Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Here's my first plan for my constant flood system.. This is going in my greenhouse that im planning on building still need to draw up the plans for that too. with pump which i already have, this setup will cost me $250 to $300 with fish, hopefully a bit less.

Ya forgot about the fact that i can not edit them.. anyways continuing on..

This is a rufft draft of the greenhouse im going to be building 8ft walls, roof height unknown until i get it put together, by 24ft long. going to cost me about $450 to $500 to finish completely.

ruff draft of my duckweed/shrimp pond set up, i may have to offset my tiers to increase light but we shall see.

These two are my plans for the Greenhouse Floor and the Barn Floor modifactions i want to do.
as you can tell lots of unused space in the barn, its 20x40 and tall enough for a second story, it has a partial loft over the horse stables which im converting to other uses. but for now the loft is going to be unused other than a possiable hay storage..

The greenhouse has a good 8ft sq of space that i have no idea what to do with, the reason the aquaponcs part is so big is because i plan on adding to it over time mixing constant flow with ebb and flow and/or other various types.. or seperate systems, still yet to make up my mind how big i want it.

also note that where the greenhouse is, is currently where the only entrance to the barn exists, those other doors you see are going to need to be cut out eventually.

Here is a very crude drawing of what i have planned for my property, aswell as averge highs/lows of the temp where i live by month.

Plan for Feed, Corn and oat crops will be ground up and used as feed for all the animals on my microaquaponics driven farm. livestock consist of the following:
A: Rabbits
B: Chickens
C: Fish (unknown species as of yet)
D: Pigs
E: Goats
F: Shrimp
G: Crayfish
H: Mealworm colony
I: Cricket Colony
J: Worm Colony for Vermipost

F,G,H,I,J are all going to be a source of food for my other live stock in some way or another.

Also going to be growing a Duckweed colony to add to the feed production.

Wife and i do not eat chicken eggs however, pigs do.. and the shells could be ground into a powder as a source of calcium in small amounts.. or mix all of it together and bake to a crumble to use as food for all the animals/fish.. we shall see.

Hi Jamest,

Pretty ambitious layout you've got going. We might be able to help In terms of the AP and perhaps overall if we knew what your goal for this setup is? I noticed you've listed filtration but not any growbeds. Are you planning on having any growbeds and if not what type of filtration are you thinking of using. I look forward to seeing this develop.

Cheers

The long 10' pipes are going to be a grow bed of sorts, im going to cut holes in them and put net pots in the holes with those hydroton clay balls. stretching the length of the greenhouse, the second growbed type is viewed at the farthest right, crayfish tank, im going to put a floating grow bed over that, also later id like to try a bellsyphon type set up iv seen where you put gravel in the growbed and constantly run water threw it and add that to my system later on. Also the duckweed system may need to be staggered for more sunlight but thats going to be tied into the system aswell..

As far as filtration goes the sump tank is going to have a sand/charcoal type filter built into it as seen on the first drawing, with another filter just before the fishtank, probably a swirl filter with more charcoal in it to help cycle out the chlorine from the fill line, the Crayfish tank is also going to be my volume sensor tank where fresh water will enter the system if it drops to low (preset). it seems good to me in theory but im sure once i start building its going to need some tweeking..

as far as my plans, they are to be 100% live on the land sustainable in the long run.. well except the purchasing of milk, butter, flower, things like that.. i dont want to have to buy groceries. i do understand however that what i would be spending in groceries will be taken up in upkeep/feed/utility costs but also its a i know where my food comes from and eats type of thing.. as of right now the only thing on my property is the barn, the house, the "green" trees on the drawing, the fence, and that concrete pad, the rest is what id like to put on it.

This whole thing is more of an expirment to see if its doable to live off of 1 acre, which is about the size of that fenced in area where everything is located at.and not have to buy groceries or feed. however if it works then im that much farther ahead.


the issue is this is two fold, doing aquaponics, but have to have the "farming" aspect to make it all happen aswell so..


any comments/questions feel free

You might be able to get additional growing space and some filtration by doing some type of bucket or tote system instead of or in addition to the pipes.

You could set up almost any type of system this way using standpipes. Food safe buckets are available and some people use totes (like the rough totes from lowes) or other plastic containers, even though they aren't listed as food safe.

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/which-plastics-are-safe.html

This would add expense because of the plumbing connections, 2 x 4's for the buckets to sit on, media and the buckets (if you can't get them free). If you're not limited to lettuce by the light levels, you might want to do a row with these just to be able to grow tomatoes or other plants that would clog the pipes with roots. For tomatoes Dutch buckets might be another option but I don't recall seeing these in AP - just something I was considering trying myself.

