Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello, This is my first posting. I'm BB but thinking of changing my handle to MichFish because I'm from Michigan, USA. The snow is melting here and I'm hot to get my system plumbed and running. As much as I have read and studied, I'm still a little nervous. All of a sudden I'm concerned that my 5000 gallon tank (swimming pool) is too big. I bought a used greenhouse with a koi growing system from a fellow who was moving far away and now I'm trying to reassemble and change the system to grow some veggies and eddible fish (Talipia or Catfish) for my own consumption. My greenhouse is 20 x 48 feet. I have three large vortex filters, a 15 foot dia. x 48inch high tank, two 10 foot dia.x 24inch hard plastic pools, lots and lots of little plastic bio media. I also have some 40 watt UV sterilizer units, aerators and a 2 inch pump. I need to come up with an inexpensive plant grow bed---I want to use a floating raft system. I'd like to hear from anyone with good suggestions for plumbing so that I don't make too many mistakes my first time through. My wife is counting on Fresh fish this fall. It's the only way she would let me spend the money on all this neat stuff!!

Welcome, BBMichfish. Your pics look promising and very business-like.

Hey BB or Mitchfish..... looks like you've got a pretty good headstart on things....

Growbeds for DWC floating raft.... maybe concrete.... if you want them raised to waist height then make them out of wood and line them with pond liner....

Sounds like you have a really good start. Provide good aeration for the water and since you are not going to use gravel I would estimate how much bio filter media surface area you have and not stock or feed more fish than it can handle.

As for plumbing, its pretty simple. Ask any questions you might have. I am sure someone will have a good answer for you.

..And, Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum,
I think that you could use the vortex as small fingerling fish tanks and sump tank.

The cheapest way and fastest way to get growbeds together is a wooden box lined with a liner and full of gravel.

The most expensive is the plumbing devices. Think of a way to reduce the use of elbows and T's ... as they are the most expensive stuff on the plumbing.

If you plan of growing 2 species, then do 2 separate systems, one on each side of the greenhouse, one would be for channel catfish who will need at least a year round grow out. The growbeds could then be used all year long with a bit of heating and on the souther side, plan to do salads and leafy greens in this system on a yearly basis.
The second would be for trout, which can be harvested before winter and then reduce the costs of heating, and would produce to many leafy greens for you to eat but could produce a lot of the summer veggies as tomatoes and others during the good season.

Check out TC lynx's system thread for wooden growbeds, she's done a great job.

Get some trout at 100 g stock'em for the season and you should be able to harvest them at 400g at the end of the season.

For a simple system with gravel you wouldn't need the biomedia, sell it on ebay you should be able to make a fair bit of money with it.

If you go simple, you shouldn't need the UV steriliser also but it could be good to have at bay to sterilize the top up water.

An idea could be to make a cage and stock trout in the swimming pool, since they will be small and won't eat to much. The 5000 gal of the pond would be enough to hold them until you can stock them in the system and then you wouldn't waste the preparing time needed for the system.

You could adapt the pump on the swimming pool, plugged on one vortex filter that you could purge on a daily basis. This would be enough to keep you going until the growbeds are cycled and you could be adding the fish progressevly which is a better way to do.

Post and we'll be following your progress with great interest. These are my ideas, i'm not commanding anything for you to do, this is just what i think i could do with the gear you are lucky to have. If i was not clear on something, just ask.

Cheers

Thanks for the welcome, It's comforting to have a group of people to share ideas and experiences with (My wife just doesn't understand. LOL).

Anyway, I appreciate the input and some very good ideas, especially Amacafish. I plan to use one vortex to remove the solids and I like the idea of trout in a cage in the pool while setting up and cycling the grow beds.

Will send along pix and update as progress happens.

great stuff bb, i'm using pretty much the same greenhouse as you are, just half off it

looks big and promising as said!

just keep on rollin'

BB welcome from a new guy. As far as fish species, you may consider yellow perch or wallaye as well. Growth on catfish will slow down alot when temps drop below sixty F unless you plan on heating the greenhouse through winter. Catfish really are great fish.

By the way one of my best friends if from Pigeon (small place).