A picture of the plants I put in so far.

Aquaponics always intrigues me, but I don't know if I will ever attempt it. It seems like a lot of work and maintenance is involved with keeping them going.

Good grief! How much does just the IBC tote cost (never mind the growing medium, the water delivery system, etc., etc.)?

$25 each, they are like 300 gallons full. I picked up an entire trailer load of them for Lou and one for myself as an acid mix tank for my blueberries.

Tradition... You gotta point,

But think of all the FUN Lou is having!

The recirculating water system is pumped by a 14 watt Koi pond water pump (same low wattage as the cfl light bulb). Because this was my first system I found I could have used a smaller 5 watt Koi pond water pump. Cost $12.65 The water is pumped from the lower 200 gallon fish tank to the upper grow bed where the fish waste is used to feed the plants (thereby cleaning the water) and the cleaned water is returned to the fish tank using the principle of a bell siphon to achieve ebb & flow. The grow bed fill cycle takes 30 minutes and the drain cycle takes 2 minutes. I use a cheap aquarium air pump 3 watt. Cost $16.13 The Hydroton clay growing medium is the expensive part at $40 for a 40 Lb bag. It takes 4 to 6 bags to fill the grow bed depending what type plants you intend to grow. The good part is you only have to buy it once and is used year after year. There are alternative growing mediums, Hydroton fired clay balls being the most expensive.
The only water I have to add is from evaporation as the system recycles the same water over and over 24/7 and I don't ever have to worry about will it rain. Fish food is less expensive than the fertilizer I used on a dirt garden and I get fish & veggies to eat from the system and the satisfaction knowing how it was grown.

Lou

Wow, this is great! I love it.

Good job Lou! Very interesting, keeps us informed on how well it does for you.

Silvia

What a Truckload deal Rabbit.....the going C-List price in Orlando is about $100-$120 each

Lou.....are you able to use both "halves" in your set-up ?

Do you use your tractor as forklift ?

What fish do you farm ?

Curious doug

Thanks Silvia for the thumbs up!

One of the important things (to me) that I forgot to mention is NO WEEDS! The water level is kept below the top inch of the clay balls so the weed seeds drifting on the wind cannot sprout. Only what you plant will grow as you place the roots just below the topmost water level of the fill cycle. Also no algae can grow on the topmost dry clay balls exposed to the sun.
I also have a tub of duckweed growing to help feed the fish and I've been thinking of putting a bug zapper above the fish tank.

I'm including the link to the YouTube video on how to build an IBC system for yourself.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to build a IBC Aquaponics System

Doug,

Watch the video to see how you cut the plastic tub to make the fish tank and the grow bed from the single IBC plastic tank. The IBC tote is not all that heavy when empty but yes I do use the tractor forks to move the IBC totes just because it is easier for this old man.
Bamboo_Rabbit catches sunfish & bluegills for my fish tank as his house is on a lake.
Because I live in Citrus County I'm not prevented from growing Blue Talapia without a license by law. I will buy the fingerling Talapia when I know my system is set up properly to run without fish deaths and I have all the eight of my IBC totes set up.

Lou

Abnorm,

The $25 is if you buy just 1 tote or 10. The totes use to hold dye for landscape mulch. Some of them have a couple inches or a bit more hardened dye still in them. If you want totes already cleaned out they are $75 each. Getting the dye out takes some time......right Lou? lol:)

Yeah, it took me a whole day on each half to clean out the plastic tubs and then paint the outside green. It really made me wonder whether it was better to pay the extra money for the clean IBC's. That hardened dye is just as hard as fired brick and some of it had to be chiseled out. I'm not biting at the bit to start on the second IBC unit just yet:(

Lou

How in the world are you going to harvest those tomatoes? You must need a ladder to plant them, by the time they grow another 6' you'll need a dang forklift to get up there! LOL

Ah.....now we know the rest of the story.......Nice work !

Barbie, The top of the grow bed is exactly 4 feet high from the ground (chest level). The netting is 5 feet tall suspended from the roof of my wooden greenhouse that I'm building around the Aquaponics set up. The final wooden greenhouse will be 24 feet long by 24 feet wide and 10 feet high when completed and will have heat and A/C run by a large solar system. The solar system generated 20 million watt hours in the one year I have had it operational.
This IBC is a preliminary setup to see how well different veggies will grow using Aquaponics, later the tall veggies will grow from a much lower row of grow beds. I'm doing preliminary testing with this first setup to gain experience as I have never used Aquaponics before. I attended a two day seminar to learn about Aquaponics growing and I'm now putting the information to the test.

Lou

Do you know where to get IBC totes I called https://www.recyletotes.com and they said 80 per tote is that a good price?

Jack,

That is a good price for a cleaned out IBC tote. I get the dirty ones for $25 and the cleaned ones for $75 in Ocala, so $80 per tote is a good price if cleaned. Because I cut the totes open into two sections the $25 dirty totes are easier for me to clean out.

