Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi I'm Max, located in Camano Island Washington USA.

I've been voraciously tearing through all the content on this site, hoping for the best build out of the gate, knowing there will be thing to tweak.

I'lll start a thread for the system itself once it's underway, so far it is just water in trench 200 ft out to the hoophouse, and will be adding some IBCs shortly. The entirety of the hoophouse grow area has french drains wrapped in geotextfile, then a nice layer of pea gravel to git it in a nice floor. I'm sure I'll have questions once I start that thread with specifics, but for now, all good.

What you fine folks might find interesting, is myself and few close friends are trying to teach the Lakota on the reservation the same techniques, to better the poor nutrition their children receive now. Just for example, the average age for a Lakota mail is 35. MY aunt has been preversing their language, and I'd like to teach them to self sufficient in their more than generous South Dakota suns. I'll start another thread for that build, and appreciate any help from thouse of you have built cheaper but effective units.

Ping if you interested or just drop a line of support, it's quite an undertaking.

Thanks!

Welcome to the forum . Sounds like an interesting system and a good cause. I can see a few problems with trying to do this is South Dakota because of the cold winters. Hopefully they'll be heating the greenhouse if that's where it's located (On a sunny day there it can probably still get up to the 80's in a greenhouse but gets very cold at night and on cloudy days). They might need some artificial light to extend the growing season since they'd be pretty far north and won't have enough light (roughly 10 hours per day or more is needed) from early November to early February (you could still just harvest what was already planted and had grown, it's just tough to get growth with low day lengths).

I have found that my AP system warms slower in the spring than raised beds but extends the growing season further into fall - raised beds and AP make a good combination.

If you want to shut down the greenhouse for the winter but keep the fish tank going, the fish tank should be located where you can keep it warm enough and set it up as a Recirculating Aquaculture System.

Cheers

Thank you for the feedback, these are the issues we're looking to you experts for help. Will keep this updated as the project progresses.