Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

have a wee in your tank psycho, will get the ammonia reading up and the cycling kicked off.

Yep pyscho, Lismore can be quite reasonable during the day.... but I've spent enough time up that way to know that it can be pretty chilly overnight as well during winter.....

The key thing isn't the daytime air temp.... it's the water temp in the tank.... be curious to see what your temperatures in the tank are at say 08:00 am and say 16:00 pm... can you measure them for us??

"Seeding" can be done as Monya suggests or by adding "dirty" aquarium water (your own or from a store), or by addition of pure ammonia and or seaweed/fish emulsions etc....

If you're going to add fish just be prepared to feed minimumly or not at all.... test frequently and be prepared to do a water change at any time...

A 500ltr tank doesn't have the "spare" capacity to cope with sudden swings in pH or ammonia.... so "be prepared"

psyco, "cycling" only starts when there is ammonia present, so either add a small number of fish or "dose" the pool with some VB special

Ok, photo time.

I have spent all weekend working on my system. It is not quite finished, but pretty close. All I need to do is add the gravel then work on the flow rates and setting the float switch correctly.

More photos

Thats quite a head your pumping up to there Simon

Whats the purpose for the bucket? Did I miss it somewhere?

Ok, here is how I have my system set up.

The pump flows up to the bucket. There are 2 outlets from the bucket which will flow to the grow beds. They are made using 19mm black pipe. One of the outlets goes to 2 growbeds which will sit on the balcony (not in position in the photos yet). The other outlet flows to the four growbeds down lower.

As the bucket fills up there is an overflow pipe which directs the excess water back to the fish. This is to help oxygenate the water for the fish.

Under the grow beds there 10mm black pipes for the water to flow back to the fish from the grow beds. I have taps so I can adjust each grow-bed in and out flows.

I have designed the system so that once the water has reached the bucket it is all gravity fed from there on. This helps reduce the pressure so I can use cheaper black hose to keep costs down.

Any questions or thoughts, please let me know.

Thanks

Simon

EB, the head is approx 2.5 mtrs. The pump I have has an 8mtr head. I have tested it with the non-return valve (located near the bucket) and it works fine.

I still don't quite see the purpose of the bucket either... to reduce the pressure just run a tee and a tap off the pump outlet and have it divert back in the tank, that way the oxygen is increased as well and you can control the water flow to the growbeds. Take the PVC down and use that as the return pipe from the growbeds, you can run all the autosipons/sand pipe back into it = more oxygen. Plus if you put clamps on all the fittings they should hold a fair bit of pressure. Why waste power pumping up water to that height....

Why pump up so high?

I have combined permaculture principals with AP. I am placing 2 grow beds on the balcony which is just outside the kitchen (zone 0).

hehehehe, I spotted them right at the start...................

I saw them too simon and also remembered you talking about that intention earlier on. All the same I couldn't help but break out in a laugh when I saw that bucket up there - it is such a funny sight

I suppose it does pay to read and look carefully. However you could get rid of the bucket in the way I described and just run the Black Pipe all the way up there instead. Less failure points.... or leave it there and use it as a poop-deck (no. 1's only) to get the system cycling.

And the rest of you..... kiss-arses! I can't be the only one who didn't understand what the bucket was really for.

Knew what the bucket was for, just that it was placed in the wrong position....isn't it supposed to be placed on top of a half opened door

Hey TimC

The following photo demonstrates why I won't be using the bucket as a "poop-deck.