May 19, 2013 • 8 mins
This introduction episode is about my backyard Aquaponics project that I have been working on for almost a year now. This episode just spends a few minutes explaining the project and its challenges. Aquaponics is very much like hydroponics, except for the fact that it uses fish as a source of food to grow your produce in water. See the image below of the current system under construction. Please feel free to give me feedback on this show to rob dot greenlee at yahoo.com and robgreenlee dotcom or twitter @robgreenlee . This is my first personal podcast since I stopped recording the Zune Insider podcast and the nationally syndicated WebTalk World Radio Show back in 2006.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, This is Rob Greenlee. This is the first episode
of my Digital Life podcast off of Rob Greenley dot com.
And I just wanted to say hi to everybody and
thank you for downloading this from Rob Greenley dot com.
I'm gonna post this to a variety of places online,
(00:25):
and it's just kind of my own personal journal of
things that I'm up to and things that I might
find interesting that I want to share with anybody who
wants to subscribe to this. But and if you wanted
to give me any kind of feedback, you can certainly
(00:47):
send me an email to Rob at Rob Greenlee dot com.
And if you have any ideas on things that I
should explore or whatever in this audio podcast, then give
me a buzz in my email address and I'll be
happy to see what I can do to to expand
(01:09):
on maybe that idea or that topic. But what I
wanted to mention to you today was I'm on this
journey that I've started here. Actually it started last summer
to build an aquaponics system in my backyard, and uh,
it's it's been a it's been a journey. I'm actually
(01:30):
out here standing in it right now. It's not exactly
making a lot of noise right now because it's not
totally fired up. And I'll post some pictures to my
blog about this thing. Actually, I've I've posted things to
my Facebook account about my project. But I've I've spent
(01:50):
the last year or so being a student of acaponics
and I'm actually standing inside of my greenhouse right now.
And it's it's basically a project in process, and it's
not exactly something that can I say this I've finished.
It's kind of in in process. I basically built a
(02:14):
kind of like a home backyard greenhouse. It actually came
as a kit and it's a six foot by eight
foot in size, and I've gone through some training on acoponics.
I don't know if you know what acaponics is, but
it's basically growing lettuce and produce and vegetables in beds
of water so there's no soil involved. And uh. And
(02:39):
what I've done is I've I've built an old, my
old custom system here and it's it can be a
little frustrating to actually work on. I've I've struggled with it.
All of the tanks are are all custom built and
actually built from plywood, and that they have like pond
(03:02):
liners in them and plumbing that that runs the water
through the system. The d acoponics the foundation acoponics is
basically growing produce based on fish waste. So you basically
have a fish tank that funnels water through various types
of growing medium where it's like these little clay balls
(03:26):
or whatever. And then I also have what's called deep
water rafts, which is basically just a bed of water
that has a foam foam panel that that kind of
sits on top and sorry about I got an airplane
flying over right now. And then the plant's roots actually
dangle into the water, so you basically circulate the water
(03:51):
through all of these tanks and grow beds, and basically
the roots just you know, suck nutrients from the soil.
So actually, in the middle of building this, and it
was just a pet project that I started working on.
I flew down to Denver, Colorado about it about a
year ago or so and and went through a pretty
(04:14):
extensive training training program to to learn how to build
an acaponics system. And it can be a complex and
difficult thing to actually do. It's not as as easy
as it sounds. You have to be an expert in
a lot of different areas and and so I've been
(04:36):
slowly learning and and uh, it's difficult to grow acoponics
up in the Northwest where it's so cold and then
dark in the winter months. But I've I've forged ahead
and built one myself. It's kind of funny they've the
(04:57):
further I dive into it, the more I I realized
that that it's it's not as easy to do. Like
I said, here in the Northwest, there's not as much
sunlight and dealing with moisture and and rain and all
these factors come into play. And I unfortunately I bought
(05:19):
a greenhouse that doesn't have insulated panels, and so I
have a real issue with the greenhouse and kind of
leakage of warmth and heat. So I'm I'm actually in
the greenhouse right now, and it's kind of warm in here,
but and it's you know, it's overcasts, so there's there's
(05:40):
definitely radiant energy coming in here. But the greenhouse has
so many air holes in it that it doesn't really
it doesn't really hold the heat in it as well
as it probably needs to. But but I'm enjoying working
on it. It's it's basically a brain tease and hopefully
I can ended up and running here over the next
(06:01):
couple of weeks, and I'll, like I said, I'll post
some pictures of the progress that I'm making on this.
