Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Is there anyone out there who would be willing to help us get our IBC aquaponic's system working properly please. I see all these fantastic photos of lush green vegies and ours has never looked like any of them!! I will post some photos of our system and promise to faithfully try what is suggested. We live in Karratha so at the moment it is very hot and one of our first steps will be to put a shade of some sort over the grow beds. (Even in the cooler season, we have never had really nice growth). The system is continously flooded. The water is pumped from the fish tank to the top bed, then it drains to the second bed, then is pumped back to the fish tank. The second tank only ever fills up about 10cm - it would be great to have this as a second fish tank. I have ordered a water testing kit and hopefully this should arrive soon. We have silver perch in our fish tank - we had 25 before our son decided to go fishing a little early! We now have about six that would be about 20cm long each. We would really appreciate any advice.

Some more photos

Last photo...

Hi, my name is Terry and I say don't give up

NLD

I think it would be fair to say your present arrangement is plumbed awkwardly.

You could arrange them and make something great if you choose

Your system has most of the components for two very simple systems.

You could for example place one grow bed above each tank and simply pump from below to the grow beds above it and then let them drain back into the fish tank. that will give you two very simple systems. The BYAP free ebook has many such systems in it, for you to copy.

or

You could arrange your equipment into a system that will have two grow beds 1 fish tank and a sump. This will leave you with a spare pump for emergency or another system if you prefer. It would also allow for some sort of solids removal from the fish tank. that type of system is called "chift pist" an acronym for (constant height in fish tank pump in sump tank.)

It's a shame you lost your fish and everyone here would sympathize with you, on that score.

I cant offer much help as I'm new to all this myself but there are a great number of people here who are generous with their time and knowledge so, you're in the right place.

I'm sure they will be along soon with all types of questions and suggestions.

Hey NLD, sorry to hear you're having these frustrations. I'm sure we can help you fix things up so don't give up yet.

Like telonline, I too scratched my head with your explanation of your plumbing arrangements. Sounds a bit unusual and may be a more efficient way to arrange it, but leaving aside plumbing for the time being, a couple of questions which should help us help you get that good green growth happening:

1) Great that you have ordered a test kit. Post up the results when you do the test as this will give us a good idea of what water parameters you're dealing with

2) What is your source of top up water - tap, tank or bore?


3) How long has the system been running?

4) What plants are you currently growing in there? It's a bit hard to tell from the small photos

5) What sized pumps are you using and how long do they run for (trying to determine your water turnover)? Also do you have an airpump running?

6) The photo of your drainpipe looks like you are possibly flooding the bed a bit high. The surface of the expanded clay should remain dry. Are the surfaces of your growbeds wet or am I not interpreting the photo correctly?

7) What type of fish food are you feeding your fish and how often are you feeding them?

8.) How much sun per day does this aquaponics system recieve?

Sorry for all these questions but I'd hate to see you give up

Hi NLD. Dont give up!

As mentioned, your plumbing is a bit awkward to understand. Maybe a diagram would help. Looking at the photos, it looks like you could add some water though... 6 fish in such a small volume of water must feel very cramped!

Certainly shade to keep the direct sun off the system will help.

One thing you could add now while you are waiting for your test kit to arrive is a few cap fulls of seasol.

Hi NLD,

So are you saying you have two pumps?... one pumping from the FT to the GB's, which then drain to a sump tank (ST), then you pump from there back to the FT?

First thing I would recommend is changing your design, I wouldn't cascade from one GB to the next, I would have them level and have a water feed from the pump into each GB. Especially in Karratha, the water will be heating up in the first GB and giving up a lot of it's oxygen before it drains to the second GB, where it will heat up even further before returning back to the ST/FT.

It looks in one pic like the water is close to the surface of the expanded clay, you should ensure the water doesn't flood anywhere near the surface, I would have it 40-50mm from the surface, otherwise you will be excessively heating the water, getting massive evaporation, and have algae growth on the beds.

