Hello fellow green (or shades there-of) thumbs, I would like some feedback on the layout for these flood-and-drain style growbeds in a soon-to-be-built 20’ greenhouse. Half, that’s right, HALF of my current food budget goes to salads, so lettuce/cucumber/tomato are all very important for me.
Water will be pumped constantly from my ~1000 gallon rainbow trout pen which will also supply the nutrition. I’ve done some aquaponics in the past successfully, but this is my first stab at a larger setup and my first greenhouse, so all critique is welcomed.
I’m looking at doing a smaller setup indoors with a 200 gallon tank and a 40 gallon sump with a return back to the tank and to plants that return to the tank also.
Do you run a sump tank first or straight from the pond to filtration?
Hey there… On my last build that was approx that size I didn’t use a sump, just direct flood and drain from an IPC container over the split 55 gal drum on top. I was in a warmer climate so I was able to utilize crawdads for cleanup duties, I’m sure that influenced my setup. Worked well, produced well for it’s small footprint:
The most important thing for me personally was building up a solid colony of the ammonia eating microbiome before adding fish.
That’s awesome, were they “full size” crawdads or minis AND were you eating everything or just playing?
Thanks! They were blue crawdads and unfortunatley I don’t remember if they were minis or not, sorry. Yup, I ate the fish and the veggie/fruit harvests.