Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all. Found this site last night and stayed up till 3AM reading all I could. I was surprised that will all my research over the past 6 months I did not come across it. Great info here with a lot of intelligent people. I am located in Chicago, IL in the US and have a small AP setup in my garage. I am using a AP system with NFT. I have a five tube system, 3 4inch tubes and 2 3inch tubes. It has definately been a learning experience but things are actually going very well. I started with T12 bulbs at 6500K but learned quickly that the T8s were much better, T5s are out of my budget range. Currently growing strawberries, watermelons, lettuce, spinach, dill, basil, and tomatoes. Trying to be organic (if possible these days) by using worms to feed the fish. Currently I am trying to design a vertical NFT system since the weight of the NFT systems is minimal and in Chicago it would have to be indoors since outdoor land is a premium. Glad to have this site as a resource as I am new to this and can learn a lot from all here. Thanks.

Elston

Hello and welcome!!!!!

I'm impressed, watermelon indoors under lights

Pictures we love pictures!

I may have spoken prematurely. As I said this is an experiment, so the watermelons have not grown yet, still germinating. I hope they will grow as I have seen them grown indoors with ebb&flow under a HPS. I am hoping I can suspend the melons (if they grow) in a hammock. Everything else is doing well so I am keeping my hopes up. I may have to add some lights. My tubes are 8 ft long and at a width total of 48”. I have four fixtures with two bulbs each which are 6500k T8s. Fixtures around here are only $20 and bulbs about $3 so it might be a worth while investment. I will post pics as soon as I can. AP has become a definite addiction.

The flowering plants may be a challenge under those lighting conditions but you should do well with lettuce and such. Just keep the lights as close to the plants as you can without burning the leaves. (really close, I mean a couple inches from the plants.)

I was thinking that as well. Thought I'd add some 4500k soon for the flowering. I'm sticking with the T8s for cost and heat. If it works out, I should be able to stack three tube systems verticaly with the lights on a sort of modified drawer slide hardware. Most of what I have read here is outdoor growth which unfortunately is not an option for me here as well as a seasonal problem.

Hello Elston, I'm curious how you have your T8's setup. I too look forward to seeing pictures =]

Nothing special just standard dual bulb 48" over the five tubes. Things have gone wuite well so far. Based on advice from TCLynx, I lowered the fixtures today, but I think this will require addition fixtures for better dispertion. Actually, after a meeting today, I am rebuilding the whole system tomorrow. Using plastic gutter down drain three wide and three tiers high. I will use 2 48" fixtures to cover 8 ft of grow tubes on each level at three wide. I am having trouble uloading my current pictures as indicated in another post. Forgot, broccolli was added to the system today as it germinated after only 3 days. I'm hooked!