Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Caught,

I realise you want to save space while making a nice addition to your patio but building it up on the ledge is going to create some construction and personal safety issues.

This ledge is the 2nd pathway already from my patio to my pool area. It is 1.8m wide and 8m long.

Most Apers build the GBs between 700 & 900 mm high off the standing surface, this allows for easier less back breaking maintenance of GBs and plants.

My GBs will be raised approx. 300mm and 700mm

Optimal GB depth is is about 300 mm of media and when flooded with water could exceed 250 kg/m2 so sturdy footings will be required.
Great. This is something I did not think of. After some brainstorming with a mate, I've changed my design to allow for a bracket and frame to be included from the wall. This should eliminate weight distribution when flooding occurs

A poly carbonate roof overhead mounted off the fence will also be beneficial to eliminate excessive rainwater from entering and potentially flooding the FT, hail plant damage, provide netting shade and greenhouse plastic mounting, help keep the enclosure warmer in winter and reduce the moisture around the GB footings.
Possibly something to look at in the future. ATM I want to see how my climate will alter my AP system.

Plants need sunlight and warmth but fish like dark cool places so the FT/ST should be further away under layers of or permanent shade unless you intend to super insulate it in full sun. I suggest a flood and drain with a timer to save up to 75% energy and pump on time.

My plants will have approx. 9 hours of sun. My FT will be buried into the ground, as well as a backing wall which wasn't in my original design. This would shade the pond for an extra few hours a day. I don't mind if the crayfish are heated up a little, they tend to eat, grow and breed more when in warmer water.

Apers interested in your project will like me give their opinion of which you can decide what you want to do so in effect we all become you mentors.

Hi caught.

the previous 2 posts raise good points... it will be hard to get an advanced set up right without having played around first. Having said that if you are prepared for that and a few redesigns along the way maybe you can make it work - really comes down to the individual. You definitely wont get it right first time and any newbie stressing 'cheap' with a complex concept thread is usually behind the 8 ball before they start. If you try and go with too many fish you will probably have issues but if you start with low numbers of something simple it may be OK.

Spot on. I make things difficult, but also want to please the boss. Once I get an idea in my head its hard to back down. As I said to Pete, I don't mind failure

There are a couple of issues with your sketch:
Pete raises the first one which will be ensuring access to the beds/tubs etc.
You have 1.8m wide strip ?? so that might not be an issue if you have a small path between your fence and the ponds.
No issue

The other one is that your tubs are probably too small. But hard to say from the sketches.
I left the GBs and FT dimensions open as I haven't found material I've been happy with. The Length of each need to be simular to allow for the frame and brackets to match up. Both will not exceed 300mm in width

Another is that you go from Fish Tank to the elevated? beds.
This may not work so well with small beds/tubs since you generally need to have opportunity for the nitrification to occur and ammonia is actually not good for plants.
One option is to come out of your fish tank into a 200Litre blue drum of media
and then you can use an airlift to get your water up to the beds - these can run on a timer or constant.
(timer can be any period you like up to 24/7)
Possibly a solution I can adapt into my design behind the wall near the pond. Its not in the original design, but will be perpendicular to the fence, on the east side of the pond.

As a guide for size you you could run something along the whole system as lines of a heap of 50 Litre rectangular tubs 300-350mm x 400mm x 600mm down the slope. For a couple of crayfish with flowing water that would be fine - you just may end up with 1 in each They would also be about right minimum size for planter pots with media. Replicating that with pond liner for the pools with the pond liner would/should be OK.
sounds like an idea. The smaller ponds would only be used for breeding and possibly rearing young. I haven't quite worked out the logistics to make it work yet.



You will need to consider your elevations with respect to the fish tank at the end - the fish tank IBC may have to be dug in. That will probably work better than your sketch anyway.
That shows how bad my sketch is , it was meant to look buried


A cascading pond system is workable with or without AP.
This would give you opportunities to raise crayfish with couple in each tub/pool.
Crayfish (yabbies or redclaw I guess ?) don't generate a lot of waste/ammonia compared to fish.
So if you don't plan to over stock with fish you will be fine.
- I want redclaw due to accessibility however, looking at laws before I commit to them. They are not to be stocked in NSW and although its a pond there is a creek about 50metres away. I use to breed Yabbies in FTs and was doing quite well, they will otherwise be my choice.

You say that you have raised crayfish before so leave that up to you - but you wont get high numbers to eating size in any AP from most experience around here.
I'm fine with not having too many to eat. I generally come home with a bucket once a month. I concentrate on speed of 'production' once it does/doesn't work

You need to provide some additional information - preferably on the photo.
(a) the height of the wall at the left hand side. Its approximately 1.5m high
(b) and indication of where your planter tubs might be. Along the fence line, right against the fence, all would have EXP clay for Media

finally- the other option is to have the fish tank at the top - you would have to dig it in - for example an IBC is 900Wx1200Lx1mH. It can be cut down to any size/volume you like (so 0.5m deep for example).

Got me thinking hard about this concept. The idea of having a bridge over the top of the IBC which lead to the path down the slope would look amazing. However, even more work?

As long as you had blocks behind it and your width (wall to fence) is 1.8m then it would be feasible.
You could SLO out of your fish tank down the slope and have a partly buried sump at the bottom with pump in it.
Then pump back up to Fish Tank - that would require lot less pump power than going up to the planter boxes.

Would then have another pump which feeds planters from the FT?

[assuming the wall is about 1-1.5m high at the left.

and p.s. you wouldn't run siphons on a system like this.
That's why I'm the newb and your the sensei