Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello fellow aquapons.
About a year ago, we sold our house in Phoenix and moved to Kingman Arizona. and restored a very trashed foreclosed rental house. Why? It is on 1 acre of land 22 miles out of Kingman and we are completely DEBT FREE. We hope someday to be completely off grid and fortunately most of our nabors are like minded! There are many here who feel bartering healthy food is going to be the wave of the future in this United States we live in.
My husband said that I could have a garden but he was complaining about how much water I used in Phoenix. I explained I could show him a way to recycle the water. Once he was on board - he build me a green house and an very cool aquaponic system.
We also use Swamp Coolers to cool the house and the run off water drains into a drainage pipe that runs under my flowers in the front yard. It keeps them watered all summer long!
One of our nabors sells local desert honey and all natural face and body lotion.
The other has a half acre garden. Another has an orchard!
We love it here.
So our system is just getting off the ground. We have only 4 talapia in our 250 gal tank. The veggies are not growing due to lack of nutrition but they are trying! I have planted some plants in the system by rinsing the dirt off and just sticking them in there! I hope they do okay. We will see.
We are very excited to be a part of this forum. And would love any and all help you wonderful people can offer! I hope you like the photos!
Thank you! Marybeth and Ben

Welcome! Sounds like fun.

How large are your grow beds?

55 gal drums cut in half long ways. We have 6 halves. All but one with gravel. The one without gravel is supposed to be a float bed but we are unable to figure out what to float in there. LOL
Could use some suggestions on that.
We also want to have Crawfish. And we think we will put them in the float bed and the pump tank.
I am editing photos to post and have a few on here now! EnJOY!
MB

Ooops I did not know i posted the same picture over and over! I do not know how to remove them now either! Help Mod? Thanks!
MB

Use "extruded polystyrene" for your rafts. You can buy 4X8 sheets of it at Home Depot. There is another similar product that is called expanded polystyrene but it will eventually break down and get water logged.

Welcome Marybeth and Ben, looks like your well on the way.

how long has the system been running, is it cycled yet?

Slowboat - Thank you! Yes it is completed and cycled. Those are kinda old pictures. I will post some new pics of the system.

Thanks Extreme for the answer on the floats. But how do you plant in the polystyrene? Do you just drop a seed in a hole or what? I am so confused on that. LOL mb

Sorry, to be more specific -

1. Cut the sheet to size.

2. Drill or melt 2" holes in the sheet. How far apart depends on what you plan to grow. I did 6" but its up to you

3. Go to the hydroponics store and buy 2" net cups. They will fit nicely in the holes you drilled.

4. Fill the net cups with media and direct seed or start your plants in rockwool and transfer to the net cups. There is a lot of ways to do this part but that is what I do.

Thanks Aboman. Very helpful!
MB

Okay. Our system has been running with plants and Fish for 2 1/2 months. We have 8 fish now.
Our water is filled with this Green Slimy stuff. Its everywhere. Our PH is 8.2 And we have 0 nitrates and nitrites. 0 ammonia. What are we doing wrong??? How do we get rid of this Green nasty slime. I do have a tomato! And tons of lettuce coming up. Marybeth Johnson Green in the desert.

Well you are not necessarily doing anything wrong with your levels. Have you test throughout the cycling process?

Limit the exposure to sunlight to get rid of algae. If it's in your media beds you probably need to lower your water level. The water should be coming about 2" from the surface.

Yep.. stop sunlight hitting water.. then no more algae
The algae will also be using up your ammonia before it can be converted to nitrates to a certain degree.. which means less for your plants

Thanks Guys. Marybeth