Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello everyone,
My name is Nathan. I'm new to aquaponics and to this forum. In fact I just signed up today . I'm really excited about aquaponics and just started part of my system this past weekend. So I thought I would introduce myself and show what I have going on. It all started last year when I was looking for ways to extend my growing season. I live in the high desert of Central Oregon where the growing season is very short. Sometimes 4 months. The gardens I planted barely escaped the late frost or early frost. And even when I escaped the frost, one year it was destroyed by a hail storm. In looking for solutions on how I could build a greenhouse that would withstand the wind storms. And also be capable of being relocated since I rent. I one day just happened to stumble an article on a geodesic greenhouse. I was hooked. The next month was spent figuring out all the math to make an 18 ft gesodisic dome happen. I built it the same fashion that Paul from geodome-uk youtube video shows. In building the greenhouse I wanted to see if I could build it entirely from reclaimed or recycled materials. So being an avid Craigslist user I found all the various stud lumber scraps for free. I could use anything over 3" so I got a lot of use out of scraps. I ripped everything down to 1x2" and cut all the angles needed on my table saw. Once I had the 5 pentagons, 7 hexagons and 5 half hexagon panels built. I was able to find a local greenhouse being disassembled and purchased 5 mil greenhouse plastic for 50 cents a sq f. Each panel is double lined with plastic and the north side is layered with space blankets. So the geo dome greenhouse only cost around $300 to build. I did have to buy the screws and wood sealer which was most of the cost. At this point I was going to build raised beds and grow in soil. But that all changed one day when I stumbled across Rob's web4deb youtube video on his little Harbor Freight Greenhouse. And from that point on I was planning and reading all I could on aquaponics. For the aquaponic set up I built the grow bed stands out of more free lumber found on craigslist. The current 6 IBC totes I got free from a family member. And the pump is a 1/4 horse pond pump I found for $40 again on craigslist. It is a CHOP system. For the 2 fish tanks I used 2 330 gal totes. I have 4 growbeds set up at the moment and room for 4 more once I find more totes. The sump tanks are all connected via bridge siphons where I also have floating rafts. There is a 2 ft pie shaped area between the grow beds where the rafts sit and plants will get the light they need. On finally starting it up the past weekend, everything has been working swimmingly. Fish tanks stay at their constant height, sumps, bridge siphons and pump all work fine. The grow beds which I filled with red cinder use a bell siphon which all worked first try and have continued to work since. To start the cycling process I peed in the water a few times. And also read a few folks that had luck jump starting the nitrifying bacteria by introducing an aquariums establishment filter. Having aquariums myself that is exactly what I did. I pulled the dirty foam part out of my fish tank filter and stuck it in the water. It has now been 4 days and there have been some drastic changes. I have been testing the water everyday with the master api kit. After the first 2 days the tests all showed 0 traces of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates. The ph is at 7. With the readings all looking fine, I went ahead and put in 20 feeder gold fish. The all looked really happy and healthy. 3 days later all tests where the same except for the nitrite which was showing a slight change but hard to really tell. On day four, the ammonia and ph where still the same but the real shocker came with the nitrite and nitrate results. Nitrites where all the way up at 5ppm and nitrates at 160 ppm. In 24hrs. From what I had researched, the changes usually happen gradually. So I was quite shocked to see those numbers so soon. I was also very impressed with how well the greenhouse did 2 days ago when it got down to 22 degrees. I will admit I was mare than a little nerviouse to see how it did. When I got up in the early morning to check the greenhouse it was 42 degrees in there with no additional heating. Well that's about it for now, just really happy to finally get started after all the work it took to get here.

There are 10 vents in the greenhouse. In addition to where most days have nights below freezing and high temps at 60. The summers can get very hot. So I'm hoping that with all the ventilation I have available I won't have to purchase fans. We shall see.

More pictures

sweet rig!

you'll grow a sh@tload of food in there

if you wanna expand aesthetically check out something called a zonohedron

or a garden zome

you'll find all kinds of good things

Thank you, yes I plan to grow a lot in there.
The zone sure is an interesting shape.

Very cool set-up - that greenhouse is awesome!

