Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Everybody,

A quick note to introduce myself and to hopefully see if there are like-minded souls in the France / Europe region.

My name is Alastair and I live just outside of Nantes, which is in North-Western France at the end of the Loire river. I was born in the USA but spent most of my youth in the UK as my parents are English.

I am very interested in Aquaponics as well as in the Open Source hardware movement. I already financially support such activities as Open Source Ecology in the USA and locally we have a number of Maker / Open Source / modern farming initiatives.

I am specifically joining this forum because it is my intention to build an aquaponics system in the next few months which will (a) feed my family and (b) provide the potential basis for spreading aquaponics in France.

I have quit my full time job (software sales) and now am doing one to two days a week consulting. I have put aside a decent amount of money to both sustain my family and to build a fully working system, including greehouse. I have earmarked an industrial garage (160m2) to convert into a workshop as well as a 200m2 piece of very sun-exposed land, both on my larger property, for this venture.

My ideal is to find some people on this forum who can help me with advice and work with me on an on-going manner while I build a Aquaponics system. Ideally, the system would be somewhat oversized (expansion ready) as well as designed as whatever the best type of system is to learn Aquaponics.

One interesting challenge is that any greenhouse will need to be no more than 1.8m above soil level (I am 1.83m tall!) due to planning restrictions. Otherwise, I will require explicit permission to build the structure and that will take 6 months to get!

My apologies for being in a rush and not yet fully researching this forum. I would very much like your suggestions as where to post and how I should go about engaging with the community here.

I really enjoyed the BYAP YouTube videos and the IBC of Aquaponics.

Many thanks
Alastair

Welcome Alastair, good to have you here.

Sounds like you have some work ahead of you. The good kind that is.

Have you any plans on what type/design system you will build?

In southern France in 2011, I saw many greenhouses and sheds which had very low roofs, which upon entering the building, I discovered had been partially excavated so the floor was below ground level, done due to building height restrictions imposed by local regulators there.

If the roof cannot go up, move the floor down!

@bunson - that was my thought too. It depends where exactly the greenhouse will be as digging down next to the garage may present technical problems.

Welcome I would suggest that you first source what is avaiable in your area for your tanks and growbeds. Once you know what is avaiable check out what other members are these materials and read through their system threads. Cheers

@Charlie -

Unfortunately, I had to finish work before having enough spare time to review all the options so I am somewhat unclear on the best system to build.

I have tried to outline some of the constraints below. Any suggestions on whether that leads to a particular system would be most gratefully received.

- System to operate all year round (freezing here in winter is not uncommon)
- A system to produce vegatable / salads & fish for 6 people (i.e. not small!)
- Any greenhouse to be no more than 1.8m above soil height
- I have a garage which is 160m2 by 4.5m high. One thought was to have a hybrid system where the fish are indoors and the plants outdoors under cover. Have people done this?
- Overall timescale is important (i.e. quickly) but I do have a lot of personal time to spend on it
- Cash expenditure is less of an issue as I have budgeted 4-5000 Euros. However, a large greehouse could eat half of that.
- The key need to for me to learn Aquaponic operations. If the best way is just to get started and mnake mistakes and then need to redo, I can live with that. Whatever is the best way to learn (online or physical courses would be fine too) is what I am looking for.

I'm sure I have missed some constraints so please do ask any questions!

All help very gratefully received. Thanks.

There have been some very good passive solar green house designs posted in this forum and many others posted on the net. Many are "home-made" solutions which should meet your budgetary constraints. There are many different commercial options. You might also consider adding thermal mass to your greenhouse to store the heat energy during colder periods (usually large tanks of water but not necessarily attached to your AP system).

Everyone is different; we have about 2m2 of growing space to produce a nice proportion of our veges (in addition to our dirt vege beds) for two people, so for 6 people and producing more you might need as much as 10m2 of growing surface area (or more?). As you'd be wanting to harvest fish at regular intervals, you may need than one fish tank and may even consider building completely separate systems?

If you've got the space in the garage I'd be looking to maximize the use of existing structures.

Yes, a lot of people have "split" systems. I cannot find it, but there were some nice photos posted here recently of a green house attached to the side of a house; you could have your FT(s) inside and a greenhouse attached to the side of the garage?

