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["Jeanne Driese" <jeanne13 AT earthlink.net>]

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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