Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

BTW, another reason for a poly tunnel is indeed the rainy season. Lots of crop cannot be grown in that period of the year, due to excessive rainfall which enough plants don't really like or the poor souls just get washed away.

The whole project is going to be powered by solar panels only. Expect 42 panels of 320 Wp each to arrive in about 3 to 4 weeks. They will produce 60 Kw per day (average over the year) and hope that will be enough for sometime. As a backup we have a 7.5 Kw diesel generator of Kubota. With the regular and always inconvenient power failures over here I see that as the only viable option.

Dam how not to make an impression,my sincere apologies ,not the beers but my reluctance to wear my glasses.....and considering I can expand the page so I can actually read it,I have little or no excuses.....

And here a picture of the situation a couple of weeks ago. No time to do something with the recent ones, yet.

No worries, Das Boot. Just teasing you a bit.

My apologies,how to make a first impression,my reluctance to not wearing glasses has more to blame than the beers,but they don't help. So how does your love of Italian food work out here,home cooked I imagine. I love cooking just struggle to get the family to eat it,if it's not Thai it ain't food is there response.
With my pond,I told them we could grow most of the local fish and they could have them free,no I was told you can't eat fish from a concrete pond and thats from from a Thai being offered food for free..

My apologies,the beers and my reluctance to wear my glasses,how does your love for Italian food work out here ?

My wife is an excellent cook (more of a chef actually). While in Europe she picked up Spanish, Italian, Greek, Turkish, French and a bunch of other cuisines. She easily makes some great dish for me and sit on the table with for herself Larb Mu, sticky rice etc. from the market (?). She is not so much into the farang style food.....

Tesco and Macro have some things, the rest is her....magic!

Hi Domani,
Name right first time,questions for you,
Growbeds construction ?
growbed media,considering the amount your going to need ?
Fish tank construction ?
Fish ?
Costings against your outlay and running costs,against locally produced produce,fish.
Here in Chaing Rai I would struggle things are so cheap,my project is for a family of 8. Just home grown fresh fish and veg.
Plus the joy of knowing I grew it.

Dasboot,

All good questions that need answers, answers I don't really have yet at the moment. I take it step by step and look into the details when needed. About financial matters I will not give answers for 2 reasons: 1. each project has it own calculations, which depends greatly on geographical location, use of resources and the grade of sophistication of the systems. 2. Strange things can happen if people have knowledge about ones financial whereabouts. I don't like strange things to happen. Life is already complicated enough without others to mess it up.

We see it as a challenge, too. Hopefully one that is satisfying and rewarding.

That's going to be a big system !!
Looking forward to more photos

I completely understand,looking forward with interest to your progress.

Finally got some of the various files together in one Sketchup model. The geodesic domes still need to be filled in , plus a lot, a lot of details.

wow, you have lots of work to do

Yep, lot's of work. That's why I'm wondering if we going to meet the deadline of February 2014.

Here is a video of pouring the fish tank's bottom 6 weeks ago.

Fish Tank considerations

At first the idea was to make one large fish tank, separated with screens to create smaller areas and thus allow for growing different sizes or species in the same tank. It also would allow for one big SLO and aeration with a centralized air pump of large capacity.

Progressing insight has started to made me question this approach.

1.
Any fish disease or water quality problem would effect immediately the whole system with possibly disastrous results for fish and/or plants.

2.
This setup more or less forces us to start-up full scale from the beginning, leaving little room for error or mistakes. Full scale start-up would also mean that produce of fish and veggies that exceeds our own needs must find it's way into the market, of which at this point we are not completely sure it can handle this supply, let alone there is enough demand.

Personally, I like a more modular approach in which we can expand the system as needed.

So, now I'm leaning to the idea of using the fish tank as a platform to place IBC FT's on. Adding FT's when needed. It's a lot more plumbing work, with the accompanying risk of leakages, but if works are done properly with the right materials and craftsmanship this should be no major issue. It would also solve the problem of getting the fish tank waterproof and making through wall connections that could easily start to leak.

So, back to the drawing table and see how such a setup would work out. Sketchup is great for that. You actually almost "build" your system virtually (if you use it right) and can see straight away where possible problems might occur.

In due time I will post a picture of that IBC in fish tank setup.