Hello from Naples Florida

[Lordshandyman]

Hi everyone,

I just recently learned about aquaponics a few days ago. I have wanted to raise fish since the time I moved to Florida but have been gardening from day one. It never dawned on me to put the two together. So glad I have not build my fish tank yet, now I can merge the two dreams together. I am currently drawing out my designs for my system and hope to post them here to have people review it.

I was wondering if anyone lives close by Naples Florida and wouldn't mind if I visited them and admire their system. Being new to all this, I could use lots of ideas of what to do and not to do.

[bsfman]

I was wondering if anyone lives close by Naples Florida and wouldn't mind if I v.isited them and admire their system. Being new to all this, I could use lots of ideas of what to do and not to do.

Welcome to the forum! I'm just north of you in Cape Coral and have 3 systems working. Shoot me a PM with your contact info if you'd like to see my set up!

[urbanfarmer]

Greetings Earthling, and welcome to the addiction!

[Lordshandyman]

bsfman,
I sent you two PMs, one before your post and one after. They are both stuck in the outbox, and for some reason do not show up in the sent messages. Not for sure if I am doing something wrong or not.

urbanfarmer,
thank you for your warm welcome.

[davidstcldfl]

Hi Lordshandyman, welcome to the forum...
I 'think'... your pm's stay in the outbox, untill bsfman opens them.

If you ever come to Orlando....let me know , I'll give you a tour around Sahib's aquaponics.

[Lordshandyman]

davidstcldfl,

Thank you for the warm welcome.... I think you are right about the pm's, they now are in the sent messages folder.
I would be honored to have a tour, although it might be a while before we make it to Orlando. Perhaps I can talk the wife into a road trip.

The more I find out about aquaponics, the more I know that it is what I have wanted to do from the time I was a little kid dreaming about being a farmer. As a kid, I loved having an aquarium, but alas, without getting to eat my successes, I had given up on having any more fish tanks. Now that I live in Florida, I have been gutter gardening every since a strawberry breeder friend showed me their setup. I loved the fact that there is no bending over, and the weeds are easy to dispose of. But, I have been using soil and drip/spray irrigation in the gutters with liquid fertilizer and it just seems like a waste of resources. Plus, we use well water and my garden is only about 20/30 feet above the water table. Fertilizers make me very nervous in this sandy soil. When I built my gutter garden, I did toy with the idea of going full hydroponics, ebb and flow, but it was missing something. Now I know what it was missing... the fishes (aka. dinner)!

I am currently drawing up my plans for my system. Right now, I have two locations that I could use, one is a square pad (@ 20x20) that I would love to use, but I will save that spot for later when we have more money to spend and have some experience under my belt. The second location is on the east side of my house, on a concrete strip that is @4x50. It holds my well system, water softener, and ac unit. This creates a little challenge, as I must work around these things.

I think that I need to use two pumps, since my beds will be higher than the FT and I want to use a sump tank. I wish that I could only use one pump, but alas, I have about scratched the hair off my head trying to figure out how.

I plan on making plywood boxes and lining with EPDM liner for all my tanks and beds. I included my cut layout as well. I am trying to get the most bang for my buck, so that is why my beds and tanks are the sizes they are... must use every last inch of the liner. I am not sure about my math, and if my system will be balanced, would love some feed back on that. Will have better drawings in the next few days (if I can keep from constantly changing it that is).

Layout for EPDM liner, along with math.



Top and side view. FT has screened lids. GB #1 will roll in order to access plumbing on both sides of FT.

[bsfman]

I am currently drawing up my plans for my system. Right now, I have two locations that I could use, one is a square pad (@ 20x20) that I would love to use, but I will save that spot for later when we have more money to spend and have some experience under my belt. The second location is on the east side of my house, on a concrete strip that is @4x50. It holds my well system, water softener, and ac unit. This creates a little challenge, as I must work around these things.

