Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My wife and I are new to aquaponics and are in process of building a system based on IBC totes. We started by converting an old shed attached to an even older cinderblock schoolhouse into a greenhouse for our grow beds. Fish tank, sump tank and most of the plumbing reside inside the schoolhouse where I got the heating and cooling up and running for the limited space we needed. Plenty of room for more fish tanks and we are planning some outside grow beds next season.

We still have lots of work ahead; isolated electrical breakers; improved overhead lighting; clean up an office space for control system build and testing; and my wife wants another room for a nursery - sprouts/rooting even her worm farm moved inside. Everything needs a paint job; some walls to remove, ducting to reroute, more grow beds to finish setting up and a DWC or raft bed to build. The greenhouse also needs auto venting and my rain barrel needs a collection system added - just some guttering to add really.

What we do have is the time, the space, the tools and a determination [need really] to supplement our SSI and our health, with good home grown food.

The startup system consists of an IBC fish tank (~275 gal.), a cut down IBC sump tank (about 170 gal.) and a single split IBC grow bed (~14 sq.ft.) setup in an ebb and flow configuration. The sump tank has one pump and feeds the fish tank only. The fish tank uses gravity to feed the grow bed(s). There is also a gravity overflow back to the sump tank from the fish tank. And of course, the grow bed(s) drain back to the sump tank as well.

Aside from the pump, there are two manual flow controls: a master on/off valve for the grow bed feed line and a variable rate feed valves at the grow beds.


Not a “wow you system” for sure, but our startup system is up and running after many design iterations. Here are a few pictures - comments welcomed.

...wait for it, more to come.

Hi GSB,

that looks like an excellent situation for developing your AP in.
And it has the makings of a neat set up from your photos - and room for expansion.

look forward to seeing how it goes.

Congrats on getting started!

You won't regret it.

Neat looking system, well done!

Also started a photo gallery at Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/easleyaquaponics

Check it out if you get a chance. Progress photos will be added as available.

gsb,
Fish in School is Cool!



Very nice looking rig! I can already imagine the green garden forest that will soon take over the "shed".

--
Sam

Excellent, look forward to watching you how it goes.

UPDATE:

Got the second growbed (ebb and flow type) finished and online and replaced the first growbed's siphon to a bell-siphon increasing it's cycles per hour to four. That turnes out to be some 120 gallons per hour. One more or maybe two more growbeds to go - cut and cleaned but require a frame build yet and grow media. There is room for an inline settlement filter but with three or four such growbeds I plan to wait - it should be unnecessary. I still need to put up some roof guttering to add in my rain barrel. And there is some winterizing of the greenhouse soon to be scheduled. All in due time...

Excellent facilities you have there for your system and a very neat and tidy setup!

What fish will you be raising?

Cheers - Jens

@JLCPH Thanks - truly a work in process.

But Fish, ...still undecided. Thinking Blue Tilapia just now. Any suggestions?

If you have Tilapia you will have to have a way to keep the fish water warm in the winter. Bluegill will survive the winter but don’t grow as fast. Catfish can handle the cold water. Plants seem to grow better if the water is warm. But I see people with trout and cold water and their plants do well. It gets too hot around here for trout.

I have had good luck with these guys. They have a fish truck and deliver to different locations. One location is just 10 miles from my house.

http://www.southlandfisheries.com/index.html
Another location to get fish

http://www.tcafish.com/

@markb Thanks for the good info.

My fish tank and sump tank are in a heated and air-conditioned building so temperature should be manageable. The greenhouse is less controllable but the growbed cycles are only 15-minutes at about 32gal. each. However, I do not get the best winter sun due to the greenhouse's location. I will track the temperatures, inside, outside and of the fish tank water itself over this winter to see. And thank you for the links. Stay tuned...

Any simple Arduino setup w/ WiFi to monitor these temperatures available around here? I am new here and could use advice.

Regarding the temperature of the water, you can easily turn off the circulation for several hours when the greenhouse temperatures are too extreme, provided your stocking density is not too high.

That being said, you need to balance this with the plants' need for cooling/heating.

You can balance this with a timer on your pump allowing the water to circulate only for short intervals when the outside temperatures are extreme.

This applies both in cold and hot weather.

Trout can handle very cold water, but don't like it very warm.
They are very delicious and healthy fish.

My approach is to look at what lives in the wild in your area. These species can obviously handle the temperatures you experience. Of course your relatively small body of water will fluctuate more than a lake or river, but this you can control as I mentioned above.

I have run a small test setup this summer. We have had some very hot weeks (for our area). I had around 700 Liters (appr. 180 Gal.) of system water in a very small 6' x 8' greenhouse in full sun all day. Still the water temp never got higher than 26 Celcius. Trout can handle up to about 22 Celcius, if it's not for too long.
As I build my larger system next spring I will have 5 - 6 times more water and a green house with more volume and better ventilation as well. Then I will have no temperature problems I expect.

This just to illustrate that the larger your body of water the smaller the fluctuations in temperature.
Your biggest source of heat/cold will be your grow beds. Just make sure that you can minimize the water flow when you need to and your airconditioned fish house will keep the fishes very comfortable.

I personally prefer constant flow grow beds where I have the water inlets below the media surface.
This way I'm keeping the top of the media dry and minimize the heating of the water when the sun is full on. I will germinate my plants in an incubator/germination box and plant them into the media beds so that the bottom of the roots only just touches the water in the bed. The plants then grow their roots to suit their needs for water and air. Works very well for my tomato, cucumber and pepper and chili plants so far.

Cheers Jens

Disclaimer: I'm by no means an expert. I'm a total newbie and I'm only sharing my sparse results and experiences so far. I'm a student of aquaponics, not a teacher!

@JLCPH …thank you for taking the time to put together such an informative response.

“…My approach is to look at what lives in the wild in your area. These species can obviously handle the temperatures you experience.”

Well, next week I am meeting with the Aquaculture and Fisheries Specialist at Clemson University - 16 miles away. He also leads Clemson University students’ creative aquaponics initiative. He should prove quite knowledgable on the subject, …stay tuned.

My greenhouse has one window and double-doors leading into the fish room so it is somewhat controllable in extreme weather. It also has (not yet installed) an auto-exhaust fan for upper heat, concrete slab floor (22’ by 12’) and insulated outer walls as well.

The fish tank is at 275 gal. and the sump is about 160 gal. Only two grow beds with two more to setup, each with about 30 gallons in flux for a total of about 120 gallons. The sump pump changes the fish tank at about 2.5 to 3 time per hour continuously, grow beds running or not. The grow beds at wide open cycle at 4 times per hour although they can be turned down as needed.

So that makes a total of 435 gallons cycling about 800gph through the fish tank and 480gph (max) through the grow beds.

All that said, I am looking make a simple Arduino/WiFi Iot’ish solution for logging the relevant temperatures to develop a better feel as to when to turn down/up the grow bed flows, to set the exhaust fan on/off settings and when to use the doors/window with or without auxiliary fans to supplement climate control in the greenhouse.

The Blue Tilapia species seems a likely choice for here in the upstate of South Carolina, based on Google research. But I plan to wait for my expert’s consultation next week before committing.

Again thanks for your time and thoughts.

Greg

My family and I went to Clemson toured the greenhouse and talked to them. This was very useful.
Their greenhouse is on top of a building very unique location. They keep a very high stock density.
They are very good about sharing info.