Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - Re: [Homestead] Aquaponics

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Jeanne Driese" <jeanne13 AT earthlink.net>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Aquaponics
  • Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 17:12:54 -0400

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
_______________________________________________
Homestead list and subscription:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead
Change your homestead list member options:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/homestead/jeanne13%40earthlink.net
View the archives at:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page