Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

And finally some of our prized ugly tomatoes.... they grow so easily in Florida and nearly year round we went a little crazy with them.




Sorry its not AP, but it was hard to say goodbye to that place and I have been looking for an excuse to show it off and revisit the photos.... the new homestead will be AP driven!

Those ugly tomatoes are beautiful!

Too bad you don't have pool at new house. Pool conversions are very cool. We use ours way to much to ever give it up, but I've seen some impressive ones on here. A lot of the Aussie's do them up right. Don't use the koi poly pond as a Gb with rock, I did as a biofilter for my spa FT and it was a minor disaster. Bottom edges split and started leaking, almost killed my fish. IF you built a nice support base for it, AND used Hydroton, it will work. I have a 55 gallon barrrel now for a biofilter, and it seems to be working OK.

I might try those uglies. I have had no luck with the heirlooms. Well, technically, I've had plenty of "luck"- all bad. Amelias, yellow pears, and sweet millions have all done well. Trying a few new recommended by Sam from down in S. Fl.

Just to clarify that "Ugly" is actually called...
Indigo Rose Tomato, specialty from Johnny's Selected Seeds

The purple bell pepper is...
Islander F1 Pepper, lilac to red Bell also Johnny's

Chris.....Cherry tomatoes will always grow the easiest from my experience.

Also in Florida we had a harder time growing them in July (needed to be shaded) then we did in December (3rd cycle of the year and still had ripe fruit on Christmas morning). Even though its a direct sunlight plant the rules change a bit with our heat here during our hottest months, but the basically is no winter at all (last year we covered our plants twice).

About the pool conversion that would be awesome, I hated that pool I cleaned it twice a week and swam in it once a month. The lucky Labrador, however took daily swims just to be toweled off by his "Momma" who spoils his big yellow ass.

This house is the first house that we have ever owned, so it opened the doors for something as ground breaking as AP without risking our relationship with the land lord or the chance of relocating down the road.

The truth is my girlfriend has been asking to build an AP setup for 3 years now, I had to keep saying no due to complexity and now we can do it on the scale that I personally envisioned when she told me about it.

I am glad I showed those off, its funny I have more pride in those then any business accomplishment or typical thing people might want to brag about. I count my income based on how much freshly made Bruschetta I consume a year!

Congrats on the house purchase. Certainly better deals now then prior 2008. I think my son and daughter-in-law will be looking to purchase before too long. They're off Fruitville, about 8 minutes from beach. I like showing off my system to people too. Always interesting when you explain that the fish are feeding the plants, and the plants/bacteria are cleaning the water for the fish. I'm getting excited about starting new RAS system. Hopefully break ground next week. Will make sure and take lots of pics and have thread for this one. If I can find regular buyers for additional produce, a larger GH and DWC beds will get built next year. I have people who will but fish. The fish should cover my costs after a few years, and then we'll see about a large GH. I'm hoping to supplement income, with 1 PT employee, and me PT. Having a payroll means regular production, and writing a check weekly, so i need to make sure that I can actually make money. Not wanting to do any teaching, like so many AP operations do. I don't feel I am qualified to teach.If I can actually walk the walk, then I might do that as well. All the ones I've seen are not making money in AP production, they're supplementing with courses and are charging hundreds to thousands of dollars to give courses. I don't like the idea of paying someone that kind of money when they're not actually making a decent living at selling fish and produce. I would pay for the UVI or Chatterson's advice. But Ryan doesn't give tours and I can't afford the UVI one. So, I read, read, and read some more, and ask advice from some of the folks on here (:

Sounds like I'm just a few minutes away from your son's place. We have only lived here about 6 months now and have been going non stop fixing up this 1973 house and 30' tall poison ivy vines replacing chain link fence with black aluminum, painting inside, built out a cool craft room with fold away desk tops and lined the room with shelves and and stuff for all the girlfriend's art and sewing stuff. The house is 5 years older then I am, we are off Clark just 1 bridge from Siesta Key Beach. So far my favorite thing about this town is the Amish Grocery Store, or at least all the goodies the girlfriend brings home. The other really wild thing for me is being around real commercial agriculture for the first time in my life.

I have been researching how to write off the costs as business and the zoning exceptions for agriculture tax exemptions but my thoughts on production scale are really personal use and family or friends. If anything we would consider a farmers market but more for fun then to make a living from it.

I have been trying to find a good description of RAS, usually resulting in post from you actually. I understand its a huge FT and it cycles for a long time before plants are added. So to me this seems like you're aiming to produce fish on a large scale while growing something to facilitate the filtration and cycles. From what I understand the guys who produce the fish make the money, possibly the exception is large scale DWC with leafy greens only.

I disagree though about teaching, you obviously know a lot about building which is a giant bonus for you. I can, after some reading, tell what type of background some of the people here are from. Some are just giant nerds that know a little bit about everything (Ron you are the man!), some are obviously fish people who grew up with fish tanks or on yabbie farms (lucky aussy people), others are gardeners (my mom is very excited about our project here), some are biology and chemistry people who understand the details our eyes can't see at first glance (thank god they are on BYAP). Some are just suckers with a girlfriend who asked for an AP system for 3 straight years. So really no one is really qualified unless they know all of those fields. But to know how to build it takes practice that you can't just go read about. I second guess all of it repeatedly because I am so outside of my element but enjoying it at the same time... even the sump hole, that nearly killed me.

