Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey Folks,
I'm new to this, though I started in fish 5 years ago so that I could, eventually, get into aquaponics. IVe run some indoor, super-small scale tests, but now I've got a small yard to play in, and I'm looking to try out something bigger. Any thoughts on my proposed setup? I'm aiming for smallest footprint possible. My IBC was pre-cut for another purpose, so I'm stuck with that.
I've been looking at some of your set-ups. Amazing!
I'm in Winnipeg, so there are a few environmental issues I have to deal with, like the temperature at which Fahrenheit and Celsius settle all their differences and just agree to disagree.


pretty basic. Some kind of siphon pulls water out of the bottom GB, which got there from the top GB having too much water. I could have a siphon drain on the top one, I suppose.

Pump in the tank delivers water to the top GB.

This is all facing South, so the overlap shouldn't be crippling.

Long run, I'd like to start tilapia fingerlings in my home sometime Sept-January, grow them out, and then they're pretty big by May/June, when they go outside. I'll have to put some kind of trough heater in there, with them, but that's how it goes.

I'd appreciate your input.

No thoughts? I got it perfect first shot? Excellent!
Now to construct the dang thing. Bulkheads, man. Bulkheads.
Any suggestions on spacers in the Growbeds so I'm not 100% filling them with Hydroton? Something in the bottom to just take up space, like a cage or something.

Dan

You'll need a ladder for that top GB, why not have it beside the other GB? and run both with bell siphons.

With the cage idea, if it's too save money on your Hydroton, just use gravel in the bottom half, having water below you are losing valuable filtration space.

No thoughts on your set up. Not enough experience on my part.

On the media though - do you need to? By the time you take freeboard into account the volume of media required will have reduced quite a bit.

If you are convinced of the need, how about a cake cooling rack or a plastic mesh of one description or another.

Good luck

Craig

Hey guys, the pacu are up and running right now, with construction of a greenhouse to take place in 2 months.
Pacu sure do grow fast. It would be interesting to see how they stack up against Tilapia...

So, 6 weeks ago I purchased 17 pacu. My best attempt to count them has been 16 so far. They started at under 2 inches, and they're around 5 now. They eat voraciously, and they are super timid. I've had some small success getting them to relax when I show up by feeding them a bit everytime I do.

They're currently in a 75 gallon tank with 14g sump filter. They've eaten all the aquatic plants I had in there with them, so there's just some plants left in the sump to pull out nitrogen. I've started some lettuce to help out there.

In 2 months we should have the greenhouse ready for them. This is pretty exciting! I thought this would be one of my usual "talk about it forever and never do it" projects. Instead I have 16+ eating machines in my basement...

@carbonfarmer, @joblow, I'lltry the cake cooling rack or the gravel idea. I'm not super worried about biological filtration, as I'll have a dedicated biofilter working as well, if I need it.
The tank before voracious vegetarians:


The tank after:


The fish when I got them:


And more recently:

Rather than bore people here, I've kept a track of changes to the system's operation on halfassedecology.blogspot.ca.
In brief, the fish are on average 10 inches, and growth has stalled a bit as I can't keep their small tank clean enough, or feed them enough without making the whole tank crash under the bioload. So, I'm aiming to move a few of them out to the IBC tomorrow, give them a few days in there, and if they all survive, then move the whole school of them out.
2 months of growing season left, if I'm lucky.