Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi quachy,

I have the same type of media as your system and have not tried carrots, radish or beetroot yet. I'm keen to see how yours root crops progress, as soon as I extend my system I want to grow them also but was unsure if the media would be suitable.

Merry christmas and God bless froggo.

froggy, i have 2 types of media, one is 10mm gravel, one is 20mm screening. the 10mm is the one I have carrots and beetroots in and both seem to be going really well. will keep you updated.

On the topic of the wood fired oven you plan to build - build it yourself it's way way cheaper. i built my own and it only cost $800 for 1m/sqr cooking area.

Yeah going to build it myself. Going to start after new years and hopefully have the first firing at the end of Jan. I have decided to go with concrete blocks for the base, the mud brick is way too time consuming! I will do the oven floor in fire bricks as well as the first layer of the dome. The subsequent 2-3 layers will be a mud render. Can't wait to get into it. Just need a few more hours in the day!

it'll take you a few months to do i promise. the main reason, is that you need to wait for the concrete to cure.
if it was me doing it over again, i'd make a base out of besser block with a 6 inch thick slab for the base. i'd make sure the thing was positioned down wind but as close as possible to my outdoor entertaining area (running with hot pizza is dangerous).
on top of the concrete slab i'd lay another 6 inch layer of concrete mixed with perlite. get the perlite from a wholesale factory or it'll be way too expensive. on top of that put a layer of fire bricks, position them without mortor as you'll want to replace any that crack and you don't want any edges poking up to catch your pizza peel.
i'd make a dome style, this means cutting each brick in 1/2 and gradually building up an igloo, make this atleast 1m in diameter and make sure you use refractory mortor. a tip for using refactory mortor is to soak the bricks before use and leave no more then 1mm of mortor in any join. it dries and cracks far worse then normal lime mortor.
next build the arched entrance way, make this atleast 30cm deep and this is where you'll put the gap for the chimmney - the easiest way to make this is to build a plywood form to help get the arch exactly even. make the chimmeny hole atleast 9inchs in diameter so it suits common wood heater chimmeny's and stucks a decent amount of smoke.
once i'd let that dry for a week i'd insulate with a 30cm thick layer of perlite, make a form out of fine wire mesh and pour the perlite into it and gently pack it in. then trowel a layer of cement over it to form a base to apply a render, making a shell about 4 inches thick. let that dry out for a week, then light 7 small fires, one each day to cure the inside of the oven. a lot of work in it but it really makes a nice outdoor area addition.

struth, I take it you've made one before!

I have a set of free dowloadable plans that i'm going to go off and basically you have described the method in a nutshell. I'm starting to accumulate material at the moment and will be doing the base over my Jan break. I guess end of Jan is a bit of a stretch, more realistically end of march maybe even april. all part of the fun (and tears no doubt).

Quachy

Hey mate, Thanks for the input today was a great help. I once watched a garden show on how to build a pizza oven and the main tip that i remember was to get some packing sand and sculpt a firmly packed dome on your base and then build the bricks up over the dome. The sand obviously acts as your formwork and then once the mortar has cured you just dig the sand out through the oven opening.
Not sure if this is how you planned to do it or not but sounds good to me.

no worries mate, sorry that the visit was cut short. let us know how it goes.

There not that difficult to build i think from the concrete floor the first small fire was in mine 2 weeks later
Also for the dome the bricks were cut on 4 sides and it hasent moved anywhere
Mine also has a gas override in it just to top up late in the day when there isent enough heat
Also put a door on it to hold the heat overnight so next day you can do a slow cooked roast

Photos

yep you can get a fire in one quickly - my first pizza was about 2 weeks from the slab as well, but it was 2 more months before i finished the render and painted it - though mine is in a really difficult spot.
I'd be inclinded to wait longer next time as i got a few cracks in my render job from being too impatient and not waiting longer for it to cure.
still i'm pretty pround of my effort having never laid a brick in my life before this.
[attachment=0]zMy B'Day 09 099.jpg[/attachment]

That's a fair job Timmy...

Nice Timmy does it have a chiminey!

thanks guys, bit of inspiration for my oven!

hooked up my internal tank fingerling system. a 250lt glass ft a bucket of ap gravel (about 30-40lts) and a pond pump. I have about 20 bass ans 20 silver fingerlings in there and the rest in my outside setup. Will feed them the same and see which out grows which just for fun. In reality, just getting it ready for winter (I know very early, but I had the stuff and time). Also have an aquarium heater and have set it for 24deg, so they should go off! It will be interesting to see how the bass go as so far they seem to be very friendly. They come right up to the glass when its feeding time and hit the food pretty hard.

Quachy