On that note, when I find people here who seem to know a lot I'm impressed and learn but unless I see photos of veg I don't put a lot of faith into their words. Likewise some of the people with the most awesome veg have really simple straight forward systems built from old crap and a lot of heart. So I guess my point is if you grow good stuff fish and veg you're qualified in my book. I like how Squatchaponics answered your question about what he would do differently. You can tell when someone builds that top notch and can still rattle off a list of "imperfections" he is seriously passionate about his work.


What kind of high quality wood should I buy to frame the FT? Something that wont rot out if it gets a bit damp? I don't mind treating it, does it have to be ceder?

Redwood seems popular. (Not to be confused with poplar.)

I thought you were kidding at first, as in the Redwood forest in California. When I search my local hardware chain I find it by order only. When I search "in store only" it redirected me to cedar board. I want whatever fuzzy monkey used.


That looks so nice...

Ahh here is your thread

Love the tomato wall

Hi PS, nice build

My frame is made from pine. The colour comes from a can of jarrah-tinted UV lacquer. She ain't natural

Unless you want to spend several hundred dollars, opt out of Redwood. Ron is lucky- they get it a lot cheaper out on the Left coast. Cedar or Cypress are both great. You could also use rough cut pine and stain. Depends to what degree you want to go to to finish it. I've seen guys build cabinet quality enclosures for their Ft's & GB's. I like my cabinets to look nice, but not as willing to spend that much time on an AP system. When I coach kids, it's all about "meat & potatoes". Do the major things right, and don't try to be all flashy and showy. lol Honestly, I'm a decent frame guy, but fine cabinet work is NOT my forte. Always impressed with guys who can make furniture and dado's and dovetails. Anything beyond base moulding is too technical for me.
But to clad your FT, rough cut cypress would look good, and not break the bank. Personally, i would opt for a bamboo fencing from some recycled or Craigslist bamboo and leave it at that. Save the money for fish food or seeds.
The Amish and Mennonite community down there are well established and have lots of cool things. I told the Mrs. next time we come down to see the kids, we'll have to swing by and see your progress.
Off to hit some fuzzy yellow spheres.

Thanks fuzzy when I make fish videos like yours and have amazing veg like jayendra I will call it a nice build. I am probably getting too caught up in aesthetics but I think of a garden as a place to relax. Its worth the time and effort to me to treat it like art.

I grew up in neighborhoods where people spent a lot of money to hire landscapers to make every house look the same and all that labor could have produced something more useful or productive. I always liked seeing fountains, fish ponds, backyard or apartment balcony vegetables and better use of space then grass watered with chemicals twice a month!

Jay the tomato wall worked great, I attempted to plant peppers on the bottom row but the tomatoes went "ape" as you say and so if I did it again I would have only 1 row, or a plant that doesn't vine on top.

Chris speaking of building and the Amish, they have a furniture store where everything is hand built using materials and tools of their tradition (no electricity). I haven't checked it out yet, but I bet that would be a cool place for someone with your mind for building to check out. I bet it whoops IKEA. The food is amazing down there the smaller "Yoders" is better then Touristy "Der Dutchmen".

I think I may have found someone local doing something large scale. The video is about a month old and the guy, David Hamlin, has a Nutrient Film Technique (NTF) and a ton of fish.



He says he studied at "Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, back in the 1990s" - Part of Florida Atlantic University. He sells at the farmers market one town north of me, I might try to make a visit out there to see if I can talk to him a bit.

Its really not the type of system I am hoping to run. However, I'm sure there is a lot to learn there. NTF and even DWC limit the variety of veg down to basil, leafy greens, water cress... I still plan to build a small DWC bed but I am more interested in the media beds or even wicking beds eventually.

Chris, I finally found the $800 UVI workshop you're talking about. Sounds like a great excuse to go spend 3 days in St. Croix but I think you've probably already learned more here with all your reading and more 1 on 1 Q&A too.

I finally read through Ryan's first build. His DWC frame looks very straight forward and I believe I could use that as a great template for the wood framing aspect unless someone has another example using wood. I'm so glad so many people took the time to photograph the build process.

About water sealing the DWC bed... what material to chose... EDPM, 2 Part fish safe paint, or 6 mil cheep stuff that has mixed feedback.

I found the 2 part paint on liner Ryan mentioned for about $81. I can get the 45 mil EDPM online for about $75 or I believe the 6mil construction grade seems to have enough positive support on this forum that I would give it a try, but it has mixed feed back from BYAP members. Chris I don't see much difference in price between those first two products but if 6mil works even if layered many times costs far less.

A big part of my confusion was how to frame, shape, and secure EDPM. This video helped although I would suggest speeding it up to watch between when he pushes the material in the box @ 7:00 till @ 9:30 when he cuts off a little more liner away then I personally would. But the video helped me to understand my issues with how EDPM is to work with as a material. Considering I've never touched it in person.



I'm starting to layout dimensions of a small DWC it looks like about 96x36x16 in (244x91x41 cm if your toilet flushes counter-clockwise or you drink a lot of tea) but still undecided about material.

I also broke my rotozip and I need to find a new method (hand saw?) to cut one more ibc frame for the last 2 GBs. We did get a lot done I will post a photo update later tonight. I'm inside writing you guys while she is out painting IBCs... if I get caught not working she wont feed me for days (Help SOS! send fish and veg!)