Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Been doing a little planning for next year. I decided to mock up my ideal greenhouse (still small) and try to fit tanks and things in there. I found out early on that the IBC cubes are best when space is limited; the cheapest tank I have found so far is a 8' x 2' 600 gallon round tank from Tractor Supply for about $250, but an 8' wide circle is a mess, space-wise. Anyway, in this hypothetical greenhouse I have three 4' x 4' x 4' IBCs in the ground, with several 3' x 5' growbeds slightly overlapping the tanks. Towers in the back row, although a wire screen for climbing plants would be work as well.

This stuffing everything in even a decent-sized greenhouse has me looking for cheaper alternatives, as I don't have the budget or time for this big of a project (proper greenhouse). On the way home from work today I thought that I could "de-couple" the fish tub and the grow beds a little more, by keeping the fish in the basement and pumping the water up to grow beds at ground level in a much smaller and cheaper half-hoop-style greenhouse attached to the garage. I will mock this up next. I may even de-couple the biofilter and plants into separate biofilter and nitrate loops with their own pumps. The biofilter could be in the basement with the fish, and the plants could be up next to the garage in lighter medium or NFT or something...

Dave,

Could you describe your weather briefly.........ie hot summers, freezing winters, etc?

Could you give me the dimensions of your basement? Does it remain dry in all seasons and what space, if any, is available for use for Aquaponics?

I'll provide you with some ideas about how to put something together if you're interested.

i know you don;t have the money or time but I am just blown away by those drawings. They are awesome.

The dude with the jacket looks like he is practicing his runway model walk. "I'm too sexy for my greenhouse, too sexy for my fish, too sexy for aquaponiiics!"

The summer can get pretty hot and humid, the Winter can have weeks below freezing and several feet of snow. I figure it would be safe to take tilapia outside in May, anything before that would be too expensive or risky to keep warm enough.

The part of the basement under the breakfast nook where I am now sitting is 12' wide x max 6' deep x 8' high. I can open up a hole next to the one we made for the satellite cable, for water in, out, and top-up rain water. The pipes would come out next to the S garage wall, go up over a bit, then outside to the greenhouse with the plants in it. This structure might be more or less temporary or cheap, depending. This all assumes I would rather do this than just use grow lights in the basement during the Winter. The thing that would push it would be if I have enough fish in early Spring to warrant more planting area. I could move the goldfish system outside earlier, like maybe mid-March or early April?

More pictures...

That explains the steep roof. I think, by inital look, that Gary could save you a lot of space and dead spots in design. Your drawings kickass, but the available space is underutilised.

Worth looking at, you can always throw up your hands and shout rubbish! in primma donna fashion. Works for me...

If you're ever going for an animal product, might I suggest furs.

The interior view is very wide angle, and the model is missing any structural supports, etc. The walkways are only two feet wide; without the walls appearing more prominent it looks more roomy in there. One reason for the steep roof is to match our house, and I haven't shown it but I would place solar water heating equipment up in there. I would also berm dirt against the N wall, and have some sort of mud room entry to not lose heat out the door.

The picture of the snow tells me what I most wanted to know about your climate. My home is in Queensland where thoughts of snow and sub-zero temperatures are largely theoretical. I've only gone to to work on two days this winter in other than shirt sleeves.

In your situation, I'd be thinking about turning the basement into a grow room. I'd use HPS or metal halide lighting to provide the equivalent of sunlight. The waste heat from the lights should keep your growing area at an acceptable temperature.

If it got too warm, you could vent it into the main body of your house which would offset some of the cost of your central heating.

I'm guessing that, if you had a greenhouse, it would still require supplementary heating during the worst of the winter.

In the summer, if you're like us, you have the opposite problem. The humidity and insect pests make organic gardening very difficult here in the peak of summer.

Given that your basement should remain relatively cool in Summer, you could continue to grow fish and vegetables in your basement. Any surplus heat from your lights could be vented outside.

