DD's System 2012

Dave Donley

This yard has a high fence all around, our husky Sierra could never run loose before now, she likes the new yard a lot. This other area is the most sunny and will be for DW's flowers. The previous owners were all about evergreens, we will be taking a lot out.

The pool is lined, if it were concrete I would be considering that as a FT, or a garden pool. As it is I'm too scared to consider it as a FT yet.

I have been reading a little about hugelkultur, we have wood now which we didn't before, and maybe that would be a useful way to break down the stumps.

The area near the shed slopes, what I'm thinking ATM is to hook up a gutter to the big shed roof and run that into some wicking beds. Or, I think there is enough slope to do something like C1 did with a cascade of tanks and beds.

Q: Which area is my favorite for an AP setup for the Winter? :smile:

TCLynx

That first picture Backyard03 looked like a nice place to start. Put a tank in the shed and a grow bed over that planting bed and a little greenhouse over it to get going while you figure out the rest?

Dave Donley

Yep that was my thinking, as a start, but I'm coveting one of the other pictures.

TCLynx

Do tell!

Dave Donley

This one, four outdoor electrical outlets on the patio next to the pool. Overhang at least 15' deep, with almost as much on the cement in front, where plants would be to get lots of sun. I could easily cover over the walls around the columns, the roof is already done, could gather rain off the roof, plenty of room for FTs. Would be alright to use this for Winter growing until it is warm enough to start up the pool, then would have to skedaddle out of there to the other side of the shed.

TCLynx

Or just make it pretty and compact enough to be part of the pool patio living.

Dave Donley

I've been wanting to re-do my .sig to have a kind of landing page (because I can't include all my threads in the .sig), but it's late and I don't have any beer so this will have to do for now. Maybe I'll make it nicer later.

I started here in 2006, I had been lurking on the S&S (Tom and Paula Speraneo) AP email list, googling when Google was young about fish farming and AP. I had thought that if I didn't do programming anymore hey why not fish farming? Joel started this fine forum which was a better format with pictures and everything and we had moved into a house and so I started my first system in 2006. Was surprised at the way the plants grew so easily and well, and was hooked. Since then I have been obsessed, and when I'm not thinking about work and family I'm thinking about AP in all its aspects.

Anyway my first thread was here:
2006

I had been planning on an S&S style setup with 600 gallon FTs and so I had two sump pumps, one 1/3 HP and the other 1/6HP. I used the 1/3 HP for the 18 gallon sump, which was hilarious.

More stuff, growing in the basement, experiments with different configurations, tilapia, finally trout, hope to get the late-2012 system going real soon now.

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faye

Good stuff Dave. Look forward to see the 2012 system.

Dave Donley

Man this would be so much easier:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Vegetabl ... 21539.html

Charlie

Now thats a macro system :shock:

Dave Donley

Reached some conclusions, I think for the Winter I'm not going to try to grow vegetables and food fish. Instead the plan is to experiment with indoor decorative systems.

For now I've set up an "AP Lab" in the mud room. The mud room has a small skylight and a sliding glass door but faces N so it doesn't get much direct sunlight. It is also inside the house so heat is not an issue. It also has a brick floor that is at ground level so if there are any accidents the water will go outside rather than in the house. The area I have here is 4' x 6'. I had been thinking to just have an aquarium or two but lately thinking about putting a real system here, albeit small (100 gallon FT maybe). Two IBCs could fit here but I don't have any. Found a local source for expanded shale if I want to try that. Today's thinking is the 100 gallon FT with the 90 gallon mortar tub over it as a combined filter (with charcoal floating in there for surface area) and raft/net pot setup. I want to experiment with planted walls and other vertical concepts, so I would pump over to the 3' wide wall that is in this room and try growing on that. Also near term to have a new Rendezvous setup because there is a ton of room in the rest of the house to put potted plants; I look at this area as a regeneration station for potted plants located in the rest of the house.

Longer term the pool patio will get a covered roof (thinking white polycarbonate to break up the direct sun), with the walls covered with removable panels for the Winter. That's not happening any time soon, focusing only on indoor projects for now.

Thinking about little koi for this setup, it's very satisfying to have them start small and grow to be monsters by the end of the Summer.

Charlie

Liking your thinking here DD, any movements yet?

Dave Donley

Been out of town and busy a lot this time of year, but AP is on my mind all the time.

Two things I want to try: LEAP (low energy AP similar to Jimbo et al's diagram here viewtopic.php?p=351050#p351050 ) for the Core of the system. This would be air-driven, FT to gravel bed back to FT. Air lift in FT to bed, and also in bed to FT to circulate water sideways between the two. Overflow at the clean end of the bed to a "clean" sump. Pump in sump going vertical to troughs etc. that would drain into FT, overflowing to bed to keep everything going.

Near term I will likely just use a water pump and not an air lift - ideally I want to have two rectangular containers one for FT and the other for the media bed, but right now I have odd-shaped rounded rectangle stock tanks.

I am close to making some new smaller tighter troughs to use indoors. Been thinking about arranging them in various overlapping ways.

Bob H

Hey DD,

I like the airlift/LEAP thing also and I'm interested with what you come up with for inside the house.

BTW, the Mrs. and I will be in Frederick, Dec 27 for about a week. Are you going to be around? Busy with work?

Dave Donley

Hey Bob, I should be around some time that week - we get the week between Xmas and New Year's off. PM me and maybe we can meet up!

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

DD's System 2012

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Backyard Aquaponics A place to discuss aquaponics

DD's System 2012

Who is online

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics