Planning My New Aquaponics Garden

I’m beginning to mentally draw up my plans for my first aquaponic garden. To start with, it’s going to be a hobby, not a business and hopefully will supplement my grocery bill . Because of circumstances and where I live I will be quite limited with space. I am trying to determine exactly where on the premises that I will place it. I have a screened in carport that could be adapted to it and could easily be extended outside without too much of a problem Since my hobby plant nursery takes up a lot of space outside I am quite limited. Of course it will depend on exactly what I grow in the aquaponic garden as to what I will stop growing outside. This necessitates a complete reorganization of my carport which will become my aquaponic garden. I use part of my carport for work space associated with my regular gardening. That will definitely have to be reorganized and possibly moved.

If I go with the carport idea, I will have to install grow lights. That’s ok because with plants growing under grow lights I will be able to extend and speed up their production season. It will also protect my aquaponic garden from the elements. I certainly don’t want rain water entering directly into my aquaponic garden. It will also give a degree of protection during some of the cold nights that we have during the winter here in Port Charlotte, Florida.

Since I need a permit for the tilapia fish, I think I will start out with goldfish and switch to talapia at a later time because the talapia would require that I have more tanks. Another thing, goldfish are a much more hardy fish than tilapia. I want to start with 2 tanks, one being a water holding tank to condition the water before I add it to the aqua bionic garden; because my water source is city water and deadly for fish. I think I’ll start by setting up one tank as the holding tank to make sure that I will be able to use that as my water source. I don’t think that will present a problem.

I read somewhere that in a holding tank that it is recommended to put seaweed into it. That should help to balance it out make the water suitable for use in the aquaponics system. It will be interesting experimenting with it.

This is going to be a project like most of my projects, a work in progress. I have to take it one step at a time. I’m an old man and I’m kind of slow at implementing things. It will be just little by little. I just hope I can get some plants going before winter sets in. I’ll have to give it a kick to get it on the move.

Thanks for reading my blog. Brad Vigansky