Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I grew up with fish. My parents ran an Aquatic Centre where they bred Koi and sold anything and everything to do with ornamental fish pools and indoor aquariums. We also had an orchard, vegetable plots, fish, chickens, fish, goats, fish, ducks, fish and geese. Did I mention the fish? I spent the first 20 years of my life growing up with these things, helping out in the business, and generally learning what my parents took a lifetime to learn. I then promptly upped stumps and went to live in London. No garden. Small flat. Cramped. No room. Wife and I want to start a family.

So now it's some 20 years later still and having earned enough, I hanker to get out into the sticks again where I can have my childhood all over again.

What got me interested in Aquaponics was a TV documentary I saw about where our food comes from and the fact that we're going to need a lot more food to stave off the inevitable food shortages and rising costs that we're going to see as the credit crunch and global warming starts causing issues around the world. Or should I say, start causing more issues, since we have already seen the effects.

Permaculture is all very well, but there are issues with growing vegetables in some locales. But the concept behind Aquaponics just clicked with me. I blame my childhood of knowing all this stuff and then finding out that all that I learned so long ago is actually very relevant in todays world. Deals with the waste management of both issues (Fish and Vegetable scraps) and the benefits of both. Being pescitarian (as opposed to pure vegetarian) it's an ideal solution.

Now I am in the process of house hunting. Minimum requirements: 3 bedrooms, 2 acres of land, Dorset/Somerset/Wiltshire area, less than 400KGBP. The moment we move in, first priority, get the fish pools and grow beds online.

My obsession with AP (and yes it is an obsession) began when my partner and I started planning our home, part of the plan was to incorporate a large saltwater pool as a cooling source. The house which mainly consists of outdoor decking was to wrap around the pool . I have been a keen swimmer (yes the desertrat can swim) and swim all year round and never felt the pool was too indulgent for the following reasons;

*The pool will play an important part of the home cooling system.
*After a stint of Gardening in our long hot summers I find that I will crash out under the airconditioner and find it difficult to gather the enthusiasm to get back to the garden when I have had a pool I would have a quick dip and feel revitalised enough to have another play in the garden.
*There is something nice about having water around when you live in the desert
*A quick dip on a warm night is just the thing before hitting the sack
My partner was not overly keen on a conventional pool and had read about natural swimming pools
After a quick google search my partner showed me pics of natural pools I was impressed and began some research and yes stumbled across AP. I thought I would learn more about natural pools and natural filtration systems by experimenting and using our existing pond and a 1m x 1m growbed (which was way too small). After 4 weeks we were starting to have a constant supply of greens from the silverbeet and spinach that had been planted as seedlings, while this was impressive what really got me interested was the condition of the pond which had become crystal clear with a noticible sheen. The obsession began and I became a regular at the local tip shop, collecting bathtubs and old spa's etc
I now have 10 baths a full IBC and a 300lt spa as grow beds with approx 12,000lts of water running through the system and about to bring 5 more baths on line which should then complete this system. PERHAPS!!!
This year we have had an abundant amount of produce from the system and even a few feeds of yabbies
Every meal has something from our AP or soil garden but predominantly from the AP system.
The constant supply of fresh veg is a very attractive feature of AP and really looking forward to eating our first Silver Perch some time in the new year

You can see the system
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