Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

more pics this time its the fish holding tank and pumps i have now and what i do have to work with

return outlet ended up only 3" from water surface. i need another set of block to get more 02 happening

my biggest pump will not run. its a little giant 1750gph and hopefully there is rebuild kit available or i can free it up.

its housed in a plastic case to prevent leaves from clogging it up. ill crack the carrier and see if the pump might just be bound up

i know all this crude but its what i have and i think i can make it work eventually.

ok here we go...



the one running is a mag drive


this is as far as i have gotten but im liking it

Mix that media with some 1/2 to 1" gravel and you'll have a great mix.

You have the beginnings of a great system, and it looks like a nice area for digging too

do you have an overflow?

It looks like you pump until it fills, then turn off the pump for draining. If so, as the media gets some roots, etc in it, you are likely to have a change in the filling and draining time.

If you have an overflow, it will set a maximum height, and allow for a little less precision in the on/off cycle.

+1 on the need for overflows. That way, even if your timer doesn't do a short enough period, it won't matter as the bed can just stay as full as the overflow for the extra period of time till the pump shuts off and not harm done.

Test kit, API Freshwater Master Test Kit is what I use.
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/199591/product.web

Your set up is looking good so far.

I would say leave your koi in there as your source for cycling as it is gonna be cool for a few months anyway.

As to the ratio, don't worry too much about trying to get up to a 1:1 ratio right off and likely if you go any higher than that, you would need to add a sump tank anyway. Since you are trying to do this low budget, don't rush. Your two big koi should be able to get you some lettuce growing before it gets too hot again, especially if you remove some of the pond plants.

You do not need to rush into getting edible fish as your koi could probably support a bin of salad and if you add more critters of any type, you will have more nutrients.

As to type of fish, I know in some parts of Florida, blue tilapia are no longer restricted since they have already naturalized into our waters. I'm not sure about the situation in your county. I have both blue tilapia (got those from morningstar fishermen but they don't ship so it requires a road trip with a container and bubbler) and channel catfish that are available at many fish farms (I got mine from Florida Fish Farm which is only about an hour from me but I believe they could ship catfish fingerlings.) Fingerlings of either type of fish are pretty cheap.

Both tilapia and catfish are really mild flavored fish, as in they have no strong flavor of their own and will be easily flavored by whatever you cook them with. They are both pretty oily fish. A bit drawback with farm raised catfish or tilapia is their feed is largely corn and soy bassed which makes the fish a bit less healthy to eat. This is mainly to do with the ratio of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. Basically, the American diet tends to have way too much omega 6 and no where near enough omega 3. The cook smoked some catfish the last time we harvested any, that was pretty good and then with some of the leftovers, he made catfish cakes which were great.

Now here is a recommendation that springs from your mentions about finances and poor growing conditions of your location. Try growing sweet potato! They are easy, especially if you have some water for them. If you can add any sort of organic matter to your sand, you will quickly improve things. (Other people's bagged leaves and grass clippings are great for sandy soil.) We got a great sweet potato harvest this year and my primary addition to our sand has been mushroom compost from the local mushroom farm. The mushroom farm is only a couple miles from here and a neighbor with a trailer is willing to haul it for gas money. Another thing we have added to our yard is free wood chips, whenever a tree service is working in the neighborhood, we tell them they can dump chips in front of our place if they need. I know many people will tell you that wood products will bind up nitrogen and are bad for the garden but here in Florida they break down quick and free liquid high nitrogen fertilizer flows out of our bodies every day.

Anyway, good luck to you!!!!!!

Hi Johnny:
You may want to make frames to go around the storage bins. They will bow out a lot when they are filled with water and media. A rectangle made from 2x4s will work for this.

i.e. the frame doesn't have to be an enclosed box, but rather like a belt around the bins to keep them from bowing out.

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hi there my new friends. like hydrophilia says " ideaphobia" wow its whirling around in my damaged melon like an isotope in the hadron collider. sorry for delay in responding. it takes a long time to load for me but i spent most of yesterday looking at AP systems you all have constructed. wow! is all i can say. im empowered

TCLynx - thats a very fine test kit and in my realm of actually getting one too. lesia has been asking me what i want for xmas. now i know

grenedo - yes i will surely add overflow. thank you brother

outbackozzie - thats great man. i was hoping i could use it. and at 60 dollars per ton , a bargain. i remembered what it comparers too now also. about like cocina (sp?) from a florida beach. ill get river rock from walmart and mix. i might even split some 3" pvc and drill manifold type holes and cover that with weed block cloth to jeep the fine parrticles away from drains on planting totes eh i mean GB

the diagram pic you posted helped me brother. thank you

dave D - yes brother i will make a band around the totes. im going to try some thick web strap i have on hand and make them a big belt. lumber is issue and i have this strap from semi truck wenches

i plan to cut the belt length and then roll the 2 ends tight as i can. clamp and then drill and bolt it. that should keep the totes from sagging under load, especially when it gets hot like florida does.

