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Post by beenatural101 on May 21, 2011 10:48:25 GMT -6
I was a gardener long before a beekeeper. About 6 months ago, I ran across a link on facebook to some site where you can buy some "plans" for an aquaponics system. Simply grow fish in a man made pond (lots of folks use old swimming pools), run that water into a recovery pit full of gravel(the bacteria critters in the pit break down the fish waste into usable nutrients), then into troughs, beds or whatever growing style and medium the particular plants need. They also grow freshwater prawns, mussels, and crayfish in troughs with plant (example lettuce on a float in a filled trough). These folks had incredible claims. 500 square feet can produce 20 to 40 pounds of fish a month...and 2 to 4 hundred pounds of produce. This really got my interest up and I proceeded to do some other research on the subject. I found more than I need, I do not need to purchase some plan. I found one guy who had an in ground pool he converted to a greenhouse, with fish in the deep end (probably 3 feet of water), and troughs, barrels, different stuff all around in this thing. I almost got the land cleared for it, I am going to do something similar on a larger scale. I'll keep you updated.
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Post by naturelovr on May 21, 2011 20:22:01 GMT -6
Excellent! I'll look forward to hearing about your project! P.S. There's a news aggregate site that has a sub-section dedicated to permaculture that possibly would have some articles you may find of interest...news aggregate = readers submit articles from a variety of sources, so there is a lot to choose from. www.reddit.com/r/Permaculture/ |
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Post by olhillbilly on May 22, 2011 8:49:22 GMT -6
I have often thought that a bait shop and a green house would just go hand in hand, naturally. Bout the great deal on the plans. I one time went to a roundtable discussion bout the first CSA's in Missouri. There was these two folks from a nearby town, that brought fresh veggies in from their hydroponic greenhouse for all to sample. (this was in december) They offered a setup like theirs for only a mere $150k.  Whatta deal! |
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Post by beenatural101 on May 23, 2011 13:20:24 GMT -6
Yeah...you can spend a lot. But long before I was a beekeeper I learned the ways of scrounging, scavenging, and improvising. My whole effort is to make this thing as third world as possible. In most third world countries they have no need of a greenhouse, and here in S.C., I barely do. What I have planned is a removable frame and sheet plastic, all to go up sometime Octoberish around here, coming off marchish. Lots of ideas rattling around in my head for frame components. I thought about raiding the local bamboo patch every year, but that might be too third world. I know PVC works, I saw this old couple with a fairly large one made from pvc... the problem being the sun will corrode it. I was thinking about Painting some, or even using duct tape to cover all of it. I think that might work. Standard tunnel with a twist...make the sides out of 20 foot sch 40 or 80 2 inch, i think it'll bend enough i know the sch 40 will. Maybe I can go more permanent I haven't checked, maybe get some cheap conduit somewhere. Might make a dome even. a 30 footer is around 700 sq foot... might go for a 1500 sq foot tunnel, I don know. Anyway, the greenhouse will provide me with the capabilities for perma. I'll scrounge something for grow beds. The only question is how big? and do I want the fish inside the greenhouse? I can rig a real inexpensive solar heater and put em out in the weather, not sure. I'm thinking that's probably the best bet...I can also put an "earth cooler" on it, basically the same as the heater, only a bunch of pipe underground, like a big coil of black pipe 10 feet underground. It gets hot here.
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Post by beenatural101 on May 23, 2011 13:42:21 GMT -6
The fishpond will be an old pool liner, Can get those for free(lots of folks use the whole pools, above or below ground... i'm just digging a cpl holes w the tractor, maybe goin 2 earthbags up around em and throwin the liner in), I can make a crazy bio filter free with another liner, some gravel, oyster shells etc...just have to separate the solids before you run it through the filter. I was thinking 55 gal barrels cut in half for grow beds, they are cheap to free, and I can use them for flood, or flood and drain media beds. I can make troughs fairly cheap out of earthbags and say 6 mil plastic liners. I can also add freshwater prawns, freshwater mussels, and even crayfish to the various tanks , beds, troughs for leafy veggies will make a home for the prawns The mussels, I think would do great in a separate tank or trough with some baffles to let solids settle out before the bio filter, also made with an old pool liner. The question here is size, the appropriate ratio of grow bed to fish tank is 1 to 1.
better is 2 for fish and 1 part for grow bed. Easier to keep the ammonia levels down, you get happier healthier fish. And fish poo makes it go round. I see where folks even have chicken runs above the water for the bacteria i reckon. So my biggest cost will be pvc or other frame, and pumps. I'll come in under 2 grand, I dont care if I have to make it outta bamboo, for the first year anyway LMAO!
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Post by beenatural101 on May 23, 2011 13:43:10 GMT -6
Oh, And I never bought any plans... all the info is out there for free if you look.
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Post by beenatural101 on May 27, 2011 17:48:32 GMT -6
From what I am seeing, it'll be fine to have the pond outside..And greenhouse plastic comes in sizes for long, narrow houses, so I may just do 2 tunnels.
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Post by olhillbilly on May 27, 2011 18:19:32 GMT -6
Theres a couple FB links to Aquaculture ?? I'll send ya the links when I see em again.
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Post by olhillbilly on May 27, 2011 21:57:47 GMT -6
Sent some to yer FB account. Dunno if you can find anything useful in em or not.
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Post by beenatural101 on May 29, 2011 16:55:36 GMT -6
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Whatta deal!