Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi 'yall. This is my new "big-ish" system. So far it's 8 IBC media beds...there's a 1.2m'x2.5m' nursery raft that the drain from the IBC's flows into, before being sent to 51 sq.m (546 sq.feet) of DWC rafts.

The Ft is just under 5,000 litres. The total system volume is about 18,000 litres...Oh yeah, there's a 2,000 litre capacity sump buried in the ground too.

It's all housed in a 200 sq.m (2130 sq.foot) greenhouse. My wife and I starting building all of this a couple years back, we did everything ourselves...no contractors, so it took a while, but we've started selling veggies that the system produces (which has been going surprisingly well)...so there's finally some light at the end of this tunnel!

Welcome Vlad Looks like a fantastic system, what sort of fish do you have?

Looks fantastic and very productive. Great work

Welcome to the forum and great looking system

Lots of healthy plants, and there's a lot of snow outside . Impressive. How is the greenhouse heated?

Welcome Vlad.

I would love to see a few overview shots of the system and green house. Also some more details on the greenhouse would be cool

Hey Vlad.... welcome to the forum...

Thanks a bunch for the warm welcomes everyone! Good to 'see' you again Rupert!!!

Gazza, currently I'm running this as a big pee-ponics system. No Maxicrop, no Seasol, no CharlieCarp. I did add 3 kilos of sea salt that was literally hand picked off the rocks on a stretch of pristine Adriatic coastline for some TE's and some Mg (I would have added more salt, but that's all I had). Adding fish before the weather breaks seems ludicrous, and everything is going so well without them anyhow. (For my "squeamish" friends I tell them that I'm "still cycling" hehe)...But I'll be throwing in some Carp when the weather warms up. Oh yeah, I also add a bit of Iron chealte (in the form of a 6% Fe-EDDHA powder)...I'm really surprised by the amount of ammonia oxidation that is still occurring even with my crappy temps. I was real worried about that before I started, but all seems well.

I really tried to cater to the needs of my bacteria when I first started, I didn't lower my pH at all, it started out at around 8.0-8.3 since my kH was sky high (above 320). I left kH and pH alone so that my bugs had a nice fat smorgasborg of inorganic carbon species food source to go with their humonia meal (NH4/3 kept at 1.5 to 3ppm during cycling) ...and a nice high pH for cycling. My pH has come down slowly to just under 7 or so. I plan to run things long term, in the neighborhood of pH 6 to 6.4 or so...and an ultra-super low stocking density, yet still have the plants do well. We'll see how that goes...

KrisGee, the GH is heated by a wood gassifier stove that I built out of a couple burly JNA barrels (wall thickness 2.5mm) I also have a propane 'back-up' system, but I rarely use it unless temps drop to below -10C since propane is expensive. (I have a chainsaw and tons of forest though).

I'm not sure how I go about posting more pics RSEVS3..? but hopefully I'll figure that out and be able to slap a couple more up here...

Ok...RSEVS3 I figured out the pic thing and added some info on the GH, but I guess I didn't do it quick enough for the 'editor'...so here it goes again...

The GH I imported used from Holland. It's mostly aluminum and 4mm glass panels with some galvanized steel structural elements. My GH design is real stupid from a 'sustainability' standpoint...no insulation, I didn't dig the North wall into the ground, no convection heating/cooling plenums or any of that (like I said...stupid, and I'm probably paying the cost now in the winter time...but honestly it's really not all that bad).
There is an additional system of steel wire rope and turnbuckles that help stabilize the entire structure against the formidable winds we often get up here...Plenty of roof vents (motorized) and a nice big 2.5m wide sliding door that also helps letting copious amounts of air in when needed...but that's about it. Nothing fancy or innovative on the GH front

rsevs3...here are some 'overview' (kinda) pics I just snapped...it pretty much just follows that block diagram...

Welcome Vlad!

Thanks Ryan. Figured I've lurked long enough...That, and I miss Rupert

Wow Vlad! Your system and greenhouse are impressive. Just wondering how much you have to drink to get enough pee to run that system. Ive only ever used fish myself.

Thanks for the kind words faye! ...That's the best part...I now get to save all my bar tabs and receipts from the beer store, and and write them off as "work related expenses" on my taxes (and with the missus

Really it doesn't take all that much. 5 to 7 litres puts me on the range at 1.5 to 2ppm NH4

I can "make" about 5 litres in 2 to 3 days depending on if I'm at home or zipping about, which is about as often as I've been dosing... so that happens to work out well. (Of course I age it first so that the urea hydrolyzes to ammonia before putting any into the system).

Perhaps that's how they should recalibrate the measurement for blood alcohol machines.....