Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello all;

Greetings from North Idaho - where the sun simply doesn't shine in the winter, so my Growing Spaces geodesic greenhouse is pretty much useless from November thru March! The good news is, the goldfish and crappie survived the winter. The tilapia did too... because I built an IBC-tote based aquaponics system and moved them indoors. I did aquaponics in the greenhouse from April - November in 2012, successfully growing sweet peppers (though the results were less than enthusiastic), and some herbs (Basil, Rosemary, Sage). I attempted butternut squash - vines grew everywhere, but very little produce, and lots of iron deficiency (learned later). I did grow some corn, which shot up and was very healthy, but there was insufficient space for the mature plants and they didn't do well when transferred outside to dirt...

Through the winter I grew barley grass / fodder for my chickens in the indoor aquaponics system. The chickens loved it and kept producing eggs throughout the long dark months (the coop was also insulated and furnished with a 60W lightbulb).

Anyhow, I'm cleaning up the greenhouse and doing maintenance on the aquaponics beds in preparation for the new year... hope it goes better this time! At least the fish have done well produced a new crop / generation for this year. The adults only grew to about 1/2 pound in 10 months - which means about 3-4 oz of fillets per fish. This is only 1/4 to 1/2 of what I was hoping for. I harvested 12 of last years batch, but am letting the rest grow some more. When the tank temperature in the dome gets back to acceptable levels, they will go back outside. Hmmm.... lots of info on an introductory post! Now I've got more fingerlings than I know what to do with...

Regards,

Curtis

Welcome Curtis... look forward to sharing your adventure...

Welcome Curtis. We love pictures!

Hi all,

Thanks for the welcome. Indeed, it's been an adventure already, but so far a rather disappointing one. I don't have to worry about chlorine or chemicals so much because I have a well. The water however has a PH of 7.6. Last year my plants had problems with iron-chlorosis and aphids... Guess I need a good colony of lady bugs. From what I've read, my grow-beds are too shallow - they're 2'x4'x6"... but then, people do aquaponics with pipes that are much less in diameter and have no media other than the water and a net-pot with a few pebbles in it..., so it would seem there has to be a way to mitigate this problem. I'm including a sketch of the system - housed in my 26' dia bio-dome (a kit from growingspaces.com).

The sketch shows a gazebo in a biodome with a 1200 to 1500 gallon water tank that serves both as thermal mass and fish tank. Water is pumped up to the top 3'x6' grow-bed and then matriculates through the 2'x4' grow beds and back to the main tank. The water flows sequentially through each bed on each level. There are two returns - one on each side of the gazebo. Grow beds on the same level flood together being interconnected by two hoses underneath. Auto-siphons transfer water from one level to another, and then back to the main tank.

Last year, all the beds were filled with Hydroton; however, I raided two grow beds last fall to fill the indoor aquaponics (IBC Tote) tank (also had to supplement with a few more bags of hydroton). This year, I'm going to experiment by converting the top flood table to a raft system and move the Hydroton to the other grow-beds.

Getting the system to flood and drain essentially required putting the entire system on a timer to fill it up, and then let it drain... What a book this is turning out to be... more later... My big question at the moment is what Nitrate levels (ppm) should I be maintaining for the best plant / fish health? The API test kit says 40ppm or less - but that's for a standard aquarium. Seems to me the nitrate concentration is the key???

Murray and Sylvia stress balance based on fish per gallon (or liter) and liters of grow-beds (with the assumption the grow beds are 12" (30cm) deep. Seems to me I can't use the same concentration of fish based on volume as they've specified because I don't have enough grow-bed space.... so, wouldn't that just translate to fewer fish - and perhaps some sort of additional bio-filter?

Well now... enough of the newbie spilling... looking forward to comments pro and con.

Curtis

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