Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi there,

I've been growing a while but am new to the site. Excited to find it and looking forward to learning from others and helping out where I can.

I use a hoop house in my backyard to grow rainbow trout, yellow perch, channel catfish, and nile tilapia along with lettuce, spinach, and basil.

It's very well insulated and air-sealed, designed to be used in very cold weather. The things that make my system unique are:

• I use converted freezers for fish tanks.
• I made my beds entirely out of insulation.
• The the plants are set in net pots through another layer of insulation on top.
• I use an arduino-based controller, which manages the heating, ventilation fan and pumps.
• I flood the grow beds less often at colder temperatures.

It's a flood and drain system, modeled after the ones from Growing Power, using the plumbing ideas from Aquaponic Lynx.

I'd love to hear any comments or thoughts for how to improve things. Thanks!

Very nice! I really like the arduino controller. I am going to be integrating one into mine this summer sometime. Are you satisfied with it? Any major challenges with it during the winter?

Hey Aboman,

Thanks!

I was frustrated with the initial temperature sensor configuration I was using. I had the OneWire sensors daisy chained together, and they were very finicky. When I separated them to one channel a piece they calmed down.

Now it's basically bulletproof. The only time I have a problem is if some water somehow gets into the wiring somewhere downstream. They the GFCI trips out.

Oh, also I have realized that 1000W relays do control 1000W, but only for a while. After a couple of months they stop working and often fail in the "on" position. I think I'll do interposing relays next time.

Ok good to know about the onewire. I have a few of those I have been playing around with so I will keep an eye out for that in my design. I tried a few thermisters and they seemed really inaccurate.

I plan to put together a switch for my grow lights. It should allow me to enter a certain hrs per day then track the amount the plants got during the day and turn on for x number of hrs/min to supplement. Anyway, it's fun stuff.

Great to hear! Hope you keep having fun with it.

It's pretty easy to set up a light sensor to tell you when it's dark so you can adjust your grow lights that way too.