Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My whole adventure into Aquaponics started with trying to find space to grow a sufficient amount of veggies to provide a year round supply for my wife and myself. I do not have a basement, or enough room in my house to meet the above criteria, so my solution was to build and assemble a aquaponic system in that. Since I live in a subdivision inside the town limits I consulted the town office to see if there was any restrictions on building a greenhouse in my backyard. There was a couple but if I kept it under 200 square feet no permits were required.

Next step was to head to the drawing board to see how much I could cram into 200 square feet. After many sketches and layouts I nailed one down and decided to pull the trigger.

All of this will be housed inside of a 16.5'X12' homemade greenhouse. The greenhouse will be double walled covered with poly film.

The system is going to consist of one central sump tank with pressurized lines going from the sump to the fish tanks, grow beds, and swirl filters. There will be two IBC's for the fish tanks with venturi's for water movement/aeration and SLO's returning to the sump tank. Pressurized lines from the sump tank will feed the two 3'X8' grow beds and continue on to the swirl filters that will filter the water for the two 4'X4' DWC beds. Both grow beds and DWC beds will then gravity feed back to the sump tank to repeat the cycle. There will also be two wicking beds in the greenhouse one in the center of the house and another directly above the sump tank.

I've made a rough Google Sketch up design to go with the above description. Any suggestions or criticism are always welcome as this will be my first system.

Thanks, Kullen

You didn't mention it but I would put the sump in the ground and make it as large as possible. The more water the bigger spring or shock absorber you have. The sump underground will help regulate the temperature as well. It can take a while to heat up the ground around the sump, but once its heated, the more ground to water contact the slower your temperature swings will be. What fish are you raising?

Thanks I did not specify wether or not my sump was going to be in the ground or not, but yes that is my plan the sump will be almost 2 feet in the ground as well as some sticking out of the ground. Also if my calculations are right it should be big enough to handle the constant recirculation of the fish tanks and dwc beds as well as the auto siphons from the grow beds.

As far as fish I was thinking about a breed of Talipa due to the fast growth rates and ability to survive in not so perfect conditions since it will be a new system but I'm reconsidering maybe trying out some fish that are native to my area such as bluegill, perch, catfish, or trout.

Awesome plan. My Tilapia are much more hardy then my goldfish.

Starting the construction phase of my greenhouse started with a pick and shovel. I first leveled off a area where I planned to build and then cut and screwed 4"X4" pressure treated lumber together to make a frame. I then filled in the hole with 4" to 6" of #57 stone.

Then came framing up the walls, I used 2X4 spaced at 2' on center and 36" high for the hip walls. I used cattle panels for the roof structure and once the cattle panels were fastened on the two ends I framed up the end walls according to the curve of the panels.

After everything was framed up and I installed the rest of the cattle panels and tied them all together. I painted every untreated surface with weatherproofing paint and I chose white to provide the most light reflection into it.

My original plan called for a corrugated clear poly panel that would stand up to the weather but as my funds started to run a little low I decided to go with a clear 4 mil. builders plastic for the inside and outside walls. I am hoping that will last me just through the winter into next year then hopefully I can change it out.

I'm in the process of striping the plastic right now and getting ready to order the greenhouse plastic and wiggle wire to finish drying in the greenhouse.