Howdy from Texas

[dgrdalton]

No one I know in Texas says that but thought it might be fun. My husband and I are in the planning stages of aquaponics. We have our eye on a 400 gal fiberglass tank and are looking for something to use as growbeds. Seems that building a wood frame and using pond liner may be the cheapest way to go. We have 2.5 acres on the side of a hill with several nice oaks for shade. We plan to build a greenhouse around the setup by fall. Hopefully we can get by with one pump and gravity. Any ideas about the necessity of a sump? or any suggestions? Thanks so much!

[GaryD]

G'day Howdy,

Nice to have you on board.

We'll watch the progress of your proposed system with interest.

If you can arrange your grow beds so that the base of them is higher than the top of your fish tank, you won't require a sump and only one pump will be necessary. Depending on the physical dimensions of your tank, you may need to partly bury it in the ground and support your grow beds above ground.....or both.

GaryD

[dgrdalton]

We are still trying to get in touch with the man that has the fiberglass tank. My husband could wait no longer and put together a small system with a 55 gal. barrel for a tank and a split barrel for grow beds. We put 12 bluegill in the tank and a few cuttings from the dirt garden in the growbeds. Also planted several lettuce seeds. I used some water from my indoor aquarium and squeezed out a spongefilter into the aquaponics system. It has been 9 days and the system began spiking in nitrite yesterday. One fish died the 2nd day (probably stress?) The 11 fish, cuttings and seedlings are doing great! Thanks for all the good info in the forums!

Hope to hear from someone else in Texas before the temps go above 100.