Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yeh its joy eh watching the leaves form and stuff

Quote of the day

Time to update with some new pictures, have stuff growing nicely now, am seeing a difference every day! I was looking at some more plastic totes at walmart yesterday, 5 dollars each, might get a few more as I have decided I think I can fit 6 tote GB's in my office, would need to have two more fish tanks as well though, but I think I can make it all fit

In the pics I just added an automatic feeder to run while we are gone for a few days for new years, also have some bamboo I stuck in the fish tank for the heck of it. Also bought and planted a rosemary plant in the GB, been there for a couple weeks and is doing great!

Happy new year

Time for a system update, been pretty much cruising along, everything has been stable for about the past month, stuff was growing pretty slow for quite awhile but the lettuce and rosemary seems to have taken hold and is growing quite fast now, the lettuce in the pictures is the only thing grown from seed in the aquaponics, the basil and rosemary were perchased from the store and moved into my system.

We haven't gotten to eat anything out of there yet but we are hoping to have some of the first lettuce in the next couple weeks, probably won't be enough for a full salad for my wife and I but enough to give us a good smile while eating it.

Am currently planning on building a new platform to put the GB's on as I want to have three plastic totes running with gravel but I don't think my current table would hold the weight, I am going to build one that is alot more heavy duty. Also working on planning out the greenhouse I am going to build first thing in the spring, will hopefully be putting up sketches of what I am thinking of doing and getting comments from you guys.

Anyways enjoy my pics!

Time for a system update, been upgrading, working on better ways of running the system, and getting more plants going.

So the changes...

I found out that if I went up to a $25 pump from the $18 one I purchased before I can run two bins from one pump, I have had it running for about two weeks now and it is working awesome! I have also built a new frame for the lights to hang from, I can hang 4 lights from this frame (2 on top, one on each side shining in), also I put netting on the sides and on the top of the frame and I am going to try some vines in the system, bought some cucumbers and watermelons to try. Once the vines get up on top of the system I will add a second layer of lighting to provide enough light to the vines on top.

I also worked out a much better way to do the siphons in these plastic totes, it takes about 15 minutes now to setup a bin and they are way more ajustable than the first one I did.

Also I have been having issues with starting stuff from seed directly in the GB's, transplanted stuff seems to do fine though, so you will see in the pictures I am starting seeds in dirt planters and then will wash the dirt off the roots and put in the GB's when they get big enough, the stuff sprouting in the pictures is cherry tomatoes, peppers, and broccoli.

The last picture is my controller I am building, it has 6 outlets each able to be controlled separately, so to do sequenced fills and drains you just plug in your pumps for the grow beds in the order you want them and let them go, no fussing at all, the controller and all parts to do this were probably about $70. I am using an arduino processor if anyone is interested I can share the code and schematics, they are both very simple. I am currently working on a windows program that will interface with the arduino and will show what pumps are on, let you control the lighting, fine tune the fill times, pause the system, etc. Once I have that in good shape I plan to post the code and software app for free as open source for anyone that might want to use it.

So that is all that is running right now, I got a deal on a 125 gallon tank that is coming in my office next and I have worked out that I can fit 8 more plastic totes in here, will be working on that over the next few months. I have been doing some weight calculations and have determined that I have to re-inforce the floor under my office as I am going to have about 2.5 tons in my office from the aquaponics, I have a friend coming up to add a temp beam that runs right under my office for my increased madness in this hobby!

You haven't got mains voltage running into that distribution board have you???

Have you got an earth leakage circuit.... hate to see you electrocuted because a siphon broke loose or something...

Nope, the board just controls the relay's, so it has 5 volts DC through it. Once I get everything nailed down I am going to build an actual board and put it in a case.

The relays that have actual AC voltage running through them are protected down with the actual outlets.

On a different note, if I have a siphon cut loose, I would rather be shocked than have to report that I soaked the floor in my office :-)

From personal experience, I'd recommend putting some kind of bracing around those totes. Especially the ones with just water in them.

I was thinking about that, the ones with water in them are much more sturdy than the grow beds, but they do bow out a bit, I might build a frame for them to sit in, could dress it up a bit more then too if I did that.

The 125 gallon tank I am working on setting up now is one of the pond kits you can get to use as a water feature, its not meant to sit on its own so I am pondering how to best support that, I am thinking of building a case for it that I could put spray foam insulation in to fill around the pond kit so it couldn't bow at all.

When I was using those I meant to do the same thing with the spray insulation. Never got around to it though .

Probably a dumb update, but I am excited, have my first blooms in the system, the wax beans I have planted just started blooming yesterday, it has probably a dozen blooms today!

Been eating herbs and lettuce for a couple months now but I hadn't gown anything that wasn't leafy stuff. It didn't take hardly any time to get to blooming, I think I planted the beans about 3-4 weeks ago.

I have decided I am going to get a clipboard to hang on the side of the system to keep a log of when I plant, harvest, see blooms, transplant stuff, etc. That way I can have a good idea what to expect in the future rather than trying to remember how long things took before, also it will be interesting to see if things go faster or slower in the future with a more mature system, different lighting setups, etc.

Not a dumb update at all ... except you forgot the pictures...

Actually took a couple, but they didn't turn out good enough to post, maybe when the blooms fill out some more I can get a good enough pic to show

Ok, quick update. Been doing some planting, have 3 new tomato plants transplanted from a seed starter in dirt to the new bins I setup, also transplanted 7 pepper plants I started in dirt. I am going to be interested in how these do as apposed to the ones I did straight in the gravel.

I am posting a couple pics of the existing bin I had, also the bean plant I mentioned had flowers now has good sized beans pictured. I made two small changes to the system that have really made it take off, first off I have an oscillating fan I put in that just runs 5 minutes every hour and I also added a second fluorescent fixture that has "daylight" bulbs in it, within a few days of adding those there was a huge difference, the lettuce is way nicer, greener, and not sticky like I had mentioned before, I attribute that to the fan, my basil is loving the new light that I put in.

And last but not least, in prepping for the next step I installed a new beam under my office floor in the basement. This event pretty much marked that I am insane, but besides my insanity I am ready to bring in the 150 gallon stock tank I am buying in the next bit and start putting the next 8 bins in place. I did a rough calculation and I figure I will have about 2.5 tons of weight between the gravel and water I am bringing in, I think my floor would have supported it on its own, but the beam was cheap and gave me a bit more peace of mind.