Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

A couple of weeks ago someone posted an ad for the "Tour de Tanks". Mrs. H and I visited Attila and Ros's setup
and was very impressed. Seems Attila and Peter (in Hungry) are good friends. They gave me permission to publish a link to their FaceBook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aquaponi ... 6734086270

It's worth a look.

The weather has been very lousy lately for working outside

Now I've got an excuse for spending time on this Raspberry Pi thing. I'm thinking maybe to use it as a data logger and controller. Looks like it will handle video as well. Then there is the internet capability.

Progress is slow but steady trying to clean out the old basement. I discovered a problem in that the crew last fall pushed on the wall to much with the skid loader trying to scoop up stuff. I'll have to figure out how to get it back in place.

The "Pirate" and "company" :

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=16506

while discussing concrete BSF composting got me all worked up to do something with BSF.


So I looked at the BSF Farming website and saw a 5 gallon design that I liked:

http://www.blacksoldierflyfarming.com/f ... s-and-bins

BUT I want to try using a 55 gallon blue barrel.

The only "design change" I want to incorporate is a back door for unloading spent material.

Any ideas how big or little to make the unloading back door? How thick or thin is the spent material?

Thanks in advance.

Here is a quick drawing of what I had in mind for a BSF composter:

The only thing that concerns me is that you are loading from the side that the grubs crawl out of. I would try to keep that area clear.

Making progress on the basement and the eventual greenhouse. The greenhouse will sit on top of the basement walls and is about 14' by 20'. See the black spray paint dashes on the basement floor. With the remaining 8' of basement length I'm undecided at this point. Add on to the hoop house or make a hatch way to lower stuff into or remove stuff from the basement.

The other thing I'm thinking is putting in a tank similar to what TC did with cattle panels and a liner. The maximum diameter should only be 9 feet. I'd like to use a SLO. With that thought maybe I could slope the floor into a cone to help gather solids.

But how much of a cone would be needed?

What diameter should the SLO be. I know it will depend some what on turning over the tank volume at least once per hour.

Can a SLO be TOO BIG IN DIAMETER?

Also been working on a BSF composter. The idea is have the larvae crawl out of the barrel and fall onto another ramp which leads up to a 35 gal aquarium for pupating and breeding. Then somehow enclose the thing with screen or shear curtains.

The unit's primary purpose is to process horse stall manure cleanings. There will be some sand and dirt mixed with the manure. So, I'll have to include some kind of unloading back door. I'm still researching optimum light and humidity requirements. The goal is to operate year round in Minnesota winters in the greenhouse. I'll have to figure out how to thaw out frozen horse apples. I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Anyway here are some pics so far. Please excuse the messy farm shop.

Any and all thoughts are appreciated. I do need a good dose of reality along the way!

Had some help planting onions and carrot seed in the wicking bed.

More help with the onions and carrots.

I got to thinking about Brian's ramp design http://www.blacksoldierflyfarming.com/f ... -composter and Ron's ferrocement idea. Also wanted to make use of 2 fuel barrels I had laying around. So I threw the tanks in the basement for a quick see.

I got to thinking (OH NO!) about pushing screws thru the walls of the tanks and attaching chicken wire on the inside. Then smear a thin layer of ferrocement over the chicken wire to line the slanted tanks (tops removed). Below is a pic of the tanks at roughly 37 degrees. I need to fire up the experimental composter first and get some experience especially with drainage issues and material in/out logistics. Anyway if that goes good, then put barrel halves over that (like the 2 barrel halves above the blue grub barrel in the picture). Just make a single row of halves the length of the wall over the grub tanks.

The barrel halves (with gravel) need to be free standing over the grub tanks. And this is where I need a lot of advice from people.

How best to support the free standing heavy barrel halves? Can I get by with 2" by 4" lumber? How often should I put a wooden column to support the beds? That row of barrels will be about 20 feet long.

Anyone?

This is getting interesting! I told you that you would appreciate a big gaping hole in the ground that is already dug out!

I also see two large smokers waiting to be built in that basement!

Ron, you're getting carried away.... :-)

"I also see two large smokers waiting to be built in that basement!"

Not so loud!

If my son and the neighbors knew I had them they would have disappeared along time ago. My son is great at giving away my "junk" ( his words not mine). I think of it as equipment waiting for an application.