Hello to the Az Aquaponics Group

[A. Woodward]

Just wanted to say hello to the az group and hopefully makes some AP friends.

My name is AL. and I and my cattledog assistant/helper started our system in September 2014

We got the system cycled in 3 weeks using fish.(tilapia)

The system was built on the premise of using used/recycled items found on craigslist and large item pickup of the bulk trash in phoenix to keep costs low.

We got the the totes and barrels(both of which we carefully verified as foodsafe) from Craigslist

The wood came from driving around the bulk trash piles and scavenging where we could.

The bathtub came from a home improvement project.

We bought the air pumps used and rebuilt them to save cost  

The water pump was found in the trash and it was a Mag pump that once we cleaned out the impeller of the roots and cleaned up the magnet works flawlessly.

I spent months reading up on Aquaponics as I grew up around a hippie aunt that had a earthhouse complete with a rocket stove for heat and had a aquaculture system inside of it for her to grow her own food all built from used or recycled items...Mind you while she appeared as a hippie this lady had at least 2 PhD's that I know of...

The items we bought new where the bulkhead adaptors and the PVC piping as you can never be quite sure of these items

My venture into Aquaponics has been a fun ride so far I have made a lot of mistakes and leaned quite a bit.. I started out with a variety of vegetables but soon had the tomatoes take over and have had tomatoes coming out my ears as of late...

I taught myself organic chemistry when I was lode mining for gold and had to learn how to process the ore on my own. (I didn't like getting robbed)

I learned how to work water when I used to work the local resorts and always ended up the pool guy because nobody else seemed to be able to keep the water clear and balanced our how to repair a pump or electric motor.    And a Grandfather that restored Model A Fords gave me a love of all things mechanical.

I would like to meet and talk to others around the valley that share the addiction called Aquaponics as to date I have not met anyone else...

Growing vegetables in rocks using fish on concrete... 

That's my story and I am sticking to it...

I posted pics of my system in my area but haven't quite figured out how to get them in the post yet.       

AL.