Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Amaca, I am a native speaker of English but you wouldn't know it from my typing...

Good points - in truth the reason for the cascading system is the layout of the land. If I can do sections running down a slope, I can build a larger system.

Tilapia is about the only problem child here and it is too late - they are already loose. But, honestly according to MINAE, they aren't much of a problem, compared to the other fish here they are not aggressive - i.e. they get eaten rapidly. There are a few places that there are tilapia in a river, after many years, but very few. It seems like the caimans think they are very tasty and the fingerlings are very appealing to the sabalo and sabalo real (tarpon). They aren't fast. Here, in the water ways, it is truly the quick and the dead. (or snack!)

Channel cat won't breed here. You have to buy them from a hatchery or from someone who breeds them. I talked with Organization for Tropical Studies (OTC) and they confirmend this. They also said to beware, they get huge is a short period of time in ponds - like a meter.

I really think I lean to tilapia for a beginning fish and then more natives. I like a firmer fish than tilapia personally which would be guapote or pinto. Pacu is really interesting (and native) due to that fact that food is free - it is a fruit eater.

Ah, yet one more idea - if I put a float control on the first bed (remember I have an overlow back to the sump) - if the water coming in is too fast, it won't spill over. Of course, having an overflow for each bed set would work well too. Now that I think more about it, I prefer the overflows. It has been my experience that floats always fail - and usually when you don't want them too.

CRTD, not only do they fail mate.
My Gbs come with float valves, and they cut the flow to the GB by so much I had to remove it:-( a good brass float too.
I am getting new GBs, ordered them, still about 5 weeks away, I asked for no float valves (approx $30 each here) and they said sure, still no discount though!!! couldn't believe it. So unless AP people want 3/4" float valves cheap, I'm gonna have an eBay Sale :-)

Yep, anything with a moving part, fails. All designs with moving parts assume failure at some point.

Yet another question - if I just leave the pump on and lets say that I keep the fill rate at half the speed (or less) of the autosiphon rate - does this keep everyone happy? Enough circulation for the fishies and enough oxigen for the plants?

I see some people leave their pump running all the time it seems instead of having a timer - is this the preferred method?

Thanks all - I am learning from your mistakes so I can make new ones.

I think starting and stopping pumps is hard on them. However, make sure the pump you choose is rated to run continuously.

Put ball valves on the pipes leading to the growbeds so that you can fine-tune the flow to get the autosiphons to start and stop reliably.

Make the autosiphon diameters a little larger than the input pipes to the growbeds. I think input pipes are 3/4" and the autosiphons are made of 1" un-crushable tubing.

My growbeds take about twice a long to fill as they do to drain. I do think that's about the sweet spot as you say.

Generally speaking, the more times per hour you can turn over the water, the better. I thought I was turning over about 4X per hour, but my math may have been off, and maybe I'm only turning over at 1.5X per hour. I need to sit out by the AP system and time and measure everything again.

Now I must get tea. I can tell when I'm not awake. My writing gets choppy.

This works - the pump I got is built to run all the time so that is fine. It is rated for 50 liters per minute which should be good for a start - I might go for a duel in the future, but not until the grow beds get to that point. In that way, in case of failure, I will have at least half flow.

I should be turning over at least once an hour.

Thanks for the quick feedback - I just got back from reviewing a new potential finca - over 300 acres. You don't know how big three hundred acres is until you do it on horse. The man from snowy river has nothing on me.

CRTD, you realize that you're making us all sick with your cool living conditions/lifestyle, right?!?

Does it make people feel better to know that I did that ride after being in a motorcycle crash Sunday where I got 6 stitches? (a motorcycle decided to try to run away, I got it stopped but it threw me at the very end on rock - ouch!)

There is a simple cure for having a few remaining aches and bruises from falling off a motorcycle - go riding for several hours over very rough terrain so that most of your body has a dull ache.

When I was young and first thinking about what the best career choice would be, I wanted to be a botanist and ride on horseback through the mountains cataloging rare plants. My parents didn't make any comments about the likelihood that someone would actually pay me to do that. However, I think they were probably relieved when I discovered computers.

So CRTD, do you need an assistant? (Although methinks my riding skills have somewhat deteriorated in 30 years.)

Janet, that sounds like me - my first career choice was to be a forest ranger with a strong background in biology. But, the job market for that was lousy. So, after a few career shifts, I became and engineer (software, hardware, etc)

It wasn't until after we started Finca Leola that it occurred to me that I achieved my lifelong goal - I mean if I won't hire me, who will?

Oh, and until I got to Costa Rica, I didn't HAVE riding skills!

Oh, I suppose I should point out if you don't have enough pain in your life you can check on the Blog I am now writing.

Life in the Campo

Would'nt mind coming to see you for a holiday!!
Where do you have found the funds to pay for such a treasure company?
Don't you need a fish farmer/aquaponicist and an accountant/sales manager on a finca somewhere?
Maybe one day I'll do my dream like you, at least you show it is possible to achieve such a thing
Keep up with the blog as I'll be following it with a lot of interest
Best wishes for the tree project, like that maybe my gran gran son will be able to know what a tropical forest looks like
Amacafish

We have visitors from all over the world so anyone who wants to come visit is more than welcome.

Where do we find the funds? Well, a sizeable amount was from our own savings and from living a pretty simple life even when I was making a lot of money in the software business.

The other is growing trees for others - not everyone can (and honestly wants to) live in the tropics. If you don't live here, it is very difficult to grow trees - it isn't like the north where things grow slowly. Trees grow like your vegetables in the grow beds. We have some species that grow 1/2 an inch PER DAY. And so does everything around it - which means a lot of work keeping up. So people pay us to grow trees for them, we acquire the land with the understanding that after we finish growing their trees, the land turns into a perpetual forest.

Since we have been doing a good job of growing trees for people, our sales have been growing about 30 to 50% per year. Now we have a woodshop for making cabinets, doors, floor, moldings, etc. and we are really hopping. It answers the question for people - who will buy my wood?

Thanks for the answer, you must have worked like mad to achieve it, hopefully I might find a way of doing the same since I'm starting my professionnal life now.

I'll keep an eye on the plane tickets and my holiday dates, thanks for the invitation, won't forget it for sure.

Coming back to aquaponics, have the plans you had posted changed?
I find that the pump might be a bit big if you feed the growbeds in cascade, 6 half barrels only get around maximum 400 L in them and with the speed of the pumping you'd never stop the syphonning of the beds and have problem with the flood and drain process (8 min filling, 4-5 min to drain if pump is stopped).
Maybe you could put one more gravel growbeds series filling at the start and it would reduce your flow input and increase the possibility of the syphon stopping
This would have to be confirmed by older members of this forum.
I'm just starting to get message going in France, since most french don't speak english and don't want to (an historical ego problem) so I have to translate but it's moving on.
Best wishes and take care with those self conscious deciding engines
amacafish