Jumping into the tilapia tank with both feet....![]()
We found a defunct greenhouse to set up a commercial aquaponics system. It hasn't been used, since the 3 hurricanes blew through ('03 ?) They use to raise boston ferns in it. It's located just out side of town by a few miles.
Here's a shot before we started...
The size is 70 x 165. The length runs east to west. We are starting in the south half, on the west end....
If you look close, you can see my little truck and trailer hiding in the weeds. We thought we would need to replace the ground cloth, but once we cleaned things up, we realized we could just patch a few spots.
We are going with a raft system. I'll be setting up a couple swirl filters to remove some of the solids...then we will have 3 - 4' x 8' media beds. In this picture you can see the concrete blocks, each bed has 16 piers. That's more then enough for the weight, I'm more concerned with settling....
With that many blocks, were just using PT 2x4's for a frame with 3/4 inch PT ply on top...
In the picture , to the left, you can see the ply, it has a coat of the white rubber mobile home roof coating. The sides will be made from corral boards, which are also PT. They too, will be coated on the inside. That might be a little over kill, coating the wood. But if it adds a little more life, it's worth it. Once built, we will line it with 20mm dura-skrim.
We plan on covering the arch of the green house...I guess it's actually a 'shade house'....with 50% alumi-net. The ends and sides will be screen. For cooling...Were trying to keep as much natural airflow as possible. The alumi-net is supposed to be 20% cooler underneath then traditional shade cloth.
For heating (the water) as we build, we will be installing some 'pex' under the troughs.
Once we have the rafts/troughs, fish tanks and filters up and running, we will build more troughs in the east end, and then tie them into the west end.
To start off with, the fish tanks will be 4 or 5 IBC's. That will give us the ability to grade the fish. Plus, adding more tanks will be pretty easy.
Hope to be posting more soon.......