Middle of everywhere, Missouri

[jaminjorma]

Now this is a story, all about how my gardening got flipped-turned outside in and I'd like to take a minute just sit right there I'll tell you how I became the guy with a garden in his basement.

But in all seriousness, I figured I might as well join the forum so I can contribute to discussions instead of just lurking and reading. A bit of history on myself, I was in the Marines for 5 years, and have always been interested in self sufficiency whenever possible. As such, gardening has always interested me. Now that I'm free of the constant moving involved with the military, I decided to start growing my own food. I have a small garden next to my house with a jungle of cantaloupe, a couple dozen stalks of corn, several tomato plants in buckets, and even a small blueberry bush in a large container (no berries this year, but I plan to get another before the season is over so they can cross-pollinate next year). With winter approaching, I was trying to decide how I would keep growing a realistic amount of food inside. Looking online for ideas, I stumbled upon aquaponics and was instantly hooked by the gardening/sufficiency aspect of it, as well as the mechanics of it (going to college to become a Mechanical Engineer, the bell siphon fascinates me).

After researching it for a couple days (now I'm an expert, right?), I decided to try it in my basement. Wouldn't make much sense to start one outside if I want to grow through winter, I live in town and rent my house with not much lawn, so a greenhouse is out of the question. I nabbed a 50 gallon tote from Lowe's and a small feed trough from a local feed store after destroying several plastic totes that I intended to use as grow beds (that plastic is so brittle). I was impatient, so instead of ordering a pump online, I originally bought a sump pump, which turned out to be extremely loud, the motor sat outside of the water, and was way too much for what I needed, both in gph and $$. I instead realized that Lowe's has fountain pumps, which are significantly cheaper, and actually designed for this type of thing (100 gph as opposed to 800 or so, and $20 vs $90). I put together my first system, threw in a few plants from my garden, and dumped in a bunch of goldfish.

A few things I learned: you need a lot more gravel than you think, and cycling with fish is bad for the fish. I killed off probably 15 fish in the next couple weeks. I'm currently sitting at 14, that seem to be quite content now.

This is the grow bed a couple weeks ago. Cut some of the lettuce for the fajitas we made for dinner. The cantaloupe was an experiment, which I realize was a bad idea. Being a plant that needs pollination, hand-pollinating is a pain, and I have yet to get any of the flowers to turn into fruit, as well as the fact that the plant is huge in terms of length. I've also bumped up the lights from the original setup, and have a 6-bulb T8 4' system hanging a little less than a foot from the plants.

I decided that this wasn't enough, and about a week ago I decided that I wanted to grow strawberries as well as lettuce primarily, and also move on to raising fish I could one day eat. So I set out to set up a new system. If only I knew back then the trouble that I would have to go through to get everything set up. Originally my plan was to go with some 55 gallon barrels, and have two of those systems set up (2 FTs with 4 GBs). But in my searches online for cheap supplies, I found a guy selling an IBC tote for $35. Um, yes please. So I picked up said tote and 2 55 gallon barrels (to balance out my FT/GB ratio).

Looking back now, I should have stuck with the barrels only. First of all, IBC totes are pretty amazing for Aquaponics. The drain at the bottom is great for washing them out initially or later, the metal cage is great, the plastic base/stand is excellent for keeping it up off the cement floor, and the size is just right for a decent starter FT where I can actually have real fish. But for my case, the size was too much. The room in my basement had some rotting wood that the previous tenants had left in (my personal opinion is that they were growing something down there as well, but nothing legal), which required ripping out. That was a couple hours. Next, I couldn't fit the bottom part of the IBC tote through the opening into the room. The entrance to the room is right next to the stairs, and you have to duck to get into the room. Even with how flexible the plastic of the IBC is, I could not wedge it through the space. Being determined, I basically took apart the wall that was between the stairs and the room so I could get the tote through. Getting the cage through was another chore. I had to first take my back door off the frame to fit it through (because cutting through the metal once was annoying enough, I wasn't about to do it all over again just to trim a couple inches off). Then I had to very strategically wiggle it through the opened up wall (read: hit it with a hammer and judicial use of a crow-bar).

After that, there was the figuring out how to arrange the entire system. Probably something I should have done beforehand. Oops. Got a general plan laid out, and went to work. The barrels were a pain to figure out, because there isn't a lot of space where everything is, and the wall slants into the room for about a foot at the floor, so supporting the weight cheaply was a process. In the end, a bunch of cinder blocks were used, along with a 2x10. At one point, I had a barrel hanging from the floor joists by rope, but decided that was a little too risky and unstable.
Initially I tried to get away with not using any ball valves, and just adjusting flow rates by raising/lowering the ends of the supply tubes, but that proved quite the hassle. 3 $2 ball valves later, and the system finally was set up. Also put up the 4 bulb, 4' T5 lights that I got from Amazon for $75.

