Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I too like the idea of incorporating a greenhouse straight on top of grow-beds for small systems. My thoughts were a cloche on top of the grow-bed. particularly for ones growing smaller plants. Cheap and easy to do. In fact I made this suggestion to Murray a year ago as a possible attraction to many APers, including those setting up school systems, given that they may be unlikely to be willing to set up the infrastructure of a greenhouse.

How did the cocopeat you were trialling go in the pots and beds?

Coco peat responds best to frequent tiny waterings......of the sort provided by seconds timer. All of the seconds timers that I encountered cost a mint so I was doing the watering by hand. We got tomatoes off the plants in the pots and we had just begun to pick them when we had several days of sub-zero mornings (unusual in SE Queensland) and that put paid to them.

We've since hooked the pots into the new system......filled them with the gravel/expanded clay out of our old square metre grow bed.....and hooked them up to our new system. They're working fine.....so far.

So did you bin the rest?

[U][U]I'm no engineer so I wouldn't be able to precisely answer the question on the pressure......I'm guided by the fact that cement blocks seem to bear a lot weight in normal use.[/U][/U]
Maybe you could attach a mainsheet to lower the sail if the wind gets up there![hr]

Nice to hear from you, too LKB.



To some measure, the site dictated the final design. I planted the gravel beds out recently and it worked out OK.....but you wouldn't want to be four feet tall. One of the nice features of this system is the small amount of plumbing......all six feet of it (plus the PVC watering grids).



The "trailer" is a mini-greenhouse that I designed for the grow beds. They are actually a bit too efficient. The temperature inside reached 36 degrees C today.....with one door open. As the weather gets warmer, we'll install a vent (or some shadecloth panels). We won't be planting tall crops in these beds......we'll be using other growing systems.



No, the BSF are not happy with the weather at the moment. We're still feeding some of our frozen stock out......when we get a nice sunny day and our older Jades decide to eat.

Gary

I remember you chatting about it when you were up here too - we (you) spoke about possible domed shape - and we looked at the kids modular designed play ground and wondered if we could use that design

Hi Faye,



We currently have 42 plate-sized Jade Perch in the 1000 litre tank.....and a further 90 Jade fingerlings in the small system.

We've already planted out the grow beds with mignonette lettuce, coriander, silver beet, bok choi, English parsley, Italian parsley and thyme.

The satellite pots have been planted out with tomatoes, capsicums and cucumbers.

Gary

That's right - that was more a geodesic thing though, rather than a cloche (tunnel). BTW I am in no way claiming that the mini greenhouse has followed on from my suggestion or anything - just surprised it's not been done earlier (I guess Steve did it with his tank didn't he). Size is a problem - though having ends of a tunnel open during day but closed at night may be okay??

Know the feeling...been checking the compost but don't see any activity in BSF there....and my SP aren't interested in the feed much either

Hi,



I got the idea from a magazine that featured some pictures of a roof top hydro set up in Singapore. It made sense to build a greenhouse minus the walkways.

I think a cloche would work, too......particularly in southern parts where the temperature remains low during the day.

We've already encountered temperatures of 36 degrees C during the past few days.......so the hot weather will be an issue if we don't modify the structure and incorporate some vents or shadecloth panels.

Gary

HA! that was not through any stroke of brilliance, more like "whats the cheapest quickest way i can stop loosing heat?!"

Hi,

If you take a look at the photos of the completed system, you'll see where I've placed a 250 litre fingerling tank on top of the 1000 litre fish tank. It has its own little cold frame and so does the duckweed tank.

We use a piece of the same greenhouse fabric to cover the aluminium grid that we placed across the tank. That and the fingerling tank restricts the heat loss from the fish tank.....and it stops the wind-borne debris from finding its way into the tank.

Gary

Gary, not sure what's holding the upright supports that hold the canopy frame up.... bit concerned as to the possibility of someone (i.e child) kicking the bottom out and the top dropping shut onto someones head, fingers etc....

Have you thought about the possibilty and incorporated something??

If not could I make the suggestion that you go to the wreckers and get a couple (two per side canopy) of tailgate struts and incorporate them to hold the canopy frame up.... you can even get old ones re-gassed pretty cheaply.... or at least you used to be able to.

Rupert,

The greenhouse door is held in place by one of those extendable tent poles. There's a pin arrangement that goes up through a hole that I've drilled in the aluminium tube.....so it's fairly secure.

The aluminium tube that the door frames are made from is very thin-walled and they are very light. They might give someone a whack on the head but not much more.

The gas strut idea is a good one.

Gary

Hi Gary, Nice to see your system improvements, will take some reading to catch up. Shame on you for not posting in so long. Looks like you have been busy though, good work!

Hi Gary,

Is there a good place in Brisbane/Goldcoast or Sunshine coast to get megabins from?

Cheers,
Hamish

I think these ppl have them, they used to be call ed Malcolm Paul Sales, but looks like they have changed there name - they are in Rocklea Hamish

http://www.peopleinplastic.com.au/products.htm