Were still working on the green house!!! It was supposed to be done a month ago but we've had 5 weeks of rain in the past 3 months. Just enough to be totally annoying when trying to build a building!!.
The 230 Tilapia are doing well. We've only lost about 10 but that was do to me letting the water get too dirty and do big changes and having huge swings in the chemicals and temps.
From what I've seen you will certainly need a filter to get the solids out. I'm using the main filter bed which is a 4x8 foot bed filled with expanded shale and clay. From there the water is pumped into 6 10 foot sections of 4" PVC each with 20 2" holes that each have a plant in it for a total of 120 plants in a 4X10 foot area. The romaine and basil are growing great !!! We have 8 cherry tomato plants and 6 roma and 4 beefsteak tomato plants after that. Then in the 4X8 foot bed with expanded shale we have 15 fig trees ( just starts) a bunch of chinese garlic chives in a square foot in the corner of it and 8 heads of cabbage all in a system that is about 170 gallons total being fed by 25 gold fish.
I was just experimenting to see how many plants you could do it all worked fine. I did have to feed chelated iron and potassium about every 3 weeks so far just because of the plant load.
The water always tests pretty much perfect at all time too. I have to add 3 or 4 gallons every day just because of the dogs drinking out of the fish tank.
I haven't figured out what were doing in the green house as of yet I keep sitting here at night making drawings trying to figure out the best use of the space for growing plants.
The 2 fish tanks equal 3100 gallons and were using a 275 gallon IBC for a sump tank and a 135 gallon on a stand for a swirl filter to get the solids out of the system. then from there the water will go to a grow bed with expanded shale then from there 2 the first row which is a 4 foot wide by 100 foot long grow bed a foot deep.
You have to be careful how much time you spend watching the fish LOL I realized it was 2:30 am last night when I quit My wife quit about 1. We just stand there listening to the water flowing and throw in little handfuls of food and the fish swim up there and let you pet them.
Anyway tell us all about your system!!!! What fish are you using and what are you growing?
Have a good night!!!
Brian
At 12:35am on September 10, 2013, Brian Stout said…
Kristen,
My wife and I are just setting up our first aquaponics setup with a 32X100foot green house. We were going to run a large media bed first to filter out the large particles then after that at least 5 4 foot X 100 foot float beds. Well thats what we are aiming for as of right now its going to have 1 4 foot by 100 foot grow bed with a 4X20 foot media bed.
Please tell us what you are doing or are thinking of doing maybe we can help or come up with some ideas together!
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Howdy Y'all!!
Were still working on the green house!!! It was supposed to be done a month ago but we've had 5 weeks of rain in the past 3 months. Just enough to be totally annoying when trying to build a building!!.
The 230 Tilapia are doing well. We've only lost about 10 but that was do to me letting the water get too dirty and do big changes and having huge swings in the chemicals and temps.
From what I've seen you will certainly need a filter to get the solids out. I'm using the main filter bed which is a 4x8 foot bed filled with expanded shale and clay. From there the water is pumped into 6 10 foot sections of 4" PVC each with 20 2" holes that each have a plant in it for a total of 120 plants in a 4X10 foot area. The romaine and basil are growing great !!! We have 8 cherry tomato plants and 6 roma and 4 beefsteak tomato plants after that. Then in the 4X8 foot bed with expanded shale we have 15 fig trees ( just starts) a bunch of chinese garlic chives in a square foot in the corner of it and 8 heads of cabbage all in a system that is about 170 gallons total being fed by 25 gold fish.
I was just experimenting to see how many plants you could do it all worked fine. I did have to feed chelated iron and potassium about every 3 weeks so far just because of the plant load.
The water always tests pretty much perfect at all time too. I have to add 3 or 4 gallons every day just because of the dogs drinking out of the fish tank.
I haven't figured out what were doing in the green house as of yet I keep sitting here at night making drawings trying to figure out the best use of the space for growing plants.
The 2 fish tanks equal 3100 gallons and were using a 275 gallon IBC for a sump tank and a 135 gallon on a stand for a swirl filter to get the solids out of the system. then from there the water will go to a grow bed with expanded shale then from there 2 the first row which is a 4 foot wide by 100 foot long grow bed a foot deep.
You have to be careful how much time you spend watching the fish LOL I realized it was 2:30 am last night when I quit My wife quit about 1. We just stand there listening to the water flowing and throw in little handfuls of food and the fish swim up there and let you pet them.
Anyway tell us all about your system!!!! What fish are you using and what are you growing?
Have a good night!!!
Brian
Kristen,
My wife and I are just setting up our first aquaponics setup with a 32X100foot green house. We were going to run a large media bed first to filter out the large particles then after that at least 5 4 foot X 100 foot float beds. Well thats what we are aiming for as of right now its going to have 1 4 foot by 100 foot grow bed with a 4X20 foot media bed.
Please tell us what you are doing or are thinking of doing maybe we can help or come up with some ideas together!
Have a good night and thank you!
Brian