the pic really helped me understand and i sure thank you.

i probably missed someone but i reread everything over and over , i have to, as i got the crs now.

now for the next round of questions to feed my new madness

do you folks have an #irc channel?

can you point me to section on forum that might have greenhouse pics? i either must build expedient lowest cost GH or start tearing into hardshell buildings i do have to either revamp into GH or totally tear one down to get materials. i have a bunch of glass and old windows. some of the windows are really good double and triple pane. any plans links you guys have used or like?

second GH question. GH should be sighted east/west in florida yes?

im really having probs deciding where to put things as my lot is ok sized at 1 ac. but so darn shady im out of sunny room for GH now

ponds and tanks under shedding trees in bad stuff. leaves are an issue that i want to avoid if at all possible.

no being able to search forum ill have to bug you all with this one. is poly sheeting like a hardware store sells a killer to fish? i found some 6 mil poly in 100' rolls at a bargain and also white 5 mil from mobile home plant like they cover new modular homes up with
i would like to use as liner over old carpet pad for a few dug FT if i can.

im not sure this little mag drive pump i have will produce enough head to move anything for me. the big pump i have is dead it will only hum and is now obsolete according to little giant. not even are build kit exists.

i guess ill be dumping 5 gallon buckets of fish water unless i can find bargain water pump. i had even thought of going 12v but im not sure if they will push the hill either.

watched a show or how crappy our purchased food is last night. i knew a lot but not all they pointed out.

last thing for now do any of you rain harvest for your pond water?

regards, respects and much thanks as always, johnny

As far as how to do a greenhouse, I don't have much good advice using old windows. My shade structure that is supporting plastic this time of year is made of cattle panels from tractor supply (the ones that are about $20 each for a 4' by 16' panel) and lumber. If you don't try to grow tilapia, you can probably get away without a real greenhouse. You might think more along the lines of cold frames if trying to keep costs down.

As for lining a pond with plastic. My advice is don't. Way too easy to get pinhole punctures and be constantly loosing water. Even if you could trust the plastic to be safe for fish and your food, you would probably wind up having to re-do when you get sick of it leaking. I would say stick to your current set up and get it running. Save up some money for the eventual purchase of some heavy duty pond liner. I've made big grow beds using heavy duty EPDM pond liner, even rough gravel and shells have not hurt it. I've had to re-do an ornamental pond that some one built using builder's plastic. They had like 4 layers of the stuff of various thickness since it kept leaking so they would add another layer of plastic and so on. Was pretty nasty to remove those plastic liners that had stagnant water between them.

To keep leaves out of fish tank, I've been using netting. Any sort of light fabric that you can support over the fish tank will keep leaves out and help keep some warmth in during cold nights. Many people use shade cloth over their fish tanks. Just make sure it is shade cloth that isn't treated with toxic chemical fungicide/anti mold stuff.
Leaves falling on top of grow beds are not as big a problem once the beds are filled with your media.

If you are gonna buy $$ bagged gravel for the bottom of your grow bed, you might save a bit of money by only putting it right around where your drain will be. Instead of the river rock, you might look into lava rock for this purpose. I use lava rock around the drains in most of my beds to keep the river rock from blocking the water flow. In some cases the lava rock might be cheaper as well as being lighter to carry. Do make sure you rinse off the lava rock well before adding into the system. Red lava rock will still turn your water red for a short time even after washing. Lava rock provides lots of surface area for bacteria to grow.

As to a pump. I have three little garden pond pumps from harbor freight. One of them runs my barrel system. Another runs my aquarium system. Then I have one for other small projects/backup/or the quarantine system. One of them might be powerful enough to fill your bins from your pond. They use about 20 watts. I've removed the sponge filter from all of mine. I think they only cost around $15 when I got them but they might have been on sale.

oh well looks like at least on line those pumps are a bit more $ now.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=47136
Then again, this might actually be a slightly more powerful pump that the ones I have.

sounds great i saw you use them cattle panels, i do have some of them keeping my potbelly pig friend secured.

i measured it out and including the FT it will take a 13x26 GH that will give me room for 3 or 4 runs of beds
and some containered plantings. (so want banana tree/bush). hard wall on north windows on west end for vents walk door and either insulated salavaged windows or poly on east. then sloping poly for top and south sides.

