4x4x3 Flout tank
8x3x3 Growbed
6x10x3 Pond (Sump)

The flout tank will sit 1/2 foot below the growbeds so I should be able to get a complete drain. I'm looking forward to seeing it in action. From the looks of it, all the tanks will be 6 inches thick, so I loose quite a bit of volume in the tank. But still, 400 gallons or so for the fish tank is pretty reasonable. The growbeds are deep! Looking at the forms, changed my vision of how it would all come together.

So while the volumes are smaller then what I was hoping for, the ratios should all still hold together. I hopiong it will be a bit of a show piece and soon I'll start a seperate thread for this system.

Post some pics if they've got forms built (Perhaps in your other thread?). Can you explain what you mean about over-engineering the tanks and under-engineering the forms? Do you mean that the tank bottoms are deep, but the walls are thin?

Looks like 4 inch bottoms and 6 inch sides. The forms are 3/4 inch particle board with not much re-inforcment 2x4 lumber yet. They called and are not comming out today, but will be back to finish the forms tomorrow and pour the concrete Saturday. It is pretty clear these guys are winging it and have not done much beyond driveways and foundation type stuff before.

Made a slight modification to the pond/sump yesterday. It is a little more 'U' shaped now and will have a 4 ft concrete bridge over the middle of it. It should help keep some debre out of it.

I still have some plumbing to work out. When I ordered the flouts, Jim said I needed 3" PVC pipe to drain into. That is big! So I will have two of those that I need to get from the flout tank to the pond. And unless I go deeper with the pond, I may have a slight issue of not getting a complete drain of the growbeds. I will cross that bridge when I get there.

Hopefully you meant 3/4" waferboard (actually OSB, oriented stand board) and not particle board. That stuff is mostly crap when its dry, but get it wet, and its prolly toast. You sure would hate to have a concrete blowout due to the weight of the concrete. Are those growbeds in the background of your photo ?

Also, if its going to be a "showpiece", it might be really nice to get them (or someone else, I have used a guy I found on craigslist) to pattern and stain the concrete. At least stain the outsides, but patterned would look neat.

You can get colors added to the mix, if you wanted green or blue instead of gray...

Ya - OSB. My bad. I'm pretty concerned about blowout/and/or bowing. I know they plan on some 2x4 reinforcement on them - so we'll see. Not showing up for work today does not give me the warm fuzzies either.



A) IBC System
B) Fish Tanks 8x3x4
C) Growbed 8x3x3
D) Flout Tank 4x3x3
E) Growbed 8x3x4
F) Pond 8x10x2
G) Greenhouse footing 10x12

Yes - it will be getting a stain. Not sure yet what yet though. I'm probably sand the exterior and wax it for a nice shine also.

Not showing up for work.... modus operandi for concrete doods, in my experience. I had a stamped concrete walkway done up to the front of my house. Beautiful, and glad I did it, but my wife was ready to call the police when the guys were 4 or 5 hours late. I told her to chill, prolly too many of them were drunk that morning. Eventually, they showed up and did a fine job. Hard to get good, reliable help when the work is hard and doesn't pay well.

Yeah, hopefully the crew that does show up the next time (assuming you might have some day laborers) does know something about form building. Corner reinforcement is probably also important besides the 2x4 angled bracing.

Are you planning to use the expanded shale in the growbeds again? How has that worked out for you? Seemed like I read that you and sminfiddle did end up having some issues with grain size or lots of left over fine particles that weren't usable? Is that correct? Do either of you currently use flouts or is that going to be a new addition? I've barely brought myself up to speed on those (read some of Jim's/spark chaser flout v siphon threads), but they sound like they take up a lot of room. I did notice that one poster had an idea for essentially a vertical column flout but i haven't stumbled across anybody implementing one yet. Seemed like Jim's flout interaction with the group eventually led him to the spider valve development. So, are your growbeds going to fill sequentially, then: FT floods GB1, flout tank empties and fills GB2, which in turn free drains to the Pond? How does it work?

For now the pond has enough volume to flood both growbeds. In the future though I may need to look at sequencing if I want to add more growbeds. The greenhouse is located so I could tie into the system easy enough. Perhaps a FT in the GH and just share the sump.

I do not have any flouts yet, should arrive any day though. sminfiddle is using them and likes them. They just seem like a no fuss easy way to fast drain the beds. I'm looking forward to ditching the siphons that have failed a couple times on me when to much gunk clogged them up. The flouts do take up some space - that is their only drawback that I can see.

I dumped one bag of the ES in one of my growbeds. I was pretty unimpressed with it. It needed lots of washing...lots! And there is a lot of material that is really to small. They do make a larger size, but it is hard to get ahold of. I'll probably just use the river pebbles again....they seems to work well in this test system. Stawberries are going nuts...lots of little berries!

They eventually got around to showing up today. Not a lot of progress though. They still have to add a bunch of bracing and still no rebar. So the pour will get put off until next week. We'll see if they can finish all the forms tomorrow. They did manage to cut the uverse line going to the house. So no TV, Internet or phone. Just as well...not feeling real well and need some rest.

Voodoo, looking good and glad to see your making progress. Tanks a walls are tough to pour properly. All that I ever had poured, not many, a few over the years, had these for support....
http://www.google.com/m/search?site=ima ... 20ties#i=0

I would recommend their use unless you have some extreme form bracing. The ties work.