Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Everyone. I just introduced myself in the new members thread the other day, but have been very encouraged to post a system thread. I'm doing a vertical system using 16, vertical 5 foot (that's 1.5 meters to you Australian folks ) of my own design. I designed the towers after many failed attempts with a number of goals in mind, but I won't get into them too much. . . I have to keep some surprises up my sleeve. Anyway, they use a strip of polyester matrix material folded in half to sandwich and draw the plants into the towers. The photos are mostly of the bolted version- I've improved them somewhat since most of the media photos were taken. I'll get newer photos out soon. The towers can hang from superstructure or be fixed to vertical 3/4 inch black-pipe anchor posts using some custom brackets. They are irrigated from the top, and the biological surface area of the towers is amazing (double that of pea-gravel as a function of volume) so I get really really good nitrification/mineralization inside the towers. I keep my pH pretty low (low 6's- I care more about plant production than making my alky-lovin' tilapia happy) and besides lime, I've never had to supplement iron or anything else since I put the towers in (although I'm prepared), so my nutrient cycling seems pretty good (for now at least).
My system is around 2000 gallons total (I have a pure aquaculture system too- around 2500 gallons. . . I'll convert it one of these days.) and I am running Nile tilapia, Red Variant Niles, and Rocky Mountain Whites. The Red Variants are my best performers. I have between 250 and 300 lbs of fish in the system now, but I will double the number of towers next week to accomodate the 400-500 pounds of fish i'll have by the end of the summer.
I unashamedly use UV. What can I say, I'm a paranoid micro-manager. I also play with photometer dataloggers, pH and EC monitoring equipment. And I'll shut up now.

here are the pic.s

a couple more
There are more photos at http://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/photo/photo/listForContributor?screenName=12ke328q2tvl1.

There will be people here interested in your data logging and other toys

But the pictures are what most people crave!!!! Heck, I think half of the population of this forum just looks at pictures and then goes back to read comments when they see something interesting.

Don't forget to accidentally get a picture of toes Or the use of some sort of critter or small child for the sake of scale or lack there of on occasion is great fun.

Why so many unions in the pic of the top of your system? Is that to make it modular? VERY interesting!

CB

System looks awesome, this is some post to follow

OK TC, I'll make sure that there's scale in my next photograph. . . I'll have to think of something interesting. Countryboy, I have tons of extension unions to vary my spacing front to back if I choose, also to take stuff apart easily. I got a deal where I paid $2 apiece which is almost as much as any other PVC fitting, so I thought what the heck, might as well. As for the irrigation arms extending from the main line, I can unscrew them quickly (used threaded fittings and teflon tape) to put in longer arms to vary my spacing side to side. I have hose fittings up there too so I can emergency irrigate with tap water or a backup submersible pump. I haven't had to use it yet, but my main pump is field wired in, so it takes me a little time to catch the problem and wire in a backup. It's nice to have just in case.
Here's my latest batch of basil. I took this picture the 28th (@2 wks. in the sys.). I'll post the pictures I took today later.

very sophisticated system n8 - looks great. Any numbers on what sort of plant production your getting - be interested to compare it to your system footprint.

Looks like NFT, but works more like GB media.

Presumably you pre-filter - what are you using there ?

This sytem is so, Way Too Cool....I wish I owned an airo drome....

It would be wonderful to take us through a step by step set up, plus all the little ins and outs of getting it set and producing Please

It is so amazing....congrats

Each tower has 14 by 14 inches square- i space them more agressively than I probably should.
Just to give an idea, I usually get:
8-12 lbs basil/tower*5wks
17-22 lbs mustard greens/tower*5wks
15-17 lbs kale/tower*5wks
12-15 lbs lettuce or mesclun mix/tower*4-5wks

I'm doing a big crop trial starting next month where I'll look at about two dozen different crop species (I'm doubling the number of towers pretty soon. . . fish are getting bigger.

When I get the time, maybe later this week I'll do a step by step walk-through of my system, maybe post a few more pictures.

What do you do to capture the water at the bottom of the towers? Does it run into gutters, troughs or some such?

Dragon,

I think in Nate's system pics folder on his AP site there is a pic of the tubes actually hanging just below the water line of the fishtank. He takes water from the FT and routes it through a solids removal before pumping to the top of these tubes if I understand correctly.

CB

What is "polyester matrix material"? Is it a material that can be bought at big box home stores?

I'm curious about this material too. I've been experimenting with reticulated foam (the stuff used for filters in pond pumps), but it's wicked expensive!

The towers are suspended directly over my fish tanks, so they drain directly back to my fish. I am using a settlement tank although I've found that solids removal aren't necessary with these towers (so long as they're in relatively small particles). Small solids are actually trapped and mineralized in the towers, so I can run lower stocking densities if i want, so long as i'm getting all of my system solids trapped in my towers, and feeding my plants.

I get my matrix material from a large plastics manufacturer here in the states. It comes in rolls around 6 feet in diameter (500 square feet or so- they only sell bulk) which I cut down. I'm actually going to start selling the stuff pretty soon. It's durable, UV resistant and has mad biological surface area by volume. I really like it. It's made from recycled water bottles and has a black silicone sealer/coloring agent that's fish safe. this is what it looks like once the roots have really gotten into it.