Joe Bifano

In the last few weeks I finished all the wood framing and dug 2 4'x8' holes in the ground 4.5' deep. These are going to be my fish tanks. I am modeling the fish tanks from the Growing Powers fish tanks with 2 troughs above them that will have media filled in them an be my bio-filter. Each tank will be between 1000 and 1200 gallons. I then want to pump water to the top trough and then gravity feed to the bottom trough and then go out to rafts using DWC. I will do leafy greens and herbs in the rafts and will be able to have 2 48x28' rafts and 2 48x24' rafts. I want to try to put a test row of Dutch Buckets in the mix and do tomatoes allowing the runoff to go back to the fish tanks. I will also setup sprout tables like the friendly's have to start seeds in, when the weather permits.

Basically I will have either 2 systems duplicated for testing in the 24x64 greenhouse or combine the 2 fish tanks and run this system all together. Not sure what I should do. I want to do something real small at first so I can see what I need to do and learn before I go to anything else. So I may just fill up one tank 1/4 or 1/2 of the way and only use one raft setup. I will look at maybe getting a small micro system or family system plan set from the Friendly's to make sure that I get the correct info on a small setup before I go any further. I have been told that the gravel media grow beds will not work for a high density system but for some reason Growing Power uses this and they just keep on putting in worms to take care of the solids. I will look at swirl filters and other things down the road.

Okay 3!

The 64' south facing wall has 3 doors framed into it so I can expand this greenhouse to the south. I can add 3 hoop style cold frames or 3 bays on a gutter connect setup but only time will tell on what I do. I have 14 acres so I can expand as needed. I have great water and I am zoned for agriculture. I am going to use a wood stove water boiler for raising the temperatures in my fish tanks. There is a lot of wood were I live and I can always go to the mountains for more if needed.

So that is what I have been planing. If there is anything that sounds like it is not going to work or I should be thinking of something else let me know what you think.

Wow, that's a lot of information! As far as worms go (starting at the end), there's a great thread here, called,"worms" that covers this exact topic. Sylvia is a big proponent of using redworms (as is Murray Hallen, TYClynx, and numerous others here), and I'm going to be using them in the garage system I've got once the waste build-up is adequate. It's a shallow bed, so it probably won't be as successful as the deeper beds (12"+) that are espoused throughout the aquaponic community contained herein.

What type of fish are you planning to raise? I'm excited for you and your project, and wish you the best of luck! The simple design approach you're taking seems commonsense to me, but I'm not sure if media beds can run comfortable on that scale and complete bio filtration without solids removal and mineralization...but I'm sure some one here will answer that question expediently.