Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well I'm an electronics engineering major and I've taken several electronics classes but I haven't been introduced to arduino's yet. I will have to look into it more.

You should pick it up quite easily.

I've been teaching myself everything from scratch, youtube tutorials, and getting frustrated at sketches that don't compile because I missed a ';'.

I'm getting much better at it with practice though.

Whats the programming language? I've use C++ and Java.

It's got it's only language based off C++, so if you know C++, you should be able to pick most of it up.

There are libraries for pretty much everything, so the majority of the hard work is done.

There are some incredible things that can be done with them.

The Aquaponics is actually more of a side project for me.



It's a 1964 Ford Falcon ute, but it'll have two 7" tablets in it, one that talks with the arduino, so I can make the tablet control all the engine ignition, climate controlled air-con, headlights, and little bits and pieces.

I was hoping to get some opinions on my planned filter. It's all in my head, so I thought you guys would see it better if I did a dodgy paint drawing. I'm planning on more DWC beds, so I'll need crystal clear water. My roots in the DWC are already getting a little dirty from just the goldies.

I want something that is mostly self cleaning. So the majority of the crap settles to the bottom of the settling partitions, and is pumped by timer into a bucket. It'll settle into a bucket, and a timed water solonoid will allow the rest of the clean water at the top of the bucket to empty into the FT. So all I'll need to do each week is empty the bucket on the trees? Then clean out the scourer when needed (which hopefully won't be too often).

Next is taking the particles out, so I was going to push the water through a bank of plastic scourers (unless somebody can suggest a better product?). With air stones at the bottom to keep it all aerated.

And how big should the whole setup be? I've got pretty high water flow 8000LPH pump, with large flood and drain beds which push water through the 90mm pipes very, very quickly when they empty together, and I'm aiming for minimal cleaning, I was thinking 1m x 1m for the whole box. Or is that excessive?

And what pump would people recommend? Something cheap that can be piped directly into, and happily push mostly solids.



I also didn't really plan out my filter in the beginning very well, so I'm thinking I'll need to put it on the opposite side of the FT, and pipe the water back to the ST.

Well, I made myself a filter. I had to make it on the otherside of the tank, no room inbetween the FT & SM.

It's made out of ply, coated in epoxy resin to water proof it.

It's weird, 1 90mm pipe flows more water & faster than 3 40mm pipes. It's having no issues keeping up with the flow now







This pipe is hooked up to three empty points underneath. I've got a small pump on the way here, and I'll hook it up so it goes every now & again, to drain out all the crud.

90mm pipe has approximately twice the area of three 40mm pipes, give or take.

Dog's like: "Can I have a drink now Dad?"

He's loving the aquaponics, constant running water when he wants it. He's hardly touching his water bowl now.




Knowing that little fact would have solved many problems earlier on, and probably $100 in bulkhead fittings.

I don't know if it'll come back and bite me, but I just drilled a 90mm hole in the sleepers, and wedged the pipe through, and sealed up the rest with silkaflex. I couldn't find any 90mm uniseals (or bulkhead fittings), so I improvised. Plus it's cheaper.

Well I think I found the heat levels for my little Murray cod can handle.

It's the third 43C+ day in a row, and my water temp was sitting on 33C, some of the fish were swimming around looking a little dozey.

I got 6 bags of ice, and dropped them in. It seems to have brought the temp down a few degrees, and the fish still happily gobbled up their dinner. So can't be too bad off.



And some of the latest vegie shots.

Another thing that could have saved you a few bucks would have been to pump the water into a media bed and let it return into the DWC. Job done.

I'm still skeptical that the growbed will be able to break down the waste created by 50 Murray's, I've seen videos of people cleaning swirl filters, and there is a lot of waste in there. And if I can avoid having to clean a few tonne of gravel, I'll be happy.

I also think the scourers will break down anything that gets stuck in there, and turn it into far finer particles/micronutrients that the plants need.

That being said, I'm still getting rubbish growth in the DWC, compared to the media bed which is thriving. Part of me thinks is the vermiculite I used as the soil. I might try perlite. And I've still got to get some aeration into there too.

Sorry Col, please explain that statement a bit better. It sounds like you put vermiculite in your DWC.

Regards, Martin.

I did.

This stuff:
http://www.bunnings.com.au/propagation- ... 4_p3016191

It said it was good for hydro, so I figured it'd work.

No good?

If your a bit skeptical have a look at Fayes system. Hundreds of trout through her system over the past 6 or 7 years without touching the media. And thats just one example.

Cleaning gravel maybe once every 10 or so years doesnt sound so bad if you compare it to draining solids from a swirl or RFF and cleaning filter material every week or what people really should be doing is biodigesting externally then re-introducing. Trust me that process gets a little tiresome and Ive only been doing it for 6 months. Just my opinion anyways.

I do like your design though, looks really good. And your plants look very healthy. Wish I could grow some basil

Martin, Id say Col is using it in the net cups.