Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The pieces of large white PVC pipe in one if the earlier pictures are going to be used as vertical gardens for leafy greens. They'll probably be under a constant flow which I'm hoping will help with nitrate absorption.

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Yup, I have 20 towers too, and I am still struggling with 23 trout...

I'm still undecided on what fish I'm going to stock, with an almost 3YO daughter I think gold fish will be pretty high on the possibilities list. Does anyone know of any other 'pretty' fish that would survive such stupid weather?

Koi would be the best bet in your climate, and laws.

Awesome, wasn't sure about Koi. For some reason I thought they needed a warmer climate.

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Found some details for the tubs today, links below.

Grey

Green

Here is how I'm planning to assemble my system.



Next step is to figure out how I'm going to plumb it all together.

While googling plumbing systems and components i came across this little beauty. Wouldn't it be nice if a bunch of us could get together and build something similar?

Went to the local plumbing supplier today and got some prices on the things I'm most likely going to need, though I've probably forgotten a whole bunch. Got home and had a look at the tubs and bits of pipe I've got and realised that my plan to mount the tubs over the sump won't work. At that height I won't be able to lean over the entire length of the growbed to reach the back. I'm gonna have to space them apart with the sump under one. That will allow me to mount the PVC vertical beds onto the fence between the beds and I should still be able to access the beds on 3 sides, that should make it easier to plant and harvest.

Finally got some nice weather and even though I haven't gotten any further with my system I did get a pleasant surprise in the garden. I found these little beauties in the failed vegetable garden. I'd thought all my strawberries had died and then spotted these today peaking out from underneath a mass of weeds.



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Also managed to squeeze a foot into the shot

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It's always good when something survives and you think it wouldn't!

So thinking about my tubs has gotten me wondering what fish I should stock. The green tubs have a 470 litre capacity, I'm thinking of filling them to 2/3. Which would be around 315 litres each. Assuming my IBC is filled to a minimum of 850 litres what fish can I stock that would support 630 litres of gravel and thrive in a single IBC? Am I going to have to redesign to accommodate multiple IBCs?

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I've seen several different kinds of fish used; tilapia, trout, catfish, goldfish, yabbies, perch.... Just to name a few. I forget what the ratio for fish to gravel is, but I think it's something like 1 kilo of fish per 6 liters squared of gravel??? Someone will probably correct me on this, but that's what I seem to remember....


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Kewl. It was mentioned previously in this thread by another member that the ration is 25 litres of wet gravel to 1 fish. That would mean I need at least 25 fish for 630 litres of wet gravel.

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