Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have been lurking around here and other AP sites for around a year now. I have a system built in my head and on paper but haven't broken ground yet. I am the CEO and head janitor of Dazzling Dougs Commercial Cleaning Service. The Dazzling part is how clean I leave the place not how handsom I'am
My wife and I live on land that has been in our family for almost 100 years but we are the first ones to live on it. I find that the soil is sandy and thin, and the bugs are hungry and plentiful. The main crop here is cattle and pecans. We own almost 157 acres so we have plenty of room to play.
I look forward to meeting you in the forum and learning more about this process.
Happy New Year!!!

Welcome Doug... look forward to seeing your "dazzling" results...

Hey Doug, Welcome . I tried to answer your post but you went off line catch you next time. Good Luck

Hi Doug....welcome to the forum. Hope you'll be able to realise your plans. Good Luck!

Just an idea for you, since you have loads of bugs. I saw this done years ago for a hen house, but there is no reason it wouldn't work for bug eating fish.

This guy took a UV light and put it in front of a small squirrel cage vent fan. He ducted the discharge into a large vacuum bag. He then fed the bugs to the hens. You could feed 'em to the fish just as easily.

welcome Doug, sounds like a great spot

Howdy Doug, sounds like were neighbors...lol Your spread is quite a lot larger than my 10 acres... I haven't started my setup but looking forward to gett'n er done this year. Will post pics as my site progresses.

Cool idea backflash... may have to incorporate that into my setup since I'm going try using trout. Sounds like a great way to auto-feed them

There are people out there using lights, fans, and even bug zappers to feed fish.

Heck, having some hens on hand is a good thing too as well as some worm bins and AP systems etc.......

Welcome welcome.

I've been doing lots to build up my soil for my dirt garden as well as doing AP. If ya got any mushroom farms around your area and they sell the used compost for cheap, it makes great head start on building up good soil. I use that along with stealing other people's bagged leaves, shredded paper and cardboard etc. (figure some of that might be easy to come by in the cleaning services.)

We are looking forward to your system threads and all, even if it only starts out as dreams and ideas. Posting ideas and pictures can often get you comments that will save you time, money, and aggravation in the future.

I'm feeling a bit envious of the 100 acres, I'm doing my best to turn my 1/3rd of an acre into a farm.

Good to have you finally posting!

Howdy Doug, I'm just north of you in kansas! Like you I'm just getting started.

Thanks for the hearty welcome, good ideas on catching bugs for fish food. Another one I heard of was a computer fan mounted on a six to eight inch diameter pvc pipe with a light bulb attached then water at the bottom of the pipe the bugs are attracted to the light and the fan sucks them in and they drown in the water to be harvested the next day. Another one uses either fresh liver or dry ice to attract mosquitos and a screen funnel they go in but can't go out, kind of like a minnow trap. I have been looking at TCLynx system and am planning to use pond liner and earth for heat/cool temp retention. I have a wood fired boiler pictured in my head and some Pex tubing for heating the beds and the fish water. as well as the green house. It gets cold down here as well as Jones Ok. and to grow anything in the winter months it will take some figuring out. I also have some hot water solar panels to incorporate into the boiler system idea. I plan on harvesting the eastern red cedar which are a invasive species and using a chain saw mill, turn them into 4x4 posts for the greenhouse.....so many ideas and so little time (let alone money)