Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey all, here are some photos of the little system I threw together as a proof of concept. The wife needs the proof part if she's going to let me invest any real money into it!

Here are the specs...
Approx 40 gallon tank (on the bottom) with 12 goldfish in it.
3 small growbeds w/ pea gravel.
1 Harbor freight pump.
Scrap wood for the stand and as much scrap pvc supply as I could get my hands on (neighbors a plumber )

I'm in NC and the systems out in the sun. Added the fish yesterday. Also added a gallon of water from my neighbors 5 yr old koi pond.

Now I do have one question...

Where is all my water going?
I seem to be losing about 5-8 gallons a day.
I have double checked checked everything for leaks and can not find any.

Is it possible I am losing that much to evaporation? Any thoughts...other that me being an idiot of course...I'll save you the time

Thanks,
Rick

well first what is the temp outside? i would say that u are loosing it from evaporation, try buring those pipes in the gravel so the water isn't exposed so much, your tank looks shaded but is there anytime where its in direct sunlight? my system is inside and i loose prolly a gallon a day with almost no direct sunlight so it wouldn;'t surprize me if thats whats goin on

you can also get stray splashes from the water falling onto the gravel. Have you watched each jet of water to make sure it's going where it's supposed to?

It has been fairly hot here and I suspect your both correct. Right now the pipes are about 2" above the gravel and perhaps the direct sun on the gravel, combining with the splashing of the water on the gravel is intensifying the evaporation effect.

If I move the pipes down a couple of inches directly onto the gravel perhaps it will help with both evaporation and splashing.

Maybe I will also provide a little more shade for the tank as the sun does tend to hit it pretty well in the morning.

Looking at it now I guess it seems like it could be evaporation, I guess I was just so focused on a leak in the system for so long that I couldn't see it.

Thanks,
Rick

I looked at water levels last evening and then again in the morning. If there was any change it was too small for me to be able to tell. Looks like there really is that much evaporation occuring.

I'll move the pvc down and add the shading and hope that does it.



Another question...If you will humor the new guy a little more. Now that I have the system running with the fish in place and I added the water from another pond (this should help right?), how long until I can add plants? 3 weeks - a month? How will I know when it is time?

Rick

rick, depends on your temps really.

i've seeded a few systems with my gravel and i've not managed to get the cycle much shorter that two and a bit weeks.

You're probably good to plant out after a few weeks, but you could do it sooner too. I know i've previously said not to worry about the plants till later, but thats just to make people concentrate on getting the other parts right. plants are the cheapest and easiest thing to replace, and we don't feel bad when we kill them

Get your plants in now Rick... Plants will survive for quite a while in just water, I ran my system with no fish in it for almost 6 months and most of the plants in the system survived.. They will probably try and grow their roots in search of nutrients (because there aren't many), so you may not see much vegetation growth, but they will be starting to establish root systems, which is good..

Cycle with piss

NO.....! You might fall off and hurt yourself...

RD3-
Looks good.
Where are you in NC?
I'm in the Triad area.
I've got the proof of concept going, but I've got the indoor aquarium and no light, so I'm having a hard time getting the plants running right. My system is cycled (12-year established aquarium), but my big system (not up to Jaymie's size), will hopefully be a couple thousand gallons. (but first the proof of concept - I've got College tuition to pay next year....

Interesting you should say that my first set of plants sent roots everywere down all the pipes ect now the next set only have small root balls but are realy growing well

Well I guess root systems into the pipes aren't good.. But it's generally not hard to control them..

Most of root in my mature systems aren't too bad, except for the odd one that gets away from you and down the pipes..