I've invested quite a bit of money into it already.
I've got I got power plugged into actually had an
electrician come out and actually run power into the greenhouse.
And I've got two significant circuits in here because I
(06:27):
have very high powered lights that are hanging from the greenhouse,
so in the darker, cooler months, I can have basically
one hundred and twenty watts of lights or one hundred
one two hundred watts of lights in here during the
winter months to keep things warm and keep things growing.
(06:49):
So it's it's exciting, but you I want to bore
everybody to death here with my rant on aquaponics. But
I will definitely keep you up to date. If you
have an interest in hearing about certain aspects of what
I built and about aquaponics, I just would do a
(07:09):
search in in Bing or Google on the term aquaponics,
and there's just a plethora of information out there if
you want to look at maybe building your own home
backyard system to grow your own produce, but it it
does take some investment. And but there are some kind
(07:29):
of simple startup systems that you can buy from from companies.
There's one that's called the acoponicssource dot com and that's
that's a good resource if you want to join a
forum and talk about, you know, a system that you
might want to build and learn from others. So I
(07:51):
would definitely go do that. But I wanted to sign
off from the first episode of the Rob Greenley My
Digital Life podcast and go check out my website. I'll
keep it up to date. Actually, I post on my website,
probably mostly about podcasting, and I'll do that as well,
(08:11):
but I'll ever so often I'll venture into other areas
and hobbies and if I go to an event or
something like that that is of interest, I'll definitely post
it here as part of my audio podcast. So, like
I said, thank you for downloading this. This is definitely
(08:32):
an experiment, and shoot me an email Rob at Rob
Greenley dot com and I would love to hear from you,
and thank you so much for listening to this and
downloading it. Take care, Bye bye
Hello, This is Rob Greenlee. This is the first episode
of my Digital Life podcast off of Rob Greenley dot com.
And I just wanted to say hi to everybody and
thank you for downloading this from Rob Greenley dot com.
I'm gonna post this to a variety of places online,
(00:25):
and it's just kind of my own personal journal of
things that I'm up to and things that I might
find interesting that I want to share with anybody who
wants to subscribe to this. But and if you wanted
to give me any kind of feedback, you can certainly
(00:47):
send me an email to Rob at Rob Greenlee dot com.
And if you have any ideas on things that I
should explore or whatever in this audio podcast, then give
me a buzz in my email address and I'll be
happy to see what I can do to to expand
(01:09):
on maybe that idea or that topic. But what I
wanted to mention to you today was I'm on this
journey that I've started here. Actually it started last summer
to build an aquaponics system in my backyard, and uh,
it's it's been a it's been a journey. I'm actually
(01:30):
out here standing in it right now. It's not exactly
making a lot of noise right now because it's not
totally fired up. And I'll post some pictures to my
blog about this thing. Actually, I've I've posted things to
my Facebook account about my project. But I've I've spent
(01:50):
the last year or so being a student of acaponics
and I'm actually standing inside of my greenhouse right now.
And it's it's basically a project in process, and it's
not exactly something that can I say this I've finished.
It's kind of in in process. I basically built a
(02:14):
kind of like a home backyard greenhouse. It actually came
as a kit and it's a six foot by eight
foot in size, and I've gone through some training on acoponics.
I don't know if you know what acaponics is, but
it's basically growing lettuce and produce and vegetables in beds
of water so there's no soil involved. And uh. And
(02:39):
what I've done is I've I've built an old, my
old custom system here and it's it can be a
little frustrating to actually work on. I've I've struggled with it.
