It's a New Year....so I guess it's time for an update. I turned 'The Farm' project over to my buddy and his girlfriend. So, I had to find something else to do. I've been working with Sahib, in Orlando FL, for a month or 2. I've been trying to figure out 'how to build' some of the 'ideas' that he has come up with.
I guess I should share a little about him first......
Turns out, he was like most of us when we started....he read lots on what other folks were trying. But from his start....he started trying out several different growing techniques at one time.
The 1st time I took a tour a year or so ago...he already was doing flood and drain in gravel beds...using DWC with rafts...had different kinds of towers, some of which he designed, and had some NFT's growing stuff. Oh yeah, he had some plants that weren't in a system, but were being watered with AP water, just by manually opening a valve.
One of the projects I've been building, we call a 'zero lot system'. The idea we built around was....we wanted it to look 'nice enough' to have in a small backyard or pool area, but, we didn't want it to cost a lot.. Also, we wanted the parts to be readily available to anyone that wanted to duplicate it. Plus, we wanted it to be a hybrid system....and be expandable.
This is what we came up with.....
We have 3 mixing tubs from the home improvement stores....one of them is a raft system, the other 2 are media with modified Affnan type bell siphons. One of the media tubs is just river rocks, the other has mostly river rocks, topped with hydroton to make planting easier.
The fish tank is a 55 gallon food grade barrel that I painted with a can of paint made for plastic. Doesn't look too bad for $25. A 100 or a 150 gallon rubbermaid stock tank would be great for a system like this.....and then it 'could be expanded' if someone had the room.
I had the system ready for a class we gave on aquaponics a few weeks ago....since then, I've added a few things. The 1st was some modified towers, that I call sahib's sandwhich towers. They easily come apart in two halfs, just by un-screwing a wing nut.
2nd, I covered it with bird netting, to keep the blasted squirrels out of it. They eat more veggies, then most parents wish their kids would...
I did add these boxes. They get watered manually by opening a ball valve. The extra water drains back to the fish tank.
If you'd like a better look....go to youtube and look for.....
Sahib Aquaponics Hybrid Urban Growing System: The Zero Lot / Backyard Gardener System