Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi everyone! I'm just in the initial planning stages right now, and have a huge amount of reading/learning to do.

What I'd like to do is to set up a small greenhouse type structure attached to the side of the house, on the theory I can keep a system warm enough to be productive all year just by opening the house window to adjust air temps, and running a heater in the water. Does that seem like a feasible idea?

Currently, we have a turtle and 2 goldfish living in one of our bathtubs in the house, and for my initial experimental setup I plan to put a metal shelving unit in the room with a growbed or two and fodder trays to grow fresh animal feed. Currently we have dairy goats, llamas, a pony, chickens, Muscovy ducks, and rabbits which could all benefit from fresher feed. Hay prices here have gone up to $12-$14 per 120lb bale, and I have to buy in all my feed--and, while I have been interested in aquaponics for awhile, the idea of easing my feed budget is a big motivator to get this going now.

The eventual goal is a larger outdoor system that will grow people food and about 50 lbs/day of animal fodder, on a year round basis.

Off to do more reading now... If you have advice or can recommend specific threads or links for me to look at, I'd really appreciate that!

Sonia

welcome!

I think you will find AP to be an awesome way to grow veggies and other plants very quickly and effectively.. Have fun!!!
Most people use AP for people food though..

If your animals can eat anything, I would plant mint. It goes totally crazy in an AP system, in fact it is not normally recommended. But if you are going to grow feed, then mint may work really well.

regards from South Africa..

Hey SLJ

Check out my GH AP System thread....

I have a lean-to attached to my garage and grow all winter along...

jT

Thanks for the welcome!

Wow, JT! That's a 55 pg thread! LOL Should keep me busy for awhile!

Sonia

Welcome, SLJ!

Duckaponics!!!!!!! I don't grow people food in it well actually I'm not managing to grow much duck/chicken food in it at the moment either but it is a great way to keep the water nicer for the birds rather than simply dumping and re-filling their kiddy pool each day.
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7789
Or for a better idea of what I'm talking about you can check out my Duck TVhttp://www.aquaponiclynx.com/aquaponic-lynx-live-garden-cameras/duck-tv
Because I've left the grow bed open to the birds they have pretty much eaten everything that would grow in it but if I fenced it off I could grow feed for them. But they so enjoy wading in their "duck river" and the babies need a shallow pool so I've left it so far.

However, I advise to use large media for a duck system to keep it from clogging. This system on the ground where the chickens and ducks scratch things into it has compacted and clogged up more than I like and I need to do a re-work on it sometime but they are still enjoying it so it hasn't been a priority and the overflow feeds the bananas. I've had good luck sprouting trays of seeds on rafts with capillary matting over them in my raft bed and these trays would be fairly easy to rotate out to the animals but they don't last long, you would need a really big raft bed and lots of trays/media for the trays to manage 50 lb a day of fodder. But perhaps in combo with a duck a ponics set up (just with a raft bed or other bed attached that the animals can't get to.)

Lots of possibilities, it probably does not all have to be inside a greenhouse.

I don't think too much research has been done on good ways to grow fodder for animals with aquaponics but I'll say that in cool weather watercress go gangbusters in a high pH system and I've found that ducks and chickens love eating banana plants which grow great in aquaponics in the summer as long as you don't let them bust your grow beds open. Currently much of our veggies/greens from the gardens and aquaponics is going to our ducks and chickens since we can only eat so much at a time and I'm still learning what to plant when so that we will make best use of it.

Thanks, TCLynx! I'll definitely check out duckaponics! That sounds like fun.

For animal fodder, I was thinking specifically of the barley sprout kind of system, something like the Fodder Solutions idea.

The main reason for the greenhouse is because I want to make it work year round. We're zone 5 here--high altitude with low night time temps even in the summer and have a very short growing season. We're right below canyons too, and get strong winds, sometimes gusting to over 100 mph. So, plant protection can only help. I'd like to have a larger outdoor system running during the summer, and then a bare bones winter setup in the greenhouse. I don't have much $$ to put into this, so I can't build big.

I'm keeping my eye on craigslist for used greenhouses... maybe I can pick up something cheap... otherwise I'll have to build from scratch.

Sonia

Hi Sonia,

I spent a good amount of time watching craigslist too for a greenhouse. Only ever found some used hoops that would not work for me. I finally decided the harbor freight 10x12 greenhosue was the best bang for the buck. The greenhouse itself can be picked up for just over $500 if you watch for the sales and use coupons. It takes a little extra work and money to make it a bit more sturdy, but for me that seems more like customization and has actually been fun figuring out how I'll improve it. 100 mph winds though might prove to much for it, without serious mods. Anyway, you might want to take a look at them. Google "Harbor Freight Greenhouse Improvements" and you will find several blogs that walk you through the process some. Web4Deb on here has one and a blog also that details some of his improvements. GrowingYourGreens on youtube has some videos about his also.

Good Luck!

SLJ, you might also want to take a look at The Northlands Winter Greenhouse Manual, which is a low-cost, strong enough for Minnesota Winter Winds greenhouse designed for winter growing. If you can't get a physical copy of the book, an e-mail to the authors might produce a .pdf copy.

(full disclosure - I know the authors, but I don't get a cent for recommending the book. I've bought 4+ copies, because I keep giving it away...)

Thank you, Swanberg! That looks like a book I need to get. Does anyone else have any book recommendations?

Sonia

Sorry in advance for the stupid noob questions, but about pumps.... Is this the kind of thing I'm looking for:

http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories ... -One-Pumps

If I use a 150 gal stock tank for my fish tank, what size pump will I need for flood and drain? and if I do constant flood, would that mean I could use a smaller pump?

This is what I'm thinking:
For constant flood I need a pump that will move 150 gal/hr, but for flood and drain, if the pump is on 15 and off 45, that means I need a pump that does 600 gallons per hour. Am I getting this right?

Thanks, Sonia

Which quiet one are you looking at, and what head will you be pumping at?

Your math looks good to me, but remember, pumps rarely perform at their rated volume. I tend to buy one size up, and use the extra volume to add aeration.

I also tend to buy two of everything, so I have a backup I can just swap in, without having to figure out fittings in an emergency.

I was thinking the QP13 would be good (assuming I go with flood and drain), but given what you said, maybe I should go a size up?


I have no idea what that means.....



How do you do that?

Thanks,
Sonia

what's meant by the "head" is the height you are pumping to from the surface of the water where the pump is..
pumps will usually have a chart that shows how much pressure is lost or how much flow you have at a given height.. you want your pump to be able to pump the volume of water of your system at least 1x per hour, but preferably more.. if you oversize your pump, you can divert some flow back into the ft to provide additional aeration

Thanks, Keith! I'm still trying to figure out how I want to set up. I have a 150 gal stock tank, but just found 250 gal IBC's for $70, and may go that route. And I can't decide if I want to do constant flood or CHIFT PIST.

Anyone want to sell me on your favorite?

Gotta do more reading...

Sonia