All of the tanks are are all custom built and
actually built from plywood, and that they have like pond
(03:02):
liners in them and plumbing that that runs the water
through the system. The d acoponics the foundation acoponics is
basically growing produce based on fish waste. So you basically
have a fish tank that funnels water through various types
of growing medium where it's like these little clay balls
(03:26):
or whatever. And then I also have what's called deep
water rafts, which is basically just a bed of water
that has a foam foam panel that that kind of
sits on top and sorry about I got an airplane
flying over right now. And then the plant's roots actually
dangle into the water, so you basically circulate the water
(03:51):
through all of these tanks and grow beds, and basically
the roots just you know, suck nutrients from the soil.
So actually, in the middle of building this, and it
was just a pet project that I started working on.
I flew down to Denver, Colorado about it about a
year ago or so and and went through a pretty
(04:14):
extensive training training program to to learn how to build
an acaponics system. And it can be a complex and
difficult thing to actually do. It's not as as easy
as it sounds. You have to be an expert in
a lot of different areas and and so I've been
(04:36):
slowly learning and and uh, it's difficult to grow acoponics
up in the Northwest where it's so cold and then
dark in the winter months. But I've I've forged ahead
and built one myself. It's kind of funny they've the
(04:57):
further I dive into it, the more I I realized
that that it's it's not as easy to do. Like
I said, here in the Northwest, there's not as much
sunlight and dealing with moisture and and rain and all
these factors come into play. And I unfortunately I bought
(05:19):
a greenhouse that doesn't have insulated panels, and so I
have a real issue with the greenhouse and kind of
leakage of warmth and heat. So I'm I'm actually in
the greenhouse right now, and it's kind of warm in here,
but and it's you know, it's overcasts, so there's there's
(05:40):
definitely radiant energy coming in here. But the greenhouse has
so many air holes in it that it doesn't really
it doesn't really hold the heat in it as well
as it probably needs to. But but I'm enjoying working
on it. It's it's basically a brain tease and hopefully
I can ended up and running here over the next
(06:01):
couple of weeks, and I'll, like I said, I'll post
some pictures of the progress that I'm making on this.
I've invested quite a bit of money into it already.
I've got I got power plugged into actually had an
electrician come out and actually run power into the greenhouse.
And I've got two significant circuits in here because I
(06:27):
have very high powered lights that are hanging from the greenhouse,
so in the darker, cooler months, I can have basically
one hundred and twenty watts of lights or one hundred
one two hundred watts of lights in here during the
winter months to keep things warm and keep things growing.
(06:49):
So it's it's exciting, but you I want to bore
everybody to death here with my rant on aquaponics. But
I will definitely keep you up to date. If you
have an interest in hearing about certain aspects of what
I built and about aquaponics, I just would do a
(07:09):
search in in Bing or Google on the term aquaponics,
and there's just a plethora of information out there if
you want to look at maybe building your own home
backyard system to grow your own produce, but it it
does take some investment. And but there are some kind
(07:29):
of simple startup systems that you can buy from from companies.
There's one that's called the acoponicssource dot com and that's
that's a good resource if you want to join a
forum and talk about, you know, a system that you
might want to build and learn from others. So I
(07:51):
would definitely go do that. But I wanted to sign
off from the first episode of the Rob Greenley My
Digital Life podcast and go check out my website. I'll
keep it up to date. Actually, I post on my website,
probably mostly about podcasting, and I'll do that as well,
(08:11):
but I'll ever so often I'll venture into other areas
and hobbies and if I go to an event or
something like that that is of interest, I'll definitely post
it here as part of my audio podcast. So, like
I said, thank you for downloading this. This is definitely
(08:32):
an experiment, and shoot me an email Rob at Rob
Greenley dot com and I would love to hear from you,
and thank you so much for listening to this and
downloading it. Take care, Bye bye
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