I would have only one pump... in the ST... pumping up to the GB's, the GB's then draining into the FT, and the FT overflowing into the ST via a solids lifting overflow (SLO), as per pic below.

Also, if you're not already, I would use a siphon for flooding and draining your GB's, and I would use a 25mm standpipe in them so you get reasonably rapid F&D cycles... as opposed to timed flood and drain where the water is going to be sitting in the GB's for some time, heating up and releasing it's oxygen.

You should also be planting according to Karratha temps, only plants that can handle the heat in summer, but in saying that you don't want to overload the system with hungry fruiting plants such as Tomatoes, Capsicums etc... plant them sparingly. If you do have mostly fruiting plants in the system then it'll probably be short on Nutrients , especially Potassium and trace elements. As mentioned, try some Seasol, 2-3 capfuls per 1000L of water per week. To get extra Potassium into the system you can add Potassium bicarbonate at one level teaspoon per 1000L, but only if your pH is below 7.0, as it lifts pH. If above 7.0 then apply it as a foliar spray.

In the cooler months try and grow mainly leafy greens, lettuce, Asian greens etc, just to let the nutrient bank build up for the when you plant the fruiting plants in early spring... and you do need to get them in EARLY in spring up there.

(edit: Reading through the last few recent posts I have repeated a few things they've suggested, sorry, but it takes a while for me to type these things out between customers.)

Cheers!

This is just the best Hobie :-)

Thank-you very much for all of your replies. I think there are some common threads in there that we will try to implement. I will show my husband the more technical parts of your replies and keep you all updated.

I will try and answer some of jono81's questions.
1) I will post the results of the tests when I receive the kit. I should be able to test nitrites, nitrates, ammonia and ph. I did test the ph last week and it was about 7.6.

2) We fill up the fish tank from tap town water (could be bore water it is hard water). We do have a softener on the house water so I would assume that this would effect the water. I refilled it today - the fish should be happier!

3) The system has been running for about 12 months here in Karratha. We have used the system and clay balls at our previous home for about 18months. (It didn't grow very well there either and that was a flood and drain, one grow bed above the fish tank).

4) Basil has grown the best so far. Celery has been ok too. Tomatoes, Capsicums and chillies grow ok, however we are usually able to harvest about 10 of each (if that) before mealy bugs destroy them. I regualrly used a garlic and chilly spray to try and deter them to no avail. I have also tried to grow parsley, coriander, sage, oregano only to have them all die. At the moment there is a pumpkin and sweet potato vine growing. The pumkin has flowers at times, but these never develop into fruit.

5) Ooh a technical question! I do know that there are two airstones in the fish tank that we bought from backyard aquaponics. The pump... it is an aquacare WH-4000, 240V, 50Hz, 30V, 2200L/h, Hmax 2.1M. I hope that makes sense to someone!

6) The growbeds are flooded to just below the clay ball surface. I will adjust this ASAP to about 4-5cm below.

7) We are feeding the fish 3mm pellets that I bought from Backyard aquaponics. I feed them a small handful each day. They may even be a little bigger now more like 30cm.

8.) The growbeds would receive at least 8-9 hours of direct sunlight every day.

I also added a good squirt of seasol to the fish water today. I have some eggplant, silverbeat and marigolds that I want to plant, however am relectant to do this until I get this sorted.

Once again, we are really grateful for your help - we would love to grow our own veggies especially living up here in Karratha. I will keep you posted. Thank-you!

That's good, your pH is ok so we can rule that out for now



hmm... I don't have much experience with bore water. It could be lacking oxygen, calcium and magnesium. (water softening is the removal of calcium, magnesium, and certain other metal cations in hard water.)
Definately try add more aeration of your fish tank, particularly as you are running continously flooded which can already suffer from lack of oxygen (refer page 5 of this thread: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=20008&p=432353&hilit=bore+water#p432353)

Perhaps someone else can chime in here - could softened bore water be having an influence towards NLD's growth issues?



So the system should be stablising by now and you should be seeing some good growth.. but you're not.