MY UPDATE;

I now have a few totes and a 125 gallon aquarium set up for aquaponics. I originally bought 25 Tilapia fish ($50 including shipping) to start and because they mated I now have over 1000 fish in all my tanks and I have harvested a number of them for food. The aquarium is used as my breeder tank with a blue barrel cut in half (top to bottom not across) as two tubs set flat side by side on a wooden stand for the grow beds. My aquaponics greenhouse has been expanded to 24 feet wide and 32 feet long. I use some totes and blue barrels for growing duckweed for some of the fish food. I set my earthboxes 3 feet high up along the inside walls of the aquaponics greenhouse for growing the root crops in dirt. I set them up with a constant circulating watering system where they drain into a rain gutter placed under the earthboxes and flow into a blue barrel tub where the pump recycles the water and fertilizer back to each earthbox through the plumbing. It has eliminated the constant hand watering and bending over planting of my 40 earthboxes.

Lou

Looks great.

How has the eggplants fared? Did you get much more fruit then in ground?

Keep us updated.

Buckeye,

The eggplants were a disappointment, I think from the heat buildup in the greenhouse. I have since installed a louvered fan with auto heat/cold controllers at each end of the greenhouse. Above 70F the fans turn on and below 50F the space heaters turn on. I have not planted eggplants this year so I cannot make a comparison. Upon more research as to what plants do well in the aquaponics beds, people recommend planting only leaf type plants (lettuce, spinach, arugula, etc.). The fruiting plants (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc.) do better in soil. Root crops also do better planted in soil so it was my reasoning to set up my 40 earthboxes around the inside perimeter walls of the greenhouse and make them under automatic watering control. I installed fluorescent lighting above each of the earthboxes to extend the light for the plants during wintertime. They hang from chains suspended from the roof rafters and are easily height adjusted or removed during summer.

Lou

Thank you for the information. I can't apply much of it in my zone, but knowledge is power anyway;)

I just came across your thread. It's so cool that you're doing this, and it sounds like your set up wasn't ridiculously expensive either. Although I'm in Zone 3 and starting from scratch so we'd have to build a greenhouse type thing first! Anyway I'll be following to see if you have anymore updates as time goes on :)

MY UPDATE;

The fish poop I extract from the fish tanks through filtering I mix into the existing dirt in the earthboxes after each harvest/cleanup and I add Azomite to replenish the minerals. This process refreshes the soil in my earthboxes before replanting. I use a small cement mixer I bought from Harbor Freight to do all the mixing. I plant & harvest all my salad fixings year round in my greenhouse.

For white fly control (which all greenhouses have this problem) I use a Hoover portable hand vacuum to suck them off the undersides of the leaves. This keeps the white fly population in check and has worked well for me. I also have lizards and spiders that have taken up residence in my greenhouse and they keep the other bugs in check.

Lou

were in florida do you get the totes for $25?

gerrywatts,

We get the totes in Ocala, $25 for uncleaned and $75 for cleaned. The totes had dye in them to color pine chip mulch with various colors. (non toxic dye)

Lou

First post.

I live on the Space Coast and have a 1/2 acre
property, and just bought the empty 3/4 acre lot next to me under an LLC
I started in order to bypass the HOA's requirement to build within 12
months. (Want to keep it greenspace in a park-like setting)

We have an existing Florida
Pool enclosure that I am extending 26'x30' in a couple of months. That
will house a turn-key large Aquaponics system bought from
endlessfoodsystems.com. It will also have room for a 5'x5' granite top
table behind my BBQ kitchen for eating. The Aquaponics system will
include a 275gallon fish tank, powering 4 media beds, 6 raft beds, and
two wicking beds. In addition to standard filtration of solids, I'll add
BioChar to the filter exit that will also assist in removing the
nasties.

I'm a BIoChar fanatic as well and making my own with a
Kon-Tiki cone kiln. Using it for multiple purposes in raised beds, worm
bins, and for other uses as well.

Fish will be around 50 Blue
Tilapia (The only Tilapia allowed in Florida without a special license),
and one Pleco catfish. (The Pleco keeps the bottom, sides, and pipes
clean) Fish will be fed a combo of pellets and duckweed. It will take
about 6 weeks for the systems water to "charge" before adding the fish.
Water comes from our existing well and purified through a 500GPD
Reverse Osmosis system. Pumps for air and water will be backed up by a
400W Solar system in the event of power failures...or grid down. Once
in use, the maintenance of the system is minimal, requiring only a few
hours a week, except for planting and harvesting.

I'm somewhat
surprised at the minimal posts on Aquaponics here, but like BioChar, I
think that will logarythmically accelerate as more people learn the
benefits, both environmentally, and nutritionally as time passes.

My AP system will be based on this diagram:

I
hope to see more discussions of Aquaponics here soon, and will post my
progress in a dedicated post as I get started on the project.Cheers!

?