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Sorry guys im having a heck of a timewith the site on my phone. I really apreciate the vids and kind words. Hopefully i can get to the computer this evening to explain my ideas for my filtration setup.

OK, I give up I just logged into my computer for the first time in years. It took about fifty guesses but I finally remembered the password. It'll let me open the box and type a reply on my phone but I have to hit the post button about fifty times to get it to work. I tried the standard android browser and downloaded firefox just to see. Some how simplepress isn't working very well with my phone.

Anyway, since I'm on my computer I'll be able to write a decent explanation of why I'm basically putting a barrel of fish in my greenhouse.

When I found the tank and spent all that time digging the hole I was planning on making the entire greenhouse into an aquaponics system. I love the idea of having complete man made ecosystem. My problem is that I can't get past a little voice in my head that keeps thinking about how vulnerable the system would be. Power shortages are becoming more and more common in my town thanks to our underdeveloped power grid that cant keep up with the new arrivals to the town. (Best estimates report that our little oil town has grown by 50% in the last three years.) The frequent blackouts keep the idea of the power grid failing constantly in my mind. Aside from a solar setup (which I know just enough to understand that I really don't know anything about it) the entire system will be subject to the whims of a failing power grid.

That's why I decided to start everything with a soil based garden. At first I was going to completely scrap the aquaponics for a year or two, but a relative of mine is deeply involved with our local "teen challenge" program and is constantly talking about how expensive it is to feed the folks they are trying to help. They have 70 people who need three meals a day. He asked me to revisit the aquaculture concept as we have very long summers that would allow them to raise a good crop of tilapia annually. That's why I seem to be going to different direction at once, I am.

My raised beds will allow me to have the robust gardening setup that I can simply hand water from my large water storage tanks should the grid go down. Should power or water become an issue (our local water supplies are almost depleted) I will have a chance of being able to maintain my garden with collected rainwater. We still average about four inches a year even with the drought and after letting the tank sit full of water most of the summer last year, I feel confident that I could store enough water to keep my garden green year round.

My current plans for the aquaculture is to build couple of those great swirl filters (thanks earthenstead) that will gravity feed into a 55 gallon barrel of sand that will gravity feed into a kiddie pool of duck weed, which will gravity feed back into the main tank. I'll start with a small batch of tilapia and simply monitor the water quality as I go. Should I find that my filtration setup is insufficient I'll either start adding additional duckweed beds or reducing the number of fish. One great thing about having the teen challenge folks available is that if I need to unload a large quantity of fish at a bad time I can simply put them on ice and let those guys handle the processing. It's a bit of a half assed solution, but even if it isn't perfect I'll be putting good nutrients back in my soil when I drain my swirl filters. Also in the event that power or water become even more scarce I an always just pull the tilapia and rely on the tank to store my rain water.

I really appreciate you guys showing me so many great videos. I've read the sylvia bernstein book a couple of times this year and have a rough understanding of the nitrogen cycles and what the mainstream aquaponics movement is doing, but every time I turn around someone else has a great idea that they post in a youtube video. There seems to be no limit to how versatile these systems can be. I hope that after this first year with low stocking densities and a jury rigged filtration system that I'll have a better idea of where to go in the coming years. Hopefully I'll pick up some good tricks along the way and find a low cost set up that will help those folks at teen challenge to solve their food problems, but either way I know that it should be good fun. Thanks again for all the great information and sorry it took me so long to get back to you guys.

That worked the first time. Thanks man. Maybe turn the advertisements back on and lets try again. You need to make money after all the time you spent putting this site together.