Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey everyone, I just recently heard about Aquaponics and I've been reading about it constantly for about a week now. I'm an architecture student in Urbana, Illinois, and hail from the Chicago suburbs. I'd really like to see an AP system in action, and I was wondering if there is anyone in Illinois that would be willing to show me their system. If anyone wouldn't mind, please pm me or send me an email at: jlee77@uiuc.edu.

These forums are great and I'm sure I'll be around asking for help constantly in the next few months as I try to set up my first system. As a college student, I'm pretty tight on cash, and tend to move pretty frequently, so I'll be starting with a small indoor system. My eventual goal though is to be able to produce the majority of my food through AP (obviously this will have to wait until I settle down somewhere). Anyway, thanks for all the great info so far, and I look forward to talking to you all.

-Jesse

Welcome to the world of aquaponics Jesse.

There's quite a few of your countrymen (and women - Janet ) doing indoor AP systems and I'm sure they will respond here.

Welcome Jesse!

I'd love to see some architecture designs incorporate an AP system. Imagine an indoor koi pond that circulates water to a planted outdoor wall. - I'll sketch this up this someday. I work for a CAD software company and sustainable designs people produce nowadays are very intriguing.

I like to browse
http://www.jetsongreen.com/
and
http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/
for fun!

Thanks for the link DD!!
Welcome Jesse...we would love to see AP in every home, so there is your task.
C1

aquaranch has a facility in IL it is I wonder if they would show you ze tour

http://www.aquaranch.com/

Thanks for the links Dave, the article on "Farmadelphia" in BLDGBLOG is really cool. I was recently on a service trip in East St. Louis, a city that has been in rapid economic decline for decades, and there is a huge amount of abandoned buildings, lots etc... On many of these, a lot of vegetation had started to grow. I noticed myself really finding these old abandoned buildings becoming overrun with vegetation quite beautiful (strange for an architecture student, right?). I tried to express exactly what about that was so appealing to me, and BLDGBLOG used the perfect phrase when describing the Farmadelphia project: "it's the controlled re-wilding of the city."

The fact is, it's such a waste for areas in economic decline with dwindling populations be be large expanses of unused concrete and asphalt with abandoned buildings. Often the strategy of remedying this is to try to create more economic activity in the area. It seems to me it makes more sense to convert the unused space back to a use(agriculture) that makes sense for large pieces of cheap land where there is little possibility for commercial success. Think about the benefits, jobs being created, better air quality, reduced foodmiles. It'd be better for the environment, better for everyone in the long run, except, of course, for me (as someone who plans on designing buildings for a living.)

Sorry for the tangent.

And Slicer, I found Aquaranch's website a couple days ago, apparently they had a workshop here at the University of Illinois last year, too bad I didn't know about AP then. I emailed them and I'm waiting on a reply, hopefully they'll give me a tour, I'm sure their systems are amazing.

Anyway, when I get home for winter break in a few days I'm going to start scouting for materials and drawing up some plans. I can't wait to get started.

Jesse, University of Arizona has been one the organisations at the forefront of aquaponics research...... I'd definitly contact them....

http://ag.arizona.edu/azaqua/extension/ ... ponics.htm

Wassup Chi-Town? Welcome to the wonderful world of AP.
You could prolly rent an abandoned building for nearly nothing. Get a local grant for science/sustainable research, put your greenhouse on the roof, ur fish on the groundfloor and charge for a guided tour. (Get an option on all the other abandoned warehouses and then lease them out to interested AP ppl!
Wish u well in ur efforts.

Welcome,
It's a bit of a drive, but if you're near Philly someday, stop on by.

Hi again Jesse:

I find Sam Mockbee's (deceased) work at Auburn fascinating, check this for fun ideas:

http://cadc.auburn.edu/soa/rural%2Dstud ... tstype.htm

I stopped in to visit Janet a few months ago and learned a lot. Now that I have my life straightened out (new job...new house...big yard) the AP adventure is about to begin for me.

Janet has that rehabilitative touch. She seems to straighten a lot of people out.

Thanks Janet, I'll be sure to take you up on that if I'm ever in the area. My mom travels out to PA for business a few times a year, so I might be able to convince her to bring me along sometime.

Stop here too - we're just West of Gettysburg!