Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Looking to start out, inexpensive easy to build any ideas? It will be in a shed, winters here can be cold summers are hot it is a very dry climate (N. Nevada).

What's your definition of inexpensive?

And how much fruit and veg do you normally consume?

And how big is your shed?

EDIT.

And most importantly, how good are you at building things? Woodwork or welding?

So far, I've spent $75 on some PVC fittings and plan to spend $40-60 on an IBC for the FT. I had or got for free 1) ten 30 gallon plastic barrels (from car washes) that I sliced off 6" from one side (now holds 20 gallons each) for my grow beds, 2) scoria (lava) rock off Craigslist, and 3)1" & 2" PVC pipe. Made a PVC heater/bender from a (free) toaster oven to minimize fittings and losses due to 90 degree elbows. Haven't figured out what I am going to use for a pump quite yet but expect it to be in the $50 range.

This will give me a 275 gallon FT, 400 gallons of GB media with about 38-42 square feet of planting area. I expect this to give me more than enough tomatoes, string beans, onions, garlic, herbs, etc than the three of us can consume.

Is that inexpensive enough?

I've started a thread on my build but our LOOOONG dry spell is over. My open pipe trenches are now overflowing with rain water I might be able to button it up later in the week if the rain stops for a day or two and I pump out the trench.

I would like to keep it under 200 if that is possible. Building things, I can do basic construction I don't quite have the dimensions Of the shed probably going to be 8x10. No welding, wood and screws,
My family eats not a lot of veggies but will be more after I get this on line. Also what is the best fish? Brook trout I can get for free also was thinking of dividing the tank to raise crawfish.

Best fish is determined by your climate. I don't know enough about Nevada, but if they grow well there, and are free. Go for it.

Personally, I think you'd be struggling to keep it under $200 for a system of any size. Mine is at a few thousand so far, but I've made it prettier (to me anyway), and more permanent.

Craigslist will be your friend. Scour it for IBC's. Check your tip for things like bathtubs.

The pump will be a toss up for you. You can buy cheaper ones, but I don't know what the life will be on them, and how much they will cost to run continually. The eco pumps can run at a half the energy usage, but are more expensive to buy.

I'd say go through the IBC of Aquaponics. Link is on this page at the top, and it's free. Start off with a smaller IBC system in your budget, then expand over time.

I think you will need significantly more GB area in order to feed a family of 4. Also, be wary of buying cheap pumps etc, at the expense of reliability, which could cost you all your fish if a failure is not caught soon enough. Cheap is not a good substitute for reliabilty!

Hard to give an exact figure as to how many growbeds you would need to feed a family of 4, as it's heavily dependant on your climate, and what vegies your family prefers to eat, and how many vegies you eat (eg are you vegan?)

6000+ litres of growbed volume should probably do it

Then you'd have to seriously consider how you are going to support the plants through your cold winter, which would most likely require a greenhouse to keep up an acceptable level of production going

But this would be the case too for regular soil beds, so you'd need to invest a fair bit of time and money at the start to get it all setup but after that it would quickly pay itself off. Becoming self sufficient can be difficult to achieve when starting out, but so worth persuing

Growing fresh food for your family without all the commercial insecticides and herbicides would surely be one of the best things you could do for you all. A worthy investment indeed.

Plus remember any food you grow is effectively tax free

Also I would recommend starting out growing crops you like to eat which are the priciest items to buy, for example for my family that would be lettuce, basil, tomatoes, spinach etc

Sure, to be more self-sufficient we ideally would also like to be growing our own staples like potato, sweet potato, pumpkin etc but this must be weighed up with the amount of time/effort/and space required to the returns/money you would save compared to if you just bought these from your supermarket. Potatoes are very cheap to buy generally, so we're not growing them yet. If I find more time I will.

As for me personally, from living a rural area where I see the crop dusters spraying carcinogenic pesticides daily on the surrounding properties, and plus having seen one too many close friends and family members suffer with cancer, we've decided to particularly focus on growing vegies which we cannot peel or easily wash the store bought pesticides off for example spinach