Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi
I've been looking into AP for about 2 months and I am getting ready to start a small demonstration system on the rooftop of a building in the city for the foundation where I am currently the facilities coordinator (www.glide.org). We currently have a small rooftop garden with planter beds of soil made from mostly reclaimed materials, a small hydroponics system, a couple of worm boxes, etc. Although the production of fruits and vegetables has been limited, it is basically an educational garden at this point for some youth programs and there is the occasional workshop held up there for various gardening activities. I'm looking forward to getting into this type of food production, as it seems like it holds many great solutions to many of the vast problems that the planet has to endure by our presence. We shall see ... and I'm looking forward to all of the experience and expertise that can be drawn upon from all of you that have been doing it for a while now.
Thanx
Jim
ps... this is the first electronic forum I have ever participated in so excuse my mistakes and any advice will be welcome...

Hi Jim

Surprised no one has asked you for pics or at least a diagram of what you plan. Rooftops make it a little more difficult, hard way to start.

Anyway welcome to the forum

Welcome

Yep pics are good

hi Jim welcome to your first forum

and dont worry about the mistakes we all make them

a roof top huh sounds like fun to me and a good use of space that would be otherwise not utilised

and of course .. where are the pictures and why havent you started a members system thread to show the proposed site of your aquaponics starting point

good luck with your system i will be watching out for your progress

So here is our rooftop garden in it first incarnation ... in the middle of one of the poorest neighborhoods in SF.
Plastic milk crates that are bolted together and filled with soil then covered with reclaimed pallet lumber, a small hydro system donated from general hydroponics which has there headquarters up the road from us. compost barrels and worm bins, etc. Most stuff was found, built or donated, now it's time to get creative and productive with some aquaponics and to hopefully show the advantages AP will produce compared to all of the other options that have been put there so far.
Also, I was looking at some of the photos from the 2009 photo contest ... I was noticing all of the wildlife shots from what seems to be mostly Australia and was wondering if I should go outside of our building and give you all a glimpse of the wildlife that we deal with here in beautiful San Francisco on a daily basis? (Glide church/foundation serves thousands of meals to the homeless and also has multiple recovery and help programs to assist people getting back on their feet after whatever life throws at them to knock them down) Please let me know ... everyday here is unique.

I see some definite, potential AP use of that space...

Neat use of the milk crates, I like modular (I can use that)

Any chance of getting a structural report on the roofs weight bearing capacity? or do people keep water tanks on them. Biggest problem is likely to be weight of FT and how big you can go.

looks like you guys already know what your doing with the plants

and some of what you have could be reused or recycled into your ap system

and i see some great potential in your roof top system

keep us all up to date

Hi Jim, welcome to the forum.
As above..... get a structural report (or somebody qualified) to check out supports/supporting/load bearing walls under the roof........ remember water is heavy 1mt x1mt x1mt (1m3) weighs 1 metric tonne.

Good luck with your AP system

I like those raised garden planters. Good reuse of materials. You might manage a small AP system (bin size fish tank) before you get the structural reports but I wouldn't be filling any IBCs with water as fish tanks until you brush up on the structural strength of the roof top. Would the hydro place be willing to donate any expanded clay media for the system?

Welcome!!!!!!!!

Yes as far as structural reports ... we had one for the initial garden and our tanks are going to be shallow wood boxes 4ft x 4 to 6ft maybe 2ft high with pond liner place direcly over the main support columns and our beds will be the same materials 8 to 12 inches deep 4 to 8 ft long and probably only 12 to 24 inches wide. so they can be arranged in different configurations coming out from the FT, I'm hoping to keep a nice asthetic value to the system, a nice hot tub deck for plants and fish. Anyone know of some systems that look like that? Here is an example of a FT from a pond shop that I would like to copy. In the mean time if anyone has had problems with the type of stuff I'm describing, please let me know. also anyone have any experience using straight perlite as the grow media?

wouldn't let me load a bitmap ... learning curve... but here is the pix