It's likely you are deficient in Potasium, which is required for fruit growth.



Sounds like your pump should be sufficient for the system of your size, and you should be getting enough water turnover with this pump. But can you confirm you are running just one pump in this system? I'm still confused how your system is setup to run. Post a diagram if possible.



Yep. As long as the surface of the gravel is dry, that's the main thing. Those plants need to breathe!



We can now rule out the possibility of dodgy/poor feed.




That's fine, and will be great in winter. Judging by your location, in your fierce hot summer, like ours here (commonly over 40+ deg celcius), your plants would benefit from some gentler, filtered sunlight. Can you add some shade cloth over the top? Our vegies really benefited from shade cloth, and significant, better growth resulted. If your plants are getting absolutely fried in fierce summer sun, they will be stressed, and focusing their energy on merely surviving, therefore won't have much energy spare to grow well.


Seasol is good, but contains only very minor quantities of Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium (NPK: 0.10% : 0.05% : 2%)
You could try supplement Maxicrop instead, which has slightly more potassium (NPK 4.6 : 1.2 : 3.1) and other trace elements. It's hard to overdose this stuff, so try adding 1 cup or so per week or more, see if it helps.

At this stage I suspect your plants are deficient in either one of more of the following:

- oxygen (so lower flood level and add airstone as discussed. I'm sure your layout also could be improved to increase oxgenation of the water by utilising gravity better and splashing your drain water onto the surface of the fishtank)

- fish. You need more fish as you are understocked. And feed them twice per day if possible, as much as they will eat in 15 mins.

- gentler sunlight required. In the plant world, vegies are generally very soft and delicate compared to other species, they need protection


- Potassium (add Maxicrop, "Eco Fungicide" (http://ecoorganicgarden.com.au/products ... fungicide/ plus do a search on this forum on it), or Potassium Sulphate (NKPW 0-0-50) for fast effect if you can get hold of it in your area. But try rule out the the other points above first before worrying about Potassium.

Hey NLD,

After you've gone through the effort and cost of setting it all up it would really be a shame to quit it, though I feel your pain.

Note, that it is that you're not a fishkeeper till you've killed at least 1000 fish. We've all had the bad days, and I can safely say that no fishkeeper ever, aquaponic or otherwise, has done it without killing some fishies along the way. You still have the hard lesson of having to euthanize or harvest one of your fish.

I can tell you though that the system will surely mature, and once it is established it will become a TANK! It will require minimal maintenance and will survive neglect and high water.

Keep at it, the road is long and hard, abound with terrors, but once you reach the end it will all be worth it :]

Don't give up yet!!

1 Drop your water level in your grow bed.
2 Add shade
3 Keep it simple - follow the KISS rule.

maybe aquaponics is too hard for some people.

I can state with absolute certainty that that is not true. A system set up with the proper media, clean source water and adequate flow rates will mature into a minimal maintenance monster, capable of withstanding the elements and neglect up to an astounding extent.

Anyone can have an aquaponics system, some input from others during the cycling process certainly helps if you have no prior aquaculture or hydroponics or gardening knowledge, but the trial and error process of working it out yourself isn't a long one, especially if you do some reading.

Keep at it buddy, the forum is already reacting to help you as is plain from the thread, this input along with just the tiniest amount of elbow grease and mental effort from your part will get the system into line and plugging away like a champ

Thanks again for your encouragement. We have decided to move the system to another spot in our garden where we will be able to easily put some shade in. I think it will be next weekend's job. I think we will stick to two grow beds above the fish tank, water pumped from the fish tank to both the grow beds and drains naturally back to the fish tank.

jono81 - I have taken a photo of my rough sketch of the design. I hope you can see it clearly enough. Water is pumped from the fish tank to GB1, which then drains into GB2, which then drains into the sump tank. The water in the sump tank is then pumped via a second pump back to the fishtank. There are two airstones in the fishtank.

I still have not received my water testing kit, so will let you know what the results are when it arrives.

The basil is growing really well now with the extra seasol...