New work @ Sahib Aquaponics

[davidstcldfl]

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

[bsfman]

Sweet little system! I've been using those mixing tubs for both floating raft and flood and drain and they work great!
Thanks for the update!

[Basil1]

Looks great and already getting some new ideas.

[davidstcldfl]

Thanks guys...
If anyone would like to see it in person......there is a free farm tour this Saturday ( when it's to be warm again... ) starting at 10 am in Winter Park, which is part of the Orlando area.
We have lots of new things that we are trying out. Hope to see you there.
We do ask that you please sign up ahead of time...
You can PM me for details...or search for Sahib Aquaponics/free farm tour.

[davidstcldfl]

Time for a little update...

I added a 3" nft to the front of the zero lot system. The water from the raft tub (above center) flows to one end of the nft, then the water exits and goes to the FT.....



Then I added a shallow tub to the side, which also has rafts in it. It works well for young plants...then I transfer them to other areas of the system to grow out.....




Here, you can see the system is really taking off.....the pots in the foreground have mint plants. The large pot, has been planted since this picture was taken. The pots are manually watered with water from the system.....
you can see I haven't had time to transfer the plants in the shallow tub, on the side...

[keith_r]

i love it.. especially your mini vert's!
great work!

[bsfman]

Sweet! Great use of gravity and space!

[davidstcldfl]

Thanks guys....

The verticles have 2 open slits. They are bolted together....just un-do a wing nut and they open into 2 halfs. Very easy to plant...

I could of added another nft to the other side. There is a lot of food growing in such a small area. There's even a patio tamato or 2 in the 'jungel' somewhere... That's why we call it the 'zero lot system'. Most folks could squeez this in somewhere, even in a sub-division with tiny yards or even a pool area or patio....

I'm using the basic design to add media tubs, over top of a large round pool (9 ft across) that we have some koi in. There will be a total of 10 tubs when I get done....working on the 1st rack of 5 now.
Will try to get some pictures of the build posted soon....

[urbanfarmer]

Nice work David!

[davidstcldfl]

OK....it looks like this thread lost a few pages in the last 'crash'...
It's Obama's fault !..... :P

Heres a picture of a 9 foot tall okra....not counting the height of the container...



It's growing in a 40 gallon container. The container has light weight shale. The container, along with several others, are fed system water by a pump on a timer. The pump runs for 15 mins...then the containers slowly drain back to a sump.