Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Very impressive. I've got a lot of work to do now.

I always love time lapse videos

Just been watching your video's....
Very impressive, fantastic combination of nature and technology.
Love it

Enjoyed the vids, well done. Wish I had a clue on how to automate via computer. You da man Rob!

I pulled these zucchini roots out of my system today. It was totally clogged and started to overflow. Lesson learned - make sure you have a standpipe so you can clean it out!

Yep.. we try to warn people that the roots will go everywhere...

Must have been a reasonable zucchini plant...

looks like you've discovered a new species......

standpipeamus rootus.....

or might be an alien... ya never know

props on the system rob.

I finally decided to get rid of the old extension cord that ran from the garage to the greenhouse. The cord went out the window to the tree, down the trunk (you can see the orange to the right of it), then along the ground into the greenhouse. Last year I drove a shovel through it while scraping ice. And I was always afraid I (or my wife) would hit it with the lawn mower.

It's always exciting digging through our find New England soil (rock). It took an entire weekend, but I dug a trench 60 feet long, 1 foot wide, 1.5 feet deep and buried a conduit. Don't have to worry about he mower any more....just woodchucks!

I've been doing some work on my automation software. I've upgraded it so the various functions can now be programmed using flowcharts to make it easier to layout. I can draw out the flowchart and the info gets loaded into the controller automatically.

This first diagram shows how the six-way sequencing valve works. First it takes the sunlight reading...if it's day time, the system starts. It moves the valve into the first position, then turns on the pump. After a proper waiting time, the next event will run. Each event can be programmed with delays or to save info into the database for historical graphing. After the flowchart ends, it is programmed to run itself again after a certain amount of time.


When you click on one of the events, it opens a window to display details about it.


This one is the fish feeder flow. Depending on the temp of the water, it can feed them up to 3 times in a day...the theory is to feed them at a rate of their metabolism .

That a long time to dig a trench with a tractor.

Just a couple of update pictures of the greenhouse aquaponics....

Found this giant walking stick on the pepper plants last night:


This is one cucumber plant! I don't have an official count, but I've picked at least 20 cukes from it. My dirt garden produces no more than a half dozen per plant. On this plant, the spots where I've already picked, it's now sending out TWO new cukes. It's awesome!


This is one cherry tomato plant. We've been keeping an official tally sheet on it. So far, we've picked 185 and there are 100's more on there. Sorry about the "burnt" look of the leaves. After I killed all my fish with the seaweed meal, I think they got a bit nutrient deprived, but all the new growth looks good. My garden cherries are doing terribly since most of them have the "potato famine" blight....

Nice plants Rob...

It's been awhile since I've posted any updates about the greenhouse. We're now in the blistering cold of winter. This is the first year I've heated the greenhouse.....it may be a costly mistake. Here's a little scientific data to ponder:



1) 2:30pm: Sun starts to set (yellow) and the greenhouse has no solar gain and the temperature starts to drop (Orange & green lines)

2) 3:45pm: Temperature goes below 40F (4.5C). Heater is able to turn on/off as it maintains the temp at 40F. Ceiling temp (light green) jumps a bit as the heat rises....

3) 9:15pm: Outside temperature (Red) goes below 20F (-6/7C) and the heater no longer can keep up with the demamd. Temperature slowly declines to around 38F (3.3C). The outside temp is 13.3F (-10.4C)

4) 9:15am: Heater turns off once the sun comes out the next morning. Total run time is roughly 17 hours.

There are 2 electric heaters totaling 2400 watts. After all the fees and taxes, we pay $0.20 per kilowatt:
2400watts & 17 hours = 40.8 kilowatts
40.8kW * 20 cents = $8.16 to keep it heated for the night!

Since we are getting so little sun and it's cold, the lettuce is growing very slowly. There's one tomato plant that I started in the fall still doing OK but needs a lot more light. I had a few cukes growing, but the consistent cold has killed them. I am not generating $8 worth of veggies/day. Perhaps it's time to invest in a propane heater to lessen the heating costs....or just shut it down for the winter..... Jan & Feb will be even colder!

My wife is going to kill me when the Dec electric bill comes in!

Any suggestions?

Move , humans are not m,eant to live in that type of climate.

On a more serious note ,, I guess youv'e read all the glass-house heating pages on the net , so doubt there is much I can add. Have you calculated the volume of water that gives you the best heat sink / heat storage for your glass house?
I can't imagine and therefore have no experience with trying to grow in those type of temperatures.
Here in Sydney it is VERY rare to be below 7C ( 45F ) and also very rare to be above 32 ( 90 F)
24 hour averages are between 22C and 12C ..... one could assume it is a very nice place to live:)