Well as I mentioned before my wife and I are doing a large aquaponics system to provided vegetable to for the community. We live in a small rural town and it about 1 hour or more round trip to a grocery store to get vegetables. We finally got it done and here are a few pics of the process to where we are now.
The first pic is of the dirt work, then it took about a month between work and getting help to put up the arches. Then after that we did the endwalls.
Then the electric when in which you can see in the last picture. Then we started on the system itself. The system we bought from a local company that does aquaponic systems. The source out the materials to build the beds, racks, and other components. We have a 2 1000 gallon fish tanks, 300 gallon sump tank (which is going to have to be replaced for a larger one) and 12 20 square feet beds.
We got fish in friday and planted sunday night. With in 24 hours we had okra starting to root. This is just amazing to me. We also planted some corn outside and moved it to the beds. Along with buying a couple of tomato plants and a pepper plant.
Just went out and looked, the cucumbers, purple hull peas and black eyed peas are starting to root as well.
Is the corn a dwarf variety? 'Cause if it takes off like I suspect, you'll have the tassels against the roof Nice setup...looking forward to how things produce...
No thats just regular sweet corn. We are worried about that as well, just have to see what happens. Thanks we are excited. I'll keep posting about the progress.
What size is your green house? Seasoned aquaponics folk say you should cycle your system to get nitrates (ultimately) started. I am under the impression you didn't?
That is a really nice system. I would like to see more of the mechanics of it. What type of fish are those. A lot of people say to go with Talapia. Also if you put chicken coops over the water tanks you will get the nitrates. I've heard of others doing that.
The greenhouse is 26'x60'. Yes we ran the system for about 5 days before we planted. These are just gold fish, and working with the people that are helping with the system, we dont want to use any hot waste. They have found that at time the nitrates get to high and kill fish and cause unbalance in the system. Also cause possible contamination. We are doing this not only for us, but plan to sale to the local community. We are planning to price really similar to wal-mart.
The pictures that you are seeing from the ground work to the okra rooting is about 3 months difference. We got the system finished on the 21st then ran the system until we planted the 26th. Here in Oklahoma Talapia is not a common fish. We are going with catfish because if the heater goes out, we know they live in this area, and will probably have a better chance of making than talapia. I have also heard they work, well just going a different route. All that I know you cant use territorial fish like bass.
145 square meters. Good size to start with. I had forgotten that you told me that before. That's what we are starting with. But, they are cheap as chips here, to buy. I understand Tilapia fingerlings are costly, stateside. Not to mention, illegal in some states. Did you consider trout as an option, maybe?
We did, but other other reason for catfish is the fact there is a place not far from me that raise them. The closest place I have found that raise trout is about 3-4 hours away and when I called the cost to have them shipped here ( I dont have a away to transport them myself) was to high. Also just now at this time is about 100 degrees in the greenhouse and most trout like cooler waters. I would say the water is about 75-80 degrees right now.
That is pretty freaking awesome. Whats powering the pumps? Can you pull the corn out and put it outside in the dirt if it starts to get too tall?
Thanks oil pan, right now the pump is hooked up to the electric. We plan to get solar. And yes any of the plant you can pull out and harden then off then plant then in the soil. We plan in about Febuary or March to do starter plants. We can get about 1000-900 out of one bed. Then we will harden then off in the greenhouse and sell them.
This is my aqua ponics learning .onions and potatoes and below duck weed for the fish. the float in the laundry tray dispenses city water to keep it full with an aerator to remove the chlorine ,and to the float in the 40 gallon fish tank next to it. the water from the fish tank is pumped to a pipe in the garden that drains down to the bottom of the trough rather than wetting the soil on the top. My brother was looking at a system that sprays from the bottom and things grow very well causing the roots to have to reach for the water. My next effort will be a combination of these ideas.
That's great arleigh. We have started onions and they are slowly coming up. In the type of media we cant do potatoes without modifing the beds and stem pipes. I have heard of the spray type of system, there was a story on the local news about 6 months ago. When I went out and did some research it seems that leafy greens do good with that type of system. I think our next move will be to try some wicking beds for potates. Here is a picture of a sucker we took off the one of the starter tomato plant that we bought. It started rooting this weekend.