I think that I need to use two pumps, since my beds will be higher than the FT and I want to use a sump tank. I wish that I could only use one pump, but alas, I have about scratched the hair off my head trying to figure out how.

I plan on making plywood boxes and lining with EPDM liner for all my tanks and beds. I included my cut layout as well. I am trying to get the most bang for my buck, so that is why my beds and tanks are the sizes they are... must use every last inch of the liner. I am not sure about my math, and if my system will be balanced, would love some feed back on that. Will have better drawings in the next few days (if I can keep from constantly changing it that is).

The east side would work, but presumably your pad is right up alongside the house, so you would have your grow beds limited to a max of 6 hrs a day of direct sun - less in wintertime. The further to the east you can move them, the longer daily sunshine they will receive. What side of the house is the 20X20ft pad situated? Ideally, a southern exposure gives you the longest daylight and the max water temp (which might become an issue in the wintertime if you are growing tilapia - even here in southwest Florida).

EPDM liner is expensive. PVC liner works good and is a LOT less expensive. You might want to consider using it instead. Also, you might want to give some thought regarding sizing and cost of lumber, hardware and plumbing supplies rather than letting the liner cost alone drive your design sizing considerations.

If you are using a sump, one pump will work. You just have to plumb multiple outlets with valves on each outlet to control flow rates to each growbed and the fish tank.

I look forward to meeting you and showing you my setup. Perhaps it will give you some ideas you can incorporate into your design!

Edit added:

Just noticed you are planning two of your three growbeds 2 foot deep. This will double the cost of media over your 12" deep bed and aside from a bit more bio and mechanical filtration, won't really give you any additional benefit for your plants. If you are basing this on the rule of thumb of a 1:1 ratio on growbed volume to fish tank volume, keep this in mind: You don't need a 1:1 or greater ratio for bio conversion of ammonia and nitrites to nitrate. You can get by with much less. That ratio is driven more by the consideration of planting area for sufficient plants to consume the nitrates. Two foot deep versus one foot deep doesn't help you in this regard. If your design is based on the available footprint size of your growbeds, I'd just use 1 foot deep growbeds if I were you.

[Lordshandyman]

bsfman,

You are correct, it will be against my house. The concrete strip is along side my house and then an alley way besides that. Can't go any farther east. Would 6 hours be enough light in the hot Florida sun? Most of my gutter and raised bed gardens seems to burn up because they are in full sun.

I hope to grow things like: broccoli, onions, tomatoes, peppers, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, bok choy, peas, beans, carrots, lettuce to name a few.

The concrete pad is actually the best spot, about 50 feet in the open all around it and south of my house. But because of its size, I want to save that spot for later, after I am more experienced with aquaponics, then build a big system with a green house to cover it.

As for water temps, I am toying with the idea of a secondary pump with piping on the roof, that would be thermostatically controlled to kick on and off to regulate the FT temps. I planned on using Styrofoam sheets to insulate the tanks and beds as well.

I actually was able to buy some EPDM at Home Depot on clearance today. 3 (will save 1 or 2 for later) 10x10 sheets, though not the 10x15 I was hoping for. But this will work as my plans have changed again.... A friend gave me an old IBC container today. I plan on using that for the FT now. This will scale down my system considerably, but it is just a starter system anyway. Also, I am taking your advise on the depth of the GB's. A 10x10 should make me two 1x3x8 GB's giving me 360 gallons, and the IBC I am guessing is around 300 gallons. Another 10x10 would make a 270 gallon ST. I might make another GB that is smaller but deeper to grow carrots and other root crops. I love home grown carrots and I am hoping aquaponics will do that for me.

Thank you so much for your input and valuable advice.

[bsfman]

bsfman,

You are correct, it will be against my house. The concrete strip is along side my house and then an alley way besides that. Can't go any farther east. Would 6 hours be enough light in the hot Florida sun? Most of my gutter and raised bed gardens seems to burn up because they are in full sun.

I hope to grow things like: broccoli, onions, tomatoes, peppers, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, bok choy, peas, beans, carrots, lettuce to name a few.

