Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Edited by CL

hehe, he's got it baaad!

Blame me!

Welcome to our addiction CharlieLittle.....

Couple of questions... you have drawn a direct feed from your roof to your tank.......

What's your roof made of, and is there any chance of contaminents from the roof surface or any rain bourne contamination?

How will you deal with the possibility of your bass tank overflowing in heavy rain periods?.... Particularly as you intend to return your water back from the strawberry towers to your fish tank?

Edited by CL

Hey Charlie.... here's how Gnash did his towers.... came out pretty good...

http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... 689#110689

Nice plan Charlie. I really liked your other pictures of the towers on the fenceposts, I saw somewhere else.

Anyway, having grown a few bass myself, I was wondering what you were going to feed them?

Also, I would think, if you stay away from crayfish, that a regular rigid sided wal mart pool would be alot cheaper than fiberglass or concrete.

Good luck, you are blessed with numerous sources and species of fish available in AR. I have a list if you need it.

Edited by CL

Edited by CL

Interesting question on what to do with the plants over winter. I know strawberries survive just fine in the ground in cold climates. I don't know if they would have problems in the towers over a cold winter. I suppose the issues would be somehow allowing the plants to go dormant without rotting the crowns.

I suspect that if you want to leave the plants in place in the towers, you will probably have to protect them in cold frames. I know many strawberry farms pull the plants each year and replace them.

Edited by CL

The beads might float out of the tube.
Replanting all those tubes once a year looks like it would be a daunting task, every two years sounds like a better plan

Having all those posts supporting the tubes means you could use them to fix some winter protection over the top, perhaps equally useful for shade cloth in the summer too.

Edited by CL

The solids breaking down in a gravel bed help to provide other nutrients beyond the basic Nitrate. You might set up a big gravel bed to act as a solids filter before pumping to the strawberry tubes. You could use that gravel bed for other plants of more strawberry plants.

I don't know how well the styrene beads would work for the system. Perhaps as well as perlite which I know strawberry growers use. There are different sizes of perlite out there. It does tend to float and cause all sorts of issues when it makes it's way into the plumbing.

Hi charlie, you will definitely need a pre tower filter. You will have major gunk issues otherwise, problems with oxygen, overflowing towers bc they are blocked etc. You can use these filters as growbeds for salad greens.