Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

If I had it my way Muzz, it would be in the lounge room! But yea, back to reality charlie.. not gunna happen. Not in this house anyways.

Its possible I will need to further insulate and I will tackle this as I go. My thoughts are to build a simple timber frame around the aquarium and stuff insulation batts around all sides and engineer a front door on hinges so I can easily open up the front and top for viewing, feeding and maintenance purposes. Im happy to alter this as I go.

Beer bottle was an easy solution for scale as I usually have one in hand. Besides, I didnt want anyone going to town on my abnormal hands and toes lol

Fish species you all ask! Barra aren't for this trial. This will just be a very low stock density over winter fun project. I have the option of slipping in a couple of my biggest 3 year old SP or I have a mate who says he has some tandanus for me. Ive thought about putting Brutus in there too.

If I was to do it I would raise the tank on a stand and close in underneath with a couple of canister/filter pumps with the K1 in the bottom. Take water from both ends of the tank, 1 returning to a spraybar at the back the other to a couple of NFT chanels across the top growing lettuce with a T5 flouro across the top. Stick polystyrene to the back and both sides and velcro a sheet across the front. If your going to box in only really needs the top and all sides down to just below the FT, again could be light framed with polystyrene for the sides and top.
If you put that, can't remember the name of it, dacron felty looking cloth across the bottom of the NFT's and rockwool in your net pots you could time off 1 canister filter when the T5 is off.

Sleepe, I think to do what you have in mind - Charlie would need to drill a hole in the aquarium for a SLO. Or maybe two holes to have two outlets. (If the tank is higher than the filter system)

Canister Filters usually have a rigid green plastic hooked tube which goes over the side of the aquarium. It is connected to the inlet of a canister filter by a flexible green tube. The exit has a flexible green tube which goes usually to a rigid hooked tube connected to a spraybar at the top of the tank.
You prime them by sucking on the exit tube and the water will syphon to fill the canister and then up to water level.
The only drilling to be prudent is a very small hole in the inlet hooked tube about 2 1/2" below water level.
They have taps on the inlet outlet connectors to the canister to allow it to be removed without the rigmarole of having to remove all the piping.

Okay Sleepe I was not aware of this. I have looked at water bridges and was worried that they might fail but I have not had experience with them

Do you have to re-prime them or do they stay primed for prolonged periods of time?

They always stay primed as the pump is in the canister and the canister is below water level. I used to run 6 of them when I was into aquariums, they are very reliable and mean your tank only has the inlet pipe taking up very little space.
Think of them as a pressurised airtight sump.

Whats a canister filter worth? This project is on a tight budget.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1200LPH-Aqua ... 157wt_1146

go down and its $52.90 free postage.

I have a couple left and could have given you an Aqua one CF1000 but its got a buggered impeller (got started dry with crap in the impeller bore and snapped the ceramic shaft) going to cost about $36 to fix.

You pay lots for eheim fluval etc but occasionally you get a bargain.

Edit BTW I have no idea what the quality on these Ebay ones are like I just looked for a cheap price.

Ok, thats pretty cheap. Hmmm, what to do, what to do. I do like your idea sleepe.

Because I have 3 x 1000l/h pumps just laying around I was going to make the most of them and the free buckets and pipes etc I have laying around the shed, so I was kinda heading down that track. But yea, the canister might be another option. Ive got 10L of K1 so I might be able to incorporate both

See my edit above Charlie.

OK the cheap version. I would still get a canister filter, with most of the K1 in there.
25-30l brewing container, 2x small bulkhead fittings through the top, one the inlet going to the bottom with a turn. Bioballs, the rest of the K1 ( maybe some bottlecaps in there, don't fill it up:) ) and coarse foam at the top to stop them escaping. pump (which you already have) in the other end of the tank from the canister filter inlet tube. Sort your self out with the valves on the brewing container and making sure all pipes are secured because putting a pump in your tank can lead to disaster.

My brain was hurting how I was going to set up this little project so I just went with my original idea for the moment and can change things as I go along, its only going to a very low stocked system. Ive sent in a SP to cycle things and be an all round test pilot. Added water from my AP system so help him feel happy.

Still averaging 28deg days at the moment so got a few weeks to go yet me thinks before the heater will be required. I spose it couldnt be a bad thing to add now.

Couple of pics.

Hi Charlie,

What are the white plastic things in your third photo (first page)?

Hi Steve, its Kaldnes bio media. Popular aquaculture media as it has a large surface area.

Just out of curiousity... what kind of winter temps are you looking at?

We get down around 1 or 2 deg poppa.