16' x 48' Aquaponics greenhouse.

This is my latest project I started a few weeks ago. It has two 1100 gallon fish tanks, 40' of grow tubes (for growing all kinds of vegetables and herbs) and 64 sq ft of floating raft for growing lettuce. I'll be posting up more pictures of the progress.. Plant and fish growth. 

There will be several different grow systems added to this set-up in the months to come, utilizing every square inch of greenhouse space. 

I am also adding worm beds. The worms will be used to feed the 2000 tilapia and the fish waste will be used to feed the worms.

100% solar Greenhouse project in the works

I finally got the stuff to build a 10x20 greenhouse and have decided to make it into a complete solar run aquaponics project. When I am done it will be totally run by solar and thermal heat from the vermiculture beds and sun. It will have 12 volt cooling fans to keep cool and fresnel ( ­solar concentrators) heated water for winter heat. I will be documenting my progress...

I'll explain more about the fresnel heating and vermiculture later...

Something different... Worms and chickens

I think I am going to start writing about my chickens and growing worms, since they play a part in my quest of being self-sufficient. I decided to step up my worm production and get away from buying feed for the fish in my aquaponic systems. Several experiments have proven very successful in raising worms and now I need to build on a larger scale.
I have been raising chickens just about all my life and they are fun. We currently use them for egg production and fertilizer. In the future I will be using them for meat and selling chicks. There seems to be a high demand for chickens these days and people are buy up free range eggs as fast as they can be put in a carton.
My plans are to get from 100 chickens to about 300 and design my system around the worm beds to bring up my worm production. The current test on raising worms with fish waste is working very well and I think by using fish waste with chicken poo will work out great. Eventually I will grow my worm beds large enough to use them for heating the greenhouse and water.
In a later post I will discuss a solar hot water heater that I have never seen done before. It should be an interesting project. 
Very soon I will start posting pictures of my chickens, worm bed projects and anything else that relates to our quest to becoming self-sustaining. More aquaponics pictures coming too.
Stay tuned!

Celebrity tomatoes & peppers in aquaponics

So far Celebrity tomatoes seem to be the best for my aquaponics set-up. They are a medium to large tomato that is good any way you can fix them. Raw, cooked, sauces, canned and pickled. Even fried green celebrity tomatoes are a favorite on our table. I tried several different varieties this past spring and was more than displeased with the outcome.

The cayenne pepper is growing very well and I have had a bumper crop from them as well as the fajita bell. I will post up pictures in the next few days with more info on what is doing good.

I also have some new aquaponic systems in place and one large system that I am currently building for a customer wanting to get completely off the grid.... Stay tuned, more info coming...