[Homestead] Aquaponics

EarthNSky erthnsky at bellsouth.net
Sat Jun 6 02:20:10 EDT 2009


Thanks Jeanne!
I spent a few hours looking at it this evening.  They apparently have a 
demo of their setup down in south Georgia.  I may try to stop in the 
next time I am down that way.  Don't know when it would be, but you 
never know what turns life will give you..  Fort Valley is about 5 hours 
south of here.  It is interesting that they use soil and pots instead of 
gravel.

Bev

Jeanne Driese wrote:
> Bev.  
> Go to: 
> www.growingpower.org/index.htm
> Will, who stared this project back in 1999 is a great guy.  Have heard him speak and his set up is awesome, my dial up does pretty good at viewing the site.  A group of folks I know took a bus trip up there and I have seen the video of that trip.  It is amazing how much can be grown!
> Hope this will be helpful to you.
> Jeanne
> tnhillwoman
> North East TN zone 6
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: EarthNSky 
>   To: Homestead List 
>   Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 12:38 AM
>   Subject: [Homestead] Aquaponics
> 
> 
>   Paula, if you are out there, please please please delurk and chime in...
>   I miss you.
>   Some years back, I decided to make a small aquaponic setup with two 
>   wooden beds 1 foot deep, 2 ft wide, and 4 ft long.  Each box is 
>   outfitted with a drain, and I modified a bench in my greenhouse so that 
>   the drain flows through the bench and falls/drips into the fish barrel 
>   below. Inside that barrel is a pump which pumps the water up through pvc 
>   tubing at the surface of the growing bed and it is spread out over 
>   nozzles. I may need two barrels because of the volume of water the bed 
>   will hold, and I don't want the fish to be subjected to rising and 
>   falling water levels, but with these .  Over the years, one of the 
>   growing beds has been attacked my termites and is now unsuitable for 
>   aquaponics, but the remaining grow bed should be large enough to produce 
>   salad in the winter in the greenhouse.  I wish I could afford those 
>   large tubs that you really are supposed to have but I'm using what I 
>   have and trying to make do.  I never really got the system up and 
>   running before.  I can't even  remember why, but I think it was because 
>   I did not have enough growing material in the box.
>   So, I am about to start round 2 of aquaponics...to grow lettuce and 
>   maybe more stuff in a single 8 square foot box.  Hopefully, I will be 
>   able to expand this setup at some point.
>   I have timers, PVC, and the beds are constructed and sealed.  I have 
>   fish(I bought a whole bunch of comets for the house aquarium to 
>   introduce my grandbaby to the joy of fish, and now, I have a good water 
>   supply that I did not have before(to top off evaporative loss)
> 
>   I think Lynn is still doing this, so I will address my questions to her, 
>   and Paula if she is here, and to anyone else who has some kind of 
>   aquaponic setup..
>   What is the composition of your grow beds?
>   Do you have issues with nozzles clogging over the beds?
>   What issues do you have?
>   I am hoping to avoid certain temperature requirements by using comets 
>   instead of tiliapia.
>   Paula gave me some inoculant bacteria to use, but I did not use it all. 
>     do you think it might still be good?  I'm going to try it, but just to 
>   hedge my bets, I will add some water from my indoor aquarium.
>   Lynn, did you say you had a raft system?  If so, can you describe it?  I 
>   have plenty of barrels that I could split lengthwise and support for a 
>   raft system.
> 
>   Bev
> 
> 
> 
>   -- 
>   I am having an out-of-money experience.
>   http://erthnsky.blogspot.com/
>   EarthNSky Farm, Northwest Georgia, USA
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-- 
I am having an out-of-money experience.
http://erthnsky.blogspot.com/
EarthNSky Farm, Northwest Georgia, USA


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