The concrete pad is actually the best spot, about 50 feet in the open all around it and south of my house. But because of its size, I want to save that spot for later, after I am more experienced with aquaponics, then build a big system with a green house to cover it.

As for water temps, I am toying with the idea of a secondary pump with piping on the roof, that would be thermostatically controlled to kick on and off to regulate the FT temps. I planned on using Styrofoam sheets to insulate the tanks and beds as well.

I actually was able to buy some EPDM at Home Depot on clearance today. 3 (will save 1 or 2 for later) 10x10 sheets, though not the 10x15 I was hoping for. But this will work as my plans have changed again.... A friend gave me an old IBC container today. I plan on using that for the FT now. This will scale down my system considerably, but it is just a starter system anyway. Also, I am taking your advise on the depth of the GB's. A 10x10 should make me two 1x3x8 GB's giving me 360 gallons, and the IBC I am guessing is around 300 gallons. Another 10x10 would make a 270 gallon ST. I might make another GB that is smaller but deeper to grow carrots and other root crops. I love home grown carrots and I am hoping aquaponics will do that for me.

Thank you so much for your input and valuable advice.

Happy to offer the advice. Others here, more experienced than I, probably have even better advice than I can offer.

Go with what you have available as far as location! You will still get good veggies on the east side of the house! It's wise to save the "ideal" spot for a bigger, better system once you've built the first one and gained experience. Good thinking!

Aquaponics will definitely grow carrots for you! I've grown some tasty carrots in just 8" deep growbeds. I think mine are "Nantes Short" cultivars (They ain't pretty, but they're tasty!) They make a good companion plant for peppers or tomatos. You can seed them right in your media. The sunlight will be more of an issue in winter than summer.

Your rooftop heating sounds good, but keep in mind you will need a POWERFUL second pump to move sufficient water up rooftop high and circulate it fast enough to counteract the cooling in winter. Check the flowrate of any pump you consider for the flowrate at the head height you will be pumping it up to.

Regarding your growbeds - a 10 by 10 liner will be too short for an 8 foot long growbed. You'll need 8 foot length, 2 feet more for the ends PLUS enough to overlap on the outside to tack it down to hold it in place. If you're cutting the bottom and sides from a 4'X8' foot sheet of plywood, you might consider 2' wide X6' long x12" deep growbeds. That way, you can use a single sheet of plywood for the bottom and all 4 sides and maybe get two beds worth of liners from a single 10X10 foot piece of liner (5 wide and 10 long with 6" side overlaps and a foot overlap on the ends. Trim off any excess.) A 2 foot wide growbed on a 4' wide concrete pad will also give you more "walk around" room - especially if you have space to walk outside of the pad - especially if you can align the outside edge of the GB with the edge of the pad. This will really help with assembly of the GB, liner, and bell siphons, planting, and maintenance.

Keep in mind regarding the depth of your sump - you will want to allow at LEAST a foot elevation from the bottom of your growbeds to the top of your sump to allow sufficient downflow and plumbing clearance for your autosiphons to drain properly. A 2X6X1 foot growbed, filled with pea gravel and water is gonna weigh nearly a ton, so you will need a SUBSTANTIAL support system to elevate and stabilize those growbeds. (You DEFINITELY don't want a situation like the Aquaponic Armageddon! I recently experienced!)

I'm impressed with your prior planning! I'm more of a "figure it out as you go" and "build it quick and dirty" kinda guy which often results in less than desirable outcomes. Hopefully you can benefit from the lessons I've learned from my prior lack of proper planning!

[davidstcldfl]

Lordshandyman , It'll be easy to have your ibc drain into the growbeds...which drain into a sump....then pumped back to the fish tank. That way your using 1 pump. Well except for your roof idea.

Your 'Hello' page is getting pretty big....time to start a new thread in ...'Backyard Systems', and we all can really start talking some design ideas....
Looking forward to hearing some more....