Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Wow Jonny5, that's an impressive system. How long did it take you to dig your hole in the end?

Thanks Steve.

On and off about 1 1/2 weeks. But the jack hammer made it a lot easier. Just finding some where to put the dirt was the problem.

You could have dug another hole... and put the dirt in there...

Man I knew there was a better way to get rid of the dirt. I guess I just did not think of that RupertofOZ

Now that I have completed the Data Logger and it has had a week to collect data I can see that the volume of water is helping to stabilise the water temp to with in 6 deg C currently.




The concrete sump will have to wait further as my wife just found out that the gold fish might be dinner for the larger SP. So now I get to build a tank inside the house. I have been trying to do that for years.
Now it is at the head of the Que.

Hi all

Well time got away again for the five or six months. I have now finally completed the upgrade with in ground sump. Unfortunately it is no a concrete one but rather a 5,000L rain water tank fully buried.

The buried tank was the old fish tank with a new 5,400L rain water tank cut in two with the top half inverted. So I now have two 5,000 fish tanks to play with. This gives about 7,000 - 10,000L of water to help with thermal mass.

Still only one grow bed but the old sump is not far from being made into two more grow beds.

I will take and post pictures in about a weeks time.

You are not doing things in halves are you Johny?

It is sometimes a problem. I tend to engineer most things I do. They do not break that way but the down side is higher costs.

Finally some pictures, Two views of the area.
I use the steps to get up and walk around the growbed to maintain the tomatoes.



The grow bed on the right was the old sump

The two 2700L Fish tanks with the 5000L sump way at the back buried to ground level.


View from the opposite end. Two rear doors allow for maintenance access.


All the five lids can be lifted up to carry out maintenance as required. The shade cloth has a 100mm (4") over hang on all sides to act as a light seal between lids.

And finally some trout enjoying the water. They are only less than 100grams in size. I had a chance to get 200 trout fingerlings for $60.00 back in August so we just see how they go.

Wow, great looking setup. How's your water temps going?

Interested in how your trout go over summer. I was going to try and keep a couple going over summer, but i don't like my chances.

Thanks Somrota

So far it has peaked at 22C with an air temp of 32C but next week it will be 30 - 38C all week. I will see what I can do with the temps.

Wow, looks amazing Johny5. You have put a lot of time and effort into that build.

Thank Charlie, just a pity I did not make that concrete sump. But it all turned out ok in the end. Double the filtration and I will be happy. (for now).