Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello,

I am a new member. My name is Dave.

I purchased an existing system from Craigslist, and adapted to my backyard.
I saved A LOT of money on materials. I am learning A LOT as I go. I will eventually shut
down my current system because it is slowly starting to loose my trust since I didn't fully
examine and restore the majority of mods that the original owner had made. I believe I can
put together a new system at a fraction of what it would have cost me if I decided to go that route
in the first place. I powered up the pump for the first time in April 2016.



Heres my ingredients:


3 275 gallon IBC totes

1 TOTE for the main fish tank and the remaining 2 are cut in half for GB1 GB2 GB3 and SUMP

1200GPH pump

SWIRL FILTER

PETCO AIR PUMP 4 NOZZLE (NOZZINUFF)

HYDROTON

GB2 is a DWC




GB1 CURRENTLY CONSISTS OF:

BELL PEPPERS - variety pack from HomeDespo

SUNFLOWERS

SAGE

HABANERO

SERRANO




GB2 USES 2" NET POTS FOR THE FOLLOWING:

BASIL FROM SEED

SPRING ONION FROM CUTTING

GREEN ONIONS FROM GARLIC CLOVES

MARTHA STEWART'S MESCLUN MIX

BASS AND 2 GOLDFISH AS WELL



GB3

RED RUSSIAN KALE

COLLARD GREEENS

CUCUMBER

KANG KONG

HABANERO

AMPALAYA

MINT

BASIL

(and other beneficial herbs)





FISH TANK:

Carp
Catfish
Goldfish

SUMP:

Crawfish
Bluegill
Goldfish
and some mosquito fish


Aquaponics is GREAT!

Welcome to the forum PnP (that accronym sounded like a transistor :-) )

Hi Dave,



Re-purposing is the name of the game - comes with the AP tinkering addiction.

Everybody does it as they gain experience and go from the inevitable Mark-I to Mark-II,
and even worse when Mark-III comes along.

Getting a leg-up with the Mark-I is a very good place to start - and often saves on cost as you note.
And also benefit on having the FT tote and grow beds [ hopefully ] well and truly cleaned and proven.

sounds like you are well on the way.

Good system summary.
maybe a couple of pics will help with any future posts or questions.

Welcome from So Cal. I started with one IBC system with the IBC top and 4 - half barrels for grow beds. Catfish were first. It was an experiment that worked very well. I think that is good. But now in my second year I have expanded the original system to two IBC FTs for tilapia. The catfish are in a second system - 800 gal FT with 10 IBC GBs and two IBC DWCs, and an "isolation" IBC tank where one GB can be isolated for filtration and quarantine - currently holding my next 100+ catfish.