Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

We are glad to have discovered this forum and group of likeminded folks! I ran across some information about acquaponics and permaculture, which piqued my interest. As someone who grew up on a small farm, tilling the soil and planting were my experience. One step up from that a decade later was to self-watering flower pots, which took the guesswork out of when and how much to water. Back to the agrarian life after too many years behind a desk, I have been researching less back-breaking and more environmentally sustainable ways to grow our food. For outdoor plantings, the Ruth Stout method has caught my eye and my first few plants are flourishing! Yesterday, we purchased a few IBC tanks and ready to dive into the aquaponics world.

Thank you for being here, thank you for the 187 page guide, and thank you for sharing your knowledge through both questions and answers!

We look forward to the journey.


The HH Family (Charles, Peggy, Michael, Rhonda)

Welcome to the forum

@rhoover - Hi and welcome to the forum

Thank you! I have purchased several IBCs and working on plans for our setup. Everyone is excited about the fish and we have requests for tilapia, crappie, and crawfish! Since we are all newbies, I have insisted we begin with tilapia, maybe goldfish to get the system cycled to the proper pH, and then add fish types as the system matures. I will be looking for recommendations on system design, so will head over to what I think is the proper forum for that...

Good to see ya! What part of OK are you from?

Southeastern Oklahoma. Just moved back here from Texarkana. The family is getting excited about AP. Do you have a system up and running?

Jmainard, found your system in the other thread. Glad to see so many shared pictures here. It is definitely a help!

yeah man, there are a load of great resources here, along with people who know the business very well.

I am excited! This afternoon, it was decided we will use the old barn for our startup aquaponics. This is over twice the size we had determined was bare minimum to meet the requirements of all participants (Mom and Dad, Hubby and I). The freeze hydrant and electricity are already in place.

The work list:

Draft up a new/larger aquaponics schematic while waiting for rain to stop
Remove everything in the center hall of the barn not related to our project (horsey stuff gets a new home)
Use the tractor bucket to muck (horse poop, goat poop, and hay all in early compost stage)
Check electrical lines and water lines for any issues
Horse stall setup relocation (new horsey home)
Some PT exterior plywood side walls added
Create chicken duplex in the shed and a chicken yard just off those - keeping the two breeds separate. Will add a small brooding area for the Silkie hens we will be adding soon.
Build short portable tunnels to allow the chickens bug eating privileges in the planned kitchen garden (just Southwest of the West barn door)
Build and hang doors on both ends of barn (East, West)
Build and hang interior doors (2 for chicken pens, maybe one or two for other purposes)
Begin rough layout for AP setup
Start.... ....

Sounds like a good start, just make sure that you take your time and think things through. I've been planning my second system for months now because I don't want to make too many trips to the store and/or spend more time fixing my mistakes than enjoying my project, but on the same token, there's nothing to it but to do it.

We are taking it a bit at a time. Today, we got most of the horsey stuff out of the barn. Back on the list Monday and hopefully will remember to take pictures this time! We have completed item 1 and halfway through item 2 on our work list.

I am terrible at the drafting system, so this is the best drawing I could figure out how to upload. My initial question is whether I should be considering a two pump system (flood and drain - as simple as we can keep it) with this setup? The floor plan allows for 30' x 49'6", but I drew this out as 30' x 40' to allow for room for the tractor to bring in GB material and pond water in a spare IBC. We don't have close access to tilapia, but do have bluegill locally and a variety of catfish. Will be using crayfish in the sump tank and hope to avoid a swirl tank or additional filtering if possible.

Please comment/make suggestions on any of this, but particularly the following:

We plan to plumb and add media to all the grow beds, but am planning to use check ball valves for each GB so I can take any offline as needed.
Is 2" pipe this adequate for this size system?
No swirl tank.
Crayfish in the sump tank. Maybe a sucker fish or two in the other tanks with the bluegill and catfish?
We all like tilapia, but I want to get up and running with the blues before adding other varieties. Should we start with goldfish and then switch over?
Not shown on the drawing is the outdoor soil garden that will receive water from the system when it is changed out. How often/how much should be changed?

No doubt there will be lots more questions! Thank you all for being so willing to share/teach us newbies.

Moving this to the Memberl System thread, where I think it is supposed to be....correct me if I am wrong.