Hi, I’ve stumbled upon AP a little more than a year ago. But then my girlfriend and I had already planned to go travelling for a while, including quitting jobs and apartment so the idea was postponed. But the many hours in the buses of central america left me thinking and so I intensified my online research. I’ve been around this forum for a while and like to introduce my plans and thoughts to the world
As I plan to build my system in Switzerland the winter is my main concern. I looked around and read some books and decided it has to be a Walipini/solar/pit greenhouse to get the fish through the winter. I plan on building it as a earth bag construction with additional insulation on the outside and the excavated earth heaped on the north, east and west walls as insulation as well. So the only point for the sun to enter will be the south facing wall/roof which will be at an 60° angle and made of multi wall sheets.
The system will mainly use IBC as I can get them fairly cheap (75usd each) which only contained lime juice.
It will be a CHIFT PIST setup in this order: FT > GB > DWC > SUMP > NFT
As FT I plan on using 6 IBCs with a SLO to gravity feed the GBs. GBs then will in turn gravity feed the DWC by using bell/affnan syphons. The DWC then will empty itself by another SLO into the sump tanks. These will consist of connected halves of IBCs. From the sump the water gets pumped to the highest NFT tube where it will run down into the FT and the circle starts again.
As I will have to build a greenhouse space is a primary concern. This step setup is not the optimal version in therms of sunlight for the plants, but I really don’t like the thought of having to pump “dirty” water. Also I don’t want to employ multiple pumps. But if somebody has good reason to do it otherwise I’m open to suggestions! Thats why I’m posting this
I played with the thought of putting additional growbeds on top of the fischtank IBCs but then access to the rearmost plants will be hard. Also I plan on having a RDWC, a really deep water culture
to buffer the heat and regulate the whole temperature. The same counts for the FT, I don’t plan on stocking to the max, just have as much water in the setup as possible. Hence as well the big sump.
Trying to draw this in Google SketchUp turned to be quite the hassle as I’ve never used it before. And bear in mind I’m still travelling, so I did this on my 11” macbook air with only a touchpad and spotty internet connection so no chance on watching youtube tutorials...
Voilà!
It isn’t finished of course but it gives me a bit of relation of the size this whole thing will be
The blue thingy should represent the DWC
I probably won’t draw the plumbing as this is just too much hassle, for that I did a quick drawing in a paint program.
As well not in the drawings is the planned ventilation and heating. I found a greenhouse heater which acts as a ventilation at the same time. This will suck hot air from the top and blow it into tubes buried another meter below the surface. This as well would be some kind of backup/emergency plan if I can’t hold the temperature on super frosty nights so the heater would kick in.
If holding the temperature isn’t feasible I would add another cover of greenhouse plastic on the on the inside and deploy a black bubble wrap curtain in the colder hours.
All this is totally theoretical as we don’t even have a return flight ticket at the moment
But I’m ready if/when we get back and who knows maybe somebody else can use my plans and ideas, its here to share!
Greetings
Marcial
Backyard Aquaponics
