Spreading the AP addiction in FL's Panhandle

[davidstcldfl]

Hi,
I've been in the FL Panhandle, for about 3 weeks, helping my friends get their large aquaponic system built. Their names are Liz and Dave.
They did the smart thing...they already had built a small system and got the hang of it 1st. It's located in a small glass greenhouse that Dave had built.
We started off by re-doing it first. In this 1st picture, Dave is building a shelf for the media beds that we added...



He had used a fiberglass bathtub as the fish tank. He got another on that was much deeper, so we changed them.....



Here's the mixing tubs that we picked up at HD. We added mostly lava, then topped them with river rock. He already had the NFT tubes installed. After adding more fish, and a good shot of maxi-crop, the plants really started to look nice ...



Next, we started to work on their larger system.
Dave had built the frame work for the fish house before I arrived. He has a large blue water tank. I believe it was about 8 ft across and holds about 600 gallons.
He also had started the green house frame work, next to the fish house.

First, we needed to get the green house a little more level. Thank goodness his neighbor came over with his tractor...



Next, we made sure to pack the soil....



After that, Dave started to build the troughs...



While he worked on the 1st two troughs, I started working on the fish tank, the swirl filter and bio-filter. Then I started to run the underground pipe....



He only had enough liner for the 1st two troughs. We got it installed and started to add some water...





The plan is to make 4 of the 5 troughs into raft beds. He will plant tomatoes in 2 gallon pots and make holes in the rafts. The pot's bottom will just touch the water, so it can 'wick' up into the pots....




The 5th trough will be wider, but will only have an inch of water flowing through it. Again, the pots and wicking bags will wick up the water.
If he thinks the rafts work better, he'll be able to make the 5th trough into a raft bed too.

When I left, we had the the sump installed and had the water flowing through the 2 raft beds.
Dave is working on building the other 3 beds and pulling the cover over the green house, while he waits on more liner.

I'm looking forward to them posting more pictures as they get more done...

Also while there...Dave and I built a small system for their church's produce stand. I think, I'll make a seperate thread for it.
Here's the link to it....
AP system for a churches produce stand

[JCO]

David, in that first picture, I thought maybe he was praying to the Aquaponic God to make those plants grow

You did a great job with the photos and the post....don't stop now, tell us what it looked like when it was finished.

[davidstcldfl]

...It does look like he's praying....

Thanks JCO....I'm also looking forward to more pictures...

I forgot to mention....Dave installs doors. The glass he used, was from sliding glass patio doors.

[JCO]

People who live in "Glass Houses" shouldn't ..... ahh ....stay in them too long because they can get real hot or something like that..!

[greenly]

I thought maybe he was praying to the Aquaponic God to make those plants grow.

[JCO]

greenly, I already said that or did you forget to actually make your post