Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Killed first post. Not needed anymore.

However I will be updating this image every day to every other day. This will show growth speed in a animation.



These will be daily images.

Hey SD, is this an indoor/outdoor setup or bit of both or what? You won't need airstones in ur gbs. The draining of the bed has the effect of sucking air down thru your grow media. Different to a constantly flooded hydro setup that can have depleted DO pretty quickly.

My fishtank is about the same size as yours. I was at a trout farm the other day and could not get over the stocking density. They had 25000 fingerlings in a tank not much bigger than mine. Very high DO levels tho and a bit removed from what we could reasonably sustain as home enthusiasts.

Get some pictures happening and keep us informed.

Actually its going to be both a Indoor/Outdoor in a sense. I will have it to where I can grow inside during the winter and inside/outside in the spring-fall. I will run pipes out to the backyard and leave the tank inside. The inside/outside will be on separate pumps.

Goldfish Suck!!!!!!

EDIT: found out my ammonia and nitrites were too high

right so ya don't like goldfish then? LOL

Go easy on the U, it doesn't take a huge ammount to get where ya want to be, and also it seem to be prudent to wait 24 hrs before taking an ammonia measurement to gauge levels.

Just been to a reunion of the apex club havent seen most for 28 years[ anybody need amonia to start there system

lol. no drunk posting now!

Ok so I have furthered my grow room. I have a enclosed room that I am building. This enclosed room will be enclosed with plastic inside my garage. I will be using artifical lights building my own metal-halide and sodium lamps.

I will be enclosing it tomorrow I think and finishing off the shelfs that the grow beds will set on. I have 3 shelfs that are going to be in there running the length.

I am no longer using the giant tank I will be using something much smaller

http://idisk.mac.com/slicerdicer/Public/growroom.jpg

Also I rent so the framing is not attached to anything so it can be pulled down easy. Its only attached to itself and the shelfs.

right, so you're not mucking around then

not sure how much you know about the lamps, but just incase you didn't know, some bulbs are designed for horizontal operation only, some for vertical only and some are universal. Also lamp screw in fixtures must be ceramic due to the heat and i think at least the HPS requires reasonable cable insulation due to a HV pusle sent to start the tube.

Cheers

Steve

My dad built many Metal Halide lamps for Aquaculture of saltwater fish and live rock during my childhood. My parents operated out of the Florida Keys before 1995 shutdown :/

Yep I am aware that the mogul must be ceramic. I am going to use galvanized steel for the actual encasement that the mogul will attach to. I am still working out my reflector but I am sure I will come up with something.

The reflectors my parents used were by far different does anybody have any ideas?

Nope I am not mucking around Main problem was where I was going to get the wood... well they decided to build a house directly next door and waste TONs of wood. It would lead to gunshots I am sure in Australia. So I got all my wood free YAY!

Now that I have all that I have my grow beds already and have had them. I am thinking about reducing them in height to allow for less materials to fill them less water and so forth.

This is just phase two

Phase one is fully operational and blooming with beans, cucumbers, tomatos anyday

Phase three is going to be 4x the size of my garage experiment out in the yard come springtime.

Does this happen to everybody? Once you get bit you are obsessed to no end?

yep, thinking about your second+ systems while building your fisrt is quite common.

Thought you might already know about HID's just thought it'd post incase

Mylar and polished aluminium are the best reflective surfaces, the easiest and not far behind is flat white paint. Depends on what material you want to use for the reflector (cos they generate a lot of heat) the simplest is a strip of galv 4" wide about 2' long. Cut two panels 2' long x 2' wide and attach them to the 4" strip on either side with hinges. Your HID fitting (I assume its a horizontal) attaches to one end of the 4" strip. The wings (2' x 2' panels) are held apart at either end with threaded rod (this allows you to alter the reflective surface/angle). Eye bolts in the top (4" strip) to allow you to raise/lower it and spray the lot with flat white paint (heat resistant if possible) It would also be good if you could paint the inside of your growroom with flat white.

Make sure you ground the reflector.


Personally I would go with fluro's (cool white) to start with and only switch over to the HID's when the plants get bigger. They may be less efficient but you can get them a lot closer to the plants.


Take it you realise this is going to look highly suspicious

I am betting that the 2' x 2' panels are going to be the best way to go. I was thinking of hanging mylar eventually on the inside walls. Outside walls are going to be plastic.

All my neighbors know what I am doing including the Albuquerque PD Detective next door

I am going to be selling them most of my spare produce. Mainly to help cover my costs and expand expand!

Sounds like a great source for ex hydro gear

Here is part of my growroom. I am working on it more I got barrels!

http://idisk.mac.com/slicerdicer/Public/growbeds.jpg