Lessons learned from this build: Plan more. In hindsight, the 55 gallon barrels would be better. Always buy more media than you think you'll need. I bought 10 bags initially, until I did the math and discovered I actually needed 30. #18 O-rings are you friend. Just because the high school aged employee at Lowe's says they don't have any O-rings for 3/4" PVC, ignore him. I tried using rubber washers that I had to cut to size. That was a pain, a waste of time, and a waste of money. For the gravel guards, 4" PVC is significantly more expensive than the smaller sizes. The big black pipes that they sell are like $4 for 10 ft, and the one I bought already had cuts in it, so I didn't have to do anything but cut them with scissors to 1 ft lengths.

I plan to stock this system with either Trout or Catfish, because I don't want to have to spend more money heating the water up enough for Tilapia to be happy all year round. At this point I'm leaning towards catfish, but only because there is a company coming to my local feed store next week that will be bringing fish with them to stock ponds, and it's a 2 minute drive from my house, as opposed to the 45 minute drive to the Trout hatchery.

Some goals for the future:
-Finish wiring the room. Right now most of the power is being run into the basement by a long extension cord that is on the same circuit as my washer. I installed a new circuit breaker, but only one of the 3 outlets I hooked up works, so I need to get the other two working.
-Install lights over the barrel halves (seeded them with lettuce and asparagus last night, but while I was at the hardware store, I accidentally grabbed T12s instead of T8s. Rookie mistake, but the store was about to close, and I was in a hurry.
-Currently playing around with raising some worms, there are a couple of totes under the table with dirt, vegetable compost, and two different types of worms from a bait shop. Would like to be able to supplement the fish food with real worms, I've heard it improves the fish taste.
-Be more efficient with the outside light. The window behind the IBC tote is south facing, so it gets a decent amount of sunlight. During the night, I have to block the window so my neighbors don't get pissed off (it shines right at their back deck), but during the day I'm considering placing a mirror at an angle outside to reflect more light into the grow room, and possibly putting up some cheap plywood painted white or reflective plastic around the grow beds to collect more natural light (because electricity is expensive, and I am but a poor college student). Anyone have any experience with this or thoughts/tips/advice?
-I plan to keep both systems running separate, with the first, smaller system as a "testing grounds" for plants, and the IBC tote and barrels for specific crops in larger quantities.

I appear to have written a book, so props to anyone who actually read all that. If not, that's okay too, at least there were a couple pictures to keep you entertained. Anyhow, nice to meet everyone, and I hope we can collaborate some new ideas for feeding the world.

[JCO]

Giving you a big Poplar Bluff, Missouri welcome while I'm on the road. I will get back to you with more later. No I don't live there now, but I am from Southeast Missouri. Where are you located?

[jaminjorma]

I'm attending college in Rolla currently. Grew up closer to Springfield.

[Roger L.]

Welcome to the group jam from Louisville KY. You will find a lot of knowledgable people on here to help you with your project. I too am growing in the basement and am trying different plants to see what will work well. Lettuce, spinach and broccoli seemed to be working best for me so far. You will want to stay away from fruiting plants until your system ages and then you have the afore mentioned pollination issues. You can see pictures of my system on some of my post. Best of luck.

[Apollo]

Welcome, jaminjorma from Missouri, glad that you have joined us. May your journey bring you the knowledge that you seek, put a smile up on your face, create hours of pleasure to stimulate your mind, an a healthier life style for your heart...from Apollo__Phoenix, Arizona.

Rabbits got into my AP's GB's, I didn't mind it at first...they were just eating the leafs. Just before they started eating the main stem of the plants growing on the lattice work. They took out 3 of my plant in one night. Closed up the opening at the gate and I think I only have one more rabbit to deal with.

If you want to view my set up from start to now, check out “Fire Pit … AP” then “Pipe Siphon by Apollo” and ending with "Got Vertigrow?".

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I HAVE NOT FAILED. I'VE JUST FOUND 10,000 WAYS THAT WON'T WORK. Thomas A Edison

[Roger L.]

You see jam, it all goes together in the end. Apollo has his veggies, he adds a litte water and then he adds the rabbit and now he has a rabbit stew that he produced himself.

[topz]

Welcome jam looks like you have a good start to your addiction.

[JCO]

Hey, no post since Aug. Did you graduate and leave the country. Get back to us with an update.