A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners
The farm
Well, it's time to get out of the 'backyard' and move to 'The Farm'. We found a defunct green house just out side of town. It hasn't been used since the hirricanes blew through central FL ( '03 ? ) It's 70 ft x 165 feet...
It will be a trough system. It will have swirl filters for solids seperation and 3 - 4 ft x 8 ft media beds as part of the filtering system.
As you can see, we have a lot of clean up to do. We are starting in one 1/4 of the green house. Once we have the fish tanks (IBC's) , the filters and the first of the rafts started ( so we can start the water cycling) ...we will build more troughs in the second 1/4 and tie them into the others.
Here, is the start of the media beds....lots of blocks to hold them up, more then enough. I'm more concerned with them settling.
The 2x4's are PT, so is the 3/4 ply. The sides will be made from corral boards. The ply and corral boards are being coated with the white rubber mobile home roof coating, for a little extra protection. The beds will be lined with20 mm dura-skrim.
We will be covering the arch's with 50% alumi-net. The sides and ends will be screen.
Once the 1st half is done, we should have about 540 ft of troughs (4 feet wide) plus the 24 feet of media beds (also 4 feet wide)
I'll post more, as we get stuff built and installed.....
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sylvia Bernstein on
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ditto...WOW! That's a hell of a project you are taking on there, David! Looking forward to watching it progress!
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Permalink Reply by Cory Cramer on
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Can't wait to see more!
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Permalink Reply by David Hart on
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Here's an udate....The new well has been drilled. Also been updating the electric supply. We finsihed building the troughs. We added a few inches of sand in them, to protect the liner....
We actually removed part of the end of the green house, and took the end off of the troughs, to be able to move the sand in. In this picture, I'm standing on the sand pile, just outside.....
This is the last section of the dura-skrim ....
I picked these up this morning.....planning on getting 6 more,.....
I did find some 'bell reducers' like Affnan uses. I better turn on the AC in the shop, so I can at least work on the bell siphons today. Either that, or go wash and move 3 yards of river rock...
Looking ahead, I started these ...aprox 500 sweet bell peppers, at the beginning of the month. They are for the 'winter garden'..and will be outside, in the raised beds . Can you guess what I'll be doing with the solids from the swirl filters....
Hope to be making another update soon...
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Permalink Reply by Terri Mikkola on
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It looks like you've done a great job planning this project!
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Permalink Reply by David Waite on
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You just might have the largest aquaponic operation in the states when done. Keep us posted. Very fascinating to watch.
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Permalink Reply by Sahib Punjabi on
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So nice to see your progress David :-)
As per our chat this morning, here is the link for the FREE IBC of Aquaponics1 Manual from Joel Malcome of Backyard Aquaponics (yes, he e-mailed me permission to share)...Please note, it is a big file so be patient...well worth it. Let me know what you think.
God bless
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Thanks Terri and David....
It was a pleasure talking with you again Sahib.
Thank you for the link....Wow, that is a big file ! Now, to find some time to read it....
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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on
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They posted a video on youtube of Faye building an IBC system. It's a fairly long video for Youtube but it might be quicker than reading the manual if you are not quick with the printed word.
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Permalink Reply by Kou on
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Look awesome. My vision is to establish something of that caliber that will run and produce year round in freezing Michigan winter.
What are those cubes call, and where can I get it?
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Hi Kou, You were asking about 'cubes'...? If your refering to the what the plants are started in....those are Oasis horticubes. The ones I use are 1 inch....there are 162 cubes to a sheet and there are 20 sheets in a case. I think you can buy a 10 count case also.
Do an online search for them ....or, I've ordered from here...
http://www.hydro-gardens.com/germinate.htm#oasiscubes
Kou, I hope to be reading about 'your' set up and looking at 'your' pictures soon
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We didn't realize how small of a base the IBC's have. It's just a small tube going all the way around the bottom. With over a a ton of water in them....there is no way, that they won't sink into our dirt....aka ...sand.
So, for a foundation....we decided to partially bury some blocks in the ground and fill them with concrete.
When it's hot out, this is the way to mix....
It's nice to see my buddy get out of the air conditioned cab of a tractor trailer and do some real work....
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