My aquaponics sys. so far

[jim mckee]

I completed the work on my greenhouse late summer then wrapped the gh in plastic for the winter and
started the system with fish late September.

A description of what I have so far.

2 SS tanks 250gl each and they are connected with plumbing.
Right now stocked with 2 small mouth bass and 4 bluegill.  I don't have water heat yet.  When I do, I will stock with Tilipia, and add a 1000gl swimming pool. And increase grow bed area.

Water supply is well water, soft top quality water.

3/4hp submersible pump to grow beds set up as 5min on 1hr off.

These grow beds are local gravel, looks like clay also has quite a few shells.  Each bed has an adjustable high water limit pipe, at the bottom of the pipe inside the grow bed I drilled a hole in the pipe.  The pump fills the grow bed, over flow goes out, pump shuts off and the hole in the overflow pipe drains out the water from the bed (takes about 5min).

Growbed goal is to make  vertical grow beds.
First try  is  thin wall pvc, next will be 2 layer of plastic sheet sewn (for prototype) if I can work a suitable design I'll move to thermal welding of the plastic for speed and simplicity.

Air pump is Pondmaster model ap100 airflow inches 3/min 9150.
Air diffusion is done with 25' gardening soaker hose.  It's routed into the bottom of each grow bed then
through the 4"pvc then to the tanks.  As each grow bed fills and empty's the water in the grow bed it's
aerated, also the bed water returning through the 4"pvc is aerated and sent back to the tanks.

Solar water heater is a small submersible pump that is energized by a line voltage thermostat mounted in the highest part of the gh.  When the air is warm enough the pump is energized by the thermostat and pumps water through a black hose placed in highest part of the room.  This Spring the solar heater will be high temp cut off controlled by an aquastat reading the tank water temp.

Filtration right now is plastic mesh filter on the grow bed water rtn and on the rtn of the solar heater.

Just got the main body of a swirl filter so that will be done in a few days.

Green house and aq water heat is still being worked.  It will be provided by a gasifier that runs an engine with a 30kw generator on it.  The gh/water heat will be provided by the coolant from the water cooled gasifier filter and from an engine exhaust gas hot water heat exchanger.  The generator on the engine is for providing electric to part of the property.

Other needs are covering the floor.  The gh is very dry and the dirt is becoming dusty.  Dust gets into the water and all over everything else.  I have mountains of tree service wood chips so maybe I'll go with that for now.

Winter insulation.  I have to see how much the gasifier and engine send to the gh to tell.  I have a large fan powered heat exchanger for the gh.  I could add another heat exchanger that uses the engine cooling systems  hot water.

Installing glass 4'x9' on the south face and maybe 2 sheets on each end at the bldg end,  and acrylic sheathing the remaining end walls.

Venting the end walls at the top for summer time.  I'd like to remove the walls but wild animals would
probably be a problem.

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jim