Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

thank you Johnny you make so many other little woes seem insignificant

I am really enjoying hearing of your progress

well at 9 am it was 55 degrees outside and 98 inside GH so i added a heat removing fan thats pulling and a smallish(12x12) piece of shade cloth 80% and now its 88 outside and 98 inside so im definately going to need more shade cloth.without one end even having poly yet :O

any ideas on most reasonable supplier of shading material?

second thing im feeling like i need to go ahead and add sump tank (even if it the old hole the current poly tank rests in) just add a liner and move FT to other end of GH

then it will be like TCL's simple system diagram of FT feeding GB and GB draining back to sump. PIST

it will be longer push of water requiring larger pump but as it stands i need to move FT anyway (i think )

i prefer to pump cleaner water and now is time to set things right. see i was planning to pump from FT to GB and gravity back but now im already having routing issues
for the large drain pipe



some of you math wizards can tell me how large of a liner for a hole 9 feet across and 30" deep?

i wanted to use my hill but for now i need to get something running and keep it simple as i can, so i need advice and ask what do you think i should try to do?

i know im correct all pumps last longer pumping cleaner water. so thats the direction i think ill need to shift

i really feel like im about to screw up and also need to figure out both my GB and tanks heights, im a lost johnny this morning for some stupid reason,

I know the feeling: "Urg...brain no work good. Urk!"

If your hole has vertical sides 2.5' deep and the whole thing is 9' across you would need 2x2.5+9=14' of liner. Any other shape hole would need less liner (eg: 45degree sides would require an 11' liner). Make sure to have something extra to pin down the edges: maybe 1' so you can weight it down with sandbags or boards?

Nice looking GH. Keep up the good work.

Most pond building sites say take the depth times 2 plus the width then add 3' (for the extra around the edges and the fact that holes are rarely perfect.) then do the same for the length so
(30" x 2) + 9' + 3' =17'
and the same here

So you need a chunk of pond liner that is 17' by 17' Chances are you will end up needing to go 18 or 20 foot wide since they usually sell standard widths.

thanks to both of you. well i can already tell
that heat is going to be an issue and i will need shade cloth and a much larger air mover.

i need some freezing cold weather really soon to justify why i actually spent the last week or so building this sauna i mean GH

im still at least a week or more out from planting. probably more so its getting pretty darn late to plant leafy veggies

TCL you get more hot weather than i do, so can you please tell me your planting schedules?

thanks again for liner size help. at least its easy digging. hopefully there are no pipes
electric lines or huge tree roots where im thinking about placing my next one

famous last words i guess

Some advice for your sauna before summer kicks in, you want to be able to roll up part of the curved side and don't plastic in the ends till fall now. My "greenhouse" now has both ends pretty much open all the time and the sides will be rolled up or removed come March I'm sure.

As for planting. I like to check the Farmer's Almanac to help keep me in line about when I should plant above ground or root crops or what days to avoid planting at all.
http://www.farmersalmanac.com/home_garden/gardening
Weather is warming up but I will probably still plant another round of lettuce since it is a pretty quick crop and I planted more carrot and turnip seeds today. Inside the greenhouse you will probably want to plant things that like it hot though. As soon as the time comes for more above ground crops you could probably go for the warm weather stuff. Okra, Tomatoes, any vines provided you have support for them to climb, and I think hot peppers are a real winner for greenhouse AP growing down here. Oh and don't forget basil, It seems to love growing in the greenhouse.

Main trouble with the greenhouse is when it's getting really hot during the day, your tomatoes may not like setting fruit so definitely see if you can work out some way to open or roll up some of that plastic for the hot months. And some shade cloth will help too but the air flow through the greenhouse will help much more.

thank you TCL , i had forgotten about the old farmers and their wisdom.

well im having big fun as im moving the blue poly tank to the other end of GH so as to attain proper system config. that having FT drain into GB's and GB into sump

of course the new area i want to place FT has anold stump and is no where near level, so i get to wrestle with that before wrestling the poly tank out of the ground by myself.

but in the end it will be much better.

now i know(quite well) that i should have built system then built GH around it all. too late dumb john

with the FT sitting on top of ground my outflow will be at 26" so that will alow shorter GB stands and still make a fall into sump. and also give me more overhead for plant growth

back to the poor mans backhoe i mean shovel

well it was major task but i got it dug out and moved. found a new resident i had never seen before .

one big bullfrog and he sure frightened me when he poked his head up from the dirty water while i was moving hand fulls of leaves hahahaha

the ground was so uneven i had to move 15 wheelbarrows of dirt . its still 1 " low but thats on the drain end so i think ill leave it that way
so it will actually drain and i dont have the same situation i had today with standing water

tomarrow ill work on the bullfrogs new home i mean the sump

You work hard there Johnny, Is it time to get your friend's wheelchair fitted with a winch Or some other heavy machinery? LOL

I know what getting startled by frogs or other critters is like. I guess it is one what to get the blood flowing double time.

he sure got me good. my first thought was snake

and i hate snakes. spiders are fine but not them snakes. in the summer i keep my pistol with me.
last years i killed 2 very large rattlenakes and one was laying across lesias wheelchair ramp after dark.

but something told me to take flashlight with me when i went to lock the gate and im glad i did

the loggers just took out the 274 acres next door so im thinking ill get huge amount of snakes this year when it warms up

moving the poly pond was rough plus it rained all the time i was moving it. and im feeling it right now. but i have a sump to work on tomarrow. but im getting there even if it is slow going.

about another hour and it should be filled...

Be a good time to take some more pictures then...

Just think of them as tasty land fish. Roast rattler, yum!

well i cant take pics yet as over the night the big poly pond has now used its weight to become way unlevel

i spent much time moving dirt, packing, tamping and wetting the soil. plus it was raining. it sure seemed compacted to me. but it still sagged

so i must move it once more. at least its not plumbed in and breaking my pipe

1 inch was fine but not 4 or 5 out of level *sigh*

I used about 3-4" of "crusher dust" to level out the bottom of the hole.... compacts down nicely... and allows for some drainage... real easy to level things out...

thats a good idea rupe, wish i had some of it but im getting it now. well level enough by blind guy standards


at least with the poly pond where it is now i can use the small hill and the shade for when things heat up here. might be a good place for these shallow wooden GB i cobbled together

ill get something running sooner or later. sooner i hope and its not for a lack of trying

i want to get good enough at this to be your stateside distributor hehehe