Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Haven't updated in a while because I don't have much going on right now. I'm taking a Master Gardener course through the county's extension office and I can recommend doing that to anyone who is interested in plants at all. I'm learning so much and in a systematic way, that is better than just gleaning things one by one off the Internet. I'll be mostly busy with that as there is a volunteering hours requirement. Lots of plans for the back yard landscape!

Where I left off AP-wise I am making a three trough system for the sunroom out of the 50 gallon aquarium and some narrow boards. I have five goldfish and koi in a Rubbermaid stock tank in the mudroom that flows to a storage tub full of charcoal for a biofilter but no plants going on there. Those fish are very skittish and sit on the bottom all the time and freak out whenever anyone gets near them.

I am fascinated by gabions, as mentioned before. Lots of appealing possibilities with them. I would trickle AP water from the top down through, plant the top and maybe sides. I am intrigued that these do not have to actually "contain" water, except for a drain at the bottom.

Whilst pondering gabions and the lack of a containment constraint I thought about the Lazy Man's Gravel Bed, which could look something like this:

Step 1: lay down a tarp, step 2 pile up some gravel, step 3 run a pipe up to the top of the pile and pump water up there. Maybe not a tarp but might not need pond liner, just tough plastic. Could make a slight depression in the tarp/liner for a gutter to a sunk barrel for the drain.

This thinking was probably influenced by listening to the Permies podcast about hugelkultur beds, which I would like to try in our yard. Those are moundy-shaped - hugelkultur means mound culture.

Anyway the gravel pile could be above a constantly flooded container, or just on a sheet of liner, and could follow a line rather than just a cone.

I expect water from the top would spread out into a cone as it works down into the pile. Sharp gravel could hold the steep shape better than rounded gravel. This could transition more toward gabions if mesh was added to support shapes that would slump otherwise.

I too have an interest in gabions, I could see a confluence between the green wall stuff being done now and the 60's sculptures of rocks contained by steel enclosures...a la Robert Smithson (of Spiral Jetty fame, what a cool GB that would be)
it's an interesting story arc between gabions and the zip towers, not to mention that building in Dubai, is it?, Middle East somewhere, green vertical could be some damn interesting stuff.
And could cool a lot of very hot buildings.

Also thanks to you I chucked a bag of hardwood charcoal into a tiny new GB with great confidence, so thanks!

Your an idea's man DD and I love it! Looking forward to your 2013 achievements.

The Gabions sound like they have some landscaping possibilities. Interesting Idea Dave and a good find. I could also see constraining the rocks into circular growbeds pretty easily as well although the mounds give you more planting area.

I wonder if you could run a hot air system through a gabion in a greenhouse and make it a combination heat exchange/storage and growbed?

I'm sure you could, see this picture of a Trombe wall done basically the same way. Aerated thermal mass solids filtering and biofiltering and vertical planting area all in one?

http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-p ... -wire.html

I've decided that landscaping should include stone, wood, metal, glass or water, and people/plants/fish of course to maximize appeal. Just one or two of those doesn't seem to hit the aesthetic buttons for me. Note the lack of black plastic stock tanks haha.

Spring bonus goes in the bank next week, time to scour Craiglist for bargains!

Setup but unused 18'x9'x52" pool. $400. Hmmm...

(bigger than I would like but man could put a lot of fish in that LOL)

FT solved!

Craigslist ad:

"550 gallon dump tank - $80"

suh-weet

I'm jealous!

I'm deeply jealous...
As to the 'lazy gravel bed'... out here, with our wind-blown seed, you'd spend more time than you'd like plucking blown in Russian thistle, inedible mustards, grasses of all stripes... and while we may be able to utilize 'em for suckin' up nutrient, not the kind of stuff you want on your plate.
And they're extremely prolific.

I'll be 'shading' my grow beds in the summer... I really liked Faye's set-up, but I'm working on a shoe string... So, I'll try to 'limit' wind borne seed... but until I'm in a closed environment, I'll have to deal with the opportunists...

It was "fun" cleaning up the tank, which had been used as a gray water tank from the kitchen sink of a restaurant. Included one intact hot dog, and lots of scraps of meat and grease. Things that didn't work: spraying with the hose, Dawn liquid and a sponge, power washer (my power washer won't turn on for some reason). What did work well on the grease layer was a paint scraper with a handle on it. I cut holes in the top mainly so I could clean the tank, but it will be important later to be able to reach the fish anyway. We now have meat scraps and grease blobs next to the driveway - will probably smell nice come Spring unless we can get some nice freeze thaw cycles still.

This guy wasn't very good at selling because I had asked him last week what a dump tank was and he never responded, it was $100 then. I wasn't sure if it was a kind of pool that firefighters use to dump water in or what. Then I wondered if he had meant a dunk tank, which is now my stealth search on Craigslist. These are usually the blue aquaculture-type tanks and most have windows in them! So I'll continue to search for "dunk tank" and hope I get lucky some day.

Awesome find! And I doubt the hot dog and scraps will last through the night. Maybe some critter will exchange you some "fertilizer" as thanks.