The only thing which needs to be started soon is drawing the plan on paper! Make sure you have a thorough design process before you start any sort of building.

Plan thrice. Measure twice. Cut once. This will save you time and money in the long run.

There is more information on this forum than contained in any course and many experienced people to help you, and, it's all free and searchable.

A thought just based on your climate of potential freezes. Constantly flooded systems seem to run the warmest. Grow beds tend to act like big radiators. If you drain all your water and suck in cold air then you are cooling your media.

Check out Zsazsa's system. If I built a greenhouse that's the way I would go I think. Or a geodesic dome. Certainly digging down would be a big plus for yourself.

Set your self up a small system. Maybe an IBC or something. You will learn boat loads about AP while you do it, start getting a little bit of produce while you build you greenhouse and it will also help to kick start your bigger system.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

Interesting, I guess my research had suggested that fill and drain systems were best for the widest variety of plants but I hadn't thought about heat loss.


Yes, I had already seen Zsazsa's system in Hungry and indeed his videos too. However, he has really cold weather (continental rather than just ocean-moderated, like here) and has to shut his system down in the really cold.

I was planning to build a Rocket Mass Heater in the garage (as seen in Bigelow Brook farm's setup) but was concerned how that could both heat the garage (as a workshop) and the water. I have already got the main components (fire bricks and oil drum) for the RMH. Sounds like a combination of a half-outside (plants) and half-inside (fish) + Rocket heather might be the ticket. Of course, I could do separate plant growing inside the garage but only with grow lights (as there is virtually no natural light).

The only issue with this setup that I can see is that the land I had planned to use for the plants is too far away from the garage so I will need to change that. I guess it wouldn't have worked in winter anyway.


Ah, I wondered if this might the right approach regardless of the final system. I had already noticed that my neighbour across the road has an IBC for his rainwater collection. Guess, I'll have to quiz him on where that came from. Excellent.

This is really helping me think through my setup. Please keep other suggestions coming.
I am going to sketch out some ideas as well as the overall layout map over the next week and share on the forum. I guess I should move it to somewhere else other than New Member Intro.
Any recommendations as to the best place?

Thanks!

With regards to siphon, cf or fnd, this is a hotly debated topic that constantly raises its head. BYAP have run trials with all three types side by side and the difference was negligible. Of course people will argue for arguments sake and find reasons they are not happy with the results. Personally, i think that the best way to choose is to look at your needs. You might be running a solar system for example and power usage is your primary concern. In that case fnd would be your best option. You might like the sound of siphons and you like to tinker, easy choice.

If you plan on running a RMH then heat loss is of far less concern for you, depending on your fish species.

Go to members system and start up your own thread. That way you will have a record of your journey.

Done! Thread just started here-> http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=16580

Hi Alastair.

Sounds like you are going to have an interesting system. Are you going to incorporate any open source electronics and control systems?

I went to Nantes a few years back as part of a work trip. What's the name of the castle? It was all lit up with lights and animated projections when I was there. Amazing!

Hi Mattltm,

I hope to try and make it as Open Source as possible and I am in contact with the local FabLab in Nantes, so will try to get some support there. There are a bunch of Open Source activities in the Nantes area although they are mostly centered on Arduino and 3D printing at the moment.

Nantes Castle is called the Chateau of the Dukes of Brittany (http://www.chateau-nantes.fr/en/). Free to enter (except the museum), which is good. A must visit for all our visitors! Another good visit (and free again) is the Memorial for the Abolition of Slavery (http://memorial.nantes.fr/en/). Anyone coming to Nantes from the Forum is welcome to send me a message so I can advise them on what to see and there is plenty to see!

Still, the next step is sourcing the main materials (grow beds, tanks, fish and so on) so electronics are further down my list. Fortunately, I have just been contacted by Paulo of this forum who is (I believe only an hour or so away from me and knows fish!).

I'll keep updating my part of the Members system page (http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=16580) so your advice is always welcome!

Just finishing up a short video of the site. Should be up within an hour or so. A lot to do!

That's the place! Looks great when it's all lit up at night.

I'll be following your system