bcotton's backyard system

[bcotton]

This journey starts about two years ago. In the midst of the hops shortage and [me being a home brewer] I decided I wanted to try to grow hops. I lived in an apartment, which limited my options. Understanding that hops was in the same family as a very popular indoor and hydroponically grown plant. I figure there was enough applicable information on the web to try.

I'll skip past my failed hydroponic hop experiment, just know that you have a couple of very important things working against growing hops indoors. 1) theya re a huge plant. 2) It typically takes 3 years for the root system to get mature enough to meet maximum production. The hops *MUST* have winters for vernalization. I tried to simulate vernalization in my kegerator but i had difficulties with mold and the majority of my root systems rotting or dying.

Anyway, while i was studying hydroponics, i stumpled upon this whole idea of aquaponics and sustainable agriculture which interests me greatly. i cannot explain my fascination with it... It's entirely possible i just enjoy designing something, building it and improving it and i havent stopped finding ways to improve my aquaponics.

Currently, I have moved to a house and i have expanded my setup outdoors, but i am going to go ahead and start back in my apartment. And then move forward to present day.

So I start with lets call it.. phase 1

Phase 1

October, 2010
I am using 2 metal racks that i got from home depot. I think they were specified to allow 400 lbs per shelf. I was exceeding the recommended weight with the 55 gallon aquarium, but i hypothesized that they were just being cautious with the weight recommendation and i rationalized that it was close enough to the ground that i could risk it. Behind the 55 gallon aquarium is a 27 gallon heavy duty Rubbermaid tote. I use a homemade syphon (made of 3" PVC, some 1" clear tubes and a 1 gallon bucket) to overflow into the sump where the pumps are.

I am using bell syphons that flood and drain but dont always stop draining. As gunk builds up in the plumbing, the flow to each bed changes slightly from day to day. Instead of driving myself insane trying to always adjust and regulate the perfect flow I just let it be and i put the water pump on a timer. Off 15 minutes every hour or so so that the entire tray could drain and it will fill back up the next time the pump came on.

I am using botanicare grow trays that i had left over from my hydroponic experiments. The top tray is 3'x3'x8" and the bottom 5 trays are 4'x6"x4"


I drove 2 hours to buffalo, tx (from dallas) to buy 1 lb of mozambique tilapia (12 fish) for $10. The man at the fish farm said "just feed them what they will eat in 20 minutes, then take what they dont eat." I established that i fed them just under a tablespoon once a day.



I was very interested in trying to utilize vertical space to optimize the amount of food i could produce in a given amount of floor space. I have 2x 4'-4 bulb t5 florescent lights. One for each teir.