Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

That would require another ibc that I don't have. I like the idea though.

well you could cut the top off your sump, it honestly doesnt need to be that big. i have a full ibc sump and mine serves 3 x700L fish tanks and 3x 300L growbeds and a NFT tower and its still massive overkill, even if by some miracle all three growbeds filled and drained at the same time the actual water volume once you take media into the equation would only be like 300-400L. You could reverse it around and use your fish tank as your sump and sump as FT.

I thought about moving everything around and then ended up sticking with my original plan - plan B.

Today all of the plumbing got done!

Next step get some clay pebbles. I'm looking at getting the Canna brand ones.

Then I need to start cycling the system.

Anything else I need to look out for?

Here are some pics from today.

some people would steer away from using metal taps(fears of zinc poisoning or something), they would also be more expensive than just a plain slip pvc one.

Each to their own.

i would have that tap pretty much closed and sending as much water as possible to aerate your fish tank.

Hey GMTurner - hoping the metal valve isn't too big a deal because it looks pretty cool. Procured it for free so thought I should use it.

Update from today. Clay balls are in. GB fills in 5 min and drains in 45 min. Thinking of doing timed F&D. Need to get a timer.

it takes 45 minutes to drain? That seems like a long time to me... you may want to make sure the affnan siphon is working properly. Maybe even play with the flow into the FT/GB

Added some veggies today and threw some seeds in.

Wondering if my flood level is too high. Balls floating a bit.

Should I wait a few days and see if they sink?

Yes its too high if you can see the water - aim for 2"

After a few days, the balls will float less. At the end, you don't want to be able to see the water in the media, the visible media should all be dry; there will be some wicking too.

Some people "over-flood" the beds at the start and then reduce the water level, some people start really shallow and then increase the water level; it doesn't really matter too much which way around you try, so long as the goal is the same.

Thanks for the info. Have cut a bit off the bottom of my standpipe.

Have added some Seasol. What else should I be doing or watching out for at this stage?

Sorry haven't read... You have fish or are you fishless cycling? Have you a test kit?

Have a test kit.

Thinking of adding gold fish as a starter. At the moment there are no fish.

So you need some 'ammonia' in there - either pee or something like charlie carp to get the process started. You can cycle with fish or without but if your not going to buy fish for awhile get it started by adding something now in small quantities to get ammonia to .5

Seasol won't do the trick?

Saw Charlie Carp is 50 a bottle at Bunnninz. Hell of a lot cheaper to relieve myself into the FT.

Have read about this technique but wasn't too sure about it.