Thank you Had a low of 24° F last night. The goedesic dome greenhouse was at 44° F with 85% humidity when I awoke this morning at 6:00am. The thermo mass of water and grow beds is working like a giant battery. Storing the suns energy during the day and keeping the warm temperatures at night, in spite of the below freezing temps. It is seriously doing far better than my expectations of the dome. I've added no additional heating to the dome at night. Today's high looks like it will be about 55°.

On another note. I added 4 crawfish, crayfish, or as the Aussies call yabbies (which I love and have been calling them) caught out of the local river I made a trap last week out of some plastic mesh and zip ties. It works wonderfully I put some pipe pieces in the bottom of the tanks for them to hide in. My 3 year old daughter thinks their cute and calls them hampster fish

Seedlings are all doing fine, tomato starts are coming up. Can't wait for them to grow big.

Wowo aswome and i love how its cost effective.... great job

Thats a dam cool dome, great work and welcome to the forum

So being new to aquaponics and trying to learn all the acronyms that are use.
Is CHOP-Constant Height One Pump
Pretty much mean the same thing as
CHIFT PIST - Constant Height In Fish Tank, Pump In Sump Tank?

Cool system! Did you document your progress on the build? We love seeing that stuff, mistakes and all. I hope your daughter understands that the hamster fish are actually food. If your pump is in your sump tank, than it is CHIFT PIST. Don't worry too much about the acronyms. "I grow food with this" is enough for most people. There is a thread on here somewhere on the lingo. I found it when trying to figure out what HSM meant. Thankfully my HSMs have been limited, and mostly really just dang it moments.

Ron is right, nato... you are doing splendidly... and we want pics of everything. This is, after all, a learning site.

I saw Fuller in person, when I was young. I fell in love with a guy that actually solved problems, and wasn't 'monetizing' it to retire from the world.

Domes are strong, easy, and it looks like you managed your door and 'porch' just fine. I think you are skilled to both rip to 1x2's, and to do your angles... I'm looking for the kit, cuz... not THAT many power tools, nor the insurance if I do something stupid.

What method did you use to fasten your shade cloth? (Incredible luck, by the way... including your 'vent openers' from Harbor Freight! And the solar blankets are a splendid idea. I'm considering dark shade cloth across my top and west sides... Vegas sunlight is brutal. That may also be why the idea of 1X's seems flimsy to me... we devastate wood with the intense UV... though, thicker would merely postpone... sealant is a good idea... oil base is another...
Can wood be treated with grapeseed oil or olive oil?

So... how's your green stuff doing? You have to have some plant material in there somewhere...

Thank you Ronmaggi. I didn't document a lot of the build. Maybe I'll do some videos sometime that shows everything. I really haven't had a lot of mistakes. The biggest setback was trying to make a common rotating shaft and cable system to open all the vents at the same time. I probably could have gotten it to work but I got frustrated and opted out for the automatic wax fill openers.

I built the whole structure with a table saw, a drill, and hand saw. I built it in the same fashion as Paul from geodome-uk youtube. http://m.youtube.com/index?&desktop_uri=%2F#/watch?v=U32KTMtp5kU I wouldn't go amy larger than an 18ft dome using the 1x2's the hexagon panel's where 6ft high and a little flimsy. But once the last panel was in everything was locked in and very strong. I first ripped all the scrap stud lumber into 2x2's. Then those where ripped in 2 with the beveled angle. Then with the degree setting on my table saw slider I cut one end with the appropriate degree. There is 2 angle cuts per stick. And 5 different angles of sticks. So once I set the saw I would just got to town ripping a pile of sticks until I had the 5 piles of sticks of the appropriate angles. Then u just make a pattern like pauly shows in the video and start screwing together the triangle frames. There are only 2 different triangles throught the whole structure. Then once I had all the triangles together u just start screwing the triangles side by side and if u made all the cuts right they all screw together and meat up perfectly. One set of triangels make up the Pentagons and and the other triangles make up the hexagon panels. I made all the right cuts the first time. And it all fit perfectly together to form the geodesic dome.

The shade cloth. I just draped it over the metal cage of the ibc and pulled it down between the polly tank and the cage. So it just pinched in there and stays.

Great job on the build