decided to run it along side of the house on north side.
in winter it gets the higher sun but in summer the house can shade it a good bit too.

i may use my base thats shown holding totes and just make shallow beds 4 to 6" inches deep. i have 2 of them and they are both heavily constructed with inner ribbing

the 2 would give me a lot more planting area than the totes and require less plumbing also

i always had good luck with poly but i did always really be careful with snags and loaded it up with used carpet and padding remnants. but ill avoid it. im just worried
about hurting the fish not so much us. lesia and i have been exposed to so many bad things in the past. its way too late to worry much.

hopefully this little mag drive pump i have will work out. if not ill manually flood the beds when they get going until i can aqquire proper pump

and yes ill surely check if wally has lava rock and use that if so. im pretty sure i saw it at lowes and we just got one of them in town.

so where do you like to buy your seed? i need to try these pit GH i have dug out and see if i can get something started in them

thanks much, johnny

For seed it depends on the crop as to where I get it.
Many things I just get packets from the local garden center like lowes or where ever I see seed available. I have done just fine with garden center seed for lettuce and salad mixes. Cherry and grape tomatoes started from garden center seed have done well for me too as well as several types of hot peppers, summer squash, snow peas, green beans, burpless tendergreen cucumbers, basil, and marigolds.
You have a far larger selection of seeds if you order from seed catalogs but choosing a good company is important as well as thinking about how their location would relate to seeds you are trying to grow in your climate. Johnny's is a good company but not all their stuff is appropriate to growing here in Florida. Now if you want some of the more interesting exotic plants, you will probably definitely need to order them.
For some things I find buying seed, sets or starts from a local feed store is a good choice. A bag of seed for southern peas from a local feed store works well and ace hardware may have onion and garlic sets at the appropriate time of year for your area.

I do find that many of the garden center veggie plants are pretty lame and I'm more likely to grow my own from seed now than buy those poor abused starts. It might take longer and more patients but you can usually get as many plants as you like for a season from a packet of seed for less than the cost of one single transplant. It just takes a bit more patients.

Patients is very important to AP.

Hello.
It looks like your system is coming along. Nice area, lots of space. Can't see a lot of grass growing there. What trees are they in the background.

the trees in backgroud are all oak trees , some good ones like white oak from 2" up to 22" in diameter
and the ever evil post oak which is not their true name but what locals call them. biggest of them is about 20 inches think but im slowly clearing them.

its only 1.18 ac. but they were 498 trees from 1" up

but the post oaks
they grow all funky and lean and fall over , just because.
they have no qualms about falling on your car, home , GH or any other thing. im getting them gone, 20 minutes with chainsaw makes 2 days hard work cleaning it all up but
they make good firewood

i have some more pics of this place at my lame attempt at web site.
http://www.ottermoon.com under pics tab. i was trying to sell this beast before eco collapse. we think we want to move to tennssee and build earth bermed econohouse from sea containers and sip panels.

they say 17k people come to florida every week. hopefully one will want to buy my little place.


i found 60' of 4" pvc today and have promise of 60' of 6" and 40' of 8" but must go to sarasota to pick it up. might as well be on the moon really

here is the north side of home location im considering for the greenhouse. its only place i have i can build and still gets the sun. the big black thing in the far end of this pic is the self built tornado bunker. 6x6x16 easy digging but a lot of it. almost a year to build by myself working as i could. i estimate 30 plus yards of dirt considering i moved some of it 3 times and then packed tires with it too. all it needs is doors hung and i cant handle them by myself due to their weight



probably something along the lines of these 2 small ones but larger of course. if i can duplicate the window angle on this first one and site it correclty it will get really good sun in winter and be shaded somewhat in summer too. well thats the hope anyway. shade cloth and proper venting will be a must im affraid



i like this one a bit as i already have some insulated long skinny windows for the top bank of windows. if i can hinge them that is.



i think planning is much harder than the actual construction (well except for site prep like oak tree removal that are in the way) hahahaha

thank you all, john

Hey there Johhny--put this in LRGE FONT for ya; Hope it helps! We're in SW Florida--naples to be exact. We're newbies too, but have been "under construction" for a year. We're on 5 acres and have an 80x30 GH on site..built 12 yrs agowe are on track to raise tilapia and using heirloom seeds-organic of course.
We are building everything ourselves, even the growbeds made of 3/4" pt plywood and pt 2x4's
The plumbing is vital; and I'm in the same boat with downloading pics as you. Not quite the computer pro yet! I have pics on computer, can find them, but don't know how to resize yet--these guys gave me all the links I need tho! We drive right by there when we head to Tallahassee..Oh yeah, what's the diagnosis on your sight--if not too personal-