Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

We are moving house shortly out of suburbia onto a 3 acre block. we have power from the road but will be limited by water supply...at present nothing but 2 x 20,000 litre tanks going in, however its the dry season here.
Our system at present has 5 half IBC growbeds a covered fish tank and covered sump tank. All this has 50% white shade cloth over it but fugle horn we still use a lot of water....how much..dont know...just top up the sump tank.

So this is to those Australians especially SA, & WA who are on sustainable blocks how much water would you estimate to use a month.

As much as we want to continue AP this water issue in a concern, yes I realise that normal(?) gardens will still use a lot more.

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions please

I'd look at drilling a bore if I were you. Assuming you can. Or maybe digging a dam out if possible (unless the property already has one).

I'd probably go through 500-1000L a week/fortnight. Depending on many things, goes through far less during winter, a stinker, and we'll go through more.

When I was out bush, there was a water guy who'd top up water tanks when it was low.

No help to you now but when my system was running I found the tank, sump and beds collected a lot of water over winter with the sump always at full capacity and overflowing when it rained. My plan when I re-assemble my system is to add a rainwater tank so I can collect this 'excess' water during winter and use it over summer.

I would estimate I was adding about 500 litres a week to my system over summer.

I only have roof water here, but no doubt get more rain than most of SA. We average about 750mm per year, but it's under 500mm in a dry year. In summer my small system can use over 500l per week in transpiration and evaporation. In winter I don't need to add much at all, and sometimes have a bit of ST overflow.
In your situation, I'd put another tank in. We have 90000l of storage here, and lost tens of thousands of litres in overflow during a very wet early spring, but it has been fairly dry and hot lately, so tank levels are dropping quite fast. I wish I had the cash to buy another 22000l tank.

I lived near Pt Lincoln for thirty years good reliable rainfall , I was at Wanilla , 5 growbeds at full bore probably about 500L a week in summer not many stinking hot days a year there as you have sea water all the way around you ..

In between 2 to 300L a week

See my system thread

Winter basically no top ups required if rain can get in I had many days where my system overflowed , having a spare shuttle to throw some system water in if heavy rain is coming would be handy


To minimise evaporation dig into your growbeds and put small flower pots in so water drops straight down and do every thing you can to avoid evaporation losses .

Bit extra gravel on top will help too or just reduce your standpipe height during the hot weather .

I used shuttles from the place that makes fish waste into fertilizer

Cheers Terra, yeah we came here 10 years ago for 2 years work. Aint going back to Oldelaide... this has it

To all other advice, looks like everything goes into lockdown / storage until wetter weather is closer then get another 1 or 2 rain water tanks, luckily I have good contacts and the money when the time comes. we are only running goldfish and friends here are enlarging their system so fish have a good place to go to.

Yep the water use will be an issue. As the heat kicks in and lot veg I reckon 100-200L per week easily for an IBC setup with one grow bed and DWC. With 5 beds I think you will be in the 500L/week plus.

One option depending on where the nearest utility is and how you obtain it might be to actually cart water.
Having a trailer with couple IBC's or a ute with an IBC might work into a small rain tank dedicated to the AP.
some rural areas you can access water via town supplies if you are not serviced (at least that applies in WA).
Joining the local volie bushfire brigade might help...

Longer term maybe consider a dedicated roof over your AP with a dedicated 5000L or so raintank.
Move from shadecloth to some form of polycarbonate.
Saves pulling it off the house supply and you can easily top up with carted water without worrying so much about where you get it than if you put carted water in the domestic water. (you can also treat it there too).

>> I'd look at drilling a bore if I were you

whether you can use it is another issue. Would depend on what you are located over.
Bores are one thing directly on a lawn and garden where the soils profile is flushed each watering cycle, another in a recirculating system. I would be wary even to use my Perth bore water in AP, yet no question on garden.

A tank dam, lined if neecssary, would be a good long term solution for house & garden and AP but not cheap.
Carting water might be cheapest short term option.

If you go bigger separate your veg and fish operations.
You probably use less water via wicking beds (though they can use water as well but better return maybe).
And fish via a RAS and a large circular tank would be more of a closed system.

Since you haven't moved out yet get yourself a trailer and a couple ibcs and take the town water and fill your tanks, 20 trips and you're done.
In rural areas water fillers by the side of the road were a good source of town water. If you have a pond or dam consider a liner, I could easily fill mine twice a year 500Kl.

Use the non-potable water to irrigate and flush toilets.

Pete

Stand pipes on the side of the road...hmmm they are for fire fighting and its a very big smack on the head if you get caught, as I did a few years ago my previous business I was replenishing my water storage tank on my truck (3000 litres) and got sprung at 11.30 pm.

Most of out town water comes from the Murray River and by the time it reaches us its pretty average, if I cant drink it then I cant see fish surviving.

fish should be fine. Issue is how much it is treated and what with.
If it is being delivered at drinking water standards - which even in SA where that could be barely - it will be more than adequate for fish.

thats worth keeping in mind cheers

Have a play on the water connect website to see if a bore is a possibility. If you have trouble shoot me your address and I'll look it up for you. There is a wealth of information once you get the hang of it

https://www.waterconnect.sa.gov.au/Pages/Home.aspx

We don't normally do a lot of bores over your way but happy to give you some indicitave costs to help you budget and plan

Bore water varies widely - I'm pumping 20 litres a second out of a bore at the moment just to test it and it's chemically perfect








It will be a town drinking supply in a few months time...

That sounds a bit like those "lovely big neat piles of blue metal (GB's) on the side of the road." Ar'nt they free too?

Pete.

You can get a thing that screws into a fire water point in the road. They have a water meter in the top to measure how much you take.

I've got one I use occasionally, and my SA water ID card to say I can use it

I can't see 40,000L being enough storage unless you have large amounts of regular rain, and a lot of roof space for capture.

Putting up a big shed to catch water off May be just as useful as adding a tank