I suspect that your Summer is short and that your Autumn is more like what we'd call Winter - which would move me even closer to the basement grow room idea. Of course, you could grow your fish out to eating size outside in the summer in less intensive conditions which would free your grow room up for another batch of fingerlings.

The issue around lights is the cost of operation but if you find a way to use the waste heat that comes off the lights, you offset this problem.

Depending on the precise layout of your house (and its orientation), you could incorporate other efficiencies that would further balance out the cost of operating the grow lights - like a pit greenhouse or similar.

Hi Gary:
I wouldn't call our Summers short, it's not like Canada or Alaska or something. We have "Continental" weather; I'm having trouble googling our typical temperatures per month. I think it would work well to have them inside until the weather is reliably warm, then grow them out outside. We don't have temperatures that would be high enough to be harmful for tilapia, and I will be looking at moderating the tempeatures for the goldfish. This year the goldfish tub got pretty warm, partly because it and the growbeds are black and because it wasn't well shaded; also burying the tank would help a lot. I think that the warm weather would hold up through September, when I should have started harvesting them. To my mind it would be better to assume the Winter biomass would be smaller/slower, than to try to fight it into being as productive as a warm and sunny weather condition. So, I am looking to have some semblance of production without increasing the electricity usage.

I am lucky in that we have great Southern exposure, and it is not hard in the Winter to get sun if it is out. The plants if they are "up top" might not need much supplemental heat if there is enough mass, whether it is gravel or masonry or big rocks or whatnot. I have seen setups before where a guy ran heat tape inside the grow beds. I am interested in making some kind of DIY solar water heating panel too. And everything would be super-insulated.

I am happy to have a new project to think about - the rack-mount Winter indoor grow room de-coupled little greenhouse thingy. LiveBeyond's rackmount system is an inspiration that I am following, as I already have the racks in the basement.

Found out why the water has become so clear. pH is 6.0!

Edit: maybe 6.5. Nitrites are still 0. Need to get more ammonia and pH test kits, almost bought a nitrate test kit today but decided not to.

Hmmm, this'll make someone panic (your pH not my post)

Your system is new Dave, it'll play havoc a wee bit, i thought you had it too easy those plants so good so soon!

Hope it is 6.5...

As you likely know nitrifying bacteria may crash under 6. I'm sure you know how to bring it up again, how fast is the drift?

Where's a Steve when you need one? ! ...

I rarely try push water up and down having a very slow but steady method of starting up so am not so familiar with water 'chemistry' as such.

I'm of another school of thought, but not sure what school it is!

Bacteria have a wide range of temperatures and pH however the parameters set here ensure we stay close to optimum, which is good sense, not mad science...

I'll post the mad science, go looksee it'll feed your mind and send you to sleep at once. Both good y'know, food and rest

I topped it off with treated tap water, it now reads 7.0. I also added some more seashells. I had hoped to change out with rainwater, but looks like with things humming along now I need to start working to "keep it up". Up to now the pH was hard to keep down and the algae was enough that I couldn't see but a couple inches down in the tub. The fish don't seem too bothered yet.

Hey AD:
If I hadn't been able to get the pH up to 7, would increasing the pump timing from 15 mins every hour to 1/2 hour every hour help anything temporarily in this kind of situation? I am going to buy some potassium carbonate tomorrow, and incorporate that into my bag of tricks. So far I have sea salt and chelated iron that I've been adding from time to time.

Or, what would you say to dipping one of the ubiquitous concrete blocks for awhile?

DD, i think you were going to pull the system down for the winter, or mone it into your basement?

From what i wrote in the biofilm thread, you should try to keep as much of the system intact as you can while moving it ito the basement. Definatly keep all the water, try and kep all the gravel in the beds if you possibly can. Steve

Increasing waterflow will decrease algae but it takes a bit of time for this to take (visible) effect. Bloom amounts of algae can definately swing your pH all over, but you seem to be stabilising now.

Less light on your fish is an easier solution, and patience pays off well in Aqua too.

I like increased waterflow as my fish like it, and subdued light as my fish like that, and when they are happier, it all seems to hum along nicely.