Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi
Can I humbly suggest that it is about time we wrote the IBC of aquaponics part 2.
The first additions most people consider are a sump tank and a RFF filter.
Sump tank choices are usually, an IBC or a 230 (ish) LT barrel.
RFF choices are a water cooler or a 230 LT barrel.
These I would suggest are basic and would form the essence of future expansion.
To mis- quote, “Stuart” lets move the discussion onto a higher basic level

I think the current one works great for the basics. Like when new people come in, and are still trying to stock 100 fish in an IBC, we can point them there, and it'll have all the information.

If you throw in too much information, it'll just confuse new people. Also changing it would be Joel's decision.

But, I like the idea of something like a wiki, "Aquaponics, beyond the basics". We could include all the information we know about separating AQ & AP, DIY fish feeders, tank construction methods; so pond liners, ferrocrete, poly tanks, water tanks chopped up. Then pages like to filter or not to filter, but include both sides of the argument, so people can decide for themselves. Could make up a few handy calculators, like the aquaculture ratios filtration calculators, and stuff like that. We could assign certain people to jobs they know well, so Stu gets the aquaculture maths part, I could do how to make a bed, and so on.

Make it similar to what Paul Van's doing (not copy and pasting it though, he's entitled to charge for information that he creates), but free.

Unfortunately saying is easier than doing. When we did the fist version I was employing a graphic designer and she spent many weeks/months working on it and this was all supported by the hardware shop sales side of things. Now there's no shop and no graphic designer to support it.

Could perhaps just update the website as this is easier, but would still require a fair bit of work. I used to have the aquaponicswiki.com website as well, had a fair few people from the forum that were going to help get it well populated with information and I even paid someone for a while to scan through the forum and get info and put it into the wiki. But these things need constant work, spammers trashed it for a while there and in the end it just fell in a heap and there really wasn't much there.

Hi
Points well made. Heard and understood. Thank You.
Switching to Peter Falk mode. ( Columbo)
“Just one more question”
Suppose you approached a University in Australia and got a student(S) to collate the info. I would gladly donate, say five or ten dollars for that resource.
Yeh! I can never forget the look in his eyes!

Do would I but whith a zero or two on the tenner :-)

Hi
This is a schematic of my water cooler RFF. There is an inset handle but, for the purpose of this post, I have ignored it.
I cut the top off a standard cola bottle and that forms the, “Turbulence damping cylinder” With a diameter of 9.5 cms this gives a ratio of 35% to the total surface are of the RFF. Well in excess of the recommended minimum of 25%.
I am assuming a flow rate of 3000 L/Hr. Standard IBC of aquaponics. In reality my pump is 5000 L/Hr but the flow is split so a good approximation.
All pipe work is 40mm and all measurements shown on diagram are to the bottom of the pipe.
Retention time formulae?

It works well.
The water cooler is as basic as an IBC. As such together with the 210 L barrel should form the common starting point for RFF construction.

I do not have the knowledge to improve the efficiency those last few percentage points that make all the difference.
For example;
I cut the inlet and outlet at places that seemed right.
What would be optimum?
Are 40mm pipes the best?
Would a cola bottle with a slightly smaller diameter be better?
At what flow rate should you move up to the bigger barrel?

Hi
Forgive me coming back to this post again and again but its like an itch I can’t scratch.
I appreciate that there are money shortages and lack of skilled people.
No that’s not what I meant! You Mods do a great job.
BUT
Colum posts got me thinking.
One of the strengths of Wiki is the ability to, edit it.
A very good initial post can added to, polished and tweaked.
I know little about web site structure but would some, easier form of cross referencing be possible?
For instance. I did a home made schematic of my RFF. On another topic Stuart placed a superb diagram of an RFF. Is there some way these could be brought together or cross referenced.
I would be happy for the majority of my posts to be edited. I appreciate that some people would not.
Would it be possible for a simple; Edit? Y/N

..
I have to say that the single biggest issue for me, is that I see good ideas scattered amongst post, often topic irrelevant posts, that a day later has disappeared into the haze..
For this reaon we should encourage good concepts to be uncluttered and reposted into a findable post within the relevant "essential information" heading...

How many time do I remember a technical post that I can never refind ..
..
.peter

.
For example.. the above depiction of a water cooler RFF..
I would think that the cover for the inlet, should be another cone but inverted, such that as it broadens, the flow slows, allowing greater settlement rates.. rather than a constant speed. Down. That may tend to stir up fines and flush them back to the outlet
Eg.. my series twin SWIRL leaves fines in the second and coarse in the first..
Ie. I should be able to use just one..
...
.

I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to get at then. How, or rather who will collate everything?

