This is to be the first in a series of posts about the early stages and progression of My Big Aquaponics System. This system has grown/changed much over the years and my mistakes with it have taught me so much.
Barrel Ponics System
I discovered Aquaponics back in late 2007, I had heard of it before but never really had a proper explanation until I stumbled across the Backyard Aquaponics Forum, from then on, I was hooked. I should mention that Aquaponics is addictive.
Within the week I was searching for containers and by the middle of January I had built my first Aquaponics system. Thank you so much to Travis W. Hughey and the Barrel-Ponics Manual. I did manage to start fishless cycling on the barrel system on January 24, 2008.
Digging tank in gound
Of course before I even started fishless cycling on the barrel system, I was already starting construction for the big system. This is not uncommon for people to start thinking about the next, bigger better system before the first one is done.
Right from the start, the big system has been undergoing constant changes, research and development. What started out as a simple fish tank in ground and several flood and drain gravel grow beds using loop siphons has become so much more.
The originally planned fish tank was a 500-600 gallon hole in the ground with pond liner and four 158 gallon lumber/liner grow beds with auto siphons.
March 2008
I have learned so much since then.
If you wish to read the nitty gritty, day by day details of this construction, you can find them here at the Backyard Aquaponics Forum. This post covers from about page 1-30 of that system thread and the date range would be from December 2007-March 26, 2008.
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