Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Did I say soft winter? Minus 16 degrees celsius last night. Trout's a cold water fish, but I do believe they need it to be in liquid state. Oh well, it'll be a good couple of weeks before we can even think of adding fish.



Dave, we'll indeed keep some space(in centimeters, not feet! ) between the GB and fence, but it will hopefully become overgrown into a lush no-go area.



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It's good to hear someone in the neighborhood is starting AP :-)
I have a small system in Overpelt, Belgium which is about 80 km from Culemborg.

I'm looking forward to seeing your system develop.
I can give you a tip: I would choose hydroton for the growbeds.

Prices in Australia are much higher than the prices here. I got my hydroton at €8 a bag (50L)

Hello Struisje,

Well AP is not yet "hip and happening" here(it's hip off course, but there is not so much happening) altough the concept is slowly spreading. At least in Culemborg, where everybody we know have become are well aware of AP due to our constant ramblings about it.

Where did you find €8 a bag (50L)? Best we've come across is €13 a bag so far. We need 30 bags, so price is still a big issue.

I got it at Pelckmans in Lommel, it's a local garden/pond store
I got my fish there too.

http://www.pelckmans.net

I should say I bought the bags beginning of 2011, prices may have gone up by now. I don't really know.

Progress!Progress!Progress!

We have placed some root cloth in our ditch and topped up with sand.



Taking into account the heavy weight of the filled GB's en our swampy backyard clay, two layers of big tiles were frisbeed in, all edges overlapping.



On top the GB construction was built, using a large amount of beams. The beams were ex-greenhouse so some experience should be still there.

Everything was drawn up using bricscad. All dimensions determined with a margin of less than 0,1 mm, and than using wood which was little bit bent, torqued and/or arched.
As you can see from the pic it looks very okidoki...

The construction of a roof has followed, we're going to use greenhouse window panes. Weather exposed wood has been provided with some layers of paint, remaining wood no paint or just woodprimer.



Some leftover parts of the IBC's put to good use...

aw mann ive got build envy
damn your system looks good already and its not even finished

Nice work Hoeve

Thanks guys.

We've put in the panes this weekend and are ready for plumbing.



Still powering on to have some plants planted before the best of the season has passed. Hopefully we will take some big steps this week.

We understood the gravel washing is obligatory before one is admitted into the AP-society. So we switched from the initial plan using scoria and hydroton. No use putting in a lot of work and getting shunned afterwards for not doing it according regulations. A pile of it is waiting fo a good hose down.

Wow, it's so cool to scroll down fast from the top of the page.

Love your work Hoeve, now its up to the mandatory gravel washing.

That's looking fantastic... Can I ask what size timber you made your grow bed stands out of?

What are the blocks under the glass between the rafters? General blocking?

Most of the beams are 95x48mm. No calculations what so ever applied, they look solid enough. They were selected more on availability(ready lying about on the attic of the family barn) and price(free) , than size.

The small pieces of wood under the glass are for additional support. During snowy conditions the glass will need to take some weight, just the support by the rafters at the edges did not seem be sufficient for this.

Hi Hoeve

Your system is looking good already so can't wait to see it all connected and cycling.

Great to see more and more of us Europeans getting into this so we can compare and start gathering data for our climate and create as good an information resource as our Australian and American friends have already done.

Hope the gravel washing is going well. Please keep up with the updates.

Good luck.

Mark