Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Council will need some approval before they hand out the money. It's OK for garden use only and it doesn't need to be connected to the house for approval but the overflow does need to be connected to storm water (no plumber req'd).

In retrospect, it may have been better to get the approvals before cutting the top off. Still, give it a try. They seemed very reasonable when I spoke to them at Farm Fantastic.

Hi Big Red

I think it is possible to use one pump for this system. A gravity feed from the tank to a lower grow bed then siphoning into a sump tank that houses the pump which returns the water to the fish.

Height may be a problem, but if it's not, it's a thought.

I love it!

Out side the box

AA,

Thanks for that. I am going to give that a go.

I have a incline in the yard so the grow bed will be a bit higher than I thought and I looks like I will put the grow bed on bessa blocks so it will be getting up there. I think I will be able to get away with it for a single grow tank but might need the extra pump when I get another and have a few blue drums.

Good on ya! There's a program floating round here called sketchup. I thought I'd never do computer design (too hard) but I picked this thing up in minutes using the tutorials. Having spent about 40 hrs on it now I can pretty much knock any system I think of together, to scale, and see where the problems are BEFORE I buy hardware, hammer saw or screw anything.

Highly recommended.

I second that... have had loads of fun and been able to plan things in abvance - even scrapped some plans after seeing how they turned out (problems were brought to light which I had not forseen)... give it a go as it does not take long to download

You only need to involve the Council if you are seeking the rebate.

Premised upon my experience with Ipswich City Council, they will require evidence of the purchase and of the fact that it has been installed by a registered plumber before they will pay you the rebate.

We've just installed a 10,000 litre tank and your post about cutting the top off got my mind racing but I know that I'd be making future posts in a voice a few octaves higher if I touched the tank.

Cool thanks for that info.

I am lucky I am divorced so I dont have to answer to anyone. If I still had to I know the project would never of started.

I did my first water tests today.

The water has been in the tank for 3 days.

On day One I used chlorine/chloramine neutralizer. After 4 hours I also put 150ml of Aqua Cycle bacteria into the water.

As the local water has chloramine in it I expected to have Ammonia of about 2ppm in the tank. I didn't have a ammonia test kit until today so I was not able to confirm this.

My Tests are as follows:

PH 7.4
Ammonia <0.5 ppm
Nirite approx 5 ppm

I have no fish in the tank as I was going to leave it a week before I introduced them.

So what does this mean?

Could the bacteria of made that change this quickly?

that is the kinda thing which will happen to me if I even mention filling the pool with fish again!

I almost brought a small above ground pool for a pond last week on ebay but I went for a smaller option.

I tend to get a bit excited about these things and go to extremes.

BR the nitrite has me curious.............

If you can be bothered, do a nitrite test on tap water.

then add some neutraliser to 1 litre of water with the same RATIO of neutraliser that use used in your tank.

Post you results, i'm very interested.

5 ppm is VERY high for nitrites. I wouldn't be putting in fish jkust yet.

I can't work it out, maybe it was some contamination in the tank? You didn't use your fingers to seal the test tube did you?

steve,

I will do that and let you know. Maybe I stuffed up the nitrite test I will redo it.

No my finger is still there so I used the cap to seal it.

BigRed

You asked a day or so ago about sharing an order of Silver or Jade Perch. What timeline are you looking at ? Your system is more advanced than mine - I'm still building.

Derek