Gordon's 2nd, larger, AP system

Gunagulla

It may be a bit hard to visualise at this stage, but this is where my 2nd aquaponics system will be installed over the next few months. I'm still looking for a couple of suitably priced (doing this on a low income limited budget) ~4-5000 litre poly tanks for FTs, to bury at the top end of the area, which used to be the dirt garden. Towards the lower end, will be a 3000 litre partially buried poly tank, which I already have, for a sump.
Below the FTs will be ~10 (more later when I can afford them, & before the fish get too big) 1.75 X 1.1 X 0.3m plastic tubs, buried in the ground, for use as wicking beds. I hope to collect these from Qld next week. Also in this area will be 4 X 1000 litre, 500mm deep, poly water troughs which I picked up at an auction on Saturday, also used as wicking beds, they'll have citrus such as lemon and lime, and perhaps a couple of dwarf peach trees in them. They'll also have herbs such as thyme and chives, and maybe garlic, around the edges.
Possibly, location to be determined, a 2000l 600mm deep round trough, contents TBD, which I also already have, will go in there somewhere too.

I'll be putting 150-200 trout into this system, and I expect to be able to keep them year-round, perhaps with the assistance of large quantities of ice on a few days per year (which I can produce myself for no cost), or perhaps even spraying the GB/WBs with water for evaporative cooling.
With good thermal ground coupling due to the GB/WBs and 2 FTs and a ST being mostly buried, and over 10000l of water in the sysem, temperatures should be reasonably stable, and tied to the ground temperature.
With 2 tanks, I should be able to run different aged batches of trout, to ensure a year-round supply, without having to fill the freezer.
There has been over 300mm of rain in the past 2 months, so I figure the ground will be as soft as it's ever likely to be, so now seems like a good time to start digging some new craters. I have spare shovels if anyone feels the need for some exercise

It will be a PV solar powered system, as I have plenty of spare panels, with my main house power (also solar) as backup.

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Colum Black-Byron

Man, I wish I had that sort of space to play around with.

I look forward to watching it all come together.

What are you using for grow beds? Or building something?

dasboot

Fantastic plans,looking forward to following your progress,as a Trout Fisherman in the past i would love to be able to keep them.... :thumbright:

Gunagulla

Grow/wicking beds will be polyethylene feed troughs, but I have to make a 10hr round trip to get them from Qld... which reminds me, I need to phone them check that are food grade or similar.
I'm still thinking about what to use around the top of them for retaining a bit deeper layer of dirt, so that I can run deeper gravel underneath the geotextile and still have sufficient dirt depth for spuds etc on top.

Gabe

Will be following with interest!

Gunagulla

Gunagulla wrote:

I'm still looking for a couple of suitably priced ... ~4-5000 litre poly tanks for FTs,

Plan B - using a single tank is now in place, I found a squat 9500l tank for way less than 2 X 4500l ones. Ordered for delivery in 2 or 3 weeks, so I'd better start digging soon!

Gunagulla

We hired a Toro for the weekend and earthworks have started!

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Lots of post holes being dug here before going in with the bucket to clean as much as possible out, before I get in to the mattocking.

Charlie

Looking forward to the build, Gunna.

Gunagulla

A shiny new tank arrived from Qld yesterday afternoon

Pictured here with the Toro and Ebony, the Black Araucana chook.

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Gunagulla

Tank in place, along with one large round 1000 litre WB for a citrus tree. Despite 300mm of rain in Dec and Jan, the ground was dry and dusty all the way down to 1.3m depth.

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slimjim

Nice thats about the scale I will be running so Im keen to see how it looks

Gunagulla

Over 10 hours driving and I have the first 10 wicking beds here now + 2 for my SIL. 10 more to come in a few months time, but first I need to get these plumbed in and set into the dirt.

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Stonewall

That looks like a good score for GBs

Gunagulla

Yep, 600litres capacity, so I can get plenty of gravel volume in them + dirt on top.

BuiDoi

Gunagulla wrote:

We hired a Toro for the weekend and earthworks have started!...

wot, and you let the boss have a play with big-boy's-toy.. :upset:

..
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