Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Posting a couple baseline pics (taken about 3/19/2010) for the vege growth in the system. Still need to add more growbed area and that is in the near future... Also, reduced some of the algal bloom with tank shading. Hated to do that this early as I have been nursing the tank temps up, but tilapia are feeding well (voracious, about 4-5 times a day is more like it) with tank temps altering between 69º and 73º daily.

Planning the next stage/expansion... Have a pile of blue barrels and will likely plumb a bunch of them as GBs instead of making more of these 4x8 boxes... Much cheaper and only a little less volume per square foot of space taken up.

CB

dude, those wooden boxes would be perfect for my system!!! do you have the plan to built them? that would be a nice addon in a hardware section :b

Pretty simple, really...

1 sheet of 3/4" CDX ply for the bottom.
1 sheet of 3/4" CDX ply cut (2 pcs 12" x 96" and 2 pcs 11 1/4" x 48") (You'll have one strip 12 3/4" x 96" left over)
2 - 4x4's about 9' long for the runners. I set them on cement blocks at about 30" centers.
5 - 4x4s about 56" long. These run crosswise on the long 4x4s at the ends and on 2' centers.
I screwed the ply down to the 4x4s and set the sides outside of the bottom with 2x4s screwed outside that at the base to the 4x4. The goal was to prevent bowing. (If you look earlier in this thread you may be able to figure it out from the pics.
Around the top I put another 'wrap' of 2x4s with the 2" side toward the box to strengthen against bowing.

Next, I leveled as best I could (There are some shims between the cement blocks and the long 4x4 runners on a couple beds...) and planned my plumbing. The drain is a male and female 1" pvc fitting screwed together through a hole in the bottom. The 3/4" ply does not allow enough thread to catch, so my solution was to take a hand router and round the inside edge then mill and offset on the underside. Once it all fit nicely, I removed the fitting and placed the liner inside the bed.

Folding the liner at the corners is easy for a neat appearance. Just be sure that the liner comes all the way to the bottom corner so it does not stretch/tear under the weight of the gravel. I stapled the liner to the top of the 2x4s and trimmed it off before excess before using 5/4 decking to make a dressy top rail..

Took more than a few clues from JTs big greenhouse system.

AFTER the liner was installed I carefully felt for the hole in the ply where the plumbing exits and then cut a small tight 'X' with a carpet knife and inserted the male fitting down through the liner and bottom to attach to the female portion.

NOTE: This is a slow drain system, so I had predrilled a 3/8" hole in the fittings to prevent the risk of having to drill with it in an awkward and risk slipping and putting a hole in the liner. Later I figured out it was draining too slow and had to add holes... that made me sweat!! Future reference, I would put 3 holes in there and then notch the stand pipe for one or two and then if necessary notch for the third...

Lastly, after the beds were full of gravel and water I noticed one had settled and was no longer level. I simply cut a shim the thickness I needed and my son and I used a car jack to lift that corner under the long 4x4 runner and insert the shim. Three minutes to a re-leveled GB!!

Hope all that makes sense...

A side note, I did just post in Sandman's thread my thoughts on GBs.. wood v. blue barrels. Just my current thoughts being in the middle of construction... (And subject to change... LOL!)

CB

Well... Lost my first fish this evening. The good: It was not water quality and once figured out was easily repaired... The bad: it was actually six fish...

I poked my head in the GH before going to town to pick the boys up from youth group and happened to see a couple fish in a GB!! After the 'OMG' gasp, I jumped into high gear!! There were five dead fingerlings in one GB, and a single in another GB.

First I inspected my floating tank to see if it had a hole in the netting... Didn't seem to, but it looked like I was a few fish short of 250! I peered into the sump to see if there was any evidence of fingerlings taking a ride on the overflow siphon, but couldn't see any. I threw a little food in to see if it would disappear over the next half hour or so... It didn't.

With the timer set to come back on in a bit, I ran to town and got the boys, pondering how they got there...

Upon my return, I immediately went back to the GH to inspect and puzzle it out and again found a fingerling still alive and gasping in the GB that had the original five... I quickly tossed it into the barrelponics system with those goldies.

The common point between the two GBs is that they both pull from the same pipe on the bottom of the FT. The other pipe has a web of holes drilled in it, but this one I recall milling some 1/4" slots on the underside of it.

I questioned the family about playing with the FT/floating net thinking maybe they accidentally released some fingerlings into the larger tank. (The boys had guests and curiosity is a strong motivator...) They all denied any such activity, though expressions made me wonder...

So, I surmised the problem was the drain pipe with slots. I went in the shop and made a new one with 75 1/4" holes then pulled the slotted one out and made the switch... Next, I ran the system a few minutes to flush the pipes and see if any more fingerlings showed up in the GBs... None.

I did catch five more fingerlings in the floating net tank and added then to the barrelponic system to keep the rescue fish company... I had considered moving some over there earlier just to have a growth comparison between the two systems and be able to more easily observe... Might even make a decent breeding tank in the future if I cover the bottom/drain pipe (it has small holes) with pea gravel...

Tomorrow will tell the tale whether I found/fixed the problem.

CB

Been pretty busy the last week or so... Haven't posted any updates, but finally took a few snaps this evening.

First a few details... Water temp is climbing and the tilapia are happier with the high of 74º F today in the tank. Ph has settled to a pretty steady 7.2 and much of the algal bloom I was battling has disappeared. I can barely see the bottom of the tank which is MUCH better than this time last week.

Had a visit yesterday from a marine biologist who wanted to see what she had heard about through the local grapevine... In short, she was flabbergasted and could not believe what she was seeing. She has YEARS of experience in aquaculture with hybrid striped bass and is also a Master Gardener... After an hour talking and drooling over the system she asked, "You know all this and learned all this but don't have a degree in marine or horticulture sciences?" I gave credit to the ingenuity I learned from my dad, lots of internet research, some trial and error and most of all: BYAP!! She'll be back and I expect she'll be an AP'er before too long! At any rate, she was excited about the system and has much she can teach me in plant management as well as aquaculture stuff...

Temps in the GH have been VERY warm during the days. I finally installed some vents and expect to soon roll the sides up. We have been propping the doors open and opening the vents during the day while buttoning the GH up at night. Still experiencing low 50s at night with high 70s to 80s in the day. Inside the GH temps soar to the 110 range pretty early in the day...







More in next post....

Plants currently in the system:

3 Dwarf Cavendish Banana
1 Double banana
cukes
three varieties of tomatoes
bush beans
crookneck squash
zucchini
several varieties of peppers
two types of eggplant
red china beans
chives
bulb onions
red cabbage
beets
marigolds
cow peas
morning glories

Still have room for more stuff and will be adding several types of melons once the north side is rolled up... Gonna let them hit the ground on that side...





You may have noticed the variety of media... Actually, I ran out of Stalite, so had to improvise. I bought 40 bags of lava rock to go in the bottom of the barrels as that will add porous surface area as well as trace minerals. I used a tub full of river rock from a modified GB attached to my watergarden... (The water feature on my patio for the last five years was nice untill last year when I experimented with and unsightly tub as an attached GB... Wife and I both glad it is gone and the gravel incorporated in the GH system.) Then, with still unfilled barrel halves and piles of blue granite (blue metal?) still in the far end of the GH floor, I surmised I have enough surface area of media in the system, I just need stuff to moisten and put plants in... so, I began to simply fill the last GBs with granite gravel. Much coarser than the Stalite, but will serve the purpose and keep us moving forward...

Still have more to do, but the GBs are finally almost coming up to the 1:1 ratio of the 1200 gallon +/- FT.

Enjoying the journey!!

CB

BTW, please pardon the fact that the whole place still looks like a construction zone, 'cause, well, it is!!

CB

Looking great! Looks like you still have plenty of room to move around and even add some more stuff! Good job!

Alright Countryboy....

Looking very nice there mate... now that you've got your "learner" system in place....

Just how big is your next system going to be....

looking good...

will be putting my system back together in the next couple weeks...

hope it comes out looking as good as yours...

JT

Awsome progress! Looks great!

You guys are very kind, and I thank you! I count many of you as 'heroes' and am simply following the lead you've extended in sharing/making public your lessons and knowledge! For that I am grateful.

My goal is to demonstrate to locals and observes on here that a large scale scratch-built system is possible and economical. Including the GH, I would guess at this point I have about $5k USD in the whole system and am sure I could do it better and cheaper the next time. My guess is that it will generate that much in produce and fish over the next 1-2 years... If so, it is a great investment on top of the organic food self-sufficiency.

Honestly, this country gets crazier by the day and the sooner communities learn to generate a portion of their own food, the better!!... Hoping I can educate this community!

Peace,

CB

PS: Plans in the near future include finishing the third barrel module and getting the NFT rack over the sump up and running. Also, out side the GH I have an area for a water hyacinth bed and am planing moringas in a smaller uncovered GH for chicken, fish and human feed as well as extracts for plant boosting...

Amen to that brother.... you're certainly not alone... as far as the "craziness" goes...

Your construction zone looks good to me.