Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yep, zoned agriculture, surrounded by orange groves and on nice clear land. The grading will be finished on Friday so I will start to costruct some of the structure this weekend. Super excited.


Zubin- Welcome to the forum! The ground isnt cool/warm enough for geothermal in my area but if your ground has the temps you are looking for and the cost is affordable then I say go for it!

Thanks Ryan.
According to what I have found out, at 20 feet deep, it is 59F degrees. Here some times during summer we get few weeks of over 100F, and during nights to 85F. Also during winter some times we get as low at 18F, and few weeks of freezing mornings. I think I got to rent a backhoe and get it done.

Did you buy a green house kit? Any specs? Who makes it?
Thanks for any guidance. I have plan to stick build main. I have put a cost plan together for home boss approval, it will cost me about $5700, without the PVC pipes. Have not got the estimates on those yet.
Also, any idea what size pump I should use for a pond size of 4 X 5 X 16 ft (water fill part, it will be 2 ft taller than water level.)

Orange groves, eh? Do they spray chemicals and such? Wonder if you can get the owner/manager to give you a call when they plan to spray so you can batten down the hatches on your GH.

Zubin, you might want to check out ZsaZsa's greenhouse that he built.

And if you do the geothermal pipe in the ground, they say longer/more pipe is better. Like he said, if you can afford it, go for it.

Yeah I was wondering about overspray too. We live near apple orchards and there are a couple times per year where they spray big clouds of stuff.

Mr. Bill,

My plan is to build a 16 X 30 ft GH. In the middle of it; there will be a 4 X 16 area dug out 4.5 ft for the pond.
And yes, for geothermal, I got to dig about 20 yards long 20 ft deep and loop the pipe in there.
Then I have to set a valve system so I be able to route the pond water through the pipe for cooling or heating.
As I read and research more, I might change my plans few times. Planning is the easy part!

Sounds like good ground temps for geothermal

It's a 35' x 96' with roll up sides.

For a pump I would multiply L x W x H (in ft) and multiply by 7.48 to get the gallons in the pond. I would try for 1 turnover per hour but make sure your piping and filtration can handle the flow (prob dont need anywhere near that big of a pond for that size Gh).

And... They are unmaintained groves so hopefully no sprays

The reason for that size pond is, I can place grow beds outside of GH for about 8 months each year. Maximum I will put 600 fish in there after all tested out and the system is a GO.
I will not start by filling it up to that level. As I grow it , I will add water and fish to it.
Are you gooing commercial withthat size GH?

I wouldn't really call it commercial at this scale as i wont be employing anyone to start and wont be selling wholesale but I will be selling for profit to supplement my current income.

there are plenty around that call that scale (or less) commercial Ryan... mistakenly IMO...

And indeed... a lot of them are running courses on "commercial" aquaponics... based on that, or less... in some cases... without even having a "commercial" system....

Rayan, I wish you well. And sure hope you start posting some delicious pictures!

If I was closer, I would have come by and give you a hand. I have a decent work shop for wood and metal works. Also do some blacksmithing. After I saw the GH parts, I got excited too.
Is your plastic green house film for top cover is 6 mil?

Yep, 6 mil

Here are a few pics of stuff I'm currently growing in the system I operate at work:

Are those beets? Wow they look so good. I eat them raw. Very healthy for you.
Also sometimes I juice them. My son loves them.
Hope one day soon I be able to post few picturs!

Great photos Ryan.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

Thanks Faye

Well the site is now flat. Extremely happy with the job my second contractor did (not so much with the first). Here are a front and back view. I am about 5ft down into the hillside and about 4 feet above at the end of the run. Looks like a short runway

Now I am getting excited too. Thanks for posting pictures.
It is going to be a great one!