Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm wondering if there is someone located near Downeast Maine that can help me design and setup my aquaculture system that will primarily be a "Nutrient Generator" to supply food/water to greenhouse and field crops through drip emitters. I Also want to keep the system off grid as much as possible and will be using two 1600 watt wind generators to power the pumps etc.
I Currently am building a 30 x 70 greenhouse on a multilayer gravel base to house the aquaculture setup and have two 2100 gallon fresh water storage tanks
and three 650 gallon conical bottom tanks
9- 65 gallon flat bottom nursery tanks
8- 55 gallon plastic barrels
and a 300 gallon square fiberglass stock tank with built in racks/baffles that i can make a filtration tank out of.
and lots of valves and PVC Fittings and pipe to get started with but no pumps other than a belt driven water pump, a sump pump and a newly built ram pump for fresh creek water.

Any ideas or suggestions would greatly be appreciated. I'm on a very tight month to month financial basis living off of a VA disability check. But want to keep trying to garden and try to raise fish to donate to the local food pantry in town. Thanks.

Wicked! Amazing project!

I like the approach, presumably water is in good supply and the soil's decent, so the advantages of hydroponics are not so relevant right?

So the aquaculture system is isolated from the plants, which means you can optimise conditions for the fish, then treat the water to optimise it for the plants, which makes a lot of sense.

Not sure if there's anyone in that area on here, wouldn't count on it, but people will get involved on here if you share your progress, especially if there are pictures!

My questions would be; what kind of temps can you expect, and what kind of fish are you thinking of raising?

here's how i see it from where i'm sitting... You have your fish tanks recieving water from, and connected in parallel to, the biofilter(s). From the fish tanks the water flows via solids lift overflow (SLO) to the solids filter, this could be a radial flow filter (RFF). From the RFF the water flows to the sump, and is pumped up to the biofilter.

The collected sediments can be drained periodically from the RFF into a treatment tank which would just be a caontainer with an air pump keeping everything oxygenated, here you can adjust pH and add nutrients, potassium being the obvious one, and from this you irrigate your crops.


Drip irrigation might be a problem as small holes will get clogged by the sediments in the water.

The nitrate level in the aquacultre system water is controlled by the quantity and frequency that you drain from the RFF when you drain the solids.

you could also, if feasible, grow some greens such as watercress, basil and lettuce etc in DWC, this could even double up as the sump, and would strip some of the nitrates from your culture water if your water exchange rate is limited.