Any information can be picked up from here and there over the forum, and integrated into the one spot, this was the concept of the original aquaponics wiki we had going, get all the good bits out from among all the dribble and put it into a wiki. It's not a forum though, you can't just integrate them together automatically, they are two different databases and different pieces of software..

But like I said, the biggest problem is doing it, who is going to troll through the hundreds of thousands of post finding the information, getting permission from posters, then editing and formating and posting it. Then all the cross referencing within it.. I guess I sound seriously skeptical, but after doing this sort of thing before, I have a bit of an idea how much work it is and after pumping so much time effort and money into a wiki once before I'm very luke warm on the idea...

Hey if you want to get in among the forum and find useful stuff, go for it. Perhaps we can clean up the stickies at the beginning of each forum section and post essential info there, but then you have to try and keep the general dribble out of it, perhaps lock them. If you get a bit of info together we could start a separate section of the forum with all the good information in the one spot perhaps.

..
It is easy for us to have great ideas and say. .. "..and someone should......" which reads "... and someone else should.."
..
In reality it's a catch 22 situation.. those coordinating and moderating don't have the time and capacity to collate individual details and in reality individual members. Can't be let loose to do their thing, and then just look at 99% of threads that have been led off track by OT banta..

It is almost like the forum needs an "author's rights" facility, where the AUTHOR can delete post considered irrelevant and distracting to the topic... that way, the instigator of the thread could relieve the Mods of the task of moderating that thread..

See, there we go. ... "..and some one should.... "
..
.

hope you all don't mind me having a say about this site and forum, as a newbie, the first time I entered this it was absolutely great.. questions and answered everywhere, hundreds even thousands.... then I did a few searches on setups, fish diseases, pumps, grow bed's etc etc,...it was an nightmare.

Searched for new systems, result was 3085 pages, wicking beds 116 ibc's 1610 salting 62. everything is lost because your search programme picks up text from post replies and it shouldn't. it should only pick up from topic headings. and so what happens is I giveup searching and post new topic, which creates the problem in the first place.

Most individual items are abbreviated on here but the search wont let me use less than 3 characters, which is really good searching for. SP,FT,MC,GB,RT, and so on..

It would be so much better If you could rehash the search and have more specific information locked but easily noticeable on the forum page ... eg: Plumbing for a new Grow Bed, How bell siphons, Building a Grow Bed, Water Flow Rates, not abbreviated, just plain & simple.

the other thing I saw was mention of funds... I haven't seen a sponsor on here since I first entered.. why not.?

The answer is within the search page Mudeye.. search.php Under "search options" you can select to search "topic titles only", another good one to try is to search by "first post of topic only", then you get away from the multiple posts in each thread about the same old stuff.. The acronyms are never very helpful or much fun to search for and thats just the limitations of the search, can't help that..

This should be put up a bit more regularly perhaps for newbies... Replace every mention of STEAM with BYAP..




Haven't seen a sponsor? Well isn't that the ultimate in marketing then, it's all subliminal, backyard aquaponics is the business which started and supports the forum and the only sponsor of the forum, it's just so ingrained you don't even notice it, like getting out the hoover or reaching for a cleanex... OK, BYAP is not as big as it used to be and gone from employing 7-8 people and turning over close to a million dollars, to being one old bloke in a caravan in the middle of the bush...

Sounds bad when I put it like that...

Back in the days when I started the forum there were hardly any sources of information about aquaponics, perhaps 2-3 websites. There was one forum on the aquaponics.com website which was lucky to get 1 post a week. Back then people just weren't doing it, the only other main place was the list serve the Speraneo's ran, not a user friendly sort of thing but it was active with stuff happening.

As I talked lots about the aquaponics I was doing in my back yard on gardening and permaculture forums I'd get lots of email inquiries about it. I used to check with the originator first, then post their inquiry and my response on the aquaponics.com forum so that others could gain from it.. Their forum was so underutilised that it became filled with spammers, so I decided to get my own up and running.

Funny to think that 10 years ago there was hardly anyone doing aquaponics at all, it was practically unheard of, no books on the subjects, only a couple of websites, no forums, no businesses selling AP stuff.. Just no information, the only information you could buy about aquaponics anywhere in the world was the Speraneos manual/info pack, I think from memory about 15 photocopied pages about their system, some copies of magazine articles about their system, and a 5 minute video tape and cost me about $500 at the time due to our bad Aus$.

Back when I was young.........

Hmmm, not sure why I went off into a nostalgic trip there.. It does surprise me how far AP has come over such a short period of time...

I love that little vid, could easily use it 5 times a day sometimes.

well i'll be damned, I can search and find what I want, thanks EB.
would be good to lose that other search, the one that is top right side, the one that is glaringly obvious