Cheers

ya the pipe grow beds are going up towards the celing on the wall to give me plenty of room for any type of grow bed i wish to put on the floor or midwall level, also leaving myself about 5' of room off the wall too so i can put in some nice size growbeds or various other systems.. the pick shows the pipes being "stacked" but in reality they are going to be side by side as best i can get maybe even all the way around the greenhouse for more growing space.. im going to be using every square inch of this greenhouse for growth.. though im very interested in this bucket idea, 5 gallon buckets are pretty cheap do explain.


also do you think a gardenhose would be safe to use as a water runner from grow bed to grow bed?


btw thanks a bunch for the site!!

They make drinking water safe hose that probably would be ok but might be more expensive than the pvc drinking water pipe if you're using the smaller diameters.

Re - the five gallon buckets. Keep in mind this is still in the formative stages. I've been using a self watering rain gutter garden for the last couple of years and it seems to be working well but I thought I could do better and I'd like to connect it to the AP system and change the way the buckets drain for the tomato plant pots so that they have a small reservoir. You can see the bucket garden down the page here -
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=13622&p=348610&hilit=scotty%27s+wicking+bed#p348610

The other thing I'm hoping will happen is that I can use the setup to raise the AP water temp a bit earlier in Spring because of the dark colored buckets and the fact that these will be in covered beds.

After looking around for awhile I found this guy on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_ZZmYNKbfU

Now he's growing hydroponically so I don't know if this will translate well to AP. I'm not expecting the results he's getting either since my setup will be outside. He's using a Dutch bucket hydroponic system which he explains in one of his other videos and it's pretty straight forward. I'm certain some of the others who have come from Hydroponics background have used these but it's not something I've tried so I'll be listening with interest to any comments. For each Dutch bucket I believe he used one grommet 3/4" ID 1" OD, two 1/2" pvc elbows and a straight length of 1/2 inch PVC sch. 40 pipe. The buckets are fed by 1/4 inch flex tubing with nothing on the end.

My plan at this time is just to have the Dutch buckets overflow into the rain gutter I already have. Most of the buckets I don't convert to some sort of standpipe or Dutch bucket system, will just drain straight out the bottom of the bucket, into the gutter, instead of wicking up through the bottom of the bucket as they did before. I'll have to remove the float valve at the end of the rain gutter and replace it with the outflow back to the sump. Using the gutter lets me change the spacing of the plants and it's also easy to move a bucket between different gutter systems if things get to crowded. There is wasted space but you can't have everything. I noticed he's using Perlite for his Dutch buckets which makes moving buckets even easier (just don't inhale the fines when you set the buckets up).

This post is getting kind of long but I'm also going to make some buckets using through hull fittings with standpipes and media guards that are in proportion to the buckets.


Cheers

Here's my AP system if you're curious - http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=9511&hilit=scotty+s+second+system

I think you may find the sand/charcoal will clog over time and create a large maintenance overhead - You've not put much in the way of details on fish stocking rates, and vol/area of filtration - what are the figures for this?

Chlorine in top up water is not that big a deal - if you are only topping up a small amount of total vol at a time you can just add it with no problems (spray it in if possible).

oh thank you for that, i figured any chlorine would be bad. anyways as far as fish go im still not sure the ibc is what im going to be using at 275ish gallons it didnt seem to bad, i may expand this and get an actual pool later on if i like what i get. im going with either bluegil, perch or bass, though im swinging more towards the bass. i may even do freshwater muscles to help filter out small particles and other things like that and would also be a good source of substitute food for my fishes and chickens,

so looking at the first drawing, Constante flood system as your guide:

FT-fish tank= Bluegil, or Perch, or Bass
Crayfishing tank/floating growbed=Crayfish, Perhaps some type of small fish species.
duckweed tower= shrimp ( it says ghost shrimp but im leaning more towards prawn or a smaller species of freshwater shrimp that is a bit larger than ghost shrimp so i to can enjoy them)
Sump tank= as the current sump drawing shows dividers ill probably modify it to take those out and ya the filter ill be removing, this will allow me to put muscles in there to eat the nasties.

I like the idea of the media filled grow beds, may even try that bucket idea out after i get setup, my main concern is vine type plants, watermellons, squash, etc,etc aswell as plants native to marshy swampy stuff like lettuce, cabbages, celery, etc,etc.. for my flow tubes, when i incorporate the media filled im going to probably do tomatos and other things.

right now im more concentrated on using the aquaponics as a self contained ecosystem (adding water everynow and then like nature does to a stream except with water) breeding shrimp, crayfish and muscles that eat bacteria, algea, and plantmatter, then feeding those to my fish aswell as duckweed. and only adding water/iron as needed as i cant naturally just make it poof into the system.

Again though sadly i am deployed and all i have is research, idea's, and paint to get my ideas down i cant make it practicle until i get home.

When i do get home however i will be taking photos of before, and during process so everyone who likes my idea's can see it progress..

Sounds like you'll be busy for awhile. Well if you get your first system all planned you can work on the